FLAMINGO CHEAT SHEET FOR ES 305 CLASS 5 Pages of Fresh Flamingo Goodness

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1 FLAMINGO CHEAT SHEET FOR ES 305 CLASS 5 Pages of Fresh Flamingo Goodness *Keep this PDF with you at all times it will help you to maneuver the vast and confusing ocean that is the Flamingo Materials Editor! RENDERING Raytrace Rendering This mode tends to work well for studio lighting scenes like product shots, automobiles, booth structures, and other freestanding objects. Sythetic lighting effects are often desired to accentuate parts of the objects. This mode also has a strong focus on reflections and refractions. Photometric Rendering This mode works well for interior and exterior architectural scenes since there tends to be a broad range of lighting effects in an image. It captures subtle differences in light and can render realistic scenes over a broad range of lighting conditions. Penguin Rendering Penguin is a conceptual, sketch and cartoon, non-photometric scan line renderer. With Penguin you can create stylized images of your models with an artistic look for enhanced graphic and visual appeal. MOVING/SAVING/UPDATING FILES (Flamingo>Utilities>Transport Model & Materials ) Flamingo Transport Since you are working on multiple computers (home, lab, etc), you will need to use Flamingo Transport in order to transfer all materials which you have created or edited. The FlamingoTransport command creates a new folder, a copy of the model, a separate material library for the model, and copies all the images needed for the materials, decals, and environment backgrounds to the folder. Since Flamingo looks first in the current model folder for its materials and images, opening the new model will automatically use these libraries and images for rendering. 1. Only do this ONCE you are finished working on that computer 2. Create a new folder on the desktop. Name it after your project. 3. Flamingo>Utilities>Transport Model & Materials 4. Point the file to the folder you just created on the desktop. 5. A.3DM file will be created in the folder and upon opening it, the.3dm file will release a Flamingo Transport Folder within that same folder 6. You should only have to do this once, because from here on out, you should be using this folder and all of its contents. Every time you save, a pop-up window should state that the new files/materials created during that work session have been added to your custom material library.

2 MATERIALS (Flamingo>Materials ) *All of the following procedures can be found in the material editor, which you bring up by either creating a new material or editing an existing one. Bump Map A way to enhance the 3-D appearance of the material is to use an image to create relief, which can be set between -1 and 1. Bump maps create simulated shadows and highlights on the surface. When creating materials with bump mapping, it is common to use two different images, one colored and another matching image that is a grayscale only. The grayscale image creates only the textured appearance, while the color image is used as the actual material. Since the height of bump is determined by the relative lightness and darkness of the color of the image, it is often a good idea to use a grayscale version of your colored image so you can control which areas are dark and which are light. Procedural Bump Materials like stucco, concrete, and clay have a fine texture. It s probably not worth scanning a piece of the material to make a bitmap for it unless you are going to view it at close range. That s why Flamingo has this small collection of pre-created bump textures for you to use. Image Map Image maps are two-dimensional patterns created using raster-based paint programs or by scanning photographs or other materials. The resolution of the bitmap controls the possible detail of the material. The higher the resolution, the closer you can look at the material without a loss of detail. BUT the higher the resolution, the more memory the rendering will take. To get the correct scale, calculate how much material in real units the bitmap represents. For example, if you have made a bitmap of squares that represent one inch, and your bitmap has ten squares on each side, you would scale this bitmap to ten inches in each direction. Base This is the basic attribute for a simple material. It is the foundation on which you build your material. The Base Color setting on the Main tab sets the local color for the material. The material s Base Color is used for the material s matte reflection and transparency. Transparency The Transparency setting lets you change the material from Opaque to Transparent. You can also control the Index of Refraction, Attenuation, and Transparent Finish. Using Transparency increases rendering time. This is how you would create glass/water like materials. Reflection This lets you vary the way a material reflects light from completely matte to completely mirrorlike. The reflection slider in Flamingo controls reflection effects and an effect called highlight. At the Matte end of the slider, a material mainly has a highlight, making it appear glossy.

