Sticking on Labels

Here's how to apply a label to a bottle or can in Bryce. Bryce 4 was used for the creation of this tutorial and the label is applied to a cylinder primitive.

.Label Image

 Design the label you require in a paint program, any will do but for this example I used Photoshop 5.
You will need two images one being the label itself and the other a mask.
The two images are shown at the left (they are shown at half scale, the originals being 512 X 512 pixels in size).
The label image should be created on a white background as shown and the proportions are important. If the actual label is one third the width of the image it will wrap one third the way round a cylinder to which it is applied. If you want the label to go all the way around the cylinder then make it the full width of the image.

..Label Mask

 The mask for the label is created in white on a black background and is easily created by modifying your original image - this ensures correct registration.
The label image was created with a tear in it to further show how the mask works.

Now we have our two images we can start the Bryce work.

.Create a cylinder In Bryce create a cylinder and give it say a coloured glass texture.
With the cylinder selected, click om the [M] button to enter the Material Editor.
Place button markers in the A Column alongside Ambient Colour and Ambience.
A random material will be loaded.
Click on the P button and the Pinkish button abve it to enter the Picture Editor.
Click on the first free square space after Leonardo and load the Label Image.
Now click on the word Load above the centre alpha box and load the Label Mask image.

Your screen should look like the image to the left.
Exit the Picture Editor and back in the Material Editor you should see something like this. Change the Mapping Mode from Parametric to Cylindrical.
Exit the Material Editor and your label will be applied. Note that everything black in the mask is transparent and shows the underlying object.

The label tends to pick up some of the properties of the underlying object and looks best on non transparent or non glossy objects.To overcome this see below.

You can move the label up and down on the cylinder by adjusting the Y axis value of the Translation tool in the Material Editor.

Here the label has been applied to a flat grey cylinder and rotated.

To get rid of the transparency effect on the label place two button markers in column B alongside Transparency and Reflection. Load the Label Mask image only in the Picture Editor and set the Transparency Slider to zero.

Don't forget to set the Mapping Mode to Cylindrical.
This is the result - a correctly rendered label with the glass only showing transparency and reflection.

Have fun ..... Peter

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