Multimedia Toolkit 2/Multimedia Toolkit 2.iso/imagine/im_organizer.txt

Text File | 1992-10-26 | 42KB | 781 lines

                      THE IMAGINE ORGANIZER

                               -or-

            A friendly, honest alternative to panic.

                        By Carmen Rizzolo




-- HISTORY ----------------------------------------------------------

Release: 1.0                                    -  October 21, 1992
  Articles 1 through 8
Release 1.1                                     -  October 27, 1992
  Articles 9 through 11
  Fixed several boo-boos in Article #6

-- INTRODUCTION -----------------------------------------------------

    Ok, so what's the purpose of this article?  Well, it's a series
of articles I have made over time.  One I plan to add to, instead of
releasing seperate articles everywhere and hope you get them all. Now
they're all together.. Fun, eh?
    In here you'll find all the tips, tricks and tutorials that I
have written to further help you get along with Imagine.  There
will be things in here to speed up your creation process, smooth out
rough motion, and do things that maybe you never thought you could
do with Imagine.  Although the tone of my dialogue is geared towards
the Imagine novice, I hope that everyone will find a few things
in here that they didn't know before.  I'll release updates to this
as I add to it.  The articles are in no particular order, so look
through the Contents for what interests you.  Have fun, and don't get
lost!

-- CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------

1. Spline Based Rotations
2. Decrease Animation Creation Time
3. Get the Most Speed Out of Animation Playback
4. Making Custom Drawers in Your Projects
5. What to Name Your Actors
6. Looping the Waves Texture
7. Graphically Editing the World Size
8. Graphically Positioning the World Size
9. Using Conform to Path
10. Hiding 2-Dish flaws in 3D objects
11. Signing Your Animations

??. Crack Your Objects Up!
??. Leaves Rustling in the Wind
??. Nifty Neon
??. Flowers/Branches/Whatever Swaying in the Breeze (Imagine 3.0)
??. Structures Riddled With Windows Made Easy
??. Fun with Zooming
??. Springy Motion (Imagine 3.0)

-- 1. Spline Based Rotations ----------------------------------------

    A post by Anthony Ramirez on the FidoNet Amiga_Video section
sparked an idea in my head.. After testing it out with wild success,
I had to fill the rest of you guys in..  For the longest time, I was
envious of Lighwave 3D and it's smooooth trasitions from one rotation
key to the next.  I would always get a 'kink' with Imagine when I
tried the same stunt.  Sure, you can align an object with a path that
it moves down, but what if I want the rotation to be independant of
it's position path?  Well, this new thing works well, but it's kinda
encumbered..  If you can deal with the extra steps, you'll get some
great rotational movement.. Very smooth too! Here's what to do (I'll
try to keep this short)!

    In the stage editor, add an open path.. This path is COMPLETELY
independant of any other operation.. If your object is following a
path, add a second path.  This works even if your object isn't
following a path.  Now add an AXIS  If your object in question is
called "SHIP", you can call the path "SHIP.TRACK.PATH" and call the
new AXIS "SHIP.TRACK" Fair enough?

    In the Action Editor, Delete the ALIGNMENT BAR of your SHIP
object. Replace it with another bar (That takes up a decent amount of
frames) and have it TRACK TO OBJECT.. The object it tracks to is the
"SHIP.TRACK"  Now Delete the POSITION BAR of the "SHIP.TRACK" object
and have it follow the "SHIP.TRACK.PATH" in the same frame #'s you
used for your ship's alignment bar.  Now Delete the POSITION BAR of
the "SHIP.TRACK.PATH" and replace it with the SAME INFORMATION as the
SHIP's POSITION BAR.. In other words, if your SHIP is traveling along
a path, have your "SHIP.TRACK.PATH" follow the same path.  If it's
all tween motion, duplicate the info for the "SHIP.TRACK.PATH".  Now
delete the ALIGNMENT BAR of the "SHIP.TRACK.PATH" and replace it with
the same ALIGNMENT info as your "SHIP" object (in the same # of
frames, again).  If you are still with me, your "SHIP.TRACK.PATH" is
now moving in unison with your "SHIP" object, and the "SHIP.TRACK"
object is moving down the "SHIP.TRACK.PATH".  Now all you have to do
is edit your "SHIP.TRACK.PATH"..
    This is the tricky part.  Remember that the "SHIP.TRACK.PATH"
will always be centered with your "SHIP" object.  If you want your
"SHIP" object to aim forwards, then veer to the left, then aim
straight up, you'll do the following:  Have the path start right in
front of the SHIP, then Move in an orbit of the SHIP to the ship's
left side, then orbit-like motion going towards the top of the SHIP.
Your SHIP will always be pointing (in the positive-Y direction of
it's axis) towards your "SHIP.TRACK" object.  If your path aims
directly towards or away from  the SHIP object, the alignment won't
change.. If you have the path moving away, then bending to one way or
another, you can see how to easily invoke smooth transitions in your
SHIP's alignment.


