Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
hapter
7 deals with image materials.
Detailer has standard, compact and RGB color palettes that are
selectable via the color drop down menu. The user will probably work
with the standard color palette the most. The compact color palette
just straightens the standard palette's ring. The RGB palette
provides sliders for setting the colors. 
Color
hue is selected on the standard color palette by dragging the small
circle around the ring. Color saturation is set by dragging the small
circle icon inside the triangle in the left/right direction. Extreme
right is maximum saturation. Color value is set by dragging the
circle icon up and down inside the triangle. The greatest value is
up. The primary and secondary color rectangles default to black and
white whenever Detailer is launched. The secondary color has nothing
to do with background color as it does in other graphics
applications. In Detailer the background color is set by the paper.
Detailer has an eye dropper tool for getting colors from other
images. The standard color palette has variability sliders at its
bottom. 
The
hue, saturation and value can be varied while painting based on the
settings of these sliders. The adjacent image shows 8 vertical
stripes. The first is a brush stroke of blue with the hue, saturation
and value sliders set to zero %. The second stripe is with the hue
slider set to its midrange point of 25% and the others at zero. 
The
third stripe is with the saturation slider set to its midrange of
25% and the others at zero. The fourth stripe is with value set to
its midrange of 25% and the others at zero. The fifth stripe is with
both hue and saturation at 25% with value at zero. The sixth stripe
is with hue and saturation at 25% and value at zero. 
The
seventh stripe is with saturation and value at 25% and hue at zero.
The last stripe is with all 3 at 25%. The manual states that
adjusting these sliders is most useful when using the Van Gogh and
Serat brushes. The image with the outward spiraling brush stroke is
with all 3 sliders set to their maximum of 50%. I held down the mouse
button and painted it all at once. 
Notice
how the colors change continuously. Detailer also allows the use of
2 colors at once. A brief 9 step procedures list describes the
process. The key is to access the sliders palette via the
brush/control drop down menu then set the color and direction slider
to intersect with each other. The circle was done continuously and
the diagonal stripes were separate. A camel hair brush was used for
all the paintings. Detailer comes with color sets that are used to
organize groups of colors. The adjacent image is the default color
set however 24 color sets are available. 
They
include calligraphic, candy chalk, crayon, earthtone, fire,
impressionist, pastel, watercolor, etc. The color set dialog box
allows the various color sets to be loaded. It allows colors to be
searched for by name or by color nearest to the active color too. It
also allows color sets to be locked, unlocked, colors added, colors
deleted, the sort order to be changed and a few other things to be
adjusted. The next part of chapter 7 addresses gradations also known
as blends or fountains. 
Detailer has linear, radial, spiral and circular gradations all built
in with many options available. First the grad palette is activated
via the color/grads drop down menu. With palette drawer open 25
premade gradations are instantly available both from the icons and
the pop up menu.
With the drawer closed additional options are available. The
gradation may be set to any angle by adjusting the gradation ring.
The red ball can either be dragged or a cursor click any where on the
ring will cause the red ball to jump to that point. Spiral gradations
may be made progressively tighter or looser by holding down the
control key and dragging the red ball around the ring. Below the ring
are various preset gradation schemes such as left to right, right to
left mirrored, right to left doubled, etc. 
An
entire image or a selected/masked portion thereof may be filled with
a gradation by activating the effects/fill drop down menu. Opacity
may also be set in the fill dialog box. Gradations may also be edited
in the gradation editor which is accessed via the effects/gradation
drop down menu. The gradation may be linear or non-linear. 
The
color space can be changed via the pop up menu from RGB to hue
clockwise or hue counterclockwise. Color control points may be added
or deleted. Almost any gradation imaginable can be created if the
user is patient enough. Gradations can also be easily captured from
existing images. A narrow selection is made of a portion of an
existing image. Then the effects/gradations/capture gradation command
is invoked and the selection is then saved with any name the user
desires. 
The
gradation now appears on the gradation palette with all the others.
I selected a vertical section of the adjacent cylinder then filled a
small blank image with a gradation of the newly created gradation.
Gradations may also be applied to existing images for some cool
effects. The effects/gradations/express in image drop down menu is
invoked. The resulting dialog box has a slider that adjusts the bias
to determine how the gradation is mapped to the existing image.
ext
chapter 7 addresses textures. These are essentially the same as
paper grain or paper texture that an artist might draw or paint on.
They are not to be confused with texture maps or surface texture bump
maps. Textures are grayscale images. They tile if they are smaller
than the image you are working with. 
Detailer
comes with 26 textures immediately available.
Libraries of paint, metal, stone, paper, nature, wood, etc. are
available for loading from the hard drive and more are available on
the CD-ROM. Textures may have their grain inverted and they may be
scaled from 25% to 400%. Textures may also be captured from existing
images in a manner similar to that for capturing gradients. A portion
of an image is selected with the masking tool. Then texture/capture
texture drop menu is activated which then displays a dialog box
prompting the user for a texture name. Once the name is typed in and
the OK button clicked the texture appears on the texture palette and
on the pop up menu. 
A
crossfade slider is available to blend the tile's borders. A wide
variety of repeating textures may be easily created from scratch
within Detailer. The texture/make texture drop down menu is activated
and the repeating texture dialog box appears. The pattern pop up menu
is used to select the basic texture type. Half tone, line, diamond,
square, circle, ellipse and triangle are available. Next the spacing
and angle sliders are adjusted to achieve the desired effect. 
Next
patterns are discussed. Detailer comes with 25 patterns instantly
available. Many more texture libraries with names like basket weave,
scotch weave, wood, paint, metal, stone, etc. are available on the
CD-ROM. Patterns may be rectangular, horizontal or vertical. The
offset slider can be used in the horizontal and vertical modes.
Patterns may be scaled from 2% to 400%. 
Any
pattern can be quickly and easily modified with plugins, painting,
etc. by accessing the pattern/checkout pattern drop down menu. The
modified pattern can then be added to the library if desired. Any
existing image can be easily defined as a pattern and added to the
library. Open the image you wish to define as a pattern then access
the pattern/define pattern drop down menu. Then access the
pattern/add image to library drop down menu and assign a name to the
pattern. The image will now show up as a pattern in the pattern
library. Any portion of an image can be captured as a pattern. Just
use the rectangular selection tool to mask a part of an image then
access the pattern/capture pattern drop down menu. A dialog box
appears with a preview window and the rectangular, horizontal and
vertical options. A bias slider is present to adjust the captured
pattern to make it as seamless as possible. Once the pattern is named
it will appear in the library. Of course the big challenge here is to
make the pattern tile seamlessly. 
Detailer
has an interesting technique available to assist the user in
accomplishing this feat. After the image to be used for tiling is
open, it is shifted until the horizontal and vertical edges cross in
the center. This is easily accomplished by using the grabber tool and
holding down the shift key. The image can then be dragged about with
the right edge wrapping over to the left edge, etc. It is easy to
center the intersection point by using the previously discussed grid
feature. If the image is, for example 100 pixels by 100 pixels, the
grid spacing can be adjusted to a spacing of 25 pixels by 25 pixels
and the intersection points can be precisely centered. Then the soft
cloner brush can used to cover up the seam and a seamless image is
thus created. Creating seamless patterns is still not easy but
Detailer's tools assist greatly.
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.