Composer

The purpose of this tutorial is to explain the tools, work space, and the function of Composer.

Composer is where you can render pictures or animation, and merge shapes or objects together to form one object.
The Work Space

Composer's work space is unlike any of the other work spaces. This work space is infinite and
in 3D with perspective. Everything in composer's work space is in wire frame, until rendered then
it becomes a 2D image or animation, don't let the expression 2D fool you, everything will still look in 3D after rendering.
But it actually becomes a 2D image or animation when rendered.
All the objects in the current project will be present in composer whether you made or imported them. They will all appear in the center (stacked on one another ) until you move them.
The view selections are the same as other work spaces, except instead of a custom view it's camera view.
There is no dual view in composer.

The grid at the bottom ( default views ) is called the floor. The floor is invisible when rendered.
It also can not be selected as the animated object.

But it can be moved around ( rotated, banked, zoom ) to different
camera angles. When you select and move the floor around you are actually moving the camera around.
All the objects will stay in place .
When you move the floor around you automatically go to camera view.

There are different colors wire frames. Here are what the colors represent
( Default settings )
Red is the selected object, If the object has been ghost it will be a darker red.
White, is a dormant object.
Yellow, is the animated object,or object that has been key framed, Yellow when it is not selected. Red when it is selected.
If the animated object has been ghost it will be a darker yellow .
Gray, is a ghost object
To change some of these default setting see my tutorial on the preference menu.


The View or Movement Tools

The view or movement tools work the same in composer as they so in the other work spaces.
But in composer they move the selected object around in 3D space, unless you select the floor then
they move the camera around in 3D space.

The move & zoom pull down menu works the same to.
But since this work space is infinite, you might not be able to fit all the objects
with the fit object option. Amorphium will try to fit all the objects in the work space,
Not just the selected object. So if they are spread out to far or are to large Amorphium won't be able to fit them.


The rotate & bank pull down menu works the same to.
But in Composer it rotates the selected object 90 or 180 degrees not the camera or view.
Locking axes will not effect the Front, Right, Top, Back, Left And Bottom options.
Locking axes will effect both the Rotate 90 degree options.
None of the options on the pull down menu will work on the floor.

Except instead of the potter's wheel option you have a Position option. Clicking it will bring up this menu.

Here you can place precise number values to position the selected object.
To learn more about this position menu, see my tutorial on Position Menu.


The Light and Axes

The sun or light works the same as all the other work spaces, except
the light lock option on the pull down menu only works on the floor.

The axes in composer use the front view as the set origin.
No matter what view your in, the axes stay the same as they are in front view.
So when you lock an axes and go to a view other then front view the selected object will
only move or rotate the same direction it would in front view.

Composer Key Frames

Key Frames are what let you make animation in Amorphium.
They tell Amorphium how the animated object all it's properties and light will transcend from one point to the next.
There are eight key frames.

To set one select the object to be animated, then click on the first key frame. Then position the object where
you want it to move to and set another key frame. Now you can render an animation of it, or you can set more key frames.
All property changes made between key frames will be recorded. So in other words you can
set a key frame then go to Tools & Distorts and distort the object go back to composer set another
key frame and Amorphium will record the changes made between the 2 key frames.
This can not be done to textures unless you use the paint option in Textures.
Once you set a key frame for an object, the key frame box will become highlighted and the selected
object wire frame will turn yellow when it is not selected.

To discard a key frame click the trash can symbol on the right side of the key frame.
If you try to set key frames for more than one object you will get this message.

To learn more about animating in Amorphium check out my tutorials on Animation.


Composer Tools

These are the Composer tools

Object

The object tools lets you select and manipulate objects.
You just click to use most of these options.

Previous and Next selects the previous or next object on the choose list.
( you can't see the choose list in composer)
When you come into compose the current object ( the object in the work space window )
will be the selected object (red wire frame) this determines were the list starts.
In other words if you have 10 objects on the choose list in Tools & Distorts And the 5th
one is the one in the work space. If you go to composer,that is the object that is selected ( in red wire frame )
Then if you click Next the 6th object on the choose list will be the selected object.
If you click Previous the 4th object on the choose list will be the selected object.
You can also select an object by clicking on the wire frame in the work space window.

Scale lets you size the selected object.

There is a number indicator in the upper right side which gives a read out from 1% to 100%
All objects scale starts at 50% so you can increase and decrees the size of it.
To use scale click hold and drag up and down.

Mirror rotates the object around the Y axes 180%.
But if you lock the Y axes it will rotate around the X axes 180%.

When you use mirror on an organic object you get this warning.

When you use mirror on an object that has a hierarchy or is part of a hierarchy you get this warning.

Drop to Floor
This command drops the selected object to the floor.

As soon as any part of the object touches the floor it stops.


