Bryce and Photoshop

Bryce, Photoshop and the Alpha Channel

Sandcastle created using Photoshop 7 and Bryce 5.

The above 3D image was created in Bryce 5 using a photograph of a sand castle taken at the Eastern States Exposition, the Big E for short. I took the photo of the sand castle with the idea in mind that I would like to use it in a Bryce image. But, there is a bit of work involved in preparing the photograph to become part of a 3D image!

Clickable thumbnail to view the original photo.

This is the original photo with the sand sculptors at work. If you click the thumbnail you can see a larger image. All of the details of buildings, grass and people need to be masked and then the mask/selection saved as an alpha channel in Photoshop. The resulting image with its alpha channel is then saved as a targa image. It can then be used in a 3 D program and applied as a texture to the face of a plane. The next pages will show the process in some detail. It will then, when viewed face first, cast shadows, reflect, in short, appear as a 3D image. But, if viewed from the side, its 'flatness' will be quite evident.