Virtual Location Scouting with Bryce

Our very first experiment with Bryce, a 3D landscape generator.

One of the good things about having constraints, limited budget, limited time to work on the project, limited number of people, no SFX department, and oh, yeah, we are making a comic even though no one on the team can draw worth a damn, is that it forces you to be creative.

Many of the problems we are facing this time around, we solved when we made A Rift in Time. For example, we figured out how to create the comic book look we want by using digital postprocessing. We know how to speed up the digital compositing process, so we can have more effect shots than would otherwise be possible. We know how to structure a story and shoot so we can be flexible in terms of time, and how many people we need.

The Alice: Demon's Gate project ups the ante. We want cool locations, horrific monsters, 10th century clothes and equipment...

Sounds expensive, right? Not necessarily. We are looking into using 3D software to create environments, creatures, and even equipment and clothes.

For outdoor environments, we are considering using Bryce, a fractal landscape generator.

Bryce is easy to use, as 3D software goes, and as landscape generators go, very flexible.

For example, we can easily create a forrest, and because Bryce is a 3D program, we can change the camera point of view however we want. This is way faster and cheaper than going to locations, shooting, and perhaps having to reshoot.

There is more to write, but I think I'd better get back to the project.

More news soon.