#Features
4 messages in this thread
Steve,
Here are some features I'd like to see.
SCULPTURE
Handles for control points.
It would be a big help if, for example, you wanted to adjust the
Alpha. Click on Alpha and then select your view and your point and
then handles would appear on the point similar to the adjustment
handles on a Bezier Curve.
Slice
The same thing as a Slice command found in most CAD programs. Create a
plane and use it as a knife to slice facets off of an object.
Union, Difference, and Intersection
Same as the CSG functions found in most CAD programs.
Degree of Lathe
Besides being able to set the Lathe precision, it would be an immense
help to be able to select the degree of sweep.
Camera, Camera Target, Light Target
The same way you can specify a segment as a Light, specifying segments
as Cameras, Camera Targets, and Light Targets would make for some very
cool animations.
MATERIALS
Brightness
A Brightness setting for creating highly reflective and polished
metals.
X, Y, Z Rotation
Besides translation in three dimensions, rotation in three dimensions
of textures would be a big help. When I create something like a wood
texture, I have to rotate the segment to get the grain to render in
the orientation I want.
ACTION
Dynamics
Particle generation, the ability to specify figures as particles,
gravity, collision detection, setting real world (or unreal world)
physical attributes to objets.
DIRECTION
PATHS
I would like to be able to import 2D geometric shapes to use as paths.
Or else have the same type of interface as Sculpture for creating
paths, like, for example, a perfect circle.
DECAL
Multiple Segments
The choice of importing multiple segments. For example, if I wanted to
create an animation of a billboard that was composed of rotating slats, and
each facet of the slat had a different image, I could open all the segments
at the same time in Decal and map an image on each facet so that each slat
would have only a portion of each image.
Thanks for taking time to pass this on.
Michael S. Flynn
Micheal,
May I add to your sculpture list a Loft command (similar to extrude along
spline, but with multiple different shaped cross sections) and a sweep command
(the ability to change the x,y,z as it's sweeping, and to define how many times
it would revolve. This would make making screws, telephone cords, Sea Shells,
etc. easier.)
Also, why not bring the spine bending capability over from action into
sculpture. Define a spine and bend and twist your object, or maybe just
selected points, or how about
the spine manipulating "saved" groups (brought over from decal).
Materials/decal/character
Along with rotating a material and changing it over time (which we can do now,
changing that is) how about having total control over texture maps over time,
sizing, opacity, rotation, changing from one texture to another while having a
Photoshop filter applied to it, which is also changing over time! Yikes, it
could be fun!
Anyway, that's enough for this week! 😉
Jim Jonah
Jim,
Thanks for filling in some ideas that I could really use but didn't think
of at the time. As for changing texture maps over time, here is what I do:
First I decide on the beginning and ending texture maps. Then I go into
Blackbelt's WinImages: Morph and do a morph – usually just a cross-dissolve,
and have the morph saved as .TGA files. Blackbelt also recently released a
program called WinImages: F/X for applying effects over time. It didn't look
like it supported Photoshop plug-ins. For applying these plug-ins and Kai's
Power Tools filters, I use Adobe Premiere.
You can do quite a bit of interesting mapping using these and similar
programs, although not everything you would like to see. I found them very good
for creating realistic effects like and eyeball dilating.
Michael S. Flynn