-- 2. Decrease Animation Creation Time ------------------------------

    I'm very proud of this particular tutorial.. This tutorial can
speed up your animation creation by a factor of 10 or MORE!
Depending on the complexity of your animation.  How?  Read on,
pioneer!

    Some of you may already know this, but as for me, it just dawned
on me recently.  My scenes are getting very complex, with objects
ranging in size from 50k to 400k or more per object.  As great as
these mondo object may look, they sure take hell-long to load up when
moving about in the STAGE EDITOR.  Even if an object like this
shuttle or the CRUISER object is completely in FASTDRAW mode, it's so
complex that it still seemingly takes forever to draw in the tri-view
windows and in the perspective view.  Here's the clincher.  In your
ACTION EDITOR, the size of an object is noted by only the size of the
group's PARENT OBJECT'S AXIS in the size bar.  All of the detail of
an object is defined by it's relation to that parent axis, and is
disregarded by the ACTION EDITOR.  The only info in that SIZE BAR is
the size of the one axis.. I'm sorry I'm repeating myself, but it's
an important point!  But what does this all mean??  It means that if
ANOTHER object with similar size and shape had an IDENTICAL axis, it
could be interchangeably used in the ACTION and STAGE editor as a
less-detailed twin to your complex object.  You can use this simple
twin while you choreograph your animation, then easily switch it to
the 'Real McCoy' when you're ready to render.  On my Amiga 3000, I've
been able to crank out animation preview frames at about 1 frame per
second using the perspective window anim preview thingy.  Here's what
to do!

    I'll use the SHUTTLE object in this example to illustrate.  In
the detail editor, load up the NCC-80E.obj object file.  Enter PICK
OBJECTS mode.  Click on the parent object of the entire group.  If
you need to use the FIND BY REQUESTOR method the object is called
"NCC-80E.OBJ".  Since you're in PICK OBJECTS mode, and not PICK
GROUPS mode, only the one object will be highlighted.  COPY and PASTE
it.  Go back to PICK GROUPS mode.  ADD a Primitive; a PLANE with only
1x1 section.  Hit F1 to pick the new plane.  Use MODE; EXTRUDE.  Just
use the default values and click on PERFORM.  Now use the 'm' and 's'
keys to surround the bulk of the shuttle.  Hit the spacebar when
you're happy with it.  Use the Amiga-N key to cycle through the
existing groups until you hit the copy of the Shuttle's parent
object.  Hit F1 to pick it.  Then hit Amiga-N till the extruded plane
is selected. Use SHIFT-F1 to multi-select both the Parent axis and
the extruded plane.  Save the simple new object as "NCC-80E.fake" in
the same drawer that your NCC-80E is saved.  Enter the STAGE editor
and use the ".fake" objects to choreograph your animation.  Once it's
perfect, and you're ready to render, save and enter the ACTION
EDITOR.  Starting from the top, enter all ACTOR BARS and change any
file extensions that end with ".fake" to ".obj".. Save then render!
Simple, eh?  Once you can move about the STAGE EDITOR like water
rather than sludge, it's easier to get more creative and daring in
your animations.  Simple, eh?

    In most cases, you'll want a .fake version of your object to be a
LITTLE more complicated than a single box.  There are no rules here,
just remember, the simpler the object, the faster your animation
creation!

    In many instances, objects react with one another.  Let's say
you've got an object of an Amiga 3000 CPU, and a floppy disk.  You
want the floppy disk to leap off of a desk, dance around a bit, then
jump into the disk drive of the A3000.  But hey!  If all you've got
to work off of is a bunch of big, bulky, bounding boxes, I can't see
where the floppy drive hole is for the disk to jump in to!
Fortunately, I have forseen this sort of problem.  And there are two
main ways to fix it.  One solution will work best in one situation,
while the other will, well, you understand.
    Let's build on the floppy drive delimma.  In the DETAIL EDITOR,
Load up your A3000 object.  Go ahead and make a big 'ol box for the
majority of the object.  Here you can do two things.  You can add a
plane (an un-extruded box?), move and size it so that it perfectly
conforms to the drive bay entrance.  Or you can tear into the
original A3000 object.  Enter PICK POINTS mode, and delete everything
except for what makes up the outline of the drive hole.  Group your
drive hole with the big, simple box and delete the other offending
objects.  Either way will give you an excellent referance for your
perky little floppy object.  Here are some other situations where
these techniques will come in handy:

Showing a hole in a wall plate for a light-switch or power outlet.
Simple planes will do here.

Leaving a car's original windows un-deleted so that camera has no
trouble peering in to look at it's driver (or lack thereof).

Text!  Need to see which way your letters are facing in a logo?
Hack into those originals and leave only enough to let you know
what it says.  Remember, nobody else has to look at these .fake
objects!

