CompuServe Messages

#Imagine 3

    24-Oct-93 08:44:28
Sb: #66843-#Imagine 3
Fm: Mike Halvorson 74250,774
To: Rick Thornquist 76137,462
Mr. Worley, as you already know, is not a member of the Impulse staff. As such Mr. Worley expresses only his views. Indeed he may have some good ideas and certainly he with the help of others has produced a product that many of you use to create better looking images. It is exciting to know that another person has become successeful due to the establishment of Imagine as a power tool for all Amiga and PC users. I have to admit that in the past I have not spent as much time on this or any other forum due to time constraints. I am here now and I think that you and others should take advantage of this possibility. After reviewing many messages regarding LW and the Toaster it seems that there is one major complaint that users have. Lighting. Not being a good LW user I am not sure what is done in that product to offer lighting that seems to create a good image. However I seem to have no problems when it comes to lighting. After many tech calls and some comments from this fourm I might have a suggestion. The lights found in Imagine are three in type, Spherical, Conical and SPot Light. The most important of these is the Spherical. Treat this lite as the SUN and move it a resonable distance from the gerenal scene that you are working on. For instance: In the middle of the world you have a sphere that is 200 units in size, it sits above a ground plane. Where should the light source be. I personally move the light to 1500 to 2000 untis away from the object or objects that occupy the area of intrest and in most case I place it behind the camera. In this way I know that I will get Even lighting and there will be no chance for the object to be "BURNT" by the light. If you put the light too close to objects, the SUN will burn the objects and will tend to make them look wierd. Of course if you are looking for more drama, you can add several light sources that DIMINISH in intensity while making sure that the value of these lights are much lower than the default of 255 in all colors. This might help. Consider this, when an artist is given some paints, canvas and a handfull of brushes he or she does what they want. Imagine is not a paint by numbers software product that makes all the images look the same. You are the artist, youmust learn how to mix the colors and in short learn how to become a DIGITAL PAINTER. It is difficult to make 3D objects, only a few people have the time and talent to make very complex objects, so we buy objects made by others. Imagine is probably the most powerfull object editor on the market today, and with the introduction of 3.0 it becomes even more powerfull. Never the less if you dont put in the time you will never be able to get any better images. We at Impulse believe that you the user want power and flexability. We could have made a less capable product and then everyone would have the same looking images. Viva la difference. Impulse is going to do more for you to help you learn. Thats why I am here, so that you can ask and I can give you the backup of the entire company. So go ahead and ask, we are listening.