Stars of Shareware: Raytrace & Morphing

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IMAGINE FX - $300.00 This is a convertible demo that can be converted over the telephone. Imagine FX is a six pack of 3D animated special effects. Imagine FX requires 3D Studio Release 2.01 or higher. Contacting us: Schreiber Instruments, Inc. 303-759-1024 303-759-0928 FAX 303-759-3598 Happy Canyon BBS 14400 and lower. 73362,466 CIS E-mail is the easest way to contact us. Phone if you have to and when you need your password. Protection: When you install the software you will need to give us a call to get your password. The software ships in Demo mode. You should install the password on the machine you will be editing with as the demo version can not alter the parameters. The protection does not effect the rendering with these routines only the editing of parameters. These routines may then be installed on any rendering machines. You are free to make copies of the disk and give it anyone. The effects included with Imagine FX: * Lightning - Animate horizontal/vertical lightning. Control direction, frequency, branching, duration and complexity. * Comet - Comet with an animated particle tail. The mapping coordinates add great color effect. Control particles, tail length, tail flare, energy and complexity. * Rings - Add rings to any object, Animate shrinking or expanding rings. Animate multiple spinning rings. Control expansion, spin, rotation, number of rings, axis, size and complexity. * Particle Cloud - A chaotic distribution of particles. Several levels of motion provide an ever changing animated cloud. Control area creation, particles, energy and complexity. * Starburst - An animated 3D rayed sphere. Highly chaotic motion to smooth calculated motion. Control center sphere, rays, energy and complexity. * Explode Volume - Fills the parent object with particles to represent the volume then blows them up. Does not retain any of the faces from the parent object. Creates random size and shaped 3D particles not singular faces. Control particle fill, explode energy & resistance, gravity, bounding and more. * Materials! - A sample materials library containing 255 materials is included for use with all the effects. Over 200 full color texture/opacity maps are provided to extend the range of effects available. Using these routines: The Imagine FX routines run as AXP processes inside of 3D Studio version 2.01 or higher. The AXP process is a very powerful feature of 3D Studio. The AXP process allows you to write a program which generates objects at the time the rendering is being done. The AXP process is called for each frame so the AXP process can change the object from frame to frame. All routines are IPAS AXP's applied to an object in 3D Studio. AXP's work in object space and will move, scale and rotate with the object they have been attached to. AXP's also benefit from the fact they render in 3D space as compaired to image effects which are only 2D. All the routines create an object which has texture coordinates. The parent object needs to have texture coordinates applied but the mapping itself does not effect the final coordinates. The texture coordinates allow for a wide use of materials. To apply the AXP to an object in 3D Studio, select MODIFY/OBJECT/ATTRIBUTES from the side bar in the 3D Editor and select the object. From the Exterinal Process box select the desired process to be applied. LGHTNG is Lightning. COMET is Comet. RINGS is Rings. CLOUD is Particle Cloud. STBRST is Starburst. EXVOL is Explode Volume. Once the routine has been applied select the settings button to edit the parameters. Use the save or load buttons to save the parameters to disk or load previously saved parameters. If you are using Imagine FX in the demo mode you will not be able to change the settings. The axis control in several of the routines is dependent on which view the object was created from in the 3D Editor. To be matching the axis prompts the object must have been created in the TOP view. If the object was created in the FRONT view then all of the axis controls will be rotated 90 degrees. Once the object is created it may be rotated to any position and the object axis will rotate with the object. Chaos Control: All routines allow you to have some control over the quantity of chaos within the routine. The SEED number is used to set the random number generator. If the SEED number is set to 0 the effect will be very chaotic and not be repeatitive frame to frame. If a number is used the effect will be chaotic but consistant from frame to frame. A seed number should be set when rendering an animation with multiple machines. Imagine FX uses a highly refined random number generator to produce results which do not contain patterns or repeat within a short time frame. For the random number generator to work effectively some the effect will be difficult to control. Changing the seed number may greatly change the effect. Lightning: Mapping: The lightning objects are texture mapped from the top at 0.0(V) to the bottom which is 1.0(V). This will allow the application of a material which can change the colors top to bottom or fade into the background by using a opacity map. Controls: * Axis - The axis of the object along which the lightning will travel. * Direction - The direction along the selected axis the lightning will travel. * Type - Parallel or Fragmented. Parallel lightning represents an electrical arc type of effect where the sources are very strongly charged. The fragmented lightning represents a natural lightning effect where the sources are farther apart or weakly charged. * Segments - The total number of segments used for each bolt or sub-bolt of lightning. * Branching - Controls how much branching the lightning will create. A 0 setting disables the branching, The higher the number the more branching occures. * Size Factor - The width of the lighting object created. The size is a percentage of the box size. As lightning is 3D effect the bolts may be rotated to make the appearence smaller. * Frequency - Controls how often the lightning will occure. The higher the number the more frequent the lightning. * Duration - Controls how long each lightning strike takes. The higher the number the more frames the effect will be stretch over. Each strike will vary. The lightning will grow across the box through out the duration. This controls the number of frames used to arc the lightning. The setting number is number of frames times 10. Each bolt has a random factor and may be longer or shorter then the exact time selected. * Hold Frames - The number of frames the each bolt will stay on after arcing across. This is in addition to the duration period. * Force Frame 0 - Forces each selected bolt to occure at frame 0. This can be used to include lightning in stills. Each bolt will start at a random along the arc across based on how long the duration is. * Maximum Number - Total number of main lightning bolts that can occure at one time. The sub-bolt number is not included. * Chaos - Controls the amount of zig zag used when creating the lightning object. The higher the number the more zig zag that occures. Comments: To aid with the lightning effect the lightning strike sequence is written to a file. The LIGHTNG.TXT can be opened by the text editor included with R3. This file is written for each frame rendered. The file contains all the lightning stikes upto that frame. If there is a network conflict with multiple machines trying to write to the same file the is simply not created but the lightning routine continues. To make use of this file render the last frame in which you use lightning in your animation. Then create an onmi light in the center of your lightning box. The frame strike pattern in the LIGHTNG.TXT file can then used as a reference to animated the onmi light. For each frame of change in the LIGHTNG.TXT file add a color keyframe to adjust the color of the onmi light. This will create a flashing effect in your scene that matches the lightning occurences. Comet: Mapping: The comet head has texture coordinates applied with 0.0 at the front and 1.0 at the back. The comet tail also has texture coordinates with 0.0 at the front and 1.0 at the end of the tail. The coordinates used for each particle in the tail vary slightly along the tail. This will allow the application of a material which changes color or opacity down the length of the comet. The application of a material which contains a flic to change the colors would add an extra dimension. Controls: * Center Radius - Controls the size of the head of the comet. The size is a percentage of the size of the box. The larger the number the more the head will fill the box. * Number of Particles - The number of particles contained in the tail of the comet. * Particle Size - The relative size of the paricles. The larger the number the larger the particles. * Particle Stretch - Controls weather or not the particles will be stretched along the axis of the tail. Each particle will be stretched a variable amount. * Type of Tail - Select between a tapered tail and a square tail. There is some chaos which will create particles that are not contained within the tail. * Tail Length - Controls the length of the comet tail. The length is relative to the size of the box. The higher the setting the longer the tail. * Tail Width - Controls the width the comet tail. The width is relative to the radius of the head. The higher the setting the wider the tail. * Energy - Controls the amount of energy used with the particle motion in the tail. The high the energy the more motion per frame. Comments: This effect was intended to be applied to an object which is also moving. A close pass on a camera with a wide angle lens (<50mm) will add to the effect be curving the tail. Rings: Mapping: The rings have texture coordinates applied from 0.0 around the inner radius to 1.0 around the outer radius. This will allow the application of a material which changes color or opacity outward from the center. The application of a material which contains a flic to cycle the colors through out the animation would produce a stunning effect. A material is included to create a rainbow including opacity. Controls: * Inner Radius - Controls the inner radius of the created object. The negative settings allow the rings to start within the object. * Outer Radius - Controls the outer radius of the created object. The higher the setting the larger the radius. * Number of Rings - The number of sub-rigs within the ring created. The spacing and gaps used to create the sub-rings