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Adding Environmental Effects
The elements in a sky aren't constant; the sky is always changing, reflecting weather patterns or the time of day. If it rains, there's a rainbow. If it's night, there are stars. If it's sunset, the sun looks bigger. If you look right at the sun on a hazy day, you'll see rings around it. Sometimes, if it's hazy enough you can even see the sunlight streaking out of the clouds. All these illusions are called environmental effects and the Sky Lab palette contains all the controls you'll need to add them to your scene.
Sun/Moon Rings
If you look directly at the sun on a hazy day, you'll be able to see rings surrounding it. These rings are created by the reflection off ice particles in the air. In Bryce, you can use the Sun/Moon Rings to create this effect.
This effect creates concentric circles around the image of the sun or moon. Using the Sky Lab palette, you can set the radius of the rings and add a secondary ring to increase the effect. The color of the rings is controlled by the color of the sun/moon.
To add Sun/Moon rings:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab dialog appears.
4 Enable the Sun/Moon Visible option.
5 Enable the Halo Rings option.
6 In the Rings area, enter a value in the Intensity field, or drag the slider, to set the brightness of the ring.
7 Enter a value in the Radius field, or drag the slider, to set the radius of the ring.
If you want to add a secondary Sun/Moon ring, enable the Secondary Ring option.
Sun/Moon Horizon Illusion
If you've ever watched a sunset, you probably noticed that the sun appeared to get larger as it approached the horizon. The same is true for the moon. At certain times of the month it appears huge. This illusion can be simulated using Sun/Moon size.
When the illusion is active, the sun or moon will appear to grow larger as it approaches the horizon.
To change the size of the Sun or Moon as it approaches the horizon:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab palette appears.
4 Enable the Sun/Moon Visible option.
5 Enable the Sun/Moon size Option.
6 In the Sun/Moon size area, enter a value in the Disk Size field, or drag the slider, to set the overall size of the sun/moon anywhere in the sky.
7 Enter a value in the Horizon Illusion field, or drag the slider, to set multiplier used to determine how much larger the sun or moon gets as it approaches the horizon.
Rainbows
In the real world rainbows appear after rainstorms as arcs of light displaying all the color in the spectrum. In Bryce a rainbow is an atmospheric effect that can be added to any sky.
A rainbow is only visible if the sun is visible, meaning you can't have a rainbow at night. As well, you can add a secondary rainbow to create the illusion of reflection.
Rainbows are linked to the sun. As the color or intensity of the sun changes, so does the rainbow. In addition, the position of the rainbow in the sky is dependent on the position of the sun.
Rainbows appear to be infinitely distant from the camera. You can't approach them by moving the camera, so the pot of gold is always just out of reach.
To add a rainbow to your sky:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab dialog appears.
5 Drag the slider or enter a value in Radius field in the Rainbow area. This value sets the width of the rainbow.
6 Drag the slider or enter a value in the Opacity field. This controls the rainbow's transparency.
If you want to add a secondary rainbow to your sky, enable the Secondary Bow option.
Volumetric World
The Volumetric World effect simulates the effects of particles in the air being illuminated by light sources. In Bryce this effect turns all the light sources in your scene into visible light sources.
Sunlight also becomes visible, so that any color you applied to the sun appears everywhere in the scene. Visible sunlight is volumetric, meaning that it is affected by all the objects within it.
Although Volumetric World is a very beautiful effect, it's also a time consuming one. It will add considerably to your scene's rendering time.
To add visible sunlight to your scene:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab palette appears.
4 Click the Volumetric World button.
5 Drag the Quality slider or enter a value in the Quality field.
6 Drag the Density slider or enter a value in the Density field. Higher values result in brighter, more visible sunlight.
Star Fields
Bryce lets you create night skies complete with stars and comets by using the Sky Lab.
Stars appear in the night sky and are affected by the moon's brightness and color. They are also infinitely distant; they do not get closer as you move the camera.
You can create a star field that is based on a randomly generated star map, or a star field based on the stars we see from the Earth.
To add a Star Field based on a random star map:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab appears.
4 Enable the Celestial option.
5 Enable the Random field option. This will create a star field based on a randomly generated star map.
You can get a different random configuration of stars by Option/Alt-clicking the Random Field button. Shift-clicking the Random field button generates the default random star field.
To add a Star Field based on Earth's star map:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab appears.
4 Enable the Celestial option.
5 Enable the Custom field option.
Customizing Star Fields
After you have generated your star field, you can customize certain parameters of the star field. You can control the intensity of the stars, the amount of stars that are visible, and the portion of the star field that is visible in your scene.
Star Field Intensity
Changing the intensity of a star field lightens or darkens the visible stars. When you are using a star field based on the stars we see from Earth, changing the intensity lightens and darkens the stars uniformly; their relative intensities do not change.
To change the intensity of a star field:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab appears.
4 Enable the Celestial option.
6 Drag the Intensity slider or enter a value in the Intensity field.
Star Field Amount
You can increase or decrease the number of stars in the star field by changing the Stars Amount. When you change the amount, new stars are not generated. Instead, stars that are usually too dim to see become more visible.
To change the amount of visible stars in a star field:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab appears.
4 Enable the Celestial option.
6 Drag the Amount slider or enter a value in the Amount field.
Star Field Position Control
The Star Field Position Control lets you choose which portion of the star field is visible in your scene. The control works like a trackball, with the stars of the northern hemisphere on one side and the stars of the southern hemisphere on the other. As you drag over the control, the star field moves in the direction you drag.
Comets
You can add comets to your night skies. Since comets are not a common sight in the night sky, you'll usually only get one or two comets per star field.
To add comets to a night sky:
1 Display the Sky & Fog palette by clicking the Sky & Fog button at the top of the Bryce window.
2 Click the Sky Lab button. The Sky Lab palette appears.
4 Enable the Celestial option.
You can adjust the intensity and amount of comets by dragging the Intensity and Amount sliders or entering a value in the Intensity and Amount fields.
You can only add comets to a star field that is based on a randomly generated star map.
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