Terranim8or is intended to be an extension of Anim8or for
terrain generation and different effects.
Terrain generation and animation program:
It allows a controllable-random
generation of terrain, mountains, ocean and clouds, as single meshes or
sequences, directly in Anim8or file format. A sequence is a series of meshes
where each member differs slightly from the previous one. This makes possible a
frame-by-frame animation with substitution. The user is released from doing that
tedious job, Terranim8or generating the .an8 file with the animated scene
optionally included.
As an option, the program generates cycles, i.e. closed sequences for looping
animations without repeating frames and continuous transition between the last
and the first frame. Terranim8or can generate sequences with the patterns moving
also in space, handy when animating running water or clouds. There is an option
for repeating the sequences in animation. The terrain is almost seamlessly tileable, helping the
creation of large-scale scenery with high level of detail.
Terranim8or uses an own implementation of Ken PerlinÆs fractal noise
algorithm. Accordingly, the meshes are random-generated, the user being in
control over the main characteristics of the generated terrain.
For any specific terrain shape, there is a ôdesign modeö, allowing a rough
modeling of the mesh. Terranim8or does the rest of the job, smoothing and
superimposing a random displacement.
Special effects:
An animated Material Editor makes possible the simulation of animated materials for terrains, backgrounds and imported Anim8or objects. Every parameter is animatable: factors, percents, textures (as image sequences).
Terranim8or can perform morphing, interpolating between two imported key
objects. Morphing can be combined with animated materials.
Imported Anim8or objects (not parametric ones) can be distorted with the a "noise modifier".
Terranim8or generates also simple particle effects (stars,
rain, snowfall) and animated backgrounds to be included into Anim8or projects.
The menu commands are the usual for Windows, excepting the program-specific ones. Terrain contains the sub-menus Design and Build. The Build menu brings up the Terrain Editor window, where you set the parameters and generate the terrain. The result is visible as a wire frame. Usually you have to do a few generations (adjusting the parameters) to obtain the desired pattern.
If you arenÆt satisfied with the random-generated shapes,
access the Design sub-menu to block-model the terrain. With the left mouse
button drag-select an area, with the right button drag up, or down the selected
area. Repeat until you get the desired rough shape. Now, do Terrain->Build
again and Terranim8or will cover the rough shape with a smooth skin with random
displacement. The Design sub-menu performs its action on the
currently selected terrain. Switching back, the Build sub-menu
will process again and again the last designed terrain until a new design, or a Clear
All command. This behavior allows combining different terrain types in
one terrain, for example: make a low level Regular terrain (see below the
terrain types), switch to Design, do nothing and switch back to Build!
Now the shape is established; change the type to Fractal and cover the
terrain with small bumps (levels = -3, see below the meaning of the
parameters).
The Edit menu is available in Design mode. Clear
All flattens the terrain.
Load Terrain from File menu loads an existing
terrain file for further modification. This command expects a Terranim8or v3.0+ generated terrain, otherwise fails!
When you are contented with the terrain, save it as Anim8or
file. By default,
Terranim8or assigns a global (file) material, named "Terrain", to
each object of a sequence. It is
also possible to apply animated materials on terrains with Apply Animated
Material submenu. This comes handy for making oceans, where a different
bump map for each frame is necessary. For low polygon count models (16x16, 32x32), it is a good idea
to apply subdivision. Unwanted creases can be eliminated also by
setting the smooth angle to a higher value, 65 - 100.
Object menu allows importing, applying animated materials or noise modifier, performing morphing and exporting of Anim8or objects. First, export the desired object from Anim8or in .an8 format, then import it in Terranim8or. If importing from an Anim8or project file containing more objects, by default Terranim8or will import the first one. Only single objects are allowed (meshes, subdivisions, or parametric objects). If a composite object (more distinct components, or groups) is tried to be imported, only the first component object will receive the animated material. A successful importing is announced by a message and relevant submenus become enabled. Further importing replaces the previous object. The imported object is not displayed in Terranim8or's workspace. In order to do morphing, first import the start object. Now you can apply animated material (optionally). Then use Morph object... submenu specifying the target object, start/end frames for the animation and the file for saving the morphing project (may be an existing Anim8or file, or a new one). Very important: the target object must have the same number of vertices as the start object for a correct operation and should be derived from the start object!
Add To Project menu allows inserting in an Anim8or file (new, or already existing) of animated background, (animated) terrain, a previously imported object, rain or snowing animation. If adding several times in the same Anim8or project file, it's the user's responsibility to assign unique names for the inserted objects (different from the already existing names in the file).
For changing the default position and orientation of the objects in a frame-by-frame animation (animated terrain, or animated background), in scene mode drag-select all the objects of a sequence in wire frame view and reposition them as you like. You can do that only in wire frame view, when Anim8or displays all the objects even if they are key-framed as non visible in that specific frame!
