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FELIXONLINE RENDERIN G Manual | Oktober 2009



FELIX

www.stack-studios.com

Index

3 Introduction

4 Quick start

4 Installation

4 Modeling tips

5 Worklow

5 How to optimize your credits

6 FELIX GUI

6 Keyboard shortcuts

7 How to import 3D models

9 The Projects Tab

10 3D VIEW window

11 The PROJECT window

14 The RENDER LIST window

15 The IMAGE VIEWER window

16 The Material Setup Tab17 The MATERIALS window

18 The LAYERS window

19 The Material Editor Tab

20 The TEXTURES window

21 Materials and Environments editing

22 The MATERIALS window

23 The EDITOR |MATERIALS| window

24 The ENVIRONMENTS window25 The EDITOR |ENVIRONMENTS| window

27 Addendum

27 Environments

31 People and Trees in FELIX

32 TEXTURE MAPPING



FELIX


Introduction

FELIX is an online rendering sotware developed and specically designed or architects, designers and engineers.

FELIX can import and handle 3D models rom the majority o modeling programs, such as 3DMAX, Rhino, Blender, Silo,

Sketchup FormZ, Autocad, etc. You don’t have to pay or a license in order to use FELIX, you only pay or what you use.

The technology used in FELIX dramatically reduces start-up costs, computational times and learning curve steepness.

FELIX is based on what is known as “Cloud Computing Architecture”. This means that FELIX is connected online to a

big data center, where it:

■ computes renderings using Maxwell Render rom Next Limit

■ stores the renderings, 3D models, materials and settings in a sae location

■ gives the user access to a huge shared materials library

FELIX uses a non-destructive workow that guarantees data integrity over time. Felix’s output ormat stores within it

all the inormation regarding geometry, materials, lights etc. This inormation is stored in a way that can be recovered

and restored at any time and provide a complete backup or a scene.



FELIX Quick start | 4


Quick start

Installation

Firewall

Please reer to your rewall documentation or contact your system administrator.

Advanced rewall conguration

In order to work with FELIX, Internet ports 80 and 7975 must be kept open.

However, it is possible to restrict the access to IP numbers held only by FELIX.

At the moment these numbers are:

■ 79.136.118.194

■ 79.136.118.195

■ 79.136.118.196

Reading / Writing rights

FELIX must be congured with complete read/ write rights in its installation olders.

Modeling tips

FELIX can import 3D ormats rom many 3D programs, such as 3DMAX, Rhino, Blender, Silo, Sketchup, FormZ etc. For

optimal nal resuIts, you should keep in mind a ew tips during the polygonal meshes lay out:

■ The models must be measured in meters

■ Always place your scene near the Cartesian Coordinate System’s origin

■ The models must contain less than 3 million polygons

■ Light sources must be laid out as 3D geometries.

They must be modeled in a scene embedded with polygons “normals” pointed towards the light direction axis

■ It is usually more convenient to organize and name your layers ollowing a surace-material basis

■ Every geometry must be saved in one o the ollowing ormats: lwo, 3ds, obj or mxs

■ Every part o the model to which a transparent or translucent surace-material has been applied must be a water-

tight mesh in order to avoid artiacts and unrealistic behavior ■ When dealing with architectural projects (and only or these), it is useul to model the window panes without

thickness. Once a transparent material has been assigned, FELIX allows the option to extrude it. It is important to

remember in these cases that nothing in the layer should have a thickness other than zero.





Workflow

FELIX’s workow consists o 4 steps: ■ Importing 3D models

■ Set up views

■ Set up environments

■ Assigning materials

■ Final rendering

■ More experienced users can also create their own materials and environments

How to optimize your credits

As already mentioned, there is no sotware license to pay with FELIX, but you pay only or what you use, which is

measured in credits. The amount o credits depends on the ollowing actors:

■ Final image resolution

■ Final image quality

■ Rendering speed

The cost in credits or each rendering is shown on the right side o the PROJECTS Window.

