Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
utorial
one deals with basic mapping. A box is created of a specific size. A
tutorial texture map is applied using implicit mapping which is the
default method. Lights are added, the model is rotated, zoomed,
panned and rendered to 500 X 500 pixels. Rendering takes about 4
minutes. Tutorial two deals with creating and applying maps. First a
sphere primitive is created then it is texture mapped spherically
with a map of the earth. Various lights are applied. The same map is
then used as a bump map and this time the it is oriented to align in
register with the texture map. Now the mountains seem high and the
valleys low. The bump height can easily be adjusted with a slider to
provide any reasonable amount of relief. I set it to midrange for the
image. The pixels with the higher luminance (closer to white) are low
in elevation and the darker ones are higher in elevation. There is a
box to check if you want the effect reversed. 
Next
the color is removed from the bump map. Now the brightness/contrast
controls can be manipulated to make the valleys even lower and the
mountains higher still if the user wishes. Next a hurricane is placed
on the texture map. It is part of the objects tutorial. The hurricane
was much too large so I resized it by accessing the
effects/orientation/scale drop down menu. The next step involves
painting clouds onto the model. The image hose brush is selected Then
the cumulus clouds nozzle is selected. Now clouds can be sprayed onto
the model.
utorial
3 deals with advanced mapping. First the tutorial model is opened.
It was created in Ray Dream Designer. It has 2 parts: the artist's
palette and the brush. First the palette is selected then mapped
using the pass through method with a wood grain. 
Next
the brush is selected and here is where things get interesting. The
brush has a wooden handle, metal ferrule and bristles. Next a blank
texture map is applied to the brush using the implicit mapping
method. 
The
map is set to the size of 150 rows by 650 columns. The rows/columns
stuff is actually pixels. Next the mesh is displayed. The right
portion of the mesh represents the bristles. The left 75% or so
represents the handle and the area in between is the ferrule. 
Next
the handle area is selected and the controls palette is examined
where it is determined that the handle is 508 pixels long and 150
pixels high. A map at least this large will be required. Next another
wood image is opened and an area larger than the brush handle's mesh
area is selected from it. The selection is then copied to the
clipboard and pasted onto the mesh. The pasted image is the adjusted
to properly fit the brush's handle without overlapping the ferrule.
This is easy to do when the model is expanded around the ferrule
area. The pasted image can be moved 1 pixel at a time with the arrow
keys. It can also be dragged about. The wood can also have its color
adjusted and various effects applied to it if the user so desires.
Next the bristles are applied by opening the bristle tutorial image,
selecting, copying and pasting as was done for the handle. Now the
shininess is greatly increased to give a gleam to the metal ferrule.
This is accomplished by increasing the specular slider from its 40%
setting to around 90%. 
This
causes the ferrule to have a very metallic like gleam now but the
handle and brush now also possess the same gleam which we don't want.
So a highlight mask is created using a copy of the existing texture
map. Then the bristle area is selected and filled with black thus
making it look a more realistic dull. Then the handle area is
selected and filled with about 50% gray. The reflection slider on the
object palette can be increased to give greater reflective powers to
the ferrule. This also increases the reflective powers of the handle
and brush but since their highlight map is either black (brush) or
gray (handle) the increased reflectivity doesn't have much of an
effect. Next the texture file is used as an implicit bump map. The
bump slider is then increased to give the bristles some body. The
color is removed from the bump map. The wood for the handle is
deleted so just the bristle area feels the effects of the bump map.
The last step of the tutorial is the addition of some paint splotches
to the palette. Then the image is rendered.
hapter
3 discusses working with models. Detailer can create 5 different
types of primitives. Dimensions may be specified after the type of
primitive is specified. The tolerance setting specifies the number of
triangles per object. A fine gives the smoothest image and uses the
most memory. Next the 3D view size is set. The dialog box tells the
user how much memory will be used. 
Opening
models created in Detailer and in Ray Dream Designer and Ray Dream
Studio is discussed.
Lights and cameras are not exported from Ray Dream. A group of
objects being exported from Ray Dream should not consist of more than
80 objects. The manual explains that each extruded object will have 2
end caps and Detailer can't handle more than 240 separate objects.
Setting the object properties of diffuse, specular and reflection is
discussed. Saving models is discussed. It is important that a
specific directory be created for work to contain all the various
modeling and mapping files together. Directions for closing a
Detailer model are described. Model exportation is discussed. Model
exportation appears to be closely coordinated with Ray Dream although
other applications are supported.
hapter
4 addresses the use of maps. The five maps (texture, bump,
highlight, reflection and glow) are discussed as is their usage
application, options and characteristics. 
Methods
to adjust and change the maps is discussed. How to hide maps and
make a particular map active is discussed. Procedures are described
for working in either the model window or the image window. Mesh
usage, wrap around colors and seamless maps are described.
hapter
5 discusses the usage of light. Any light may be any color. Ambient
light is adjustable. Flat lighting is available. Lights are
controlled by the light palette. Each small circle on the ball is an
icon that represents the light's source. Icons can be dragged around
to position them. Lights can be added or deleted. Each light may have
its own brightness and concentration controlled through the sliders'
positions. The exposure slider functions somewhat like the aperture
of a camera. Greater exposure means a brighter object and vice versa.
There is also a light icon on the toolbar that allows the user to
place a light anywhere on the model. Light libraries may also be
created, saved and loaded.
hapter
6 and all the remaining chapters deal with images. Detailer allows
the user to both create an image then apply it to a 3D model as a map
and to apply a map then develop an image on the map. Detailer has its
own RIFF image format (.rif) which maintains floating objects. The
RIFF format should be used when working within Detailer. 
However
when exporting a model for use in any other 3D application, the .tif
file format should be used. When a new image is created the user is
allowed to specify the canvas size, resolution and paper color. The
dialog box provides the amount of memory the image size requires.
Size may be specified in pixels, inches, centimeters, points, picas
or columns. The canvas size can be changed later if the user so
desires. The paper color can also be set later however the existing
paper color must be erased away or otherwise removed. 
Canvas
information (size and resolution) 
is
instantly available by clicking on the small i that appears at the
lower left of the image. The image can be zoomed from 8.3% to 1200%
by using the control palette's pop up menu. The grabber tool allows
the image to be dragged about. The virtual trackball tool allows the
image to be rotated around within the image window. Rulers are
available and their increments may be pixels, inches, centimeters,
points or picas. The rulers also have the option of making the guide
marks snap to the ruler's ticks. Detailer can display horizontal and
vertical guide marks. The marks can be as many or as few as the user
wishes and each must be created by the user. A click any where in the
ruler area creates a guide line. Each guide line can be slid anywhere
along the ruler. Each guide line may have its own color. The color
may be changed in the guide options dialog box which is accessed by
double clicking the guide arrowhead where it rests on the ruler. The
guide's position may also be precisely placed to 3 decimal places
when accessing this dialog box and it can also be locked in place.
All the guides may be deleted when accessing this dialog box. A snap
to guides feature is available when accessing the canvas drop down
menu. Snapping action occurs whenever the cursor or an edge is within
6 pixels. The snap to guides feature works with dragging the oval or
rectangle selection tool, drawing straight lines with the brush tool,
clicking then dragging with the magnifier tool, clicking then
dragging with the paint bucket tool, dragging floaters and dragging
the floater adjuster tool. I have to say that Detailer has the
weakest snap to guides feature I have ever seen. It is just barely
noticeable under the best of circumstances. Detailer also has a grid
overlay feature. 
The
grid may be accessed by clicking on the grid area at the upper right
of the image or selecting the show grid option from the canvas drop
down menu. The grid has 50% opacity unless the transparent box is
checked in the grid dialog box. The grid dialog box is accessed via
the canvas drop down menu. This dialog box allows the user to set a
rectangular grid, dot grid, horizontal or vertical grid. It also
allows the user to set line thickness, horizontal and vertical grid
spacing. The units may be pixels, inches, centimeters, points, picas,
columns or percent. The grid and background color may also be set in
this dialog box. Detailer saves and opens files in many different
formats. It does not open .eps files. It will, however, save files as
.eps. Many file formats require various decisions to be made when
saving them. 
This
usually invokes some sort of dialog box. Detailer can have as many
as 32 levels of undo and redo. Detailer also has a fade feature which
is sort of like a partial undo. When the edit/fade option is selected
the fade dialog box appears. The slider can be adjusted to control
the amount of fading of the last drawing the user made. In
conjunction with the 32 level undo/redo it should be possible to have
quite a bit of control of the image that you might be creating at
least in theory. However I found the performance of this feature to
be somewhat erratic and unreliable when trying to undo and redo an
existing image. It seemed to work OK when used immediately after a
brush stroke however.
All pages copyright © Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1997
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.