The Shape Machine
Help Me Please!!
This is help for the Basic features. Help for Advanced features is available as links off the name of each feature.
Ayup, the form to create a rendered object looks pretty complicated. Can't help that. The fact that you can achieve almost any visual effect you want requires that there be a lot of options.
The top left box of options in the form are the basic features. I suggest you try different things here first, and see what results they yield, before moving to the advanced option.
Basic Options
Object
- Shape
- the basic shape to be rendered. Right now only the sphere and plane are available.
- Object Color
- the intrinsic color of the object before the lights are applied. Unless you are using Textures, the default is white, and it shouldn't be necessary to adjust this often, let the lights do the 'work'.
- (Object Color and Textures)
- When using Textures the Object Color and Advanced options are disabled. Textures are 'predefined'.
Background
The background type may be either a Sky Sphere, or a Plane.
The Sky Sphere background is a very distant 'place.' Lights do not cause shadows on a Sky Sphere. Sky Spheres may be set to either a color, or a limited number of Textures.
The Plane background is a flat surface immediately behind the shape. Lights will cast shadows on the background. A Plane background may be set to any color, or a wide variety of Textures.
- Background Color
- the color to which the edge of the object is dithered. To avoid 'halos' you must adjust this to the color of the background against which you intend to display the object. In the final image the background color may be set to transparent.
- (Background Color and Plane)
- Background Color or Texture, or Sky Sphere, will have no effect when using the Plane shape. Plane is an 'infinitely large' object and there is effectively no 'background'
- (Background Color and JPG)
- JPG format does not support transparent background the way GIF does.
- Palette
- the number
and type of colors applied to the final image. The default palette is the
'Netscape 216 color web safe' palette. Further discussion of this topic is
beyond the scope of this document. For more information please see the Sun
Microsystems - Guide to Web Style - Netscape Color Tables - Technote.
- 216 color Netscape web safe palette pnm format or GIF format
- 125 color Unix Netscape web safe palette pnm format
- 8 color PC palette pnm format
Lighting Options
Lights illuminate the shape by setting levels of Red, Green, and Blue.
Each color may range from -10 to 10, with 0 meaning 'no light'. Yes, '-x' mean 'subtract light', instead of a spotlight it's a 'spotdark'.
Setting equal RGB levels for a light sets it to various levels of grey, up through white. 1-1-1 is a dark grey, 10-10-10 is full white.
There are two lights available for each direction for brighter and/or subtler shading.
The shape may be illuminated from up to ten directions. Rows are named Top, Middle, and Bottom, and columns are named Left, Center, and Right:
Top Left Top Center Top Right
\ | /
_| \ / |_
Middle Left -> -Center- <- Middle Right
_ / \ _
/| | |\
Bottom Left Bottom Center Bottom Right
Lights by default create shadows. To prevent a light from creating a shadow select the Noshadow option for that light.
The 'default/startup' screen includes light settings that created the
default image:
(With one exception, the default resolution is 'Low', the
sample image is 'High' resolution.)
- The Top Left Light #1 has Red set to 10.
- The Top Right Light #1 has Blue set to 10.
- The Bottom Center Light #1 has Green set to 10.
Dimensions
- Width
- defines the width of the final image, not the object being rendered.
- View Angle and View Distance
- are best explained with this bit of ASCII art. For the sphere, about the only effect adjusting these variables will have is to make the object more or less fill the full size on the final image.
The default view angle is 55 (degrees). That's roughly what the average human eye sees, and for example what a 'normal' camera lens is.
The default view distance is set to a number that pretty much fills the image with a sphere object.
If you use a Plane Background you'll need to adjust the view distance to get the shadows in the iage. Yes, to see the shadows you can adjust the view angle, but like a fisheye lens may introduce some distortion.
/
/ ^
/ | ( )
/ | ( )
\ view angle ( object )
\ | ( )
\ v ( )
\ |
|
-->-view distance->->->|
Elevation (degrees)
The angle of view of the object, referenced from level. 0 is a 'flat' view. 90 is a 'bird's eye' view. Here's more ASCII art:
90 degrees
bird's eye view
45 degrees \ |
\ v
_/
( )
( )
flat, 0 degrees -> ( object )
( )
( )
___(plane)______________________________
- Resolution
- defines how finely grained the rendering is. The default is Low.
Leave that alone until you are pleased with the lighting, then set to High and do a final render.
A High resolution render will take anywhere from twice to ten times as long as Low resolution. For this reason you should be careful about rendering larger images at high resolution, especially when using textures. A 100x100 pixel image is four times the area of a 50x50 pixel image, and takes four times as long to render.
- Post-Render Information
- After rendering several links will appear in the lower left quadrant of the form:
- == PovRay Source
- the *.pov file used to create the image.
- == Process Info
- technical info about how the render was run.
- == Details
- GIF file size, run time, and objects of the current type created to date.