Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
magine for Windows from Impulse
showed up a week before Christmas 1996. Those of you who read my
initial review of this software may recall that the final shipping
version was supposed to out by October 3. Oh well, better late than
never I suppose. At least this time they shipped a 240 page, 9
chapter user manual with it. Unfortunately there is still no on-line
help! The CD-ROM includes 15 .avi files that demonstrate Imagine's
capabilities. It contains 24 Lotus ScreenCam movies that demonstrate
how to do appliqu,, blobs, bones, decals, particles, splines,
textures, waves, etc. The CD-ROM also includes an .htm file that
provides information and sample images of the 110 textures that ship
with Imagine. The application consumed about 33 MBs of hard drive
space. Imagine supports a large variety of file formats. For example
after an image is rendered it may be saved in .tga, .bmp, .cmp, 6
flavors of .jpg, .png, .psd, .pct, .ras, .pcx and .tif. File formats
available for backdrops include most of the just mentioned plus .avi,
.eps, .ilb, .rg8 and .wmf. Unfortunately Imagine only imports .dxf files.
he
first chapter is a brief summary of 3D stuff.Chapter 2 deals with
getting started. Imagine has break away toolbars and each icon has
balloon help. The interface is the 4 window orthographic screen that
will be familiar to many who work in 3D applications. A double click
on the right edge of any window will maximize it and vice versa. The
window at the upper right is the perspective window where the object
may be independently rotated, scaled, etc. It is the view that will
be rendered. The other 3 windows is where all the other action such
as moving, scaling, rotating, twisting, bending, tapering,
stretching, etc. will take place. 
Imagine has 4 editors: detail, forms, spline and stage. They are
accessible by way of the editor drop down menu. The detail, forms and
spline editors deal with object creation and editing. The stage
editor is where the various elements created in the other editors are
assembled. Any time the user switches to another editor the current
editor is left and any work unsaved is lost. There is no warning when
the switch is made nor is there any autosave option. You just get a
dialog box asking you if you want to leave the editor. The stage
editor is the exception, it asks if you want to save the information.
Every editor should ask that question. Imagine will allow the user to
launch multiple instances of it so this is not as onerous as one may
think. For example you can have 3 or more instances of Imagine
running simultaneously. One instance can have the detail editor open
while another instance has the forms editor open, etc. The manual
states that the detail editor is the most versatile of the 4 editors
and is generally used to finalize an object. The detail editor is
where textures, colors, shininess and other characteristics are
applied. Imagine allows the user one undo. I suppose this would be a
good place to point out that I am reviewing Imagine for Windows 1.3.4
of 17 June 97 which is available through the constant upgrade
program. I occasionally encounter stuff that isn't in the manual so I
don't know if it was overlooked or was not incorporated in the
software when the manual was written. Suffice to say that the version
I am reviewing is the latest version available. I mention this
because the manual begins describing the various features of the edit
drop down menu and the preferences option isn't mentioned until
several pages later. There is no mention of it in the manual's index. 
The
edit drop down menu, besides allowing the user to choose an editor,
also provides for preferences, undo, quick rendering, viewing an
image in all the file formats previously mentioned, viewing an .avi
file and exiting the application. The preferences dialog box allows
the user to set the colors for paths, points, knots, edges, etc. It
also allows the user to set scroll percentages, ground size, sphere
points, ground points, maximum points, edge and face count per
object, gamma and clipping. The sphere and ground settings are
special. The sphere is not the same as the sphere primitive. It and
the ground are computer solids that render much quicker than ordinary
primitives. Quick rendering will be covered later. The view drop down
menu allows the user to zoom, redraw, recenter, load a background
image, display an object in the perspective window in wireframe,
shaded, solid or color, set a zone around an object, control the grid
and display the cursor's coordinates. 
The
object drop down menu allows cutting, copying and pasting on
Imagine's local clipboard. It also allows the user to load objects
that have been previously saved, save existing objects, import and
export .dxf objects, create new spheres, planes, torus's, cones,
tubes, etc. 
The
object drop down menu also provides access to the transform dialog
box where transform options are available with numerical precision
and it provides an object check feature. The deform dialog box is
also accessed via the object drop down menu as are the tools to
mirror, merge, slice, fracture, skin, split, etc. The mode drop down
menu allows the user to specify a variety of methods to select or
pick an object or a portion of an object. It also has a magnetism
option, a pick method option and a quickdraw feature. Quickdraw will
cause the object to show up as a simple block instead of a mesh.
There are other options that will be discussed later.
he
pick menu has a wide choice of pick options. Some of them are pick
all, highlight first, highlight next, highlight previous, pick
highlighted, unpick highlighted, pick and unpick subgroup, pick and
unpick range, pick more, reverse pick, sort and find. 
The
states drop down menu deals with animation and will be covered
later. Next the manual spends a few pages on the pre-production
process. The concepts of animation, story boarding, etc. are
discussed. The manual then has the user go to the stage editor,
create a new project, set it for 150 frames then save it as flythru. 
Next
the user goes to the detail editor and creates a tube via the object/new/primitive
drop down menu. There is some mention of a platform for a PC to rest
on. The tube properties dialog box appears and the options are set in
accordance with the manual. Next the tube, which is now actually a
disk, is manipulated in the perspective window then rendered. Then it
is saved as Base1. Next the attributes dialog box is launched. The
base color button is clicked which launches the color selection box. 
The
appropriate values are entered in the RGB windows, the OK button is
clicked and now the base color is a light brown. If the apply button
is clicked then the small beveled square in the window at the upper
right will change to the light brown color. If the object radio
button is clicked then the disk/tube will appear. All of the sides of
the object may be observed by clicking the various radio buttons at
the bottom right area. Next the maps tab is clicked. This takes the
user to the area where textures may be added. 
The
manual says to click on the add texture button then select the
hrdwood.dll file. The file format changed from .dll to .itx during
one of the updates. The hrdwood.itx file is selected and applied.
Next the properties button is clicked. Imagine allows the user to
extensively modify many properties of the existing textures. The
colors tab is clicked and the 2 colors associated with the hardwood
texture are changed. The apply button is clicked then the OK buttons
are clicked and the now colored and textured object is saved. A
rendering of the object indicates that it has soft, smooth, organic
like edges. Since this is supposed to be a manufactured object we
would want hard, sharp edges. 
So the user is now required to choose the pick edges tool, select the
marquee tool, go to the front view and select the top row of points.
Next the shift key is held down and the bottom row of points is
selected. Next the functions/make/make sharp edges drop down menu is
selected. Then the image is rendered. The crispness of the edges in
the adjacent images is apparent in the second image, above right. 
Next a new tube that is thicker and smaller in diameter is created. It has its base color changed, is textured with the hrdwood.itx file which then has just its second color changed. This object is saved as Base2 after its edges are made sharp. Next the Base2 object is manually positioned with the previously mentioned transformations dialog box. Next Base1 is loaded and it too is manually positioned to be flush with one face of Base2. Both bases are then selected, grouped and saved as Base0.
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.