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Other
ClydeSight Productions Bryce 5 Tutorials:
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Learn Bryce 5 modeling by building a robot model based on "Robby, the Robot™"*
See local media coverage of this tutorial!
| This tutorial is intended to teach Bryce 5 users basic modeling techniques by building a robot BASED on the character Robby the Robot™. The Bryce 5 model can be used for educational and personal use ONLY. Commercial use of the model will require a license from Turner Entertainment Co., A Time Warner Company. ClydeSight Productions does not condone or imply any use of this model that would be construed to violate their rights, nor does it use the model in any of its own commercial products. See Disclaimer |
Building
Robby's VentsNote: This is a highly detailed tutorial. I STRONGLY suggest that you print these pages (there will be a lot of printed pages!) and use the hardcopy as a guide while working. It's much easier than having both Bryce 5 and your browser open and then flipping between applications!
With such massive computing power as Robby has, his design calls for an excellent cooling system. Cooling is provided by 44 vents located at the base of Robby's head. Our vents won't be an EXACT duplicate of the original because I don't have the specs, but they will look like them and be easy to make in Bryce 5.
There is only one part to make, and the rest of the work is done by Bryce 5 through Multi-Replicate. Because Bryce 5 is doing all the work here, we MUST be very careful or we will have an error compounded 44 times, which is not very pleasant! Positioning the first part is crucial, so pay very close attention to the steps outlined and follow them exactly. I saved this part until very near the end of the project because those 44 vents are going to increase the object overhead quite a bit, causing Bryce 5 to take much longer to load your model when you start up. They are also going to make your already complex wire frame almost impossible to understand! Thank goodness for the object and group selectors!
If you have saved and closed your model, open it now and go to the TOP view. Select NONE and click on the SOLO button. You should have a blank workspace.
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Note: The order in which you give Bryce 5 the attribute coordinates is extremely important in this case. You MUST first set the Rotation coordinate, then the origin, position and size. If you do not do it in that order, Bryce 5 will make an automatic adjustment in the position of the object, which we DO NOT want it to do. CHECK your view carefully, it should look like the image here. If you need to check for accuracy, open the Attributes Box after you have clicked the Check Mark and the coordinates should match those given here. |
Step 1: Make the First Vent If you are in wireframe mode and can see your model, make sure you have not selected anything and click on the SOLO button in the VCR controls. This will hide all objects in your wireframe view. You should be in the TOP view (press 2 on the keyboard) and your workspace should appear to be blank. Click on the Torus in the Create Palette to bring it into your work space. It will arrive in the correct orientation for our purposes. You will be looking at it on edge. (In the FRONT view, it looks like a donut). It is VERY IMPORTANT to perform the sizing and locating of this object in EXACTLY the order I specify here! Edit the torus. You know how to do that by now. Set the radius = 200 Open
the Attributes box. Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Note: You are entering a VERY PRECISE figure for the Y Rotation. Although Bryce 5 only displays numbers to 2 decimal places, it computers at a much higher level of precision. So it DOES allow you to enter a number with MORE than two decimal places. Make SURE you enter the number 4.7442 in the Y rotation box or your Multi-Replication will come out unbalanced. The number I provided ensures that head vent 44 has a 12 degree rotation, mirroring head vent 1. |
Step 2: Multi-Replicate the Head Vent 1 We named the torus "head vent 1" for a reason. We are going to Multi-Replicate 43 more of them, and we need to know their numbers! So, if you did NOT name it as recommended-- use any name you like but you MUST put a 1 after the name. Select the head vent 1 object. From the EDIT Menu (not the Edit Palette) choose Multi-Replicate. In
the Multi-Replicate dialog box enter the following coordinates: Click the Check Mark to apply the change. The replicants will inherit the family assignment from the original. If you entered the Y rotation correctly, you'll see a balanced image as shown here. If you don't, delete the replicants (they stay selected for you just in case) and try again. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 3: Adjust Vents 1 and 44 The first and last three head vents are located lower on Robby's head, so we have to adjust their Y positions. It is easy. Shift-Select head vent 1 and head vent 44. (Now you know why I insisted that you number them!) Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Leave everything else alone. ONLY change the Y position! Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This is a special kind of Attributes box. It is showing that which is common for the two objects. Of course, the origin point X = 0 and Z = 0 is common, as are the size coordinates and the original Y position (116). We changed the Y position because these "end pieces" are the lowest vents. The other boxes are blank because they don't match between the objects. You might think that the rotation should match, but one is a negative of the other-- and that's not a match. Since this Attributes box controls BOTH selected objects, you want to change ONLY the Y position. DON'T NAME it (the names are different for a reason). SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 4: Adjust Vents 2 and 43 Shift-Select head vent 2 and head vent 43. Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Leave everything else alone. ONLY change the Y position! Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 5: Adjust Vents 3 and 42 Shift-Select head vent 3 and head vent 42. Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Leave everything else alone. ONLY change the Y position! Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 6: Group the Head Vents We want to group the Head Vents so we can get to them any time we need to, rather than shift-select 44 objects! Use the drag marquee method to select ALL the head vents. (You could also go to the torus object in the objects selector and click on Select All) A little G will appear at the bottom of the icon column. Click on the G to GROUP all 44 objects. Click
on group's Attributes Box and check the following coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (within .01) your group is fine. Name: head vent group Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This group will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 7: Render Your Work! If you render your work while in SOLO mode, the head vents should look like the image on the left (your left). If you exit SOLO mode and render your model, it should look like the image below. (I only rendered Robby's skull and mouth for these images).
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Congratulations! You have completed Robby's head vents. You have learned that the ORDER in which you make changes in the Attributes box can affect how Bryce 5 interprets your intentions in certain cases. You also learned the power of Multi-Replicate (unless, for some reason you actually created and positioned 44 vents by hand!), and the necessity of precision. You also discovered that although Bryce 5 displays values to 2 decimal places, it actually computes at a much higher precision and will allow you to specify that precision.
We'll move on now to Robby's dome-- that completes his head-- in fact, it completes his construction. But we'll be doing more with him after that.
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Tutorial copyright - © ClydeSight Productions - 2004