NOTICE: Imagine 3.0 will have some sort of automated fix for the
long loading/displaying problem of your objects.  But remember,
an automatic bounding box won't leave in crucial details you'll need
for precision animation!


-- 3. Get the Most Speed Out of Animation Playback ------------------

    This tutorial will work with Deluxe Paint versions 3.0 and up.
Obviously, getting an accelorator will boost your animation playback.
The Amiga 3000's 32-bit path to it's 16-bit CHIP RAM helps a little,
but not always enough.  This small feature will tell you how to get
your Amiga to animate at it's fastest possible rate, given your
current hardware configuration.  There is an exception to the rule,
and I'll cover that first.

    If the animation in question, has a generally static background,
a small, generic animation player will out-animate DPaint (Deluxe
Paint).  View v3.2 comes to mind.  With a static background and
limited motion of our animation's star character, View can zip throgh
it up to 60 frames per second sometimes.  Unfortunately, if the
amount of motion from frame-to-frame increases during the course of
the animation, your speed will decrease in the dynamic parts.  The
great thing about the DPaint method described below is it has a very
steady frame rate.  The bad thing is it eats up your memory like
candy!

    Boot up DPaint.  Go to the bottom of your ANIM pulldown menu and
change METHOD from compressed to EXPANDED.  Load your animation.
Enjoy.

    Ok, what's happening?  Dpaint is loading each individual frame
into memory as INDIVIDUAL FRAMES.  Normally, only the CHANGES from
FRAME-TO-FRAME is stored in memory.  Now Dpaint does not have to
de-compress anything from frame to frame.  The only slowdown you'll
get now is if you get dangerously close to using ALL of your RAM, or
of you're in a naturally SLOW resolution/colour mode.  Stay away from
High or Medium resolution with 16 colours.  Folks with DCTV will get
great use out of this, because they can render to Medium or High
resolution, 8 colours and get speeds up to 24 frames per second on
a 25MHz A3000.  Just for fun, after loading your animation, select
ABOUT in the far-left pulldown.  This will tell you how much memory
your animation is actually using.  Prepare for a shocker.  I have
18 MEGS of RAM, and I can have about 8 seconds worth of MediumRes/8
colour animation in EXPANDED mode.


-- 4. Making Custom Drawers in Your Projects ------------------------

    When you open up a fresh project in Imagine, several things
should happen:

1. A rush of natural chemicals, this makes your mind ready to explode
into creativity at a moment's notice.

2. A drawer is created.  It's given the name of your project, with
an extention ".imp" on it.

3. Another drawer is created!  Inside your "Project.imp" drawer, an
"objects" drawer is made.  What?  Just one drawer to throw everything
in?!?  We'll see about that.

    For any of your medium to larger projects, one drawer to throw
things into simply won't do.  Here are some suggestions of what you
can add inside of your "Project.imp" drawer:

    If you're a mammal, you may want to add a drawer called "brushes"
so you have a place to put all of your project-specific brushes.  I
have a "brushes" directory in my Imagine drawer where I keep all of
my frequently used brushes, like cloudy global image maps.  But if
you need to add a "To Protect and Serve" to your police car, it's
good to have a drawer to keep it in, insted of cluttering up your
Project.imp drawer with miscellaneous files and brushes.

    I've recently started doing this.  I'll add other drawers for
categorised components of my animations.  Once I had a logo to
animate (Gee, when does THAT ever happen?!).  Each letter of the
logo was seperated into an individual object.  20 letters in all!
I made a drawer called "logo" and placed all the pieces to my logo
jigsaw in it.  Now picture this:  Each letter of that logo is gonna
be rotating along a seperate spline (See Tutorial #1) path.  I made
another drawer called "logo.paths" and filled it with paths.  Then
there was a background lined with different abstract shapes.  I made
another drawer for them.  It doesn't matter what I called it really,
there are no rules here.  Imagine trying to load an object into the
STAGE/ACTION EDITOR, looking into an "objects" drawer, and having
to weed through over 50 objects in a file requestor?  Forget that!


-- 5. What to Name Your Actors --------------------------------------

    Try something that sticks in the audience's minds.  Something
that makes a statement!  Oh, wait, we're talking about Imagine.

    In the ACTION EDITOR, each component to your animation is given a
name.  That names is show in the far-left column of the screen
display.  This is not really the filename of that object/path/what-
ever.  It's a name Imagine uses to keep track of things.  Remember
that an object can morph from one actor to another, and introducing
a second object to the ACTOR BAR does not change the initial NAME
given to your object/path/whatever...

    The first time you are introduced to an object's name (not to
be confused with the filename you save it to disk as) is in
the DETAIL EDITOR.  Pick an object, any object.  Add one if you need
to.  Hit F7 to enter that object's ATTRIBUTES requestor.  Hey!  It's
got a name field up there!  Most of the time, objects are given names
by default.  You'll see names like SPHERE, PART.37, AXIS, etc...
This is no fun if you're watching over 10 or more actors in the
ACTION EDITOR.  You can also change an actor's name by clicking on
it in the STAGE EDITOR and using RENAME in your pulldowns.  The most
common method is to name them in the ACTION EDITOR.  Enter RENAME
mode, click in the box that contain's an actor's name and change it.

