Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
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another tutorial file called bowl is opened. The file has some fish
and plants in it. It also has a ground area. Then the completed
castle icon in the hierarchical window is dragged into the
hierarchical window of the bowl. This copies the castle image into
the bowl image. The castle is positioned with its base on the ground
and in the far corner. Next the effects dialog box is activated and
the ambient light is changed to a blue/green color to give the
impression that the scene is underwater in a fish bowl. Then the
render area icon is clicked and a small area of the image is
marqueed. This area is automatically rendered. This way an idea of
the final image's appearance may be ascertained without having to
render the whole image which might prove to be time consuming. Next
the sky and ground gradients are adjusted, a bulb type light is
inserted and positioned. The the castle is rotated and the camera is
positioned. 
hen
the rendering settings dialog box is opened, various rendering
settings are made and the image is rendered. The image may be saved
in a wide variety of formats including .tif, .bmp, .tga, .pcx, .psd
(Photoshop 2.5), .cpt (Corel PhotoPaint), .gif and .jpg. This is the
end of the tutorial but it is not the end of the chapter. The last
couple of pages mention the modeling and scene wizards. I started
examining these 2 wizards and frankly I was astonished at what I
discovered. For example Ray Dream Studio 4.1 has the typical
primitive shapes available as do many other 3D applications. However
when you utilize the modeling wizard icon you access a large
multitude of extremely complex shapes that would take an experienced
user a very long time to create. Once these complex shapes have been
accessed they can then be easily modified to conform to the user's
requirements. The major object types are lathe, extrusion, pipe,
skin, spiral and twisted. 
Double
clicking each of these objects takes the user to additional options.
The one additional option they all have is the option to create your
own object.
will just discuss the twisted objects presets. They are a screw, a
twisted column and a twister like object that looks just like the
tornado in the movie "Twister". The create your own twisted
object area allows you to select from 8 preset objects such as
squares, stars, polygons, gears, .etc. You then specify the number of
twists to 2 decimal places and from there you specify the dimensions
of your object. Everything from 3D text to chair frames to telephone
cords is but a few mouse clicks away. Once the object is in the scene
it can then be selected and a click of the right mouse button allows
the user to access the properties dialog box. From there the object
can be bent, shattered, stretched and twisted some more if necessary.
The scene wizard is also very remarkable. This wizard is accessed via
the file drop down menu. Its major scene types are logo templates,
photo studio, indoor and outdoor scenes. The logo templates allow you
to enter your text on any of 10 different premade logos. The photo
studio has 24 different premade lighting schemes. The indoor scene
area has 8 different indoor scenes and you can create your own. There
are 12 outdoor scenes. They consist of a wide variety such as beach,
outer space, foggy morning, forest, sunset, cyberspace, .etc. There
does not appear to be a wizard that will allow you to create your own
outdoor scene.
hapter
4 deals with creating objects. Objects may be created from icons or
the edit drop down menu. Text, freeform, cone, sphere, cylinder,
cube, icosahedron and wizard are the objects. Freeform objects and
their creation are discussed. Extrusion, scaling, lathing, complex
sweep paths, .etc. are briefly described. The freeform modeling
window and its characteristics are addressed. Surface fidelity, which
is the number of polygons a surface contains, is adjustable in the
modeling window. The drawing plane and its characteristics are also
described. The pen tool is discussed. Corner points and curve points
are described as are the directions for creating them. Adding points,
deleting points and converting points between curve and corner are
discussed. The 2D primitive objects and 2D text tools are mentioned.
Object manipulation is discussed and described. Rotating, twisting,
grouping, compounding, scaling and importing objects is also
addressed. Modeling with cross sections is described. Multiple cross
sections, adding and removing cross sections is described. Shape
numbering, cross section fills, skinning shape to shape and skinning
point to point are discussed. Drawing sweep paths in 3D is described.
Extrusion presets are discussed. Complete control of spirals is
available via the geometry/extrusion preset/spiral dialog box. The
spiral can have as many turns as is required to 2 decimal places. The
spiral can be made any length, have any distance to the axis, and
both cross sectional and spiral scaling is controllable on a
percentage basis. Using the spiral scaling allows the user to make
the spiral extrusion larger or smaller at one end. A torus extrusion
preset is also available.
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the manual discusses sweep paths and the envelope. Here the user
discovers how to extrude an object in a symmetrical tapered manner
and in a non-symetrical manner. In the free mode any side of any
extrusion may be given any shape desired. Next lathing is dealt with.
A brief 8 step lesson describes the lathing process which was very
easy to accomplish. Lathed objects of almost any shape such as
goblets, bowls, saucers, .etc. are almost instantaneous. A torus
shaped object is even easier. 
Next
comes a 22 step advanced modeling tutorial. A fork is modeled in
this tutorial. A small rectangle is drawn and extruded then the end
is bent to resemble the bend of a fork. A cross section is created at
the bottom of the bend then 4 small rectangles are added at the
beginning of this new section. Each small rectangle is automatically
numbered by Ray Dream Studio 4.1 and care is taken to ensure the
numbers are correct. They are easily edited. Then the next section is
selected and the area between the small squares is deleted. Thus the
fork's tines are created. Each small square is made slightly smaller
which makes the tines taper a little. The area behind the fork's bend
is made narrower and in a few minutes from starting you have an
excellent fork.
he
last 2 pages address Ray Dream Studio 4.1's text handling
capabilities. Ray Dream Studio 4.1 can handle both Post Script and
Truetype fonts. Fonts may be extruded to any depth. They can be
beveled in front and back in 5 different ways. The degree of beveling
is controllable to 2 decimal places as is depth. Leading, word
spacing and letter spacing are all controllable. Chapter 5 addresses
arranging and deforming objects. 
The tools and work box are discussed in detail. How to use the tools
and workbox and how to control them is described. Selecting and
arranging objects is described. Dragging, nudging and numerical
positioning of objects is dealt with. Manual resizing, numerical
resizing and resizing using the scale deformer is addressed.
Orienting objects by either freely rotating them in three dimensions
or one dimension is described as is numerical orienting and the
mirroring of an object. Object alignment with the working box, the
universe and with gravity is described. Camera and light aiming is
also discussed. The relative of alignment of objects to each other is
covered. Objects may be aligned to each other in virtually any way
possible. Object duplication, mirroring and duplication while
maintaining symmetry. Stretch, shatter bend and twist deformers are
the last subjects of chapter 5.
hapter
6 addresses the issues of building a scene. Scene editing is dealt
with. Adding, deleting and replacing objects is discussed. The scene
wizard and hierarchical structures are described. Procedures for
hierarchical navigation, grouping, linking, opening and closing
groups are described. Links control object movement and may be lock,
slider, axis, shaft, ball joint, 2D plane and custom. A locked object
can not be moved. A object with a slider link may be moved in any or
all of the 3 directions by any amount desired. They can also be
constrained in any direction by any amount desired. Axis type links
deal with rotation. 
An object can be allowed to rotate or not rotate by any number of
degrees desired in any of the 3 axis. The shaft condition is somewhat
similar to the axis situation. Rotation may be permitted to any
degree required on any axis but the additional factor of sliding is
also controlled. The 2D plane situation allows object movement on any
2 of the 3 planes to be restricted. The ball joint works like a ball
joint. Things are a little more complicated than I have described
because there are some parent, child and inverse stuff that has to be
dealt with. The last link is called custom. This option allows the
user to create any type of custom link the user can imagine. Master
objects and their duplication, modification and replacement are
described. The object browser is the subject of chapter 6. The
opening of new directories, navigation, adding objects and closing
directories is described.
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.