1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
|
<chapter id="UserInterface">
<chapterinfo>
<author><firstname>Anders</firstname> <surname>Dahnielson</surname></author>
</chapterinfo>
<title>User Interface</title>
<sect1 id="UserInterfaceIntroduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="ApplicationWindow">
<title>Application Window</title>
<para>
The Application Window is open at all times while you run &k3d;. Closing the Application Window
ends your &k3d; session. You can use the Application Window to create new Documents and open
existing ones; record macros and tutorials; play scripts; and edit your user Preferences.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Application Window</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/application.png"/>
</figure>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="DocumentWindow">
<title>Document Window</title>
<para>
You can have as many &k3d; Documents open at a time as you like. Just as &k3d; has an Application
Window that remains open while the program is running, every open Document has an associated
Document Window that remains open while you work on it. One of the most important sections of the
Document Window is the Objects list, which displays all of the &k3d; Objects within your document.
</para>
<note>
<para>
The Document Window functionality will be replaced and extended by the DAG Window in the future.
Giving you a better overview and control of your &k3d; documents.
</para>
</note>
<figure float="1">
<title>Document Window</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/document-objects.png"/>
</figure>
<sect2>
<title>Transport Controls</title>
<para>
Note the Transport Controls at the bottom of the Document Window, which are used to preview your
animations before rendering. Each Document has a View Time that controls which moment within the
time slice is visible within Camera Viewports. By using the Transport Controls to manipulate the View
Time, you can preview an animation before rendering.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="objects">
<title>Objects</title>
<para>
Each &k3d; Document you create is made up of &k3d; Objects, and Objects is a list of Objects
in a Document.
</para>
<para>
We can Highlight objects by clicking the Left Mouse Button on them within the Hierarchy, highlighting
refers only to the object's appearance within the Hierarchy. We can Highlight multiple objects by
holding-down CTRL while clicking on them.
</para>
<para>
The operation we're most likely to want to perform on an object after it's been created is to examine and alter
its Properties. To do so, we simply Highlight the Object and hit the "Edit" Button. All of the controls and menus
that you see in the Hierarchy apply to Highlighted objects.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="undo_redo">
<title>Undo / Redo</title>
<para>
An important feature in &k3d; is its unlimited Undo / Redo system, which should encourage you to
experiment with new ideas, while giving you the ability to easily undo mistakes. The Undo Stack
displays a list of changes to your Document as you make them.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Document Undo / Redo</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/document-undo.png"/>
</figure>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="tools">
<title>Available Plugins</title>
<para>
All &k3d;'s available plugin objects are listed here. It can either be a visual object like a sphere, or a object
that just influence other objects in the scene. Objects has also properties that can be connected to other objects,
or animated by channels.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Available Plugins</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/document-plugins.png"/>
</figure>
<para>
See <xref linkend="Plugins"/> for more details about the available plugin objects.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="OptionsDialog">
<title>Options</title>
<sect2>
<title>User Interface</title>
<para>
The options dialog holds various global options for the &k3d; application. You can use the User Interface panel to set &k3d;
to load a regular &k3d; document as template every time you create a new scene.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Options User Interface</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/options-userinterface.png"/>
<informaltable frame='none'>
<tgroup cols='2'>
<tbody>
<row><entry>Start Blackbox Recorder Automatically At Startup:</entry><entry>Toggle if you want the blackbox recorder to log (great when filing bug reports)</entry></row>
<row><entry>Show Tutorials At Startup:</entry><entry>Toggle if you want the tutorial window to pop up when starting</entry></row>
<row><entry>Restore Window Size/Position:</entry><entry>Toggle if you want &k3d; to remember the placement of windows</entry></row>
<row><entry>Template Document:</entry><entry>Specify a template document to be used for all new documents</entry></row>
<row><entry>Preferred Language:</entry><entry>Specify the preferred language that will be used if a translation is aviable</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</figure>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Render Engines</title>
<para>
In the Render Engines you choose what RenderMan compliant renderer you want to use in the RenderManEngine by default.
&k3d; currently supports <ulink url="http://www.aqsis.com/">Aqsis</ulink>, BMRT (no longer available),
<ulink url="https://renderman.pixar.com">PRMan</ulink>, NetPRMan, <ulink url="http://www.3delight.com/">3Delight</ulink>,
<ulink url="http://www.dotcsw.com/rdc.html">RenderDotC</ulink> and <ulink url="http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~okan/Pixie/pixie.htm">Pixie</ulink>;
note that Aqsis and Pixie is the only free (as is freedom) renderers.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Options Render Engines</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/options-renderengines.png"/>
</figure>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Applications</title>
<para>
In the Applications panel you will find options for various external helping applications used
by &k3d; to process content.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Options Applications</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/options-applications.png"/>
<informaltable frame='none'>
<tgroup cols='2'>
<tbody>
<row><entry>HTML Viewer:</entry><entry>Browser to be used when viewing HTML documents.</entry></row>
<row><entry>Bitmap Viewer:</entry><entry>Image Viewer to be used to view bitmaps</entry></row>
<row><entry>Shading Language Preprocessor:</entry><entry>Preprocessor to be used for shaders</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</figure>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Paths</title>
<para>
The Render Farm Path point to a directory that &k3d; will use to store RIB and image files
when rendering previews.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Options Paths</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/options-paths.png"/>
</figure>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="CommandNodeInspector">
<title>Command Node Inspector</title>
<para>
The command node instpector will display the current component object model (COM)
available for scripting.
</para>
<figure float="1">
<title>Command Node Inspector</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/commandnodeinspector.png"/>
</figure>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="ScriptEditor">
<title>Script Editor</title>
<para>
The script editor is a small built in text editor for convenient editing of scripts.
<figure float="1">
<title>Script Editor</title>
<graphic fileref="./figures/userinterface/scripteditor.png"/>
</figure>
Use the file menu to open and save scripts. Use the play button to run the script in the
text buffer.
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
|
