Bryce 5 - 3D Landscaping and Animation Free (Until September 6th!) - Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Bryce 5 - 3D Landscaping and Animation Free (Until September 6th!)

"It's now even easier to create breathtakingly realistic 3D landscapes and animations with Bryce. For a limited time, DAZ is pleased to offer Bryce 5 software absolutely FREE!* Now through September 6, 2006, download Bryce 5 for no charge at Download.com. Once you have completed your installation, you will be prompted to register your copy at the DAZ3D.com website to receive your Bryce 5 serial number. At that time, you'll also be able to download the Bryce 5 presets. Strike an optimum balance between power and ease of use by integrating this innovative 3D software into your creative process.

This DAZ special offer is available only at Download.com and will absolutely end on September 6, 2006! ..."

Okay, I thought that sounded interesting. Any package that helps my graphic/drawing ineptness is worth a look (especially if it's 3D and automates the creation of cool images :)

Downloading is simple, and there's no setup. Just extract and run.

The first time you run it, you'll be directed to their web site to create an account and get your product activation key. I didn't like the password field (5-10 characters only... sigh... ), but the rest was simple and quick.

The product key is then presented and it's up to you to print or write it down (or email it to yourself). Again, something I found a little irritating.

In any case, I had it running and then...

Wow, that's some... um... UI.

Let's just say it's not a kind of UI that I was used to. But after a few minutes I was dropping stuff in, tweaking settings, etc.

The thing that took me the longest was trying to figure out how to render and save. I just couldn't find the option and there was no normal/standard menu. Just a design surface...

Well there was no normal/standard menu VISIBLE. If you move your mouse to the top of the screen the main menu appears... And it's pretty standard, with File/Render to Disk, etc options.

So in about 5-10 minutes I rendered the highly detailed and uber-cool picture below. A Greg Production at its finest! ;)

Okay, so it's nothing really special, but it looks kind of cool and there's NO way I could have ever drawn something like this...

All in all, Bryce 5 for Free is a pretty darn good deal and it looks like something very cool to play with.