Parameter |
Description |
Name | The object's name in the Anim8or file. For a sequence of objects, Terranim8or appends successive numbers. |
Subdivided | It is the same as Anim8or's "Convert to Subdivided" command with the default divisions. |
Smooth Angle | The same as Anim8or's option. Range: 0 to 180. |
Grid Spacing |
The distance (in Anim8or units) between successive rows or columns of vertices Range: 1 to 10 |
Sequence |
Specifies the number of objects generated as a sequence. The range goes from 1 up to the size of the terrain. Note that an .an8 file containing a long sequence of large objects could be huge! (Ex: a file with an animated sequence of 128 objects of 128x128 is approx. 143 MB large) |
Repeat | Repeats a sequence a specified number of times. Range: 0 to 10,000 (Repeat 2 means the sequence is played 3x). |
Cycle |
Check this option to generate a looping sequence. It is available for sequences of at least 3 objects. The longest cycle is half of the terrainÆs size. Ex: for a 64x64-sized terrain, the longest generated cycle will be 32, even if you enter a larger value for sequence! Using this option with "Drift Speed" other than 0, the behavior will be different (see below). |
Drift Speed |
The speed of shifting the terrain pattern along the x axis, as grid
spacing per frame. Ex: if the "Grid Spacing" is set to 4, a
speed of 2 means a shift of 8 Anim8or units for each frame. It is available for sequences of at least
two objects. Range: 0 to 16. Zero means no drifting. Notice: looping sequences can be obtained by setting the "Sequence" number equal to the terrain's size with "Drift Speed" 1 and no "Cycle" set, or by checking "Cycle" and using such a combination of "Drift Speed" and "Sequence" to have < Sequence * Drift Speed = Terrain Size > |
Animation |
Instructs Terranim8or to include in the exported .an8 file a scene containing the animation of a sequence. |
Slow Down | An integer number, instructing Terranim8or how many times to slow down the default speed of the animation. The number of objects generated by the program is increased that number of times, also the number of frames of the generated scene. Range: 1 to 10. Example: Slowing down an animated sequence of 32 objects 3 times, the program will generate 96 objects and a 96 frames long scene. |
Clouds | Checking this option the terrain will be wrapped spherically in the generated Anim8or scene. This is ideal for creating the appearance of the sky dome. Note, that this is a file output option, so in the wire frame image of Terranim8or the terrain appears just plain mapped! This option will show its maximum benefit for clouds generation when Anim8or will have an isotropic fog. |
Dome Radius | The radius of the sky dome (in Anim8or units) receiving the clouds. Range: 0 to 10,000. It is effective if Clouds is checked. |
Dome Angle | The angle of the cloud-mapped area of the sky dome, seen from the origin of the scene. Range: 0 to 180 degrees. It is effective if Clouds is checked. |
Parameter |
Description |
No. of Stars | Number of generated stars. Range: 0 to 20,000 |
Sky Radius | The distance of the spherically distributed stars from the origin. Range: 0 to 10,000 |
Location | This radio-button group controls the spatial distribution of the stars. Particles are expensive for the computers, therefore is no point to place stars where the camera will never look |
Parameter |
Description |
Number of droplets per frame | Droplets visible in a frame. Range: any integer number |
Starting / Ending Frame | Staring / ending frame of the animation. Range: 0 to 100,000 |
Falling time | Lifetime of a droplet. Range: 1 to 100,000 |
Ground Level | Y coordinate of the ground. Range: any number |
Cloud Center | Coordinates of the rain/snow cloud's center. Range: any number |
Cloud Size | Linear extension of the rain/snow cloud. Range: 0 to 100,000 |
Xshift | The drift (in Anim8or units) of the droplet's path against the vertical, measured on the x-axis. Suggests wind. Range: any integer number |
Zshift | The drift (in Anim8or units) of the droplet's path against the vertical, measured on the z-axis. Suggests wind. Range: any integer number |
Variation | The maximum deviation of a droplet's path from the mean direction, measured on ground level (in Anim8or units). Introduces randomness in the look of the animation. Range: any integer number |
Parameter |
Description |
Starting Frame # | Staring frame of the animation. Range: 0 to 100,000 |
Ending Frame # | Ending frame of the animation. Range: 0 to 100,000. Must be greater than Starting Frame #. |
Textures | The same as Anim8or's. You are not allowed to specify a different texture for Ending Frame (but different percentages, yes). For animating textures, you are invited to choose the first image file from a number-terminated filename sequence, like "myimage00012.jpg", or "whatever1.bmp". You should have an image sequence of consecutive numbers ("myimage0013.jpg, myimage0014.jpg, ...") to cover the range from start-frame to end-frame. JPEG, BMP, or GIF files are allowed. |
Other parameters | Identical with the corresponding Anim8or parameters |