Using Bryce Objects in DAZ

I own the intellectual copyright for the written tutorial.  What you make is yours, but please do not take my tutorial.  Share only my link.

This tutorial was created for some friends of mine who wanted to begin learning more about DAZ Studio.  It is intended for beginners to learn how to make a ground object to use in DAZ and Poser.  If you have any questions, please feel free to Email  me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Bryce , Poser 7 and DAZ Studio.  You only need poser if you plan on packaging the item to give to someone else.

1.  Open Bryce

2.  Click on the Create Mode.  Choose Terrain.

3.  You have a pink mountainous mesh that we will turn into a flat ground.  Click on the E next to the mesh controls.

4.  E is for Editing.  The Editing box comes up.  Be sure the Elevation tab is active (white).  At the very bottom, click on the button next to subcontours.  I clicked on it 6 times.  There is a preview window at the top of the editing tools box (not shown in screenshot below).  You can watch how flat your land becomes.  When done, click on the Check.

5.  Now your terrain should look like this.  I left some lumps in it to make it look more natural.

6.  Now click on Edit mode at the top.  Choose Texture

6.  In the Materials Lab box, click on the menu choices below.  I wanted a grassy terrain, so I chose Vegetation.  I could have also chosen terrain (but I like one of the textures in vegetation).  Under vegetation, I chose the Leaves category and then picked one of the textures.  Choose a texture that you like for your land.  Click on the Checks

7.  Now you are ready to Export.  It must be in Object format to work with DAZ.  So  File > Export Object .  When the Save As box comes up, you need to choose a folder that YOU MADE inside the GEOMETRIES folder of Poser 7  (or of DAZ if you do not have Poser)  I made me a folder inside Poser 7 > Runtime > Geometries >  called DragonBreath.  Give your file a name, and be sure to choose the Save as type to be a Wavefront OBJ File.

8.  This export window will come up.  I set the size to 1024 x 1024.  Click Check

9.  A progress window will come up.  This can take a long time so take a coffee break.

10.  (For DAZ only, skip this step and go to Step 11.  If you own both DAZ and Poser, then please follow the poser steps, too).  Open Poser.  A figure will automatically load.  We need him deleted.  Figure > Delete Figure

11.  File > Import > Wavefront Object  (for both DAZ only and Poser users)

12.  This is the screen you get in Poser after the import command.  Leave the default settings. Percent of standard figure size = 100

For DAZ only users, the Import Preset needs to be set to Bryce (1 unit = 8ft) and Scale = 10000%

13.  (DAZ only users skip to Step 24 ) In Poser, click on the Material Tab.

14.  Click on the Simple tab of the Materials box.  Set the Diffuse color, highlight, ambient.  Some will argue that they should be set to white.  But since I already have my lawn textured.  I'm setting them to get the shade that I want.  You will notice the color and highlight maps were chosen from the texture I chose in Bryce.

15.  Then click on Setup.  You'll get this warning box.  Click ok

16.  I did nothing in the Setup room because the lawn is not going to be a conforming object.  Click on the Pose Tab.  You will get another warning box about not having any bones grouped.  Click ok.

17.  In the Library Window (far right side of the screen-- if you can't see it, click Window> Library) .  In the Library Palette, find the New figure folder.  Then press the plus sign at the bottom of the Library Palette (Add to Library).  You should see an image of the lawn appear in the list (like my hamburger).  If you don't then you didn't set up your figure.

18.  File > Save As

19.  Save this into the same folder in your Poser > Runtime > Geometries folder that you saved into when you were saving in Bryce.

20. You can close Poser.  Open up DAZ.  We need to set it to read from the Poser files.  Edit > Preferences

21.  In the Preferences, click on the Directories tab. There is a small black menu arrow.  Click on that and choose Poser Content Directories.

22.  Then click on the Add Button and Browse to Choose the Poser Content directory.

23.  Now you should see a Poser 7 menu in your content window.  Click on Poser 7 > Figures > New figures.  In there you should see a preview of your lawn.  Click on it and it will open up as an object in DAZ!  Great job!

Note:  DAZ only users will not have any previews of their objects in their content menus.  Every time they want to use the lawn object they will have to import it, or Save it as a DAZ Scene  (File > Save As > Scene)

24.  (Both DAZ and Poser Users)  Click on Materials tab.

25.  In the Surfaces Palette, click on the lawn figure/materials.  You can adjust the colors here, or add your own textures.  I changed the Color bar to a green color that I liked, and then adjusted the strength slider under the color bar.

26.   Click on Pose tab

27.  I adjusted the scale of the lawn.  The Xscale makes it fill up the screen left to right.  The Zscale makes it fill up the screen front to back.  You may need to adjust the Yscale to lower the lawn to ground level.

28.  Now we're going to save this full-screen pose of the lawn so that I don't have to keep setting it each time I use the lawn.  File > Save As > Pose

In the Save box, scroll to a folder that you created inside the CONTENT folder of DAZ (I made a folder called My Posers there, and then inside that folder, created a folder called Lawn).  Give the file a name-- I called mine Lawn Full.  Click Save

29.  The Save Pose Preset Options box comes up.  Be sure to click on Data > Record All.  Click Accept.  Now you have saved a pose to keep for future use.

You can do all kinds of Bryce objects this way. 

 Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.