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*        Aegis Designer 3D        *
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*         Copyright © 1987        *
*      Aegis Development Inc.     *
*     Written by Colin French     *
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Aegis Designer 3D is an interactive
three dimensional object editor for
use with Aegis VideoScape 3D(tm).

Designer 3D will also produce 
objects which are compatible with
the public domain program 'ROT'. If
you've already created some objects
with ROT, they can be converted into
VideoScape 3D format.

The pages that follow describe the
functions & controls of Designer 3D.


         ---An Overview---

Designer 3D has two sections:  the
OBJECT editor and the ACTION editor.
Use the first to create the database
of your 3D object:  the coords for
each point and how they're connected
to form polygons. The second section
defines an action consisting of 24
steps or frames.  With each step the
object's position or orientation may
be changed.  When the frames are
replayed quickly the object performs
the action or animation you created.

Once satisfied with the object you
can store it for later use in the
VideoScape 3D system.


      ---The Object Editor---

Choose a point to edit with the
slider in the upper-right. Click on
the arrows to move one point at a
time, or anywhere with in the slider
to skip to that point. The current
point is highlighted in the three
views of your object on the left of
the screen. To see how these views
fit together, imagine folding the
Top and Front views away from you
until their edges touch. You end up
with a half-cube that surrounds your
object. When rotated, the object is
moved about the center of this cube.

To change the current point's coords
click in a view. Two of its coords
will be changed so it ends up at the
cursor's location. Which coords are
changed depends on the view in which
you click. For example, the Front
view changes the X and Y coords. By
clicking in at least 2 views you can
position the point where you want it
in all three dimensions. Any point
with all zero coords is considered
nonexistent and is not displayed.

Sometimes two points will appear to
be right on top of one another in a
particular view. Carefully check all
three views to make sure the point
selected is really the one you want
to modify. Below the point slider
are the current point's coords. You
can change these by clicking on them
and typing in the value you want.

There's another slider which is used
to choose the polygon to be edited.
A point can be used as a vertex of
the current polygon by selecting the
proper point with the point slider,
then clicking on 'ADD ABOVE POINT'.
A polygon must have at least three
verticies, but no more than six. The
edges of the currently selected
polygon are highlighted in orange.

The order in which you select the
verticies is important. Go in one
direction around the outside of the
polygon. If you see the orange edges
crossing you'll know the points are
out of order. Hit 'UNDO LAST POINT'
to back up through the vertex list
until the problem disappears.

To get rid of all verticies click on
the 'DELETE POLYGON' button. Down at
the bottom of the screen is a color
palette. The highlighted color will
be used to fill the current polygon.
To change it, click on the color you
want.  There are two palette types,
one for VideoScape 3D objects and
the other for ROT objects.  When you
are creating an object for later use
in VideoScape you MUST select colors
from the VideoScape palette.  Look
under the OBJECT menu and make sure
the item labelled 'Use VideoScape 3D
Palette' is checkmarked.  There are
actually 8 ROT-type palettes. Cycle
through them by clicking on the
'CHANGE SHADES' button. This is only
visible when the 'Use VideoScape 3D
Palette' item is not checkmarked.

The three views of your object have
their X, Y, and Z axes labelled. The
arrows by each letter point in the
positive direction along each axis.
Click on an arrow to shift the whole
object in that direction. Three of
the arrows have minus signs next to
them; they'll move the object back.

Using the OBJECT menu you can save
your object in VideoScape 3D or ROT
format. Note that you cannot load a
VideoScape object. When making one,
you should save it as a ROT object
too.  Then if you want to make some
changes, load the ROT version, edit
it, and save it both as a VideoScape
object and in ROT format again.

The other items in the OBJECT menu
allow you to erase the whole object,
select the VideoScape palette or the
ROT type, and choose between having
all of the polygons visible or just
the current one.  The latter option
is handy when working on a complex
object.

The last item, 'Set Scale Factor',
is used primarily with VideoScape 3D
objects.  It brings up a requester
for specifying a scaling factor that
will be applied to all coordinates.
The 'Limits' line shows the range of
coord values that will be possible
with a given scale factor. Note the
factor is also applied to the coords
displayed below the point slider.

       ---The Action Editor---

The 'action' or mini-movie you will
create is 24 frames or steps long.
Select the frame to work on with the
frame slider to the bottom-left of
the screen. The object will be drawn
according to the parameters you set
in the Rotations and Translations
gadgets. To change a value, click on
it and type in what you wish. The
values are checked to make sure they
fall within acceptable limits. The
object is then redrawn according to
your new parameters. By making small
changes from one frame to the next
your object will appear to move. For
example, suppose the Y-rotation is
set to 0 in frame 0, 15 in frame 1,
30 in frame 2, and so on until you
hit frame 23 when it will be 345. If
you now click the 'PREVIEW' button
the object will rotate around the Y
axis. You can adjust the speed of
the action with the speed slider on
the right of the screen. By changing
other X, Y, & Z parameters you can
make the object go through all sorts
of weird and wonderful contortions.

To make the action play continuously
look in the ACTION menu and select
'Repeat at end'. A checkmark shows
when this is activated. Now hit PLAY
and the object will spin until you
click on 'STOP'. Another option in
the menu is 'Reverse at end'. With
this activated, the frames will be
shown from first to last and back to
the first again.
The next item in the ACTION menu is
'Calc between...'. With this you can
have the program calculate and draw
a group of frames. When you select
it a requester will pop up asking
for the first and last frame numbers
of the group. Click on the digits to
change them. For each frame between,
the program will calculate the X, Y,
& Z parameters to get from the first
frame to the last. For example, set
the Y-rotation of frame 0 to zero
and frame 12's to 180. Select 'Calc
between...' and set the start & end
frame numbers to 0 and 12. Click on
'DO IT!' and each frame inbetween is
given a larger & larger Y-rotation.
Now set the Y-rotation of frame 23
to 345 and 'Calc between...' frames
12 and 23. You should now have a
smooth rotation about the Y axis.
When calculating steps of rotation,
the direction D3D chooses is the one
that will move the object through
the smallest angle. If the starting
frame is set to zero degrees and the
last frame to 270, the object will
be rotated -90 degrees, not +270.
This is why the example above was
done in two parts. If you tried to
'Calc between...' frames 0 and 23,
D3D would have rotated the object
-15 degrees. (Actually, due to
rounding errors, all frames but the
last would have had a 0 Y-rotation.)

When the frames are played back each
one is drawn on top of the previous
frame, thereby erasing it. But if
you use too large an X-translation
with a large object, the frames will
not overlap very much and a 'trail'
is left on the screen. To fix this
use smaller steps of X-translation
or reduce the size of the object.
(apply a Z-translation to make the
object seem further away.)

Select the ACTION menu's last item
to save the current frame in an IFF
format.  The resulting file can be
loaded as a 'Window' in Aegis Images
or a 'Brush' in Deluxe Paint.  Note
that the background surrounding the
object is drawn with color number 3.
As a result, it may not come out as
'transparent' but as solid black.
Use the paint program to flood-fill
the background area with color zero.

When you switch to the Object Editor
and back to the Action Editor, D3D
assumes you must have changed the
object in some way, so the frames it
has are not accurate any more. When
you click 'PREVIEW' the program will
first recalculate each frame before
showing the action. This will also
happen if you load an action from
disk.

       ---Designer 3D demo---

There should be a demo object and
action on this disk. The object is
called 'RobotHead' and the action is
'ShakeHead'. Try loading these to
see what D3D can do.

         ***HAVE FUN!***