STraTOS 1997 April & May/STraTOS 1 - 1997 April & May.iso/CD01/GRAPHICS/@FALCON/PHOENIX2/PH_DEMO.TXT

Text File | 1994-04-02 | 28.7 KB | 564 lines

PHOENIX OBJECT RENDERER V2.00 DEMO

This program is a disabled demo of Lexicor's Phoenix Object Renderer
V2.00. The animation features of the program have been disabled, and any
rendered images will be created with numerous blank horizontal bands
through the image.

Please see the included file PHNX_PR.TXT for an overview of Phoenix's
features and ordering information.

The following text is an excerpt from the Tutorial chapter of the
Phoenix manual, and should help you explore through the demo many of the
features Phoenix has to offer.

Thank You for your interest.





4-4


Tutorials




This Chapter contains several tutorials which will demonstrate some of
the most important features of Phoenix.


Tutorial One - Configuration and Loading Objects

In this first tutorial we will configure the graphics settings of
Phoenix, and load and render a sample object.

Configuration

Run the Phoenix program so that Phoenix's Main Window is displayed and
select the Configure item under the File menu. The Configuration Dialog
allows you to change the graphics settings for your computer. Since
different computer models have different graphics resolutions we must
tell Phoenix how we want to view our image. We will only be concerned
with two sections of the Configuration Dialog for now, Image Resolution
and Preview Resolution. See Figure 4-1.


Image Resolution

The Image Resolution controls allow you to set the pixel resolution and
number of colors for any images you render. You may pick from several
default resolutions, or create images using customized settings.  Right
now we want to create an image we can view from within Phoenix so we
will use one of the defaults.

To select an Image Resolution you must click the mouse on the popup
button immediately below the title Image Resolution. A popup menu will
appear with several different default resolution settings. To select a
resolution move the mouse over the resolution you wish to select (that
line will be highlighted) and click the left mouse button. The newly
selected resolution will be displayed in the popup button with the new
settings displayed below.

If you have a ST or STe you should select Spectrum 512 resolution. This
creates images in the 512 color .SPC format. (NOTE: on Mega STe's your
speed must be set to 8mhz to view Spectrum images. Spectrum images may
not be viewable on machines with some accelerator boards.)

If you have a TT030 you should select TT Low 320x480x256. This will
create a 256 color GIF file.

If you have a Falcon030 you should select one of the Falcon modes. If
you are using your Falcon with a TV or SC1224/1435 monitor then select
Falcon TV 320x200xTC. If you are using your Falcon with a VGA monitor
then select Falcon VGA 320x240xTC. These selections will create a low
resolution true color TGA file.

If you are using an add-on graphics card then you should select Current.
This will create an image using the same resolution and number of colors
as the resolution your card is currently using. This will create a GIF
or a TGA file, depending on the number of colors the card can
simultaneously display.

Preview Resolution

The Preview Resolution setting determines how the image will be
displayed by Phoenix as it is rendering. Clicking on the popup button
will display a popup menu to select the Preview Resolution. Note that
only the resolutions available on your computer may be selected.

Select the Preview Resolution that corresponds to the Image Resolution
you selected - i.e., if you choose Spectrum 512 then you should select
Spectrum for the Preview Resolution. If you selected Current for the
Image Resolution then select None. (The image will automatically be
displayed in a window using the Current Resolution settings.)

Click on the Exit button when you have finished setting the options.

To finish the configuration select the Save CFG item under the File
menu. This will save your configuration settings to disk so that you
don't have to reset them every time you run Phoenix.

Loading an Object

We are now ready to load an object. We'll use Lex, a simple stick
figure, for our examples. Select the Load RD1 item from the File menu
and load the LEXMAN.RD1 file from the Graphics disk. This file contains
several objects which make up Lex. As each object loads its name and
status will be displayed. When the file has finished loading it will be
displayed in the Camera View.

