Product Reviews

Detailer, from Fractal, is a clever application which allows designers to draw a 2D image onto a 3D surface. It uses a similar (although more limited) set of tools to its parent software, Painter, for simulating natural oil and water-based brushstrokes, including floaters and image nozzles.

What Detailer lacks in 2D sophistication, it makes up for in its ability to rapidly and accurately place drawings and imported photographic material onto complex and convoluted 3D surfaces.

Every animator knows that the complexity of geometry can be hinted at by clever texture mapping and time can be saved not only in the laborious creation of geometry but also in the computational process of rendering an image to file. In the simplest case, a wall with windows and doors can be placed (or mapped) onto a single polygon defined by four corner points. Despite its simplicity, this technique can give the viewer a convincing description of the wall.

However, the process of accurately applying a texture map to a surface that is not flat can prove to be a difficult task, involving many hours of adjustment and testing. Detailer gets round this by allowing the user to draw directly onto the surface of the 3D object.

The program imports models in the DXF, QuickDraw 3D, Poser and Ray Dream Designer formats. It also has a set of 3D primitives (cubes, spheres, cylinders and the like) that can be used as a base onto which texture maps can be created.

The models can be rotated and flipped to present the best possible view, and can be lit with a variety of individually coloured lights. Users can draw directly onto the 3D image or onto an adjacent 2D window. In either case, the effect of the drawing is instantly applied to the 3D surface.

Detailer offers a variety of texture-mapping methods that correspond to those typically used by 3D animators. The methods are cylindrical, spherical, planar (or pass-thru, as it is called here) and implicit (which uses implicit UV coordinates to line up points on the surface geometry with the texture map). Ray Dream Designer and other software exporting in Apple's 3DMF format support this technique.

There can be as many as 32 separate objects making up a particular

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model, with five different types of texture map applied to each object. The mapping types are Texture, to apply a typical image to a surface, Bump, to create the illusion of a perturbed surface, Highlight, Reflection and Glow that determine, by means of grey levels, the amount of these factors that are applied to particular areas of the model's surface. Lighter areas of the map amplify the effects of highlights, while reflections and glows and darker areas cause them to be reduced.

Detailer supports the use of text, which can be applied to a surface or left to float above it in a separate, movable layer.

If the user simply wants a 3D-looking 2D image, the model, with its texture maps applied, can be output as a single frame image in a variety of 2D formats at a specified resolution. But Detailer's real strength lies in its ability to export texture map data in conjunction with geometric information. Programs exploiting Apple's QuickDraw 3D format can make use of this information, as can other Fractal programs, such as Ray Dream Designer and Poser. The software also exports in 3D Studio format for PCs running Microsoft's Windows NT.

The look and feel of this program is similar to that of Painter. It has the same area selection tools, the same 'tools in a drawer' metaphor, floating layers and many, though not all, of the brush types found in Painter. Among the typical Painter tools missing in this beta version of Detailer are the airbrush and distortion effects, which are a delight to use in the parent program.

The frequently tedious process of adjusting texture maps to undulating geometry is simplified by the direct application of colour onto a 3D surface. Being able to switch between painting on a 3D model or a 2D surface while keeping the other dimensional view on screen simultaneously is certainly a boon. The user can rotate the 3D surface in space and adjust lighting with ease, making this a very friendly program.

It must be said that most animators don't want to paint onto the surface of their models. The purpose of texture mapping is to add real-world features (perhaps rust to a steel girder, flaking paint to a wall or a shadow to a floor) to a 3D model.

An interface that looked and felt more like Photoshop would have been a plus. That isn't to say that this software can't import photographic material and manipulate it in much the same way as Photoshop, but it is stuck with the beautiful but cumbersome Painter interface.

This is a great little program. With more of Painter's incredible features it will prove a real asset to 3D animators and 2D illustrators. It will change the way in which users approach the decoration of 3D models and, as more programs begin to exploit QuickDraw 3D, so the program will attract a wider user base.