By selecting Render speed 2X rom the menu bar, you double the rendering speed, and thereore, the use o credits

also increases by 50%. Note: rendering speed has absolutely no eect on the quality o images.

Thereore, it is advisable to lower the resolution, the quality and the speed or rendering tests. For example, a test

image with a resolution o 600 x 300 px, quality 1, speed 1X, will cost 0.28 credits (or credits cost please reer to...)

Also keep in mind the dierence in noise perception that exists between images with the same quality level but di-

erent resolutions: the visible noise in a 600 x 300 px image can be irrelevant in a 4000 x 2000 px image.

For nal renderings o outdoor scenes in natural light a quality level set on 2 is usually sufcient. Set the quality level

on 3 only or images in major presentations. It is recommended to set the quality level on 3 or 4 or nal renderings

o indoor scenes with articial light.

Unlike other sotware, with FELIX rendering times do not increase signicantly with more light sources. Instead, a

larger number o light points helps to reduce the overall noise o the images.

The appropriate quality level or a nal product design rendering may change depending on the lighting setup and

surace-materials.





FELIX GUI

FELIX’s user interace consists o three Tabs which correspond to the sotware’s three main working areas: Projects,Material Setup and Material Editor. In order to access a Tab, its name must be selected rom the menu bar.

The menu bar consists o the ollowing items:

■ Import | imports 3D models with le ormats, such as lwo, mxs, obj and 3ds

■ Save | saves the current FELIX scenes. I changes have been made to more than one project hitting the Save key saves them

all.

■ Projects | gives access to the Projects Tab

■ Material Setup | gives access to the Material Setup Tab

■ Material Editor | gives access to the Material Editor Tab

■ Options | changes passwords, checks credit amounts and provides inormation about current scenes

■ Render Speed | increases rendering speed

■ Render | starts any render listed in the Render Queue

Keyboard shortcuts

Generic

■ Ctrl + r | rereshes the 3D model in a current scene

3D VIEW window

■ r + Rmb | rotates the camera

■ r + Lmb | tilts the camera

■ o + Lmb | orbits camera around a selected object

■ y + Lmb | moves camera back and orth

■ n + Lmb | rotates environment and Maxwell's physical sky

■ d + Mouse Click on a point in the scene | automatically sets up camera ocal distance

■ j + Mouse Click on a point in the scene | moves camera to that particular point

■ h | aligns camera to the horizon

■ q | switches back to the last saved view





How to import 3D models

Any imported 3D model is stored in a database in FELIX’s servers and must be saved in the Projects olders in orderto keep the archive organized. In FELIX, imported 3D models are called Scenes.

Once the import command is completed, the scene is displayed as a 3D geometry in the 3D VIEW window and as an

archive in the PROJECTS window.

Note: Projects are to be considered like olders. Their purpose is to keep a scene well-organized and to make the work

ow easier. The “Scene” itsel is where actual inormation is stored, i.e. geometries, materials, lighting and views.

In order to import a 3D model, click on Import in the menu bar to open the import tab.

Use le Browser to select the object to be imported.

It must be saved in one o the ollowing ormats: lwo, obj, 3ds, mxs.

All the embedded scene layers will be shown in the Import window.

Note: I the layer's nomenclature doesn't match your needs, the exportation values must be fxed using the original modeling sotware.





The last step or a correct scene import is to choose the right option

rom the our available ones on the lower part o the Import tab:

■

ADD NEW PROJECT|creates a resh new scene inside a new project

■ ADD SCENE TO PROJECT | creates a new scene inside an existing project

■ ADD ON EXISTING SCENE |updates the 3D model o an existing scene

■ ADD TO CURRENT SCENE | updates the 3D model in the current scene

The options ADD ON EXISTING SCENE and ADD TO CURRENT SCENE will substitute existing layers with newly

imported ones in order to avoid duplicates in the scene.

Examples:

The rst image shows the model currently used by FELIX.

The second image shows the model that has been xed by the modeling sotware in use.

The third image shows the model updated in FELIX. Elements A and B have not been duplicated because the layers

have been completely replaced.

Note: Beore using the keyboard shortcut | CTRL + R | to update the current scene in FELIX make sure that the fle

previously exported rom your modeling sotware has been overwritten.

3D model used in FELIX 3D model modication outside o FELIX 3D model updated in FELIX without duplicates



FELIX Il Tab Project | 9


Te Projects ab

By deault, FELIX opens up with the Project Tab on at startup.

From the Project tab, the user can:

■ Access any project

■ Navigate inside a 3D scene

■ Set up the raming o a scene

■ Choose camera parameters

■ Assign environments

■ Send render jobs to the data center

■ View the rendering output

3DVIEW window

PROJECTS window

IMAGE VIEWER window

RENDER LIST window





3D VIEW window

The 3D VIEW window allows the user to modiy the raming o a scene and “Camera” parameters. The camera be-

haves like a real world camera: the user can set ocal distance, zoom actor (Focal length), diaphragm (F Stop) and

exposure time (Shutter Speed).

Main unctions o the 3D VIEW window

■ Lmb | moves the camera back and orth or rom let to right (on the horizontal plane)

■ Rmb | moves the camera up and down (on the vertical plane)

■ r + Lmb | orbits the camera

■ o + Lmb | orbits the camera around a selected object in the scene

■ + Lmb | zoom in or out

■ d + Lmb | sets the camera ocus on a particular object in the scene

■ h | aligns the camera to the horizon

Focal length, Focal Distance, F Stop and Shutter Speed can also be adjusted with the assigned sliders in Camera

Parameters roll out.

The small icons on the top right are selection tools.

Note: Since FELIX’s camera works like a real camera, it makes images bright or dark according to the Aperture time.

I the image is too dark, just increase the exposure time rather than the intensity o light sources. Exposure time is

measured in ractions o a second. A value o 120 (1/120 o a second) thereore means a longer exposure time than

1200 (1/1200 o a second).

Texture alignment tools (pagg. 32)Camera parametersScene orientation3D scene





The PROJECT window

The PROJECTS window gives the user access to projects and scenes.

The window consists o our columns. The rst three columns rom the let allow the user to scroll through the lists

o Projects, Scenes and related View. The ourth column, Render Queue, serves to start and control the rendering

progress. To switch rom one project to another just click on its name with Lmb.

Main unctions o the Project column

Click on a project name with Rmb and choose:

■ HIDE | Hide a project rom the list ■ SHOW | Unhide a hidden project

Main unctions o the Scene column

Click with Rmb on a scene name and choose:

■ MATERIAL COPY, MATERIAL PASTE | copy & paste materials rom one scene to another

■ SCENE HISTORY |retrieve inormation rom earlier versions o the same scene

the projects column the scenes column Render Queue

Environment Options - Rmb over a view

render quality resolution credit cost





Main unctions o the View column

■ Adjust the quality level o an image by dragging the mouse with Lmb pressed over the “Quality” graphic slider on

top o the View column. Note: the quality level is determined by the amount o noise in the image: the lower thenoise, the higher the quality. It is recommended to keep the quality level at 1 (i.e. a single white square) when doing

rendering tests and to increase it aterwards to obtain the fnal image.

■ It is possible to increase image resolution in increments o 100 PX by dragging the mouse with Lmb pressed over

the View numeric slider.

■ Double click on a resolution numeric value to manually change it.

■ When you are ready to start rendering, drag any View item rom the View column to the Render Queue column.

Click on Render on the right side o the menu to start the rendering job.

Note: On the right side o every View there is a number (by deault 1 credit) that represents the cost (in credits) o an

image. The higher the quality and the resolution the higher the number o credits.

By clicking with Rmb on any View item in the list, a menu with the ollowing commands opens up:

■ ADD NEW | REMOVE | REMOVE ALL | add or remove Views rom the list

■ CLONE | clone a View

■ CAMERA | set up position, orientation and al l camera parameters

■ RESOLUTION | choose the resolution o the image

■ ENVIRONMENT | assign, copy or edit the environment.

Note: see ENVIRONMENT LIBRARY SETUP below





ENVIRONMENTS LIBRARY SETUP

To assign a particular environment to a view, just click with Rmb on the listed view and choose ENVIRONMENTS,

ENVIRONMENT LIBRARY. THE ENVIRONMENT LIBRARY SETUP opens up allowing the user to browse the environ-ment library and to select the settings to be assigned to the view.

Main functions of the Render Queue column

By clicking with Rmb on a view item in the Render Queue column a menu opens up with the ollowing commands:

■ FORCE DONE |terminates the rendering beore reaching the assigned quality level

■ REMOVE | deletes a view rom the render queue (only beore starting the rendering job)





The RENDER LIST window

Use the RENDER LIST window to browse rendered images. The most recent ones are highlighted in green.

Main unctions o the RENDER LIST window

Click on the column names to lter the listed images according to Project, Scene or View name.

The maximum number o images shown drag + Lmb to increase or lower the value) can be set on the upper right

hand corner o the window

Click with Rmb on an image in the RENDER LIST and choose IMAGE DETAIL. This command opens a tab with a sum-

mary o all the meta-data related to that image: materials set up, camera parameters, environment and 3D model. It

is possible to copy and paste these settings onto dierent scenes.

image listing lters





The IMAGE VIEWER window

The IMAGE VIEWER window allows the user to view the image selected rom the RENDER LIST.

As previously mentioned, FELIX’s image-ormat is not a simple bitmap, and thereore, the images in FELIX provide

a complete backup or a scene. FELIX’s images are made up o a unique ormat that contains all the inormation

regarding a particular scene (geometry, materials, camera, lights, environment). This inormation can be retrieved

and copied at any time. To put it simply, this image ormat guarantees a 100% non-destructive workow.

Main unctions o the IMAGE VIEWER window ■ Zoom IN / Zoom OUT | zooms in/out o an image

■ Save Image | saves an image on the user's hard disk

■ Lmb on the upper let quadrant o the image and drag | copies camera parameters rom that image onto the cur-

rent scene

■ Lmb on the upper right quadrant o the image and drag | copies environment parameters rom that image onto the

current scene

■ Lmb on the lower let quadrant o the image and drag | copies materials rom that image onto the current scene

■ Lmb on the lower right quadrant o the image and drag | copies the 3D model rom that image onto the current

scene

image resolution

Lmb and drag in to

3D view to copy

camera parameters

Lmb and drag in to

3D view to copy

material pameters

Lmb and drag in to

3D view to copy

geometry data

Lmb and drag in to

3D view to copy

environment parameters

zoom save image to older



FELIX Il Tab Material Setup | 16


Te Material Setup ab

In the Material Setup tab, materials are set up and assigned to layers in the scene.

To assign a material just drag and drop it rom the MATERIALS window both on the desired layer

(in the LAYERS window) or on the object (in the 3D VIEW window).

3DVIEW window

LAYERS window

IMAGE VIEWER window

MATERIALS window





The MATERIALS window

The MATERIALS window gives the user access to FELIX’s material database.

It is divided into our main categories: architecture, design, emitters, people & trees.

■ Architecture |materials which have the appropriate size or architectural scenes ( i.e. rom about 2 to 18 meters)

■ Design | materials more suitable or close-ups (i.e. rom about 0,5 to 2 meters)

■ Emitters | materials emitting light (in FELIX, every object to which this kind o material is applied is automatically

turned into a light source)

■ People e trees | this category contains a unique material called Sprite. See below or more inormation

Main unctions o the MATERIALS window ■ Use the search lters at the bottom o the TEXTURES window to quickly rene searches

■ Hovering the mouse on a thumbnail gives access to inormation regarding the material,

such as the user who created it, the date it was created and its category

■ The text search allows the user to lter materials by user name and category

■ Rmb + Reload on a thumbnail reloads a thumbnail broken due to a network ailure

Categories Search History Category Pages Order by Rank

ThumbnailsSearch by name, user and ID Search lters

Reresh





The LAYERS window

The LAYERS window shows how the layers o the current scene have been named previously in the modeling sot-

ware. All the layers in a newly created scene have a deault material assigned (white opaque)

Any material assigned to a layer can be edited in basic mode (color, scale, smoothing) or in advanced mode (all the

typical Maxwell Render parameters)

Main unctions o the LAYERS window

■ Drag and Drop copies material rom one layer to another

■ Click on the white square on the let o the layer to make it visible/invisible ■ Click on the dark triangle on the let o the layer to switch between basic and advanced editing mode

■ Click on the Yes or Not toggle under the Layer Extrusion column to extrude geometries with no thickness.

The layer extrusion ag is available only when a transparent/translucent material is applied

■ Rmb + REMOVE LAYER | deletes a layer

■ Rmb + SELECT MATERIAL | shows the most updated version o a material in the MATERIALS window

■ Rmb + SHOW | Rmb + HIDE | isolates a layer in the 3D VIEW window

Layer state on/o Material Thumbnail

advanced material editing

Material description

basic material editing

Material sizesmoothing angle Layer name Layer extrusion

hidden rom camera hidden rom rays hidden rom GI



FELIX Il Tab Material Editor | 19


Te Material Editor ab

The Material Editor is where materials and environments are created and edited.Note that textures, materials and

environments in the library do not require space on the user’s hard disk because they are stored on FELIX’s servers..

Whenever a texture is imported or a material or environment is saved,

FELIX prompts the user to choose the desired level o sharing:

■ Private | private elements are accessible and visible only to the user who created themi

■ Protected | protected elements are accessible to all users belonging to the same FELIX contract

( i.e. all the users o the same company) and only to them

■ Public | public elements are accessible to every FELIX user worldwide and can be duplicated and edited

TEXTURES window

MATERIALS window

PREVIEW window

EDITOR window





The TEXTURES window

The TEXTURES window is where textures are imported. FELIX supports images in the ollowing ormats: JPG, PNG,

TIF, and EXR or the environments at a maximum resolution o 16 Megapixel. 8 bit indexed images are also supported.

When importing a texture, FELIX prompts the user to dene three points:

1| The category in which that texture ts the best:or example, or a plaster it would be architecture/acing/interior/plaster

2| The real world size o that texture: or example, 3 meters or a bitmap o a wall 3 meters wide

3| The level o sharing or that texture: Private, Protected o Public

Category and sharing level must also be dened or materials and environments.

Note that environments only work with EXR images.

Categories Search History Category Pages Order by Rank


Reresh





Main unctions o the TEXTURE window

■ Add New | adds a new texture. Choose Add New and then click to select a texture to browse the local hard drive

and locate the texture you would like to upload. Then dene its category, real world size and sharing level. ■ Edit | the Edit command behaves according to the selected texture in three dierent ways:

1| i the texture is owned by the user and imported in less than 48 hours, use Edit to replace the texture itsel with a

new one

2| i the texture is owned by the user and imported in more than 48 hours, use Edit to change its category, real

world size or sharing level

3| i the texture is not owned by the user, use Edit to move it to a more appropriate category. FELIX doesn’t delete

the previous location, but will put both (the previous one and the new one) in competition

■ Use the search lters at the bottom o the TEXTURES window to quickly rene searches.

■ Hovering the mouse on a thumbnail gives access to inormation regarding the texture, such as the user who cre-

ated it, the date it was created and its category

■ The text search allows the user to lter textures by user name and category


Materials and Environments editing

Materials and environments editing share the same windows.

To switch rom one to the other just click on the labels MATERIALS and ENVIRONMENTS.





The MATERIALS window

Materials can be created and edited in the Material window.

Funzioni principali della inestra MATERIALS

■ Add New | adds a new material. Creates a new thumbnail in the MATERIALS window and a corresponding new

layer in the EDITOR window. When a new material has been selected, clicking Add New copies in the new materialall the parameters o the selected one

■ Edit | changes the category and the sharing level o the selected material

■ Use the Search lters at the bottom o the MATERIALS window to quickly rene searches

■ Hovering the mouse on a thumbnail gives access to inormation regarding the material, such as the user who cre-

ated it, the date it was created and its category

■ The text search allows the user to lter materials according to user name and category


Search HistoryAdd New Edit Environment library Category Pages Order by Rank Reresh






The EDITOR |MATERIALS| window

Materials can be edited In the EDITOR window. Note: The FELIX material editor is based on the Maxwell Render mate-

rial system and they share most parameters.

Materials are made up o six dierent types o “layers” : BSDF, SSS, IOR, Emitter, Coating and Sprite.

For an in-depth look at how to create materials in FELIX please reer to…

■ BSDF | it’s the most common type o layer.

Most materials can be created with BSDF (plastics, metals, woods, marbles, stones, plasters, glass)

■ SSS | SSS layers are used to simulate translucency in materials such as wax, resins, liquids with solid residual, trans-

lucent plastics, paper, alabaster and more realistic marbles. They can be used alone or combined with BSDF, IOR and Coating layers

■ IOR | IOR materials are scanned rom real samples and their characteristics are described by numerical tables

(they are sometimes called NK materials)

■ Emitter | the emitter layer simulates light emitting materials (i.e. light sources)

■ Coating | coatings are like thin lms on top o every other layer. They are both transparent and highly reective.

They tend to create intererence and to simulate typical iris bows, such as in soap bubbles

■ Sprite | sprite is a material unique to FELIX. It is useul or creating mass instanced objects like people, trees etc.

with little eort

To apply a texture to a layer, just drag and drop it rom the TEXTURES window to any o the ollowing channels:

weight, R0, R90, trans, rough, AN, Angle and Bump.

Version History

LayersLayer blending mode (normal/additive)

Render preview Save into library





Main unctions o the MATERIAL EDITOR window

■ Rmb su L1 | adds a new layer to the current material

■

Rmb su L1 + Delete | removes the selected layer rom the current material ■ Render | renders a material sample

■ Save | saves the material in a library

Note: beore saving a new material FELIX will prompt the user to defne its category and sharing level. Only when

the material has been saved, will it be accessible to search engines and ready to be assigned to a Layer.

■ Rmb on the thumbnail | changes the size o the material sample in preview. Keep in mind that transparent and SSS

materials behave according to the size o the object to which they are applied

■ To delete a texture, just click on the “T” near the related channel

■ To adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation o a texture, click on the “E” near the related channel

■ To invert the luminosity and tint values o a texture, click on the “I” near the related channel

The ENVIRONMENTS window

Environments are created and edited in the ENVIRONMENTS window.

Categories Search History Category Pages Order by Rank Reresh

Search by name, user and ID Search lters





Funzioni principali della inestra ENVIRONMENTS

■ Add New | adds a new Environment. Creates a new thumbnail on the let o the ENVIRONMENTS window and an

empty Environment in the EDITOR window. When an environment has been selected, click Add New to copy allthe parameters o the selected environment into the new environment. This is the astest way to modiy existing

Environments.

■ Edit | changes the category and sharing level o the selected Environment

■ Use the search lters at the bottom o the ENVIRONMENTS window to quickly rene searches.

