Simple Tutorial

Imagine is such a powerful program, that you can't expect to
jump straight in and start creating complicated
masterpieces. There are many different editors, tools and
options to get to grips with: and it will take you a long,
long time before you understand them all.

The good news is that you don't need to know everything in
order to make pictures. You can render images which still
look great even though you only know a tiny percentage of
what is possible.

Creating images with Imagine can take a long time, and it
makes a big difference if you have a fast Amiga with lots of
memory. The basic rule is that you can never have too much
ram or a processor which goes too fast. In order to keep
your rendering times to a minimum, stick to small
resolutions such as 320 by 256 and Scanline rendering mode
to start with.



Step by Step Guide



(fig 1)

When you start Imagine you will be left at the title
screen. To start, you either need to load a project you
started earlier, or create a new one from scratch. Let's
make a new one. You will be promped for a name so enter
something sensible...


(fig 2)


You will now be at the Project Editor screen. This is where
the image rendering is controlled from: however, we haven't
got anything to render yet.  So there is little point
hanging around here. Use the menu to go to the Detail
Editor.

(fig 3)

The Detail Editor looks a little dull to start with, but we
can soon change that. From the Object menu, select Load and
look in the directory called Objects. Select the object
called Cow.


(fig 4) (add arrows!)


When it has loaded, you'll see a wire-frame representation
of a cow. Surprise suprise! Click on the A button to rotate
the solid model, and Z to Zoom in and out. The right mouse
button also helps when rotating.

(fig 5)

Now use the Quickrender option from the Project menu. The
default settings will do fine, so click on OK. Quickrender
will create a solid, rendered image of the wireframe model
so you can see what it will look like when it's finished.

(fig 6)

Let's start to make a scene. Press F1 to highlight the Cow
object (all objects must be highlighted before they can be
changed) and select Delete from the Object menu. From the
same menu, select Add and Ground. This is a quick way to
create a useful solid surface. It doesn't look like much!

(fig 7)

Highlight the ground (press F1) and then select Attributes
from the Functions menu. You should send up with a
display like this. This is how you can alter the appearance
of objects by changing their colour or texture. You can also
paste other IFF drawings onto them  as "brushes".

(fig 8)

Click on the Colour button and adjust the sliders to make a
nice grass green colour. The other parameters control how
the object will react to light, for the moment the default
settings will do. If you have a fast Amiga, try adding a
texture: click on the texture button, find the textures
directory and load one such as "crumpled". Again, the
default settings will do nicely.

(fig 9)

Save the object we have created to disk. Normally you should
save all the objects associated with a particular project in
the project directory. Everytime you start a project a new
directory is created.

(fig 10)

Let's move to the Stage Editor. Use the Project menu to get
there. This is where all the objects we have created and
adjusted in the Detail editor are positioned, and light
sources are added. Load in the Cow and Ground objects from
the Object/Load option Unfortunately, the Cow and Ground
aren't quite in the right position. It may look fine in the
perspective view, but change the mode from Wireframe to
Solid in the Display menu and you will see the problem.

(fig 11)

Highlight the ground -- if the cow is highlighted instead,
use the Find Requestor from the Pick/Select menu -- and move
it. To ¸move it, press M and drag it with the mouse. Position
t under the Cow.

(fig 12)

Before you can perform a Quick Render you will need to add a
light source: use the Add / Lightsource option from the
Object menu. Highlight the light and move it high above
scene. Press Right Amiga and I and Right Amiga and O to zoom
In and Out so you can put the light at a suitable distance.

(fig 13)

Now highlight the camera and move it back a bit. Select
CameraView from the Display menu so you can "see" what the
camera is pointing at. To make it point at the Cow, press
Right Amiga and T (for Track). You will need to enter the
name of the cow object (which is actually "HIDE" -- use the
Find Requestor option in Pick/Select to confirm this).

(fig 14) (add arrow)

Select "Save All Changes" from the Project menu, and move to
the Action editor. This editor is mostly used during
animation, but there is a very important requestor here: the
Globals Editor. Click on the red dot -- the globals actor
setting. 

(fig 15) 

Copy the settings until they look like those in the diagram.
This will add some extra lighting and a nice blue
background. Save all changes and head for the Project
Editor.


(fig 16)

Before you can render an image you need to create a
rendering sub-project, so click on New and enter a name. The
default settings will do for now, although you may want to
make the screen 256 lines high.


(fig 17)

Highlight the "1" bar by clicking on it, and then click on
Generate. When the palette requestor appears select the
first option. After a few moments the render will have been
completed, and you can view your 3D Cow.