Lex doesn't look like much, does he? We need to change our camera's
position to get a better look at him. Phoenix defaults to the Orbital
camera which always looks at the center of the 3D world. You can
reposition the camera by rotating it around the 3D world using the
Horizontal and Vert slider bars. Click twice on the left half of the
Horizontal slider to change the Horizontal angle to -20°. The UPDATE
indicator becomes highlighted to show that we've changed our camera
position, but our view won't redraw yet - allowing us to make more
changes. Increase the Vertical angle by clicking on the top half of the
Vert slider so that it is at 50°. We'll also decrease the zoom
(magnification) of our camera in the same manner so that the zoom is set
to 140. When you've finished changing the settings click in the Camera
View to redraw the objects from the new camera position. Now we can see
the whole figure with the camera looking down from the top left as shown
in Figure 4-2.
Rendering the Scene

Now its time to render Lex so we can see what he looks like in color.
Select the Polygon shading from the Shading Choices popup in the Main
Window. (The popup button is located on the right half of the window and
will default to Phong.) Polygon shading is the fastest shading mode in
Phoenix.

Click on the Render Scene button to display the file selector for you to
choose the name to save the image as. You may use any name you wish and
Phoenix will automatically add on the extender for the type of image it
will create: SPC, GIF or TGA. The Status Window will appear to show you
how the rendering is progressing, and an approximation of the image will
be displayed in the Image Window as it renders. When the image has
finished rendering it will be saved and the Main Window will be
displayed again.

To view your image in the Preview Resolution you selected earlier click
on the Preview Image button in the Main Window. Press the <space bar> to
return to the Main Window.


Tutorial 2 - Lights, Cameras and Smooth Shading

Lets examine the image we just rendered in Tutorial One. Notice how the
front and right side of Lex is alot brighter than the left. (Our left,
not his!) This is because when we loaded Lex we also loaded a
lightsource from the file. This is a Solar light located in the Top
Right of the 3D world. Solar lights always shine towards the center of
the 3D world.



Scene Outline View

We can look at the Scene Outline View in the upper right of the Main
Window to see where this light is. This view gives us a overview of the
entire 3D world and shows the location of the objects, lights and camera
in the scene. Initially the TOP icon will be selected and the view is
looking down from the Top of the 3D world. Any objects in the scene are
displayed as red boxes. The camera's position is displayed as a black
box and the black line shows the direction the camera is aimed. The
black asterisk shows the position of our light. You can click on the
FRONT or LEFT icon to view the world from different sides. Notice where
our light is located and why Lex was illuminated the way he was.

Clicking on the Camera icon will display the scene using bounding boxes
from the current camera position. You can use this icon to confirm that
the camera is positioned properly before updating the camera view.

Adding Lights

Lets add a Spotlight and focus it on Lex's head. Select the Lights item
from the Attributes menu to enter the Lights Dialog (Figure 4-3). On the
left is listed all the lights in our scene. Notice that there are
actually two other Point lights in our scene besides our Solar light.
These lights have been set to off though and thus aren't visible and
don't cast any light in our scene. Lets turn our Solar light off also by
clicking on the word on in the list. The light's setting will switch to
off. The Solar lights position is shown on the right half of the dialog.
Solar lights are positioned by angles just like the Orbital Camera from
Tutorial One.

To add our new light click on the ADD button and select Spotlight from
the list of choices. The new light will be added at the top of the list
and it will become selected (its name highlighted). Change the name of
this light by clicking in the Name: text field and type in MY_SPOT. Next
we'll set the position of this light. Spotlights can be placed anywhere
in the 3D world and their position is described by a set of three
coordinates. Enter the values <X:-3600,Y:-4400,Z:4500> in the position
fields to place the light in the upper left corner of the 3D world.

The next entrys are the Spotlight Angles. The Cone Angle controls how
broad a radius of light the Spotlight casts. Change this setting to 10°
for a tightly focused light. Change the Dropoff Angle to 2° to cause the
spotlight to fade out slightly at the edges.