Ghost lets you make an object invisible when rendered.
Comes in very handy when making models and merging.
to activate ghost on an object, place a check in the ghost box.
To turn the ghost off remove the check.
You can ghost as many objects in composer as you like.
Ghost wire frames are gray, when they are not selected, and dark red when they are selected.

Merge lets you merge 2 objects together into 1. When you use merge a new object is formed.
(you still have the original 2 objects)
To do a merge select one of the objects then click merge.
you will get this message
The new merged object will become the selected object.
You can merge as many objects or times as you like.
To learn more about merging see my tutorial on merging objects and merging tips.

Duplicate will duplicate the entire object, all suffice materials and optic settings.
The new or duplicated object will appear right on top of the old object and
become the selected object.

Delete will delete the selected object from the project.

When you use it you get this message.

Scene Controls

These controls effect the entire scene or work space.

The zoom tool lets you zoom in and out 1% to 100%
No matter what view your in this tool works the same.
The axes have nothing to do with this tool.

To use it click hold and drag up and down.
There is a number indicator in the upper right side.

Perspective puts the scene in an exaggerated perspective view.
To enable it place a check in it's box.
Checking perspective will automatically change whatever view your in to the camera view.
If you change views while in perspective, the perspective option will automatically become disable.

Scene Size Lets you adjust the size of the work space or the scene to be rendered.
The current scene size is displayed under it.

To change the scene size click on it.

A menu with some preset size options will appear.
Select one by clicking on it. Or you can create a custom size by clicking on custom

Type in the size you desire and click ok.


Environment
These options are only visible after the image or animation is rendered.

These are the environment options.

The background option lets you select a color or picture for the background.

To select a color right click and hold down on the color window ( the black box )
And a color swatch will appear, then drag to the desired color and release
.

Or you can click on the color wheel and a custom color maker swatch will appear.
After you select a color using either method the selected color will appear in the color window.

To use an image as a background click on open next to the background display window.
A open dialog box will appear and you can select an image from your computer to use.
A background picture will over ride the background color.

Amorphium can use most all standard image formats as backgrounds
Once you have selected an image it will appear in the background display window.
To remove a background image click on remove next to the background display window.
There are some options that lets you adjust the way the dimensions of the background picture are applied
on the preference menu. To learn about this see my tutorial on the preference menu.

The fog & smoke option lets you add fog and smoke to the image or animation.

To select a color click and hold down on the color window ( the black box )
And a color swatch will appear, then drag to the desired color and release

Or you can click on the color wheel and a custom color maker swatch will appear.

After you select a color using either method the selected color will appear in the color window.

After selecting a color, click on options to set the values for the fog or smoke.

A menu will appear that lets you set the values.

To learn more about this menu see my tutorial on other menus in Amorphium.
Using the fog & smoke options will slow down the render time.


Option Controls

Composer's option controls lets you set pacific properties that will be rendered.
They come in very handy when doing test renders, to speed up render time.
Or if you don't what a element to render you can disable it.
example if you don't what any shadows in the render, disable shadows here.
To enable any of these options place a check in it's box, to disable any remove the check.

Anti-aliasing, is the process of blending each pixel with the ones surrounding it.
Enabling anti-aliasing will make the render look much smoother, with less jagged edges.

Shadows, will render shadows in the whole scene according to the position of the light.
You can disable whether an individual object cast or receive shadows in Paint & Optics.
To learn how to do this see my tutorial on Paint & Optics or Menus in Amorphium.

Textures, will render the textures on all objects that have been textured in the Texture Work Space.

Back Picture, will render the background picture you loaded , without enabling this the background picture
you loaded will not be rendered. The background color will be rendered regardless if this is
enabled or disabled. If enabled the background picture will over ride the background color.

Fog & Smoke, will render the color and values you set in the fog & smoke environment option.


Compose

Compose is where render and save images and animation.
They are all used by clicking on them.

Save Picture will save the picture or current image in the work space.
If you don't render first save picture will save the wire frame view.

Selecting save picture will bring up a save dialog box, so you can save to your computer.

Compose Image will render the work space with all the options you have selected.
After rendering you can choose Save Picture to save the render

Compose movie will render an animation of all the key frames you set, with all the options you have selected.

If you select compose movie without setting any key frames brings up this error message.

Selecting compose movie after setting key frame brings up this menu.

This is where you set all the properties for the animation.
To learn more about this menu see my tutorial on Make Move Menu.

After setting up the animation properties, click ok and a save dialog window comes up
which lets you locate a place the animation will be saved to your computer.

After locating a location hit ok and Amorphium will start creating the animation.

If you select cancel or hit the Esc key while the animation is bring created
you get this error message.

To learn more about creating animation see the tutorials on Animation.

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