3D stereoscopic imagery with Bryce

I finally discovered the key to an easy stereo pair.

The Tip:

A Control click and drag on the Track Ball to set the position for the second image of the 3D pair. Before you do this action there's a few things to attend to first in setting this up.

Set Up Steps:

• 1) In the pop-up next to the Trackball choose "Center to Selection" rather than Tripod or Trackball.
• 2) Turn off 'Link Sun to View'. If your Sun travels with your camera your shadows are gonna be different in each picture. This will lead to the inafmous 'Retinal Rivalry'
• 3) Click on an object in the exact center of your scene and make it Red.
  (note: In terms of distance If you pick a nearer object your 'frame' around your scene, your 3D 'window' on the world will be close to you. Most things will seem past or beyond the window. If you select a distant Terrain object and rotate around it your frame bounderies will be placed at near infinity and everything closer to that will break frame unequally leading to more Retinal Rivalry. Not desirable.
  If you have no objects in the center foreground put something there temprarily & select it).
• 4) Now you are ready to click on the track ball with the Control key down. (PC/Alt) Go just a small amount!, watch the wire frames shift their relationships. If the shift is noticible to you while it moves then that's enough stereo shift to create a nice 3D effect. Save as... Then render away. You can go through every scene you've ever made with Bryce and Batch Render a mate for every one of them, wake up to a 3D gallery you've never seen.

Here's why this method is cool:

• 1) Because it constrains you to the horizontal axis of movement, Just like your two eyes, you stay level.
• 2) Your distance to subject stays the same since you rotate around an object in your scene.
• 3)You can have pretty good control of where your 3D "frame" is set in space by what you select in the scene. (it's distance to camera)

In a nut shell:

• 1) Choose: "Center to Selection" for Trackball.
• 2) Turn off 'Link to View' in Sky Palette pop-up.
• 3) Select an object in the center of your scene.
• 4) Control click (Alt. click) on the Track Ball and drag left or right to create the second perspective.

To see some Bryce stereo pairs I made...