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Using Bitmaps


When you load an image, a bunch of options appear:

The best way to understand the different options is to play with them and look at the results. But I'll try and exmplain them here.

Two images can be loaded: the first ('Image') will be used to define the object's colors. The second one ('Height Image') can be used to give some volume to the object. The points that are black in the height image will be behind, and those that are white will be in front. The slider 'Height Amplitude' control the object's thickness.

The two boxes 'X Points' and 'Y Points' define the number of points to use for the object, on the horizontal and vertical axes, repectively. The default value is 32. For the horizontal axis, you can select 32, the default, 'same as image' (that takes the number of pixels of the given image), or any other value. For the vertical axis, you can select 'proportionnal', the default, that takes the number of points of the horizontal axis, and apply the image's aspect ratio to determine the number of points to use. You can also select 'same as X', 'same as image', or give a number

If you select the 'Proportionnal object' option (as it is by default) the image's aspect ratio will be respected to build the object. If you deselect it, the object will be a square.

If you select the 'Ignore black points' option, the toolkit won't create points corresponding to the black pixels of the image. It can be useful with images with a black background (such as the given 3DMorph.png).

The 'order' menu sets the order the points are generated in. It won't change the aspect of the object, but the aspect of the morphings with other objects.

Finally, the 'plane' menu lets you change the plane the object is put into.

If you want to play with the given 3DMorph.png file, the best parameters are X Points: same as image, Y Points: same as image, Proportionnal object on, Ignore black points on.

Be careful with the number of points if you ask too much, 3DMorph will eat all your CPU. 100x100 points should really be a maximum.


Next: 3DMorph Toolkit classes