are created randomly. * Ring Segments - Controls the number of segments used to create the rings. The higher the setting the more faces and the smoother the rings. * Ring Axis - Controls which axis the rings will be placed. The parameters are applied to the rings around each axis. If different parameters are required for different axis then setup a second object to apply rings to. * Ring Rotation - The amount of ring rotation energy. The higher the setting the more motion per frame. The rings rotate at 90 degrees from both the creation and spin axis. * Ring Spin - The amount of ring spin energy. The higher the setting the more motion per frame. The rings spin at 90 degrees from both the creation and rotation axis. * Ring Expansion - The rate of ring expansion. The negative rate provides for shrinking. The higher the setting the faster the expansion per frame. The expansion may or may not be used with spin and rotation. Particle Cloud: Mapping: The particles in the particle cloud vary randomly though out the cloud from 0.0 to 1.0. This will allow the application of a material which changes colors though out the cloud. Controls: * Number of Particles - Controls the number of particles used to create the cloud. * Particle Size - Controls the size of particles created. The size is relative to the box. The higher the setting the larger the particles. * Largest Area - The largest sub-area to be created. The area size is relative to the size of the box. The higher the setting the larger the first area and subsequently the larger each of the following areas. * Area Range - Controls the distribution of the size of the areas used. The higher the setting the greater the range of areas used. A higher setting will produce a clustered like particle cloud. A smaller setting will produce a more uniform cloud. * Area Frequency - Controls the number of areas used. The higher the setting the more areas created and the smaller the number of particles per area. * Particle Energy - Controls the range of energy for each particle. The higher the setting the more motion for each particle per frame. * System Energy - Controls the range of system energy used for the area motion. The higher the setting the more area motion per frame. Starburst: Mapping: The center sphere has texture coordinates which color the sphere with the material at the 0.0 end of the mapping. The rays have texture coordinates which map from 0.0 at the base of the ray to 1.0 at the end. This will allow for a material which changes color or opacity along the lenght of the rays. Controls: * Center Radius - Controls the radius of the center sphere. The radius is relative to the size of the box. The higher the setting the larger the radius. * Number of Rays - The number of rays disributed around the sphere. A larger number of rays can hide the center sphere. * Ray Thickness - The width of the rays created. The width is relative to the size of the box. * Energy - Controls the amount of energy used to move the rays around the sphere. The higher the setting the more motion per frame by the rays. Comments: This effect was intended to be applied to an object which is also moving. Since Starburst is in full 3D it does take quite rays just to get a nice effect but if this is used only from a distance adjust the number of rays downward to help save time and space. Opacity adds to the effect but is not very useful if the effect is only used at a large distance. Explode Volume: Materials: The particles generated for the volume explode have texture coordinates the are randomly generated between 0.0 and 1.0. This will allow the material to be evenly distributed though out the whole object. Controls: * Spacing - The X,Y and Z spacing control the density of the particles filling the object. Warning, the fill is a 3D function thus the number of particles increases cubicly. (10x10x10 is 1000 where 20x20x20 is 8000) * Size Distribution - Selects between uniform and variable particle size disribution. The uniform selection makes particles of simular size. The variable selection will try to fill the object with decreasing size particles. * Explode timing - The on/off selections and frame settings allow for basic control of explode timing. The on/off next to the start frame selection controls weather the fill particles will be included in the frames prior to the start. All frames prior to the start have no motion. The start frame is the first frame of the explode effect the particles are in the initial position. This would also be the last frame of the actual object being in the scene. The end frame is the last frame any motion is calculated. The motion of particles may or may not have stopped at this point depending on the rest of the settings but this is the last frame the motion is calculated for. The end frame also controls the rate of spin decrease for the particles. The on/off next to the end frame selection controls weather the particles will be around after the end frame. If this selection is off no particles are generated by the routine. No motion is include after the end frame. * Energy - Controls the amount of energy used in the explode. The higher the setting the more particle motion per frame. Energy is used to set the initial velecity of the particles relative to there volume. The larger