Spotlights also have a direction which is defined by directional Heading
and Pitch angles. Because we know we want it to point at Lex's head we
can use a shortcut though. Click on the OBJ CENTER button next to the
Heading entry. A list of all the objects in the scene will appear.
Double click on the object head to aim the spotlight at that object.
We'll also set the intensity for our spotlight. The intensity controls
how bright the light is. We want to dim our light slightly, so click on
the intensity value for our spotlight and enter a new value of 70.

Before we leave the Light Dialog we also need to set the intensity of
the Ambient light. This is a fill light which casts light evenly
throughout the 3D world and will prevent the unlit portions of Lex from
being completely black. Click on the Ambient Intensity value and enter a
new value of 20. Then click on the EXIT button to return to the Main
Window. Notice that MY_SPOT is shown as a black diamond in the Scene
Outline View with a black line showing its direction.
The Universal Camera

Lets use one of the other Camera types now. Select the Cameras item from
the Attributes menu to enter the Camera Viewpoint Dialog (Figure 4-4).
This dialog shows the settings for each of Phoenix's Cameras. Click on
the Universal Camera button to select it as our active camera. We could
position the camera here just as we did with our spotlight, but we'll
use the Main Window for that instead so just click on the OK button.

The Universal Camera can be positioned and aimed anywhere in the 3D
world so the Horizontal and Vert slider controls are missing from the
Main Window now. This camera is positioned using the cursor keys and the
Scene Outline View. Use the <up>, <down>, <left> and <right> cursor keys
to move the camera's box around in the Scene Outline View. You can use
the different View Icons to move the camera in all three dimensions.
Position the camera so that it is in the Top Front Right of the 3D
world.

You can set the point the camera is looking at by holding the <control>
key down while using the cursor keys. Position the focus point so that
the camera is looking at Lex's neck. Don't forget to click the mouse in
the Camera View to update the screen display to the camera's new
position. Finally adjust the zoom setting up so your scene looks
something like the one in Figure 4-5.

Remember the first image we rendered of Lex? Objects like his head and
chest looked like they were made up of many flat surfaces, giving them a
faceted look. Change the Shading setting to Phong and render our new
scene. If you are impatient to see the final results you can press the
<space bar> while rendering to view the image in progress in the Preview
Resolution. Press the <space bar> again to resume rendering. When the
image finishes rendering view the image. Notice how his head and chest
are now shaded so they look like curved surfaces. If you look closely at
his head you'll also see a white area where the reflection of the light
created a highlight. Also observe how the spotlight caused his head to
be more brightly lit than the lower portions of his body.

Lets save this scene so we can return to it later if we wish. Select the
Save RD1 entry from the File menu and and enter the filename MYLEX.RD1
to save the object as. Your current lighting and camera settings will be
saved in the file along with the objects.


Tutorial 3 - Textures

If you've exited Phoenix or made other changes to your object since the
last tutorial then reload MYLEX.RD1. This time we'll add some more color
to Lex using one of Phoenix's more powerful features: Texture mapping.


Select the Objects item from the Attributes menu to enter the Objects
Dialog (Figure 4-6). All objects in the 3D world are displayed on the
left half of the dialog. The object parameters for the currently
selected object (highlighted in the list) are displayed on the right
side of the dialog.

Wood Texture

First we'll apply a wood texture to Lex's shoulders. If the shoulder
object is not already highlighted then select it by clicking on its name
in the list. Next click on the Color Texture popup button to apply a
texture to the selected object. (The popup button is initially labeled
none indicating there is no texture applied to the object.) Select Wood
from the popup menu to enter the Wood Grain Solid Texturing Editor
(Figure 4-7). The shoulder object will appear in the Texture Alignment
View along with several brown concentric circles. These circles
represent the rings of wood grain and you should think of them as
extending into the screen - as if you were looking down onto the center
of a tree. The position of our shoulder object shows how the wood grain
will eventually be placed on the object.

