Background music is Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All Rights Reserved.
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next few pages cover physical simulation. First a cube primitive is
added then raised to a few times its height above the surface. Next
the local physical attributes icon panel is launched and the rubber
tire like icon is clicked thus imparting a rubber attribute to the
cube. An object may be given the attributes of glass, iron, Styrofoam
and paper in addition to rubber. 
Next
the Animation control panel's start (or continue) icon is clicked.
The frames start counting off and the cube begins to fall, hit the
surface then bounce back up. This continues for several bounces and
the escape key is depressed thus stopping the animation. The play
button is clicked and the animation plays. At the end of the
animation the return to start button is clicked. 
Next
the local physical attributes icon panel is launched and the initial
motion vector icon is clicked. A white arrow appears slightly
protruding from the side of the cube. The arrow is selected and
dragged to the left and down. The animation is started once more.
This time the cube comes toward the user, hits the surface, tumbles,
bounces up still tumbling, comes back down, hits again, etc. After a
few bounces the escape is hit again, the cube reselected and the
animation played. Next the path icon panel is launched. Now the
cube's bouncing path is displayed with a green track. The draw new
spline icon is clicked and each time the mouse is clicked in the work
space the cube's animation bounce path is extended to that point. 
Spline
points may also be added to or deleted from an animation path. Each
point has control handles like a bezier curve. The right and left
mouse buttons have various effects on these points. Next the project
window is launched. The black triangle at the top of the project
window can be dragged about and the cube will move in concert with
it. Next the animation is returned to its starting point and global
physical attributes icon panel is launched. The wind icon is clicked
which causes a propeller like object to appear. The propeller is
selected and rotated so the pointy end is facing away from the user.
Next the cube is clicked and its attributes are changed to Styrofoam.
The simulation is then begun again and this time, as may be expected,
the cube is blown away by the wind.
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next tutorial deals with inverse kinematics. A prebuilt robot is
loaded. The view is zoomed out and rotated around to obtain a better
view. The head of the robot is dragged about. The head nods forward
and leans back, right and left. There is a yellow line that appears
to cue the user the direction of the pulling action. The robot's
torso follows a little bit. The green triangle at the robot's waist
is a trueSpace nail that holds everything fixed at that point. Next
the nail is moved to the robot's right foot and the entire robot is
dragged to the left to allow room for forward movement. The frame in
the animation control panel is set to 10 and a left first step is
created. The left foot is dragged forward. The leg follows but the
robot tilts backward. I found this to be a little more complicated
than the manual implied however once I figured out that I had to move
the nail around to the knees occasionally things started to go
smoother. 
The
robot kept developing a severe case of stiff leg, stiff ankle and
lean over backwards disease. Anyway after the user is happy with the
first step, the frame count is advanced to 20 and another step is
taken. Then the frame count is advanced to 30 and another step is
taken. Once you get the hang of it it's fairly easy. Next the play
button on the animation control panel is clicked and 30 frames of
animation play back. The adjacent .gif file is the result. trueSpace
doesn't render to .gif so I rendered an .avi file then converted it.
I must say the animation rendered very fast but of course there was
no background or anything else in the scene.
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next tutorial covered trueSpace's 3D paint and bump map features.
First a sphere is created then the 3D paint tool icon is clicked.
Several icon groups are then launched but only a few are discussed..
The cube on the left allows the user to select any color. Red is
chosen and some painting is done on the sphere. Next the 3D airbrush
is selected on the 3D paint attributes icon panel. 
Painting
with the airbrush leaves a paint trail with fuzzy edges.
Air brush density, brush size and transparency may be selected from
the 3 columns to the right. Selection is accomplished by sliding the
horizontal bars up and down. I was somewhat dismayed to not see any
method for numerical selection. I was also somewhat aggravated by
having to constantly click the render current object icon at the
upper right of the interface to get a true representation of the work
I had completed. For some reason trueSpace constantly loses the
painting that has been done thus making it
difficult to judge one's progress. Next the 3D bump map tool is
selected. The 3D bump attribute icon group replaces the 3D paint
attributes icon group. At this point I started with a fresh sphere
even though the manual didn't say to. Three brush shapes are
available and their amplitude and size are slider controlled. The
sphere brush is selected then dragged about on the sphere object's
surface. A groove is created. Next the slider for bump amplitude is
slid down and the mouse is dragged about on the sphere once more.
Once again the effect is frequently lost so the render object icon at
the upper right of the interface must be clicked. I also noticed that
a groove will quickly become a ridge if the brush comes anywhere near
a groove while painting a ridge. Even though the brush may appear
small, the effect is much broader. I found it impossible to get a
ridge and a groove side by side. This is not mentioned in the tutorial.
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next tutorial deals very briefly and superficially with Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML). trueSpace is launched and the world
browsing icon at the top left of the interface is clicked. Next the
neighbor hood icon is clicked and the adjacent image is launched. For
some reason trueSpace assumes the user no longer wants to use the
icon sets that were selected in the previous world building mode.
Anyway whenever the cursor is moved over an icon the URL associated
with the icon is displayed on the URL text line above the scene. The
VRML scene can be navigated in the normal manner by holding down the
left mouse button and going forward, back, left and right.
The right mouse button can be used for elevation movement. The manual
states than when an icon is clicked the user will be transported to
that URL. I did not find this to be the case on a consistent basis.
In fact I would estimate this occurred perhaps 50% of the time or
less. Many times I would click and click and double click and double
click and nothing would happen. The first time you try to navigate
this way trueSpace requires you to navigate to the .exe file that
launches your browser even if it is already running. No mention of
this is made in the tutorial. The VRML world can have other objects
added to it if the user wishes. It is easy to switch back and forth
between the world browsing mode and the world building mode. There
are no instructions in this tutorial that describe how to create your
own links to the URLs. That concludes chapter one.
All pages copyright© Roger A. Moncrief, Indepth Reviews, 1996, 1997, 1998
Thanks to Judy Gefter, !LuM! and Charles Blaquiere for their advice and counsel, some I heeded and some I didn't.