particles have far less velocity then the smaller particles. The higher the setting the more the particles will spin as well. * Resistance - Controls the amount of resistance agaist the motion of the particles. The higher the setting the more resistance the particles have as they move. More resistance means that the partilces will slow down faster. Resistance also effects the rate of spin and the rate of spin decay. Resistance can be used to represent the fluid around the object. A low resistance would represent air and a high resistance would represent water. * Spread - Spread controls the direction of the initial motion of the particles. For example, if the explode effect is bounded on five sides thus leaving only one direction open spread has the follow effect; Constrained spread makes all of the initial particle motion down (parallel) the axis of the open side. Like particles exploding down a pipe. Free Form spread allows the particles to flair while moving away from the object. Like particles from a shot gun blast. * Bounds - Controls the motion of the particles during and after the explosion. Each of the settings allows each axis direction to be controlled seprately. A setting of 0 means the initial motion of the particles will be block from traveling that direction. Using 0 settings allows the setup of directional blasts. A setting of 1001 (default) means that the explode is not bounded at all in that direction. The settings inbetween allow for blocking objects to be represented. The settings are in tenth's of the objects width. A setting of 10 means the particles will collide with an object at 1 object width in that direction. * Rebound Energy - Controls the remaining energy a particle has after bouncing off one of the bounding planes. The higher the setting the more motion retained by the particle. A setting of 500 represents 50% of the motion retained plus or minus chaos. A setting of 0 will cause the particles to stop when they collide. Like the shot gun pellets hitting the wall. * Gravity - Controls a force acting on the particles. The higher the setting the more influence on the travel of the particles. A setting of 0 disables this. A setting of about 1/10 the value of the energy setting would represent earth normal gravity. The -X, +X, -Y, +Y, -Z, +Z buttons allow the direction of the force to be selected. Comments: Explode Volume should be used on a copy of the object you are exploding so that the materials may be changed and so that the orginal object may still be rendered prior to the explosion. For best effect the orginal object should be hiden on the frame starting the first frame after the explode effect starts. By setting all of the bounds controls to zero the object will implode. This is best used with the uniform size control. To find the object distance to another object in the scene to be able to set the correct bound distance use the CREATE/OBJECT/ARRAY command. Array the exploding object in the direction of the other object then count the occurences to the next object. For example if the next object is 3.4 objects away then the correct bounds setting would be 34. You can then delete the extra arrayed objects. Start with the smaller fill settings first and render a single frame into the effect like frame 50 to see how many particles will be created. Then raise the fill settings this will keep you from wasting time creating to many particles. To speed up the explode volume process a temporary file is written to the current process directory. This file contains the fill particles so the process will not have recalculate the fill for each frame. If you are using 3D Studio ver 2.01 then the fill will be calculated for each frame. If you do not exit the rendering normally then this temporary file may be left in your process directory. This will not cause any problems and you may delete this file. Each network rendering machine will create the fill objects on the first frame that machine renders. Then it will be able to use that fill file on every subsequent frame. Since the motion calculation is not dependent on the previous frame the sequence in which the frames are rendered is not important. General Tips: * Complex materials (multiple texture maps, bump maps, reflection maps) add alot of rendering time and may not add much benefit in the final rendering. Test complicated materials and simplify whenever possible. * Test these routines with low res, flat shading and hiding other objects to adjust the parameters. The time spent reducing the model to adjust the parameters will save time in the long run. * Ray traced shadows look great with these effects and can kill rendering time. * Motion blur used with these effects has shown mixed results. Motion blur worked very nicely with the particle cloud and ruined the explode volume effect. Test single frames in the final resolution when using motion blur. Motion blur will also kill rendering time. * Test lower complexity effects! The higher settings were provided for use with higher resolutions and extreme close-ups. Often lowering the complexity will not greatly effect the final image but will yield faster rendering times. Modifing the parameters. If you are working with the Imagine FX demo you can not change the parameters. To modify a process attached to an object select OBJECT/ATTRIBUTES from the side bar menu. Select one of the box objects in the scene. The attributes dialog appears setup simular to Figure X.X. Figure Object attributes dialog box. The XXXX AXP process appears in the External Process Name selection box. By clicking on the settings box in External Process section you can bring up the settings dialog for the XXXX process. Figure X.X shows the dialog settings box from the XXXX process. Figure XXXX settings dialog. The settings dialog box for the XXXX process has several options for controlling the creation of the animated effect. <?> The Seed control sets the random number generator. If the Seed number is set to zero then the seed number will be randomly selected. A zero setting will create a different effect for every frame. You can change the whole scene by changing the seed number. When you have finished with XXXX settings dialog select OK or CANCEL to return to the Object Attributes dialog. From the Object Attributes dialog you can also Save the XXXX settings. Saving the settings will allow you to transfer the current settings to another object using the XXXX process. To save the settings select SAVE from the External Process section and type a name to save the setting to. To load previously saved settings you select LOAD from the External Process section and select the name of saved settings. To do test renderings of your scene without the XXXX process you can select OFF from the External Process section. The OFF selection will cause the box object to be rendered in the scene without any effect created. The OFF selection will allow all the current settings for the XXXX process to be retained. The ON selection will turn the XXXX process back on. When you have finished with the Object Attributes dialog select OK or CANCEL from the dialog. Adding XXXX effect to your scene. It is very easy for you to add XXXX effect to a scene. A new box object needs to be created. Change to the 3D Editor by pressing F3 or selecting the 3D Editor from the program pull down. Create a new box object by selecting CREATE/BOX from the side bar menu. Select the TOP view for creating the box. Create the new box object in the scene. Give the new box the object name of XXXXX and click on CREATE. If you create the new box object in another view then the effect may be rotated so that they will not be created follow the listed axis. *** Begin Note *** The TOP view should always be used for creating an object to use with an AXP process. The coordinate axis for the object is created based on the view the object was created in. When the AXP process retrieves the vertex coordinates for object they are given in object space. The AXP process does not know how the object coordinates relate to the rest of the model. Creating an object in a different view will cause the object axis to be rotated releative to the model axis. *** End Note *** Now that you have created a new box object you need to apply a material. The XXXX process will retrieve this material from the box object and apply it to the effect objects that are created. Select SURFACE/MATERIAL.../ACQUIRE and select one of the existing boxes in the scene. A material selection dialog appears with material currently applied to the selected object. Figure X.X shows the materials selection dialog box. Figure Material selection dialog box. Select an Imagine FX material and select OK to close the dialog. This makse the selected material the current material. Select SURFACE/MATERIAL.../ASSIGN/OBJECT and select the newly created box. Click on OK to apply the selected material. The XXXX process uses texture coordinates to apply the correct colors to different parts of the effect. For the effect to render correctly texture coordinates must be applied the box object. Select SURFACE/MAPPING.../APPLY OBJ. and select the newly created box object. Click on OK to apply the mapping coordinates to the newly created box. The current settings for the mapping coordinates do not make a difference. *** Begin Note *** If the AXP process requires texture coordinates then the orginal object in the scene needs to have texture coordinates. The type and scale of the texture coordinate mapping determines the values used on each vertex. If the AXP uses the orginal object only as a bounding box and creates new vertices then the value of the orginal texture coordinates makes no difference. *** End Note *** The XXXX AXP external process needs to be applied to the newly created box. Select MODIFY/OBJECT.../ATTRIBUTES from the side bar menu and select the box object. The Object Attributes dialog box appears the same as in the Keyframer. Select the External Process Name box and the AXP selector appears. Select the XXXX process from the list. Click on OK to return to the Object Attributes dialog. You may now change the XXXX settings by clicking on the setting box. Click on OK when finished with the settings. Click on OK when finished with the Object Attributes dialog box. You are now ready to render your scene with the newly added effects. Select RENDERER/RENDER VIEW from the side bar menu. Select the USER view to render. Setup the rendering parameters and select RENDER to begin rendering. The AXP external process adds alot of power and flexability to your animation toolkit.