    Keep your names specific, but short.  Things like CAR, SHIP,
SIGN, EARTH, etc. are great.  If you take an object called CAR in the
DETAIL EDITOR, COPY and PASTE it, you'll wind up with the CAR object,
and a copy called CAR.1.  A copy of CAR.1 will yield CAR.2, etc...
    I have adopted this form of renaming duplicates because it's
short, and to the point.  The key here is to keep those names short.
You'll see why SHORTLY [grin].  Sometimes, if I know I'm gonna be
making duplicates, or loading the same object into the STAGE EDITOR,
I'll RENAME my first object with a .1 and then go to .2, .3, ... from
there.  But that's just me.

    So why keep these names short?  Here's why:  When you get
complicated, grand scale animations going with tricky maneuvers,
you'll get combinations like the following.  I find them great for
keeping monster projects organized, and it's easy to SORT my script
in the ACTION editor and they'll fall into their proper place nicely.

1. Our main object, a car can be called CAR
2. If our CAR is going to drive along a path, we call it's position-
   altering path CAR.PATH
3. (See Tutorial #1) If we want the car to waver and skid as it turns
   or halts motion, we'll have it align to an AXIS, which follows a
   different path.  We can call these components CAR.TRACK and
   CAR.TRACK.PATH

    I think you can see how this can clean up a mess in a big way.
As well as using SORT in the action editor to group all of the
Car's components together, since they all start with CAR.  Here's
some other suggestions:

CAMERA.TRACK, GLOBALS.PATH, LIGHT.2.PATH, CARMEN.TRACK.2


-- 6. Looping the Waves Texture -------------------------------------

    I recently was graciously granted some free time, so I decided to
further explore new features in Imagine 2.0.  Imagine 2.0 comes with
a decent waves or 'constantly rippling water' texture.  Allow me to
say right here and now: IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!!  There.. I had to get
that out in the air.  The waves texture is said in the manual to be
best on grounds and flat surfaces for best results.  I say you should
try it out on a spere.  Very trippy!  The waves texture uses three
entry fields in it's requestor.  Wavelength, Amplitude, and Distance
Travelled.

    Refer to the file "Wave.PIC" (Included in this archive) to see
what Wavelength and Amplitude is.  The Distance Traveled is not so
easy to comprehend.  It is only to be used when you want to actually
'ripple' the texture in motion (read: animation).  This works by
morphing.. You first create an object with the waves texture. Add the
desired amounts for Wavelength and Amplitude and give the Distance
Travelled a 0.  Save that object.  Now alter the Distance Travelled
and save the same object with a different name (usually, I'd do
something like 'Pool.1' and 'Pool.2').  Then in the Action Editor,
you would display the first object on frame 1, and from frame 2
through the end of your loop cycle you would morph to the second
object (if Morphing is new to you, refer to the manual).  According
to the Imagine 2.0 bible, the Distance Traveled in the second object
should be exactly 1/2 the wave's wavelength.  This is most certianly
WRONG (Buzzing sound effect)!  I have whipped up a mathematical
formula for you that SHOULD work every time. Allow me to example.

    Let's say our Wavelength is 50, our Amplitude is 8 (As far as I
know, the Amplitude has no bearing on calculating Distance
Travelled), and the loop cycle will last 20 frames (This is the exact
parameters of my Pool 2 anim).  If you divide your wavelength by the
number of frames, you will get the Distance Travelled PER FRAME. If
you guessed 2.5, get yourself a rewarding snack.  The morphing takes
*19* frames.  Now if you multiply the Distance Travelled per frame
 ^^
    <Sorry, this number was 18 in release 1.0, 19 is correct>

by the amount of morphing frames, you will (so far it works for me)
get the appropiate Distance Travelled for the requestor of your
DESTINATION object in the loop cycle.  2.5 * 19 is 45.  The reason I
went to such length to try and figure out a formula was so that you
could easily make your own applications of the waves texture and get
it right every time without the hassle (sp?) of trial and error.  My
amplitude in this situation was an 8, but I don't think this has much
bearing (And we could all use a little more bearing from time to
time!).  But "Carmen," you ask, "what if I want to make an animation
longer than 20 frames?! (or whatever amount of frames you choose for
1 loop cycle)"  Simple.  In the Action Editor, use Pool.1 (or
whatever) on frame 1.  Use Pool.2 for frames 2 through 20, with a
Transition Frames value of 18.  On frame 21, use Pool.1.  Then use
Pool.2 from frames 22 through 40 with a Transition value of 18.
Catching on?

