Animating in Bryce

1. Animating in Bryce To avoid damaging the original, I copied a 3D model I made called Temple Scene. The duplicated file, with its easily identifiable name, ensured I would have my source in case the damaged copy was lost. The duplicated file is then moved to the desktop. This was done because using a file directly from a server or memory stick could cause many problems. For example, the reanimation render would be aborted halfway through. It is always a good practice to check the specifications of a document whenever you create a Bryce Scene. Doing it at a later stage in a project could cause issues. First, I looked at the papers. I double-checked that the image size was set to 768x576. (This would make it easier for me to convert the format into PAL). Antialias is also turned on for better image quality. Superfine is an excellent option to make the animation fine. However, this will increase render time. This simple animation did not require this level of detail. You could specify whether you wanted to see the rendering time. It was on because it told me the time to render a kissanime. Start with the most basic settings and upgrade to one you are happy with. The next step was to set up the camera. The camera is the only camera that can record the animation, not other cameras such as the director's camera. If the camera looks at a different object, such as a pen, and the director looks at a train. As the train is not visible, the animator's camera will not show the train. In this instance, only the pen will be visible. By selecting the "camera for director" option in the little triangles upside- down on the left side of the main window, I could make the camera move to that of the director's camera. This will make the camera follow the director's camera. At this stage, I had also to set up some additional parameters for the animation setup. To set the parameters, I had to input the min, hours, and seconds boxes to determine how long I wanted the animation to run. Also, I could choose whether I wanted to display the time or frame number. It was to let me know the time of rendering or what frame was being used. It would help if you rendered smaller snippets rather than trying to complete the entire animation in one shot. It can be very time consuming to do it all at once. Rob suggested that long animations be rendered on several computers to speed up the process. Once the time is set, a blue line should appear below the main window. The blue bar represents the Bryce timeline. It's simplistic, but it works. The blue bar contains controls for the timetable, including rules that change the look of the timeline and a button that allows you to preview the kiss anime. The autokey icon will glow when the timeline slider is placed over the keyframe. There is also a toggle switch between Bryce's leading display and animation controls. Autokey can

2. still be disabled, keyframes manually added by clicking the plus icon or deleted using the subtraction icon. With the introduction of a timeline, you can now find a new timeline in boxes such as those for material properties. This allows properties to be modified over time. After I have prepared everything, I will begin to animate the camera. For the camera to animate, I must ensure nothing else has been selected. Bryce automatically chooses the camera to be animated by default. Start the animation at the position you wish to start the camera, then drag it to the final work. The camera will create the energy in its starting position and end it at its destination. The camera's position should move in the order between keyframes. This method is not perfect because the camera can be in the incorrect position halfway down the timeline. This can quickly be resolved by choosing a new camera angle and selecting the camera in the scene. The camera should not only be determined, but also its route should appear as a blue path. The keyframes along this line are represented as a dot of blue. You should be able to see the camera moving along the blue path if you slide the slider on the timeline at that time. You can change the direction of the blue course at any time by selecting edit and then shifting the x, y, or z parameters. This allows you to have a much more accurate control of the camera position and other animated objects. Once I'm happy with my animation, all it needs to do is be rendered and then saved. It is still worth checking out the nano preview to ensure your animation looks perfect. This nano preview will give you a good idea of what the final result should look like. In my case, the energy was excellent. I then rendered the animation to double-check that both start and end times were correct. The format and compression of the video were checked. Quicktime is the default option for Macs. It is better to save the Quicktime files created on PC as DVI, as Macs cannot handle them. It is possible to read the AVI file on Macs easily by holding the AVI format on a PC. The only thing left to do is select the location where the file will be saved, in my case, the desktop. The animation will start to render after you click OK. It is also a great idea to look at the first frame to see how long the animation will be. It is essential to break up a spirit if it's too long. The result of my animation was to show the camera moving from its starting position to its ending position without hitting anything.