Question about CGI art (Poser/Bryce/etc.)

[CheshireCatNY]

I guess this question is directed more towards Restiff, Dave2112 or other CGI tickling artists...

I have Bryce 3D, which is what I use to make a lot of artifical backgrounds for my hand drawn art. Unfortunately Bryce seems to be exclusively for OUTDOOR scenery. I've seen plenty of Poser images here with full interior backgrounds and props and the like. Is that part of Poser or another rendering program?

 

[Smade1]

Both Poser and Bryce can do interior or exterior shots - it depends entirely on the props loaded.

What Bryce does that Poser does not is that it is a modelling program as well as being able to arrange (pose) figures and objects. This means that the actual creation of objects is possible - rooms, weapons, furniture etc.
Poser allows this to a very limited extent with primitives supplied but unless you like box chairs and box tables you soon find this somewhat limited. Even rooms and single backdrops are difficult and most things impossible. Far better to create in a modeller and import into Poser.

What Poser does that is unique is to give alot of control over the importing and posing of figures and figure related objects and once a scene is posed it can be exported out to another program (Bryce) for rendering if that is preferred. It also is able to create animations from sets of poses but I've not gone into this much.

You should be able to create anything you can think of in Bryce - take a look at the Bryce objects available to download for free on Renderosity to give you an idea of the capability of the program.

Personally I use Cinema4D for modelling as I found Bryce somewhat intimidating but I've tried almost all the modellers and it depends on how much sense the user interface makes to you.

 

[Smade1]

On checking this I've missed out the most important aspect - the whole 3D thing is about meshes.

A mesh is a collection of points in 3D space and lines that joinin them in a choosen fashon. When rendered the program will calculate the sufaces made up by the points and lines and output a 3D(?) image.

Here's and example that hopefully makes things clearer.

In fig 3D1 you can see the polygons of my latest project (a hip bath) with the pesky upper back polys selected - as smoothing them out is becoming a pain in the neck.
3d2 shows the same view but this time the points making up the polys are selected.
3D3 shows the complete object, after mirroring to get the opposite side, imported into Poser and rendered along with Monica and a simple background room I found on Renderosity.

So simply(?)
A 3D modelling program allows this creation, editing, and exporting of meshes.
A 3D rendering program allows the importing and arrangement of such objects.

Bryce is both and Poser (at least 4) is the second.

As I understand it Poser5 bridges the gap a bit more but I still don't think you can edit meshes in it (I stand to be corrected). After all the same company is selling both programs.

 

[restif1]

I have used both Bryce 5 and Poser 4 & 5, each have qualities that are admirable and can compliment each other. One thing with Bryce is that you have more options to create interiors, using their stock primitive objects and Bryces Boolean ablilities. You can't export the object you make in bryce (other than terrain). You can, of course import Poser figures into Bryce relatively easily. Bryce has some nice options for texturing and lighting.
With Poser you can either make models to import into Poser (from excellent programs like Cinema 4D, Animation:Master, etc. There are many programs out there).
You can buy 3rd party props/clothing/figures if you would like to from sites like Renderosity, Daz, Runtime DNA, or one of the many sites out there. Some are very good. Some are available for no cost if they have a free section.
Depending what you like and what you want to do, Bryce is a ton of fun. It renders nicely and you have pretty nice lighting controls.

If you can get a hold of a program like Cinema 4d I would recommend it.
For reference, take a look at renderosity's Bryce forum. There are some amazing artists that have pushed Bryce to the limits and are a wealth of knowledge.
Good Rendering to you!