    To Recap, here's the formula:

 (Wvlngth / # frames in loop cycle) * (# of frames in loop cycle - 1)
is equal to the Distance Travelled.
    The # of frames in loop cycle - 1 is also the amount of
trasnition frames when morphing from object.1 to object.2.  My
example is like this:

   50 / 20 = 2.5   2.5 * 19 [ or ] 2.5 * (20 - 1) = 45

 "/" means 'divided by' by the way.

  In the Animation, I used three (3) sources of waves.  One coming from
the right, one from the upper left and another from the lower left.  For
some wacky reason, the waves eminate from and along the negative X axis
of the texture's axis.  In other words, if you have the X axis of the
texture (NOT the object! Entirely different ball of wax) pointing to the
right, your waves will move to the left.  If you haven't yet started
altering the axis of your textures, now's a good time to start learning
(When Editing the axis of a texture or brush, always use the "l" key to
do your editing in local mode).  This is kinda goofy, because Imagine
generally uses the Y axis for most of it's motion references.

             ** Important info for Release 1.1 **

  Woops!  I screwed up.  I got some 18's and 19's mixed up.  Re-read
the article above as it is correct now, then read the addition below.
I hope this didn't mess anyone's mind up TOO much.  Here's what's
right:

  In the 20 frame loop cycle situation, You *DO* use 19 (20 - 1) to
mulitply to your Distance-Travelled Per Frame.  But when this goes
into the ACTION EDITOR, you CAN'T enter 19.  Even though the 20th
frame is technically part of the morphing, Imagine considers the last
frame in a morph to be seperate from the transition.  Which, from
anoher point of view, it is.  SO, use 18 instead.  Here's how it's
done right:  Take your loop cycle # of frames (20, in our example),
get the Distance Travelled Per Frame as described above, then
multiply it by 19 (or 20 - 1).  Edit the Attributes of the texture
with the new value and save that object as your destination object in
the loop cycle.  THEN, when it's time to add it in the ACTION EDITOR,
use the START object for frame 1, and the DESTINATION object for
frames 2 through 20 with a Transition value of *18* (or 20 - 2).

  Once again, sorry for the confusion!


-- 7. Graphically Editing the World Size ----------------------------

  I've recently figured out how to graphically alter the size of your
GLOBAL world size in the Stage/Action editor.  The Globals SIZE is a
rectangular box that defines the area the camera will read from in
RayTrace mode.  This is why some of you have seen your objects
'sliced' or chopped off.  This happens when they reside outside the
globals world size parameters.  "Well," you might say, "If I could
see the world, I wouldn't have that problem!"  Along the same lines,
if you made the size of your (globals) world just small enough so
that it encompasses all of my objects and nothing else, Trace times
could be cut dramatically.  Using this technique, I cut my trace time
in this particular project by over a factor of 2!  Here's what to do!
After you've created your entire animation 'script' and are ready to
render, do the following:

    Go to frame 1 in the Stage editor. Add an axis.  Rename your new
axis to "GLOBAL.AXIS".  You will see the axis appear at location
0,0,0 by default.  This is the center reference point for the world
size.  Never move the axis while performing this trick!
    The Axis should be a 'picked' colour (usually yellowish).  Hit F1
to select it.. Now it will be Blueish (if you screwed with the colours
too much in the preferences editor, you're on your own!) in colour.
Hit the "s" key, and then the "l" key.. You are now scaling the axis
in local mode. You'll know you're doing it right if the dotted lines
that the X,Y and Z is connected to stretch along with the bounding
box.  While scaling, use the X,Y, and Z keys to bring the bounding
box in as tightly as possible.  The object is to surround ALL of the
objects in the scene (not including lights or camera(s?)) without too
much breathing room.  The tighter the fit, the shorter the tracing
time.  Remember, this box doesn't have to be (and usually isn't)
perfectly square.  In my pool anim, the only objects used where the
water, pool, ground and beach-ball.  My axis was was large in the top
view, but only tall enough in the front view to surround the
Beachball and pool.  Exciting, isn't it?  NOW!  Hit the space bar
when you've got it just right.  Enter TRANSFORMATIONS in the pulldown
menu.  Hit the size button and write down the three numbers on your
arm. Save and enter the Action Editor.. On frame 1 of the GLOBALS
track, add a size bar.  Copy the information from your arm onto the
requestor.  Now this size information will stay this way for every
frame unless you add another size bar for a different frame.  If you
have objects moving about, be sure that the globals size is adjusted
on any frame that an object moves outside the parameters of our
magical axis.  Just resize the axis on that frame, write down the
three numbers and copy the info onto a size bar of the globals of the
same frame!  Have fun!


