seanc@pro-party.cts.com (Sean Cunningham) (05/18/91)
In JMan, a FIGURE is a hierarchically grouped series of
SEGMENTS. A CHARACTER can be composed of either a single FIGURE or
multiple FIGURES (which is usually the case). This is to allow the
animator to keep a library of motions, called ACTIONS, that can be
used again and again on different CHARACTERs.
The CHARACTER screen is also hires-interlace, using the same
palette as the SCULPTURE module to ease the eyes. Its top section
contains a panel of gadgets, with a secondary panel of attributes
gadgets down the right side of the screen. This module uses only one
viewing window, which takes up approximately 3/4 of the screen.
After entering the CHARACTER module, you can begin loading in
SEGMENTs by clicking the ADD gadget in the far left corner of the
screen. This will bring up a file requester. Or, you can load in a
previously made FIGURE by selecting LOAD from the PROJECT menu.
Once a FIGURE is loaded, or multiple SEGMENTS, you can toggle
the way individual SEGMENTS are represented from the DISPLAY menu.
DISPLAY contains options for TOGGLING a segment between curved and
bounded representation, making an entire BRANCH of SEGMENTS curved
(the selected SEGMENT and all child SEGMENTS) or making the BRANCH
bounded. You can also choose to make either a selected SEGMENT
invisible, or an entire BRANCH invisible. The NEXT menu choice will
take you to the next SEGMENT in the FIGURE's hierarchy.
Like in the SCULPTURE module, you are presented with independent
gadgets for a SEGMENT's X, Y, and Z scaling, ROLL, TILT, and SWIVEL,
and your viewpoint's ZOOM, MOVE, and ROTATE gadgets. Along the top
of the panel are the ADD (discussed previously) and DELETE gadgets
for SEGMENTS, and also the PARENT and GHOST gadgets.
If you are creating a complex FIGURE of, say, a robot or a
human, you need to create a hierarchy for the individual SEGMENTs to
follow in order to maintain the proper position, scale and rotation.
JMan automatically makes the currently selected SEGMENT the PARENT of
the next SEGMENT to be loaded. If you don't want the hierarchy set
this way, simply have the SEGMENT selected that you just loaded,
click on the PARENT gadget, and then click on the SEGMENT to be the
new PARENT.
A GHOST can be one of two things: A) an invisible member of a
FIGURE's hierarchy (similar to the way the axis TRACK is used in
IMAGINE) which could be the PATRIARCH SEGMENT of a FIGURE, or the
SEGMENT that is superior to all other SEGMENTS in the hierarchy, or
B)a SEGMENT that you do not wish to render in the current animation.
Along the mid to right section of the top panel are gadgets that
govern the surface properties of the individual SEGMENTs in your
FIGURE. You can selectively control the AMBient value of the
segment, or how lighted a SEGMENT is even if no light is shining
directly on it, the TRAnsparency of the SEGMENT (Note: I have not been
able to get this to work at all), the ROUghness of the SEGMENT, the
SPEcularity of the SEGMENT, the amount of MIRror quality the SEGMENT
has, and it's index of REFraction. All of these gadgets accept
values from 0 to 100, where 100 is equal to 100% of a given quality.
Below the top panel, and to the right, is a second panel of
gadgets for controlling the attributes of a selected SEGMENT. At the
top is a set of RGB gadgets that will accept values from 0 to 100 (in
a future upgrade, I'd like to see this go to 0 to 255 for greater
precision when working with 24bits of color). In the middle of this
panel are gadgets that represent different textures that may be
applied to your SEGMENT. In addition to the usual WOOD, MARBLE, and
WAVE (ripple) textures, JMan gives you CHECKERED, BRICK, ERODED,
PEBBLE, and some that just about defy description (MYSTERY 1, MOTTLED
1 and 2, and BOZO).
Now here's where the fun begins. Not only does the gadget for
the individual textures show you what they'll look like, but there is
a PREVIEW gadget in the lower right that lets you view color changes
and attribute changes to the texture! Some texture have their own
waveform(s) and these waveforms can be modified using the AMPlitude,
FReQency, DaMPening, CYCle, and PRoPagation gadgets. Some of the
textures allow up to FIVE different waveforms that can be modified
independently of the other. Their culmination can create more
realistic, random patterns. Each of the waveforms emanate from the
SEGMENT's bounding box corners and around its PIVOT (axis of
rotation). There are also three text gadgets that control the sizing
of different elements within a given texture.
So far, I've been able to successfully use the textures
provided, as long as you don't modify the waveform of the texture.
This is unfortunate, as the default values aren't always acceptable
for the SEGMENT at hand.
With v1.2 of JMan's CHARACTER module, there are several extra
gadgets for WRAP, REPEAT, PLANE, CYLINder, and SPHERE. While these
aren't active in this version, I was told by Ken Baer that they will
be used for the ENVIRONMENT MAPPING feature they're working on right
now.
And if you have created a SURFACEMAP for a particular SEGMENT in
the PAINTER section of the SCULPTURE module, then you'll need to
select that SEGMENT and click on the bar at the upper right of the
screen. This will open a file requester so that you find and select
the SEGMENT's SURFACEMAP.
Once you're finished creating your FIGURE, choose SAVE from the
PROJECT menu.
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// | * All opinions expressed herein |
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