Although we could use this texture as is, lets make a few changes to it.
The first thing we'll do is increase the spacing between the rings.
Increase the Scale to 220% by clicking on the double right arrow button
in the S (scale) control. (The double arrow buttons increase and
decrease a setting by 10 units while the single arrow buttons change a
setting by 1 unit.) Notice that the Update button has been highlighted,
indicating that the view needs to be updated. Click on this button to
redraw the Texture Alignment View with the new setting. We can also
change the orientation of the object within the wood. Using the HORIZ
and VERT controls set the Horizontal angle to about 20° and the Vertical
angle to around 60°, and update the Texture Alignment View. Note that
this time we rotated the object instead of the wood grain. The object
will still be in the same place when we go back to the main screen, but
we've changed how the texture will be placed on the object. As a last
step lets move the center of the grain rings. Press and hold the mouse
button down on the small asterisk in the center of the rings. A small
dotted box will appear which you can drag around in the view which shows
where the new center of the grain rings will be. Drag it down to the
lower left an inch or so. The rings will now redraw in their new
location. Click on the EXIT button to return to the Objects Dialog. Note
that the Color Texture popup button is now labeled Wood - indicating
that the texture has been applied to that object.

Marble Texture

Now lets apply a marble texture to the Lbicep object. Select the object,
click on the Color Texture popup button, and select Marble texture. The
Marble Solid Texturing Editor (Figure 4-8) is very similar to the one
for wood grain, however here the position of the veins of marble are
indicated by vertical lines. The marble veins are much further apart
than the rings of wood grain so we'll want to decrease the Scale to
around 40% and increase the Horizontal angle to 50°.

You can also view the positioning of the texture from the left side of
the texture by clicking on the View popup button and selecting the side
entry from the menu. In this case can't tell very much about the texture
however because the marble veins lie in the same surface as the screen.
One advantage of the Side view though is that you can use the VERT
scroll arrows to spin the object. Increase the Side Vertical angle to
45° and then return to the Front view. Notice how this changed the
orientation of the object. Click on the EXIT button to return to the
Objects Dialog.
Lets apply marble to the Rbicep object also, but we'll do things a
little differently this time. Enter the Marble Solid Texturing Editor
for this object and from the Front view set the Scale to 60% and the
Vertical angle to 30°. Enter the Side view and set its Vertical angle to
17°. Now click the mouse in the white bar titled BASE on the right side
of the screen. This lets you change the base (lightest) color of the
marble by setting the individual red, green and blue values. Change the
color so that red is 60, and both green and blue are at 100. Click on OK
to return to the texture editor. Our marble will now be made up of
shades of this color.

We have two more settings to change before we're done: the Color and
Grain Turbulence values. These settings determine how turbulent (varied)
the changes in color and grain are. Lets set the Color value to 0.60 and
the Grain value to 13.0, then exit back to the Objects Dialog.

Image Mapping

You can also wrap any image around an object. Lets "draw" a face onto
Lex using an image created in Prism Paint. Select the head object and
select Image Mapping for the Color Texture to enter the Image Mapping
Editor (Figure 4-9). Notice that there are several mapping options which
allow us to change how the image is mapped onto the object.


Since Lex's head closely resembles a sphere we will pick the SPHERE
option under S MAP and select S MAP NORMAL under O MAP. The Texture
Alignment View contains a red circle which shows the position and size
of the sphere we will fit the image onto. The left edge of the image
will be placed against the dotted line on the front of the sphere and
wrapped around (counterclockwise if viewed from the top) until the right
side of the image touches its left side. The image will be shrunk at the
top and bottom of the sphere so that it completely covers its surface.
When the texture is applied using the options we have picked you can
think of it as the surface of the sphere shrinking in until it wraps
onto the surface of the object.

You should check the scale value to make sure that the red circle
totally encloses the head object (it doesn't hurt anything for the
circle to be bigger). Our only problem now is that the edge where the
left and right sides of the image meet is in the front of Lex's face.
Increasing the Horizontal angle to 180° will reposition the texture so
that the seam is on the back of Lex's head where we want it.