-- 8. Graphically Positioning the World Size ------------------------

    Read and practice tutorial #7 until you understand how it
functions.  Now, as well as jotting down the GLOBAL.AXIS' SIZE,
you can also take down it's position.  Then go ADD a POSITION BAR
in your ACTION EDITOR.  Copy the GLOBAL.AXIS' position information to
the GLOBAL's POSITION BAR.  This means that you CAN move the
GLOBAL.AXIS in the STAGE/ACTION EDITORs.  If you do move it, you must
copy the GLOBAL.AXIS' new position info and relay it to the GLOBAL's
POSITION BAR for the appropriate frame.  Remember, when moving
anything in the stage editor, select POSITION BAR in the pullown menu
to automatically add a new position bar with the new information.  Of
coure, this will add a bar for the GLOBAL.AXIS object, not GLOBALS,
where it ultimately counts.
    This ability brings up all sorts of ridiculously uncalled for
possibilities.  Ever think of having your GLOBALS flying along a
path?  If you have, shame on you.  This is truely Imagine abuse.
    So what's this technique good for?  A few things.. The best idea
that comes to mind this this:
    If you're rendering in full Ray Trace mode, and an object is
residing half inside the GLOBAL world size, and half outside
Imagine's world, the object will appear to have been chopped in half,
with the out-of-bounds half missing.  If you move your world in the
course of an animation, you can have the world completely out of a
scene, and slowly move in, ecompassing the object(s).  This will
make a 'revealing' effect to your scene.  A 3-D video wipe if you
will.


-- 9. Using Conform to Path -----------------------------------------

    Here's a tutorial on how to bend and twist your 3-D logos with
Imagine 2.0 by using the CONFORM TO PATH feature.  If you're using
Imagine 1.1 or earlier, you're on your own.  If you can't afford to
upgrade, you've got more pressing problems than conforming text to
a path. :)

    NOTE: Be sure your letters are READABLE in the front view.  Odd
are that this is the case, but be sure your font object is facing you
in the FRONT VIEW, and the TOP VIEW and RIGHT VIEW are actually the
top and right views (excuse the run-on sentence).  In fact, this
whole tutorial can probably done in the FRONT VIEW alone.. So you may
want to blow it up to full screen size.

    The first thing you've gotta to is to take yer font object, and
using SHIFT-M and SHIFT-R, move ONLY IT'S AXIS to the far left of
your letters. And then point your Y axis to the right. (All this
from a FRONT VIEW vantage)  This is not required, but I've found that
moving the axis to the left will ensure your text does not get
distorted as it's pathed (porportionally speaking).  Now, with the
font object picked, enter TRANSFORMATIONS (from the pulldown).  Click
on the size button and write down the three #s.  Then click on the
position button and write down the three numbers.  You'll be using
these 6 numbers heavily.  Add an open path. Click on the path's axis
and enter TRANSFORMATIONS.  Give the path's axis the same position
and size as your font object.  Now, with your path picked, enter EDIT
PATH mode.  Your path (in the front view) should now be going from
left to right.  Click on the right-most poing on the path and then
hit 'm' to move it.  Before you move it, hit SHIFT-X, so that you're
only moving it along the world's X-axis.  Now simply drag it to the
right a ways, about to the end of your font.. No need for precision
yet.. You're just getting it out of the way.  Now click on the left-
most point and enter TRANSFORMATIONS. You guessed it, give it those
same POSITION and SIZE numbers.  Since you took the care to line up
all those axis (plural), you are in a strategically sound place for
creating animations of your text bending and contorting in all sorts
of funky ways.  More on the animation possibilities later...

    Now it's time to make your circle.  Zoom out a bit if you need to
(Left Amiga-o).  Pick your path (it's blue when it's picked,
yellowish when it's selected; big difference) by clicking on it or
other clever means.  Enter EDIT PATH mode and find that right-most
point again.. Yes, the same one you got out of the way earlier.
Click on it again. Hit 'm' to MOVE then SHIFT-X, and then slide it
over the the far-right edge of your font object.  NOTE: You might
need to re-enter PICK GROUPS mode and redraw the screen so you can
see it.  Imagine ignores everything else when you are editing an
object on a point by point basis.

