Jimco Software Reviews - trueSpace 6.6 (continued)
There are so many modeling tools in trueSpace that I cannot possibly show you everything that's available. Suffice it to say that trueSpace offers professional modeling features in addition to features that are unique to trueSpace. One of my favorite tools in trueSpace is the tri-panel. The tri-panel is used for modeling an extruded curve and it lets you easily model many objects. In figure 7, I've modeled a 90-degree pipe easily in about 1 minute.
Figure 7 - The tri-panel makes modeling easy!
The tri-panel provides for a three-dimensional workspace with planes for each axis. By adjusting the path along each plane, you can easily modify a shape and perform complex modeling tasks in a very intuitive environment. The model in figure 7 began as a 2-dimensional circle and was then extruded into the shape that you see.
trueSpace's modeling tools only begin there. There are literally hundreds of ways that you can model any particular object and the only true way to get a feel for it is to use trueSpace. Fortunately, Caligari provides a demo version of trueSpace so that you can get your feet wet.
Materials
Many people new to 3D modeling focus on modeling as the most important aspect of a scene. In fact, modeling falls pretty far down on the list. Two things that are much more important are materials and lighting. A flawed model can look great if materials and lighting are applied well. An excellent model can look awful when materials and lighting are not good. Just look around you; very few objects in the real world are perfect in construction. The objects you create in trueSpace need not be perfect either.
trueSpace provides some excellent tools for applying materials (sometimes called textures) to objects. Whether you are applying procedural materials (materials that are computer generated) or bitmapped textures (i.e. wrapping an image around a 3D object), trueSpace will allow you to get just the results you are looking for.
Figure 8 shows the material palettes in trueSpace. I have chosen to preview the material inline in the material preview window. This is a configurable option. You can choose to see a preview of the material applied to a primitive, applied to the portion of the scene over which the preview window currently sits (as shown in figure 8), or you can choose to have the preview window display the entire scene.
Figure 8 - Applying and Editing Materials
Notice that the material in figure 8 is composed of a color channel (in this case, a bitmapped texture called corrode2 that ships with trueSpace), a bump channel (defined in this case with a bitmapped texture), and a reflectance channel. Changes can be made to each of these and the effect of that change will be immediately visible in the preview window. Once you are satisfied, you can apply the material to the object with the push of a button.