The last step is to pick the image we want to use for his face. Click on
the Filename button to display the Texture Directory which contains a
list of all image maps in memory. Since we haven't loaded anything yet
the list will be empty. Click on the LOAD button and select GIF image.
The file we wish to use is called HEAD.GIF and is in the TEXTURES folder
on the Graphics disk. Once the image has loaded its file name will be
displayed in the Texture Directory. Double click on this name to use the
texture. The filename will appear in the Filename button. Click on EXIT
to return to the Objects Dialog.

Before we go on we need to change the reflection values for the head as
we don't want it to look shiny like a Christmas tree ball. We can do
this by setting the Specular Percentage to 0%. This will prevent the
lights from creating any reflections on the object.

Color Spline Texture

The final texture that Phoenix features isn't really a pre-defined
texture at all, but rather a collection of several textures which may be
modified and combined to create custom texture styles. It is beyond the
scope of this tutorial to fully explore the use of the Color Spline
Editor and the building of custom textures, but we will apply a
previously defined texture included with Phoenix to Lex's body to give
it a hollow mesh look.

From the Objects Dialog select the body object and select Color Spline
for the Color Texture to enter the Color Spline Texture Editor (Figure
4-10)

To load a previously defined texture click on the Load Texture button
and select the file PEEL.PTX from the TEXTURES\MISC folder on the
Graphics disk. This file combines a Gradient texture with transparency
to create an orange-peel type of effect on the object.

We now need to scale the texture down so that it fits better on the
object. Notice that there are several alignment controls in the bottom
portion of the screen. Since Color Spline Textures can consist of
several different texture layers these controls allow the allignment of
the individual layers. In this instance however we want to align the
entire texture so we should use the S (scale) control in the Texture
Alignment View just like with the previous textures. Decrease the scale
to 10%, then increase the Horizontal and Vertical angles to 20° each.

After you've set the Texture scale and angles click on the EXIT button
to return to the Objects Dialog. Since this Color Spline texture
includes transparent areas where we'd like the back of the object to
show through we need to set the object so that the back sides of its
faces are also visible. Click on the popup button labeled One Sided
Faces and select Two Sided Faces from the popup menu.

Click on EXIT to return to the Main Window and render your scene. Make
sure that the PHONG Shading Choice is selected as textures will only
work in the Phong and Phong w/ Shadows modes.

The different textures certainly make our object more interesting, don't
they? You should save your object as an RD1 file now and then experiment
some more by changing the texture values and positions and seeing what
effect they have. Reload the object we textured when you're ready to go
to the next tutorial.


Tutorial 4 - Positioning

Lex still looks awfully stiff and lifeless. We can help him out alot by
posing him in a more realistic position. Select the Positioning item
from the Attributes menu to enter the Positioning Screen which allows
you to graphically reposition and resize objects, lights and cameras.
See Figure 4-11.  The screen is divided into two halves: the Positioning
View on the left and the Toolbox on the right. The Positioning View is
initially set to display the entire 3D world from the Front view.

Click on the ZOOM tool to enter zoom mode. When the mouse is moved into
the Positioning View it will change shape into a magnifying glass. Drag
a box around Lex to zoom in for a closer look at him. You can now use
the scroll bars to pan around the 3D world. If you zoomed in too close
you can click on the + or FULL VIEW buttons to expand the scene.

To reposition an object you must first select it. This is done by
dragging a box over the object while holding the <ctrl> key down. The
selected objects will be re-drawn in red. <ctrl>-dragging a new box will
deselect the current objects and select a new set. Holding the <shift>
key down while <ctrl>-dragging will leave the previous objects selected
when selecting a new group. <ctrl><shift><alt>-drag can be used to
deselect only a few objects out of a group. You can also select
individual objects by name using the OBJECT button in the Select section
of the Toolbox.