3 Self-Luminance The Self-Luminance setting makes the material to appear to glow. The material will not actually cast light on other objects, however. Highlight The Highlight setting controls the glossiness of a material. Use Highlight for plastics and glossy materials that you do not want to be reflective, but want to have a glossy finish. Mask The Mask procedure uses bitmap images, usually consisting of black and white patterns that define where two component materials called Base and Masked will show. The Base component will be placed where there is white in the bitmap pattern, and the Masked component will be placed where there is black in the bitmap pattern. The resolution of the mask bitmap affects the quality of the material. One advantage of using a Mask procedure is that you can use the same pattern and substitute different colors for the pattern elements. Procedural Materials This is what almost every pre-made material in the library would be labeled as. Procedural materials combine two or more material components to form a new material using a specific method. Each of these component materials can in turn consist of a procedure, combining two components of its own. In this way, extremely elaborate materials can be built from simpler components. ENVIRONMENT (Flamingo>Environment ) Background Color Think of the background as an infinite sphere surrounding the model. Background colors, and images are projected onto this sphere to create sky or backdrop effects. Background Image This can be a photograph, art work, or an image created with a paint program. Using this tool can help you to place a model into a photograph or add a city or mountain backdrop to your scene. You can map the image to a planar, cylindrical, or spherical shape. Like always, use high-resolution images for background images. It is also a good idea to blur and lighten sharp images to simulate natural focus and aerial perspective. Clouds Flamingo can project mathematically generated clouds onto the background sphere. The procedural cloud background works only if you are viewing the model in perspective mode. The sun must be on. Procedural clouds do not cast shadows on the ground. To create cloud shadows, place opaque or translucent surfaces out of sight above the ground. Two types of clouds are available: 3-D clouds and sheet clouds. Clouds look more natural if you simulate the natural movement of the winds. It is possible to model different cloud types using sheet clouds alone. As you might gather from this explanation, the clouds do not always look realistic, and should always be used as a backdrop image in the distance.

4 Haze The haze setting can produce effects ranging from slight depth cues to dense fog. The color of the solid color background determines the color of the haze. I ve had mixed luck with this setting, as again it is a mathematical equation which Flamingo calculates. The haze setting depends on the scale of the model. If you are modeling a coffee cup and viewing it from several feet away, you need to use large haze values for the effect to become apparent. If you are modeling a large building, small haze values will be readily apparent. Alpha Channel The alpha channel setting lets you save alpha channel to the background in the image. When you save to a format such as TIFF (.tif) that supports alpha channel, you can manipulate the background in image processing programs. Ground Plane A ground plane makes a platform for the image that stretches to the horizon in all directions positioned at an elevation you define. A ground plane renders much faster than using a surface as a background. You can assign any Flamingo material to the ground plane. The ground plane only appears in a raytraced image; it does not appear in the model or in a radiosity solution. To help you visualize where the ground plane will appear in the rendering, set the Rhino Grid extents to a large value. PLANTS (Flamingo>Plants ) Plants Flamingo s landscaping feature provides a library of plants you can use to add detail to your images. While plants are very realistic in Flamingo, you are not allowed to use them until the final project. FLAMINGO (Object Properties>Flamingo) Transparency Style Thick Use this to make your object look like a solid piece of cast glass Thin - Use this to make your object look like a glass museum case Cast Shadows - When checked, that object will cast shadows. When unchecked, that object will not cast a shadow in the rendered image. Mapping & Tiling If you have an image/material that needs to be mapped differently than the default (ie: if you have a sphere or cylinder), adjust it here. DECALS (Object Properties>Decals) Decals are bitmap images that are placed directly on an area of an object, unlike a material that covers the whole object. Think of this as a sticker you would place on an object, whether that be transparent, bumpy, or colorful.

5 Some uses for decals include: Hanging artwork on interior walls. Placing labels or logos on products. Adding signs to the model. Types of Decal Mapping: Planar mapping You ll use this type of mapping the most. It tends to work mainly on flat or gently curved objects. Think of a sticker on a box or the pattern on a carpet. Cylindrical mapping Use this for placing decals onto objects that curve in just one direction, such as cans, glasses, or bottles. Spherical mapping The spherical mapping type is tricky, but useful for placing decals onto objects that curve in two directions. In order to properly do this, one must create an image which would perfectly wrap the object. The spherical projection maps the bitmap onto the mapping sphere with the bitmap s vertical axis (height), curving from pole to pole, and the horizontal axis curving around the equator. This is best used for balls, globes, etc UV mapping This procedure stretches the image to fit the entire surface. The mapping is determined by the direction of the UV s. This is best used for organic surfaces like plants, animals, or humans (faces, skin, hair, etc ). WAVES (Object Properties>Waves) You can add waves or ripples to any object. Waves are modeled using bump mapping. This technique changes the way the material reflects and refracts light, without altering the model geometry. The result is a synthetic ripple illusion on an object s surface you would probably use this with water, cloth, or sand.

6 Water without waves Water with waves GET USED TO THIS WINDOW!!!! Thick Transparency VS. Thin Transparency