    After you've fixed the path, go back into PICK GROUPS mode (or
PICK OBJECTS, no big diff here).  In your pulldowns, ADD a SPHERE.
This is just for your referance to line up your Path to.  Enter
TRANSFORMATIONS with the sphere selected.  Click on it's POSITION
button and give the X value the same number you wrote down earlier.
The Z and Y don't matter. Back in PICK GROUPS mode.  Click on the
Sphere and hit 'm' and SHIFT-Z. Now move the sphere (up or down) so
that it's below your text.  What you are going to do here is scale
the sphere so that it represents the size and length desired for your
path.  In your head, imagine the length of the path (and your text,
they're both the same) bend into a circle.. How big would that circle
be?  Make it that big.. You don't need the precision of a surgeon
here.. A little distortion won't be noticle anyways.  For a decent
sized sphere, you'd better have a decent amount of text modeled up.
Either that or lots of spacing..  Now that you've scaled it (using
the 's' key), use 'm' then SHIFT-Z to move it up so that the tip of
the spere touches your path.  You can now use the sphere as a
referance to make a good circle. Click on your path and enter EDIT
PATH mode.  Be sure your sphere is in full view so that you won't
have to move or zoom your view for this operation. This way your
sphere referance will never disappear.  Click on the Right- Point of
the path and move it down, down, down a bit below the sphere.  Now
click on Point up at the top of your circle.  Select FRACTURE.  Click
on the new point and move it to the bottom-most of the sphere.  Now
rotate it on it's Y axis ('r' then 'y') so that the path conforms to
the right side of the sphere, and the line going through your control
point is more or less going left to right.. Then you can go into
TRANSFORMATIONS; ALGNMENT and fix the Y alignment so that it's 90, or
-90, or 180, whatever.. It should be close to one of those right now.
If you feel you need another point inbetween the first and second
point to further define the curve, read on.. Click on the first point
and Select FRACTURE.  Move the new point to the far-right center of
the sphere.  The angle should already be straight up and down, but
use TRANSFORMATIONS; ALIGNMENT if you need to.  Now go ahead and keep
doing what you're doing until your path is beautifully covering your
sphere outline.  You might want to leave a gap between the start and
end points so that your text doesn't bunch up upon conforming.  Enter
PICK GROUPS mode once again.  Click on your path and save it.  Pick
your Text.  Enter MOLD in your pulldowns.  Pick CONFORM TO PATH.  As
long as there is only one path currently in your editor, the defaut
values are just fine..  Just click on OK and cross your fingers.  You
should now be looking at your text, bent along a circle.  Save it,
but don't save over your original straight text object!

    Now, if you Delete your curved text from the editor (NOT from
your disk!) and re-load your straight text, we can have some fun!
Pick your path once again.  Enter EDIT PATH mode.  Click on a control
point.. Any point.  Hit 'r' then 'l' then 'y'..  You are now going to
rotate a control point's Y axis in local mode.. Since the point's Y
axis resides along the path, you are actually TWISTING the path.
Don't go crazy tho.. Nothing more than a 30 degree twist (Just
eyeball it for now).  Resave the path under a different name, then
re-conform your straight text to the new path. Pretty trippy, eh?  If
you work at it, you can move, rotate and twist your path to create
some wild logo anims.  Do these transitions in increments and save
each step object as a different name.  There's only one thing you've
got to bear in mind:  When Imagine morphs points from one object
'pose' to another, it does so in a straight line!  So simulating
bening and twisting can be tedious, as you'll need almost 10 seperate
object 'poses' to simulate a decent curling anim.  Twisting seems to
be the most difficult one to master for animations.

    Another note about animations... Before saving all these
incremental objects, check for something.. Is the area where my text
spawns from at any angle whatsoever?  If so, that means it's
conformed to the path.. Yep, your AXIS conforms right along with the
rest of the object..  Click on the axis if your feshly distorted
object, and enter TRANSFORMATIONS. Now click on TRANSFORM AXIS ONLY.
Now copy those same nutty POSITION and ALIGNMENT values from
earlier.. Now your axis will remain static as your object moves
around.. Otherwise you might get unpredictable motion in the Stage
Editor.  Geez!  Have I typed enough?!  Let me know if this tutorial
helped you out at all by posting E-Mail to me in the FidoNet's Amiga_
Video Echo.  Have fun!!


-- 10. Hiding 2-Dish flaws in 3D objects ----------------------------

    If you've got reason to hide certian parts of you object, this
tutorial is for you!  This Tutorial is a spin-off of the breakthrough
tutorial that came with the "CRUISER.LHA" object that I did just a
few weeks ago.

    Here's the problem.. You've made this cartoonish looking SUN.
You the kind; it's got spikes coming out all over it's silhouette.
But if the sun or the camera is moving around, the sun won't look
good if it's rotated to the point where the spikes are going down the
middle of the sun like a backbone!  This is not good.  Here's what to
do..

    Load up your SUN object, or whatever it is.  Click on it.  Using
SHIFT-R (to rotate it's axis only), rotate it's axis so that the Y
axis is pointing in the direction that you want your object to face.
If, in your FRONT VIEW, your object looks the way it should look, go
to the TOP VIEW and make sure the Y axis is pointing out of it, like
it was struck by an arrow labled 'Y'.  I hope that's not confusing..
In the TOP VIEW, the Y axis will aim towards the bottom of the
screen.  Save your object.

    Go into your Stage editor.. Load up the object.  Save and enter
the Action editor.  Find the object's ALIGNMENT BAR.  Delete it.. Add
another ALIGNMENT BAR to replace it.  Tell it to TRACK TO OBJECT.
And Give the object's name CAMERA.. Simple eh?  It's aiming at the
CAMERA, just as you would aim the camera at something.. One catch..
Imagine doesn't like you to track object A to object B, while object
B is tracked to A.  If you need the Camera to track to your Camera-
tracking object, add an axis, and have it mimic the poisiton of your
Camera-tracking object; and have the camera track to the new axis..
Simple, eh?

