Skybox

#1 Bryce tutorial at Daz3d
http://arcana.daz3d.com/index.php?id=831

#2 I duno about bryce. Just about everyone who is an artist here think's bryce is the worst package for making skies. Any Bryce render has the old distinguished flat crappy and poor looking sky. It hasn't changed in years.

#3 @Tony: Really? Actually I'm quite the opposite. I thought Bryce skies were the best thing (at least the renders I've done and seen). Well, to each his own.

#4 Yeah, Bryce actually beats all other programs i know when it comes to making skyboxes. It sucks for regular renderings tough, but for skyboxes its just great!

#5 Terragen is a work-in-progress scenery generator for Windows and the Mac OS. At this stage of its development, Terragen is free for personal non-commercial use.

http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

What it can do
intuitive user-interface - Extremely easy to use layout, along with realistic default settings, allows the creation of good-looking scenes within seconds of starting the program.
random fractal terrain - Controllable parameters allow extremely varied terrain shapes. Can also be used to 'fill in' realistic terrain on a user-defined landscape.

high detail foreground texturing - The rendering engine allows extreme close-ups of landscape details with automatic level of detail adjustment.

depth based occlusion culling - Occlusion culling makes sure Terragen renders only what contributes to the final image.

terrain sculpting tools - Can be used to 'paint' the shape of the landscape, to position mountains and valleys or make changes to random landscapes. Random terrain generation can be used 'fill in' realistic terrain over deliberately positioned mountains and valleys.

terrain modification tools - Functions for allowing overall modification of terrain shape, such as glaciation.

combination of terrains - Two terrains can be combined together to produce a new terrain, using a number of different methods such as 'highest', 'lowest', height addition and subtraction, to extend the usefulness of the terrain generation system.

terrain import/export - Terragen can import and export raw heightfield information in 8-bit greyscale (and soon 16-bit). Possible uses include the construction of terrains from externally created pictures. Terragen can also save terrains as Lightwave LWO files, and files compatible with the 'Import Binary' feature in VistaPro. Import/export capabilities can also be enhanced via the plugin system.

hierarchical surface colour map - The surface of the landscape is divided into different components, such as grass and rock. Any component (surface) may be divided further, as far as is desired. There is huge potential for very complex, detailed landscape surfaces with this system.

water - Lakes and seas can be rendered, complete with ripples/waves and soft reflections.

cloud layer - A 2-dimensional cloud generator and rendering system which realistically shades the clouds to give an impression that they are actually 3-dimensional. Also, an experimental 3-dimensional cloud renderer which can in most cases provide even more realistic results.

multi-haze atmospheric model - This allows for highly realistic skies and haze, while allowing room for experimentation and artistic licence.

volumetric lighting - Shadows from the terrain and clouds can be cast into the atmospheric haze to give 'sunbeams' and improve the overall lighting of the atmosphere.

realistic sunlight attenuation system - Calculates the dimming and reddening of the sunlight through the atmosphere. Improves foggy scenes and gives gorgeous sunsets with ease while still permitting control over its effects.

anisotropic lighting of atmosphere - At present, this is achieved by a convincing 'glow' effect applied to clouds and haze.

'soft' shadows - Although only calculated by approximation, this effect looks almost perfect and has no rendering time overhead.

plugin system - Terragen's plugin system allows third parties to extend Terragen's functionality in a number of areas.


scripting system - Terragen's scripting system lets you generate animations. Third party applications and plugins can easily read and write the script file format to allow matching of Terragen scenes with other elements.

#6 IMHO: They're both good. Terragen can belt out some stars if you know how to fiddle with the cloud layers, and Bryce can render skyboxes very well(for the usual renders, it does have a distinctive "flat" look to it). There are also Terragen scripts out there to automate the generation of skybox renders. Haven't used Bryce in years, but you can probably get the same out of it just as easily.

#7 My best results were from max and with a lot of artist loving on the mapped texture.

Map a couple of textures onto 2 different size spheres.. turn one perpendicular to the other (so the inevitable texture pinching is less noticable, make the inner one additive alpha and semi-transparent), play around until your happy, then render that out as a skybox.. rinse, repeat.

#8 Terragen is also capable of rendering photo-realistic scenes. I have a buddy of mine that can create some outstanding terrain/skies/water with terragen. I have one image that I've asked multiple people where they think the picture was taken... they all made as best of a guess as they could. You should have seen their eyes when I said it was completely computer generated. Very nice stuff.

Bryce is also capable of doing some nice skies... but you have to play with it and learn the ins and outs of how it works. It depends on the person, really.

-Jase

#9 I used to use terragen heavily back in the day. Interresting how a free package still out performs Bryce, and is even easier to use.