Bryce 5 - Positioning Objects

Requirements: Bryce 5

This tutorial is for the Beginner

For the majority of this tutorial we will be working in the Director's View. I like this view for learning because the camera (represented by the blue square) is facing you and you can use it as a guide for placement.

Think of the Director's View as being behind the scene, but in front of the camera. In camera view you see what the camera sees. Since you can render a scene from any angle, it doesn't really matter if you are behind the camera or behind the scene. It's simply a matter of preference.

Here is your new image with a flat plane and the camera.

We will click on Create, and choose the cube shape. By default, it will appear in the middle of the scene and be highlighted in red (selected). We'll leave the cube stationary, and move a sphere around it. Once again, click on Create and this time click on the sphere. The sphere is also now in the middle of the scene and highlighted in red (selected).

Let's start moving the sphere around. Click on Edit to bring up the tool bar shown here.

We are going to work with the one that is for Repositioning. It is different from the Resize in that it has small arrows at the tips of the bars representing the axis for movement. To move an object, left click near the blue tip of the axis representing the direction you wish to move. Keep your left mouse button pressed and drag your mouse left to right and right to left. You should see your sphere move back and forth along the axis you chose. To put the sphere back where we started, click the small white down arrow next to the Reposition tool and select Unreposition.

Let's put the sphere in front of the cube (from our Director's Viewpoint). With your mouse positioned on the X-axis shown here, click and drag to the right (see example). Now position your mouse on the Z-axis and click and drag left. Your sphere should now look like it is in front of the cube.

You can switch your viewpoint to From Top and see if they are touching, etc. Note the position of the camera (blue triangle). If you were to switch to Camera View, the sphere would be located behind the cube. Make sure you change your view back to Director's View before we continue.

Now we will move the sphere to the other side of the cube, and then behind it. Once again we will click and drag the X-axis to the left as shown here. Then do the same with the Z-axis only drag to the right.

You can double-check your placement by viewing from the top. You have now placed the sphere behind the cube!

The Y-axis is for moving the object up and down, still in a single plain. Moving the object down below the plain that represents the ground will sink the object. This is a useful trick for turning trees into bushes and shrubs, or sinking terrains to add more water area. You can always click on an object to select it and then left click drag it around the scene, but until you get the hang of the plains and axis, this can become a frustrating way to place your objects. Especially since this does not move the object along each axis and plane.

This same principal is used for moving any object around. Note that the images appear proportionately smaller as they are moved further into the background, and larger as they are placed closer to the foreground. Below are two mountains moved around using the same steps we just took. I left the mountain that is behind just a little to the right so that you can see it better.

A few more mountains, textures and a sky: