Render Bender
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Render bender
Overview
Render Bender is the generic name for this package which consists of four applications. These are:
- Illuminator - a graphical front end to Render Bender which enables you to create Render Bender files using a graphics program similar to Draw.
- Render Bender itself which is the Ray 'racing part of the package. This is now fully RISC OS compliant. It takes a file from Illuminator and generates a raw traced image.
- Animator - is an application that takes a sequence of screens, usually Render Bender but optionally any screens saved as sprites or using Clares screen compressor module, and delta compresses them to produce an animated sequence.
- Converter - converts a compressed screen into a sprite file and also enables you to extract individual screens from an animation file.
This whole package is a powerful 3D animation system that enables you to construct scenes using three dimensional objects and advanced ray tracing algorithms. Unlike the original Render Bender you no longer need to be a mathematical whizz kid. You can now use Illuminator to place objects on a scene much the same as Draw is used to create an image.
Illuminator enables you to create a series of frames manually or you can give it a start point followed by an end point and tell it to generate the frames in between.
Having created your outline frames using Illuminator you transfer the file to Render Bender where it is ray traced.
What is Ray Tracing ?
It sounds complicated but it is in fact very simple. If you create a ray traced picture, each pixel on the screen takes all relevant light sources and reflections into account. The resulting picture is absolutely correct according to the laws of physics and optics. All shadows, reflections and refractions are correctly calculated even if light is reflected off several surfaces. The picture that you create is just as it would appear if you created the scene using real objects and light sources.
Once the screens have been generated with Render Bender you can animate them using Animator to produce startling animated sequences.
If like me you hate reading manuals please do try to experiment but be warned. you will have to return to this manual as some things need explaining so that you get the best out of this package.
You might like to try producing an animation before reading this manual. To do this go to Appendix A and follow the instructions.
This manual is broken down into sections dealing with each of the applications in turn. They arc dealt with in the order required lo ultimately generate an animation, starting with Illuminator.
Note: See the ReadMe file on the program disc for an\ up to date information that has come to light after printing of this manual.
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