To pose Lex first select the ROTATE tool to rotate objects. Then select
the POINTER button under the Rotate/Scale Center options. This lets you
rotate the objects around any position you select with the mouse. Now
select all three objects in his right arm by <ctrl>-dragging a box
around them. Make sure only these three objects are selected. Move the
mouse pointer so its center is over the joint between the upper arm and
his shoulder. This is the point we will rotate the arm about. Holding
the mouse button down will cause a dotted box to be drawn around the
selected objects. Moving the mouse right or left will rotate the outline
to show where the new position of the objects will be. Rotate the arm so
it is angled outward and then release the mouse button. The objects will
be drawn in their new positions. Now select just the hand and forearm
and do the same rotation around the elbow. Select the hand only and
repeat the rotation around the wrist.

We've now moved his arm so it looks like he is reaching outward. To make
him reach forward also select all three objects in the arm again. Now
switch to the Top view and rotate about the shoulder again so the arm is
reaching forward. Repeat the process of selecting the other parts of the
arm and rotating them. Use this method to re-position the rest of his
body in a realistic position.

Although we don't need them right now, notice that along with ROTATE
there are also tools for resizing and dragging objects. You are also not
limited to just positioning objects. Clicking on the SHOW CAMERAS and
SHOW LIGHTS buttons will display their positions also. These may be
selected and positioned just like an object.

When you've finished positioning Lex click on EXIT to return to the main
screen.




Tutorial 5 - Bump Textures and Shadows

In this tutorial we'll give Lex some special powers - like casting his
own shadow, and the ability to walk on water!

Merging Objects

Lets add an additional object to our scene using the mrge file option.
Select the Merge RD1 item under the File menu and load the file
BOARD.RD1 from the Graphics disk. Return to the Positioning Screen and
use the V-DRAG tool to move the board object up or down so Lex's feet
are just touching it. (Or you could select all the objects in Lex and
move him instead.)

Surface Textures

Now we'll turn our board object into water using one of Phoenix's
Surface Textures. Surface Textures adjust the way light hits an object -
making it appear as if it has an uneven surface.

Enter the Objects Dialog and select the board object. Click on the
Surface Texture popup button and select Ripples to enter the Ripples
Texture Editor. (Figure 4-12)

Because our board object is so large we'll need to increase the scale of
the texture. Increase the scale control to 1000%. (The easiest way to do
this is to click on the scale value in the center of the control - a
text entry box will popup to enter the new value in.) Adjusting the
scale control affects the width of the texture - how close together each
feature on the texture is. To adjust the simulated hight of the texture
you must use the Surface Magnitude value. Type in a new value of 300 for
this field, then return to the Main Window.

Rendering With Shadows

In the last step of this tutorial we'll create an image with shadows. It
won't be anything you'd want to put on your Christmas cards next year,
but it will demonstrate the process well enough.

Go back to the Lights Dialog and turn our Solar light back on. To get a
good effect you'll want to turn its intensity down to 60. You should
also increase the Vertical angle of the light to 50°.

Return to the Main Window. Now we want to reposition our Universal
Camera using cursor keys so it is in the far Top Front Left corner of
the 3D space. Next center the focus point on the hip object using the
cursor keys or the OBJ CENTER option in the Cameras Dialog. Adjust the
zoom setting so that Lex is completely visible in the Camera View.

Select the Phong w/ Shadows Shading mode and render the scene. After you
have selected the image's filename Phoenix will begin a shadow pre-
processing phase where it examines the scene to determine which object
faces can cast and receive shadows. The pre-processing will be performed
once for every light in the scene (six times for each Point light). In
our case it will pre-process our Solar light and our Spotlight. When the
pre-processing phase has completed rendering will begin as in the other
Shading modes.



This concludes our set of introductory tutorials. You should now
understand enough of Phoenix to start creating and rendering your own
scenes. You really should read the rest of this manual however as there
are many other features that we did not have room to cover here.