Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
racture
is another feature of Imagine that is available via the object
dropdown menu. The 2 adjacent spheres show a before and after
situation. When fracture is selected, a dialog box opens prompting
the user to specify the scaling factor. I used a scaling factor of
10. Imagine has a split feature that is available via the object drop
down menu.
A portion of an object is selected using the pick faces option and
then selecting with the lasso or the marquee. Then split is selected.
The object doesn't look any different initially however using the
highlight first/highlight next and the pick highlighted options of
the pick drop down menu, the sliced portion can be selected then
moved, rotated, scaled, etc. 
Imagine has blob capabilities. First 2 or more procedure spheres are
created. I applied red to one and blue to the other. Next they are
both selected then grouped. 
Then the functions/blob attributes drop down menu is activated. OK is
clicked in the 2 subsequent dialog boxes and there is now one blob
object. It is red because I selected the red sphere first. The object
may now be stretched, twisted, etc. 
However, for some reason I don't understand, the rendered image
always looks as if nothing has happened to it. The user can resize
one of the spheres to get an effect similar to the adjacent image.
The CD-ROM has a ScreenCam movie that describes how to create a
monster's foot. It turns out that the blobs can have a negative value
which will subtract from a nearby or overlapping image. 
That is how the spacing and indentations between the toes is
achieved. There is some discussion about dragging points. The
adjacent image, above right, started out as a simple sphere
primitive. Dragging points around allowed me to stretch out pieces of
the sphere and depress an area of the sphere. The next image, below
left, shows what happens when I rotated and scaled a dragged out
area. 
Imagine has an interesting feature called drag points. It is accessed
via the mode drop down menu. It is used for adjusting a single point.
I had a little trouble with it because it doesn't work like anything
I had ever seen before. When drag points is selected the user must be
in the click to pick mode. The move feature is inoperative. You just
select drag points, click on a particular point and drag! It is
actually too simple. However one of the extremely fascinating aspects
of drag points is that it works in conjunction with the magnetism
feature, also available via the mode drop down menu. The magnetism
feature has a dialog box that allows the user to control the
magnetism and determine what shape the object will take after its
magnetized points are dragged about. 
In the adjacent image, above left, I performed 2 drag points
operations. The sharp point on the left was performed with the
magnetism off. The larger section that has been pulled out of the
right side of the sphere was with the magnetism on and the settings
as displayed. A user may add lines and points from scratch and
convert them to faces. A new axis must be added via the object/new
drop down menu. Then the mode/add drop down menu is accessed where
points or lines may be chosen. After some points and/or lines are
added they may then be turned into faces via the same drop down menu
then reselecting. The adjacent image, above right, shows just some of
what is possible. 
The pick face and pick edge features are important if the user wants
to add more points to an object. First the pick face or pick edge
feature is accessed via the mode/pick drop down menu. Next an object
or portion thereof is selected. Then the previously discussed
fracture feature is activated. The 2 adjacent top views show the
result. I selected the entire object before fracturing. The edit
paths is another option available via the mode drop down menu. Of
course a path must be available to edit. The edit paths feature, used
in conjunction with the fracture feature, will likely allow the user
to create pretty much any sort of path that may be required. 
Imagine also has a grid snap feature that works with drag points. Examine the 2 adjacent images above. I performed a drag points operation on a plane. The first image shows the result with grid snap off. The second image shows the result with grid snap on. Notice how each point in the second image is at a grid's intersection. The feature is useful if the user is attempting to achieve repeatable, consistent results.
All pages copyright © Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1996, 1997
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.