Bryce 3.x Character Animation

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Bryce 3.x Character Animation

Supplement to 3D Artist issue #32, page 26 article by Cecilia Ziemer

Note: 3DA#39 has an updated article about Bryce 4 character animation technique using Poser 4 figures, including a new file download with a complete walk cycle.

Editor's notes: In the layout of the author's 3DA#32 article about how to set up character animation starting with a MetaCreations Poser model imported into MetaCreations Bryce 3.0, you may notice a bit of a white hole in the text above the wireframe character's head. That space was originally occupied by a paragraph about how to avoid a problem called "Shear" by turning off something called "Propagate Size." Just as we were almost on press, however, we received confirmation from Bryce tech support that this fix, while generally true, causes a fatal problem for some reason with meshes imported from Poser.
___ A fuller explanation is presented with the author's "Bryce 3D 3.0 Survival Tips" on The Bryce Page. The problem, experienced with Poser 2 meshes, appears to be true also for meshes from the coming Poser 3. (This problem and the general Shear problem were fixed with the next update, Bryce 3.1.)
___ That "Surival Tips" article includes other info you will want to read if you are going to attempt Bryce character animation, which is downright difficult to start with, and nearly impossible if you don't first turn off Auto Key and, even then, still keep an eye out for spurious, unwanted keys.

So, here we are, doing character animation in Bryce, for Pete's sake!

Higher-res single frame of Pete with "crash-test dummy" material to help analyze mapping problems (45K GIF).

Wireframe of Pete with spheres interposed between Poser body parts (44K GIF).

Low-res animation of Pete jumping (124K GIF).

From mid-May 1998 to early January 2000, we had posted here Mac and PC downloads courtesy of Cecilia Ziemer with a Poser 2 young male in a Bryce 3.0 file with a jumping cycle as shown in the animated GIF here. In November 1999, we posted her updated Bryce 4 figure with a walk cycle (explained in 3DA#39). Most downloaders soon switched to that newer and more useful file, so the old downloads here were pulled on 16 Jan. 2000.

___ If you are doing serious character animation in Bryce, we'd like hear about your experiences and how you're managing rendering times. Contact the editors, but please do not attach images or .doc files.

The Rest of the Story
To read the full text of the author's article on "Bryce Character Animation," if you don't have the issue, see about getting the hard copy.

Revised: 16 Jan 99
http://www.3dartist.com/3dao/s/32/zcbrchar.htm
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