This is the standard Apple menu: select this command, and an info dialog pops up, showing some essential informations.
This is the standard File menu, by which you can manage Synth MooVier documents (note that printing functionality is not included).
The Movie menu lets you control movie production.
Setup... opens a dialog in which you can set the frame dimensions (width x height, in pixels), the movie quality (in frame/second) and the file type creator of the MooV documents produced (the default type corresponds to the Apple MoviePlayer).
Make... launches movie production (after asking you for the doc name), and shows a progress window in which every newly created frame is copied: remember that you cannot stop a movie in progress (unless you reset your Mac...), but you have to wait for Synth MooVier to finish.
make Preview... is the same of Make..., apart from the fact that your rendering settings are ignored, and every object is rendered in wireframe (much faster...).
The Window menu lets you control the application windows.
Selecting Goto will open a window in which you can get a preview of a selected instant of the movie; you set the time with the slider at the bottom, then you click the Go button and, after some seconds the result is shown. Checking quick make the preview in wireframe (much faster: recommended on slow machine).
The Tree View item opens the structure window: all solids are shown in a hierarchical view, with coordinate system as nodes, and solids as leaves. At the top you find four special actors (inserted by default): rooT is the base coordinate system (the "world" coordinate system), and cannot be modified (though it must be selected, in order to add some actors in the beginning). To select an actor, click on it (it will be hilited with a black frame).
The Actor menu is the heart of Synth MooVier; to add New actors, you must previously select a coordinate system in the Tree window.
When you select an actor (i.e. a solid or a user ref.system) in the Tree window, you can Modify it (this opens a dialog window for parameters setting), Clear it, or you can show its Parts window with Show Parts.
When the Parts window is opened, with Add Part you can add three types of parts: geometry (change in actor's position or dimensions), color or render type; for every part, you specify the start instant and the duration (in seconds).
In the Parts window, clicking on a part selects it. You can Edit the Part (that is, the attributes transformation), or you can Edit the Time (start and duration). You can also Remove the Part.
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2. Keyboard shortcuts
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- in the Tree Window:
double clicking on an actor opens the modify dialog;
option - double clicking on an actor opens its Parts Window.
- in the Parts Window:
double clicking on a part opens the modify dialog for the attribute section;
option - double clicking on a part opens the modify dialog for the time section.
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3. Actors' attributes
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All actors can have an associated label (string of char): an actor with an empty label cannot play any part (it's a static actor).
All attributes are set through modal dialogs (sorry).
Basically, giving a part means to define:
- the modified attribute(s);
- when the change begin;
- how long it takes to complete.
The new attribute(s) is set through a dialog similar to the creation dialog, except that color and rendering attributes for solids are treated seperately, and time fields are added to the dialog.
More parts for the same actor can be executed concurrently.
Coordinate System
The coord. system is described with six parameters: three for the position of the origin (X, Y, Z) and three for the rotation angles above the axes. Modifying one parameter affects all actors that belong directly to the coordinate system, included the other systems at a lower level in the hierarchy (because all actors' positions are given in term of coordinates relative to the coord. system itself).
Camera
The camera is described with six parameters: three for its position (in absolute coordinate, that is relative to rooT), one for pan angle, one for tilt angle, and one for focal length (in meters: 0.035 equals 35 mm).
To understand the relationships between them, see the figure in the User Manual, section 1.
Light
The light simulates a puntual source of light
One way to set its position is to give three parameters (X, Y, Z) in absolute coordinate (relative to rooT).
The other way is to check the Auto button in the dialog: this makes the light stick to the camera (even in its change of position), and gives often better results (because objects in the field of view are always correctly shaded).
Background
The background is set by giving the three RGB components of its color (red, green, blue with a value from 0 to 255).
Solids
Several type of solid primitives are available. Every solid has three color attributes (red, green and blue components with valid range 0-255), and a render attribute. Available rendering types are invisible (nothing is drawn), skeleton (a simplified wireframe shape is drawn), wireframe, and flat (removal of hidden surfaces is performed). The geometry attributes are peculiar of every solid type, and are listed below.
A sphere is defined by its ray length and its center position. The subdivision factor sets the number of facets used to approximate the spherical surface (a subdiv. factor of 5 means 5 subdivisions in latitude and 10 in longitude, resulting in 50 facets).
A parallelepiped is defined by four points, corresponding to four vertices as indicated in the figure below:
A prism is defined by two points (the base center and the top center), a ray length, the number of sides, and the cartesian plane in which the base and top sides lie.
A pyramid has the same definition of a prism, but the top point is now the vertex of the pyramid.
A trunc pyramid has the same definition of a prism, plus the t/b ratio (t/b stands for "top/base"); a t/b ratio of .5 means that the top side must be half of the base side.