-- 11. Signing Your Animations --------------------------------------

    If you want to put your name on your projects, here's a quick and
easy way to do it.  This technique will not work effectively if you
alter your camera's focal length during the animation (read: Changed
your camera's size bar).  It allows you to put things like "©1992
Carmen Rizzolo" in the lower-right hand corner of your animations.
But if you put my name in your animations, I get royalties! :)  The
following steps will be the last thing you do in your animation.
Just before you do your final rendering; do as follows.

    Boot up DPaint.  Make your screen resolution Hi-Res, 2 Colours.
Make your background colour (Colour 0) anything but black.  Make your
foreground colour (Colour 1) Black or a shade of grey.  The ligher
the grey, the more transparent your text will be.  Type out what you
wish and grab it as a brush.  As you grab your text with the box,
give about 3-8 pixels space away from the edges of the text on all
sides. Don't come in too close because it might get chopped off when
Imagine performs it's 'auto image-mapping' feature.  Save your brush.
Kill Dpaint.

    Boot up Imagine.  Enter the detail editor.  Add a PRIMATIVE;
PLANE. 1x1 section is all you'll need.  Scale your plane so that it's
closely the shape of your brush.  You might need to come back here
and fix the size after a few test renderings if the perspective is
thrown off by your plane being too wide or something.  But don't
worry about that too much right now.  Enter the plane's attributes.
Make the COLOUR whatever you want the colour to be when rendered.
Make the REFLECTIVITY 0,0,0 unless you feel artsy.  Give the FILTER
guns all the way up.  SHININESS and everything else, 0.  Make the
object a BRIGHT object by clickin on the BRIGHT button.  Now Click on
the BRUSH 1 button and load up your IFF bush. Make it a FILTER MAP
and tell it to USE GENLOCK.  This mean that Imagine will disreguard
the background colour of your IFF brush.  Hit OK and back out of your
attributes requestor.  Here comes the tricky part.

    Add an axis.  In the TOP VIEW, move your axis below, and to the
left of your PLANE object.. By the way, Your plane object should look
like a straight line from the TOP VIEW.  Your axis' Y axis should be
pointing north if you haven't changed it (Still, TOP VIEW).  Click on
the Axis, and then SHIFT-CLICK on the PLANE.  Now select GROUP.
Click on your axis again and enter ATTRIBUTES, and give your group a
name if you wish. Exit Attributes and SAVE your GROUP.

    Enter the ACTION EDITOR.  Go to the bottom of the pile, and
select the ADD BUTTON to enter the ADD mode.  Double-click on the
POSITION BAR of the bottom-most entry; which is was blank.  After
you've double- clicked on the POSITION BAR, frame 1 of the blank
slot, load up your Signature object.  Click on RENAME, then click on
your new object. If your Signature object it named SIG, call it
AA.SIG.  Now select SORT in the pulldowns.  Your signature object
should be up at the top of the list now, just below GLOBALS.. This
make it easy to do the next step.     Go through your script and make
the POSITION and ALIGNMENT BARS mimic the POSITION and ALIGNMENT BARS
of your CAMERA.  Now your Signature object will follow the camera,
and appear to not be part of your animation, but a superimposed
graphic.  Save and enter your STAGE EDITOR.     In the STAGE EDITOR,
Pick the Signature object.  Since it's in the same place as the
CAMERA, you might need to use FIND BY REQUESTOR to access it.  Once
it's blue (or purple), SCALE it down, down, down. Make it very tiny
so that it's very close to the CAMERA, and nothing will come between
your signature object and the CAMERA.  You might need to now SAVE,
and go back to the DETAIL EDITOR to MOVE and SCALE the SIGNATURE's
PLANE object (NOT the whole GROUP! -just the PLANE child object!) so
that the size and position of the text is in the lower- right hand
corner of the screen, and nice'n small.  You might have to go back
and forth from the STAGE and DETAIL EDITORS to get it just right.
Remember, if you just pick the whole group and SCALE and MOVE, you
won't see any changes back in the STAGE EDITOR.  You must Select the
PLANE when you perform your chages.. Important point here. When
you've got everything just right, it's time to render.

    This series of steps is actually much less complicated than is
seems. Once you do it a few times it'll be like second nature.  And
it's much easier than editing each and every rendered image; putting
your name in.  Of course, it's also cheaper then using a Choma or
Luminance Key system to super-impose text onto video.  Have fun!!


--

The IMAGINE ORGANIZER is a hit!

"It's like digging into Carmen's brain with a spoon!"
                                     - New York Slimes

"It's everything I wanted to know about Imagine, but was
 afraid to ask."
                                     - Bluesweek

"All this, and archive padding too!"
                                     - Fred Fins