■ Hovering the mouse on a thumbnail gives access to inormation regarding the Environment, such as the user who

created it, the date it was created and its category

■ The text search allows the user to lter Environments by user name and category


The EDITOR |ENVIRONMENTS| window

In the EDITOR window, a new Environment can be created or an existing one can be modied.

Version HistoryRender preview Save into library

Layers





Environments are basically backgrounds that aect the lighting, reection and diraction o the scenes.

Unlike materials (which are assigned to layers in the scene), environments are assigned to views (link)

There are three types o backgrounds in FELIX:

Sky Dome a chosen solid color

Physical Sky Maxwell Render’s own physical sky

Texture a bitmap image

Any o these backgrounds can be used alone or in the ollowing combinations:

Texture + Sky Dome

Texture + Physical Sky

Main unctions o the EDITOR |ENVIRONMENTS| window

■ Click on the Sky or disabled channels box to activate one o three options: None, Sky Dome, Physical Sky.

■ Render | conducts a test rendering o a selected Environment

■ Save | saves an Environment in the library

Nota: Beore saving a new environment FELIX will prompt the user to defne its category and sharing level. Only

once an Environment has been saved will it be accessible to search engines and ready to be assigned to a scene.

Note: In the ADDENDUM section o the manual, there is a short-depth analysis o the Environment system.



FELIX Addendum | 27


Addendum

Environments

Environments in the ENVIROMENT LIBRARY SETUP

Environments are important in a scene because they aect it in so many ways: background, illumination, reections,

reractions. Unlike materials (which are assigned to layers in the scene), Environments are assigned to views.

To assign an environment just open the ENVIRONMENT LIBRARY SETUP rom the PROJECT window (see Main unctions

o the View column in it). It is possible to assign dierent Environments to various views o the same scene in order to test

dierent lighting setups.

Only the Environment has been changed in the ollowing three images.



FELIX Addendum | 28


How to create a new Environment

Choose Add New to create a new Environment. A new thumbnail will be created in the ENVIRONMENTS window

and an empty Environment in the EDITOR window. Only the textures in the “Environment” category can be used and

assigned to any channel in the Environment. For instance, a texture in the “Reection” channel will determine which

Environment will be reected by materials in the scene.

■ Use a texture in the Background channel to give a scene a backdrop

■ Use a texture in the Reection channel to aect reections in reective objects

■ Use a texture in the Reraction channel to aect reractions in transparent objects

■ Use a texture in the Illumination channel to light a scene

■ Select the option Sky Dome under Sky or disabled channels to assign solid colors to channels without a texture

■ Select the option Physical Sky under Sky or disabled channel to assign Maxwell Physical Sky to channels without

a texture

Use Sky or disabled channel to create “hybrid” Environments with both textures and Sky Dome or Physical Sky.

For every channel o the Environment system that has no texture assigned to it, the option “chosen” under

Sky or disabled channel is used. The only exception is when choosing Physical Sky: in this case, even i there is a

texture in the Illumination channel, the lighting in the scene comes rom both that texture and the Physical Sky

itsel.



FELIX Addendum | 29


SET-UP Examples

All channels have a texture. Sky or disabled channel is set to None. This is the most common Environment setup. Only textures aect the lighting o the scene.

Tutti i canali con una texture con Phisycal Sky selezionato dal box di “Sky or disabled channels”.

In questo caso l’environment è inuenzato dalle texture e dal sole del “Physical Sky”.

La unzione “Dene sun position” permette di orientare il sole acendolo combaciare con quello della texture.

All channels have a texture. Sky or disabled channel is set to Physical Sky.

In this case both textures and the sun o Physical Sky aect the scene.

It is possible to align the sun o the physical sky with the sun in the texture by using the option Defne sun position.

The reection channel has no texture. Sky or disabled channel is set to None.

In this case, there is no Environment reected in the scene.



FELIX Addendum | 30


The reection channel has no texture. Sky or disabled channel is set to Sky Dome.

In this case the reected Environment is a solid color.

No channel has a texture. Sky or disabled channel is set to Physical Sky.

In this case the environment is only the Maxwell Physical Sky.



FELIX Addendum | 31


People and Trees in FELIX

To place people and vegetation in a scene, FELIX provides an “easy to use” technology called “Sprite”. The ollowing example, shows how to use Sprites in FELIX.

How to insert 10 trees in a scene:

1| in the modeling sotware, create a “trees” layer with 10 simple triangles placed at the base o the trees and aligned

to the ground

2| in FELIX assign a Sprite material to the “trees” layer. This will instantly replace each triangle with a tree.

The “trees” layer beore the sprite material is assigned. The “trees” layer ater the Sprite material is assigned

You can also change the Sprite randomness Seed, vary its height H Var and control the height o each Sprite, Size

rom the advanced material editing.

NOTE: Since FELIX places any “Sprite” in the center o a triangle, the triangles must be laid-out horizontally and becoplanar to the surace on which they stand. In this way the triangles linked by sprites will not oat in the air.

Due to their nature, Sprite objects are not suitable or bird’s eye views or plans.



FELIX Addendum | 32


TEXTURES MAPPING

The icon bar at the top right o the 3D VIEW window contains the tools or polygon selection and texture alignment. The two main unctions o this tool-set is to correctly map textures on objects and to create sub materials.

The tool bar is divided into three categories:

■ selection tools

■ texture centering tools

■ texture alignment tools

The general workow or mapping a texture on a geometry is:

■ rst select the polygons to be mapped

■ dene the texture alignment on the polygons

Select single polygon

Select cooplanar connected polygons

Select cooplanar non connected polygons

Select connected polygons

Select layer

Select by smoothing angle

Select old selection

Deselect

Center texture to selection

Center texture to selection

Allign by X axis

Allign by XZ axis

Allign by single spline

Allign by two splines

Polygon selection tools

Polygon selection tools Texture centering tools

Texture allignment tools

Texture centering tools Texture allignment tools Exit editing mode



FELIX Addendum | 33


Selection Tools

Select single Polygon | click on one polygon to select it

IMAGE

Select cooplanar adiacent Polygons | click on one polygon toselect all the coplanar, as well as the adjacent polygons

IMAGE

Select cooplanar non adiacent Polygons | click on one

polygon to select all the coplanar polygons in that layer

IMAGE

Select connected Polygons | click on one polygon to also se-

lect all the connected polygons (i.e. polygons sharing vertices)

IMAGE

Select layer | click on one polygon to select all the polygons in

that layer

IMAGE

Select by smoothing angle | click on one polygon to select

curved suraces within an angle threshold

IMAGE



FELIX Addendum | 34


Every time a group o polygons is selected, FELIX stores it in a “selection group”. Select old selection allows you to

reselect the old selection group just by clicking on one o the elements in that group.

IMAGE

MAPPING TOOLS

Whenever a material with a texture is assigned to an object, FELIX applies a cubic mapping by “deault” to it. In most

cases, the deault cubic mapping works well and gives correct results. I the orientation o the deault mapping

needs to be modied, the ollowing unctions must be used:

■ Allign by XZ axis

■ Allign by two splines

The Allign by XZ axis unction allows the user to change the

orientation o the cubic mapping axis in three clicks or the se-

lected polygons. The rst two clicks dene the new X and Y axis,

the third click denes the new Z axis.

IMAGE

The Allign by two splines unction allows the user to change

the texture mapping with two path curves or the selected poly-

gons. The texture will stretch to ollow the given curves as long

as the geometry has enough subdivisions.

IMAGE



FELIX Addendum | 35

Use the unction Center texture to selection to center a texture on an object, and use Change texture origin to

align a texture seamlessly on the object’s edges. I these two unctions are disabled, FELIX will use the 0,0,0 point o the scene as the origin point or the texture.

Using the unction Center texture to selection.

Using the unction Change texture origin.

felix manual en

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