Apophysis 3D Tutorials

Scripts

Apophysis 3D uses script files that are text files that end in .asc

Here is my first Script package. It contains a very simple but useful script which rotates the Pitch angle between 0 degrees and 90 degrees, with another option for 60 degrees. It helps the designer to examine the Flame Fractal from different directions as parameters are being tweaked to see what shapes if any are developing in 3D.

Place the script file in the same folder as your Apo 3D program. Open the program and find the Menu button on the top that says, "Scripts." Select the option to <Open>, navigate to the "Rotate Pitch" script and double click it. To run the script use that option in the Script Menu drop-down, or click the small green triangle near the top of the main program panel.

Note, if you don't see the small green triangle, you may need to enlarge the window for the program so all the control buttons can appear.

The package includes full size renders of a sample Flame, the actual .flame files for the included stereo pair, example images showing what to expect and text information about using the script. The link below opens a new browser window or tab and links to the Mini Tutorial on my devART gallery site.

Tips and Tricks for Apo 3D

What to do about…

While designing a 3D flame, the side view shows a white line right through the center of the flame. Other parts of the flame visible in the preview might already show features that you like, but that line across the middle won’t go away. What can be done about it?

The line is due to looking at the edge of a flat plane on which some portion of your flame is drawn. Views other than the side view might have similar lines if it happens to be an Edge-on view of a rotated plane. Each white line is associated with a specific transform. More than one line might exist in the same place.

Identification – The first helpful step is to identify which transforms are producing the visible lines/planes-on-edge. Often several of them are on the same plane which causes them to look like one line and dealing with one still leaves others behind. The more transforms you have, the more flat planes might exist or coexist on the original central XY plane.

An easy way to identify them is to go through each transform one by one and perform some simple tests.

For this example let’s assume you have a flame with 4 transforms. I will further assume for purposes of this tutorial that you’ve looked at the side view and something of interest in 3D already exists – whether as part of a random flame, or you’ve changed parameters to make it pop dimensionally, or you designed a flame by hand with 3D shapes in it.

In the Adjust panel (F5) set Pitch = 90 degrees. Unless the flame is otherwise rotated, this will give you a direct side view. Some part of your current flame will seem like a line. That is the XY plane.

Open the Transform Editor (F4) and make sure it is pointing to the first transform (red).

Click the Variations tab and scroll through your list until you find ztranslate.

Double click in the number column to the right of the variation name. This toggles the value between 0 and 1. I will assume that this value is likely 0 to begin with, but some transforms may have a value in the box already. If it does, make a note of that value so you can return it to that value later.

Watch your preview window and notice what feature moves. If part of your 3D image moves, double click the ztranslate again to return it zero or enter a value if it had a unique value to start with.

If the white line or part of the white line jumps up in the preview window, you know that this transform controls that bit of flatness. You can leave it moved for now if there is more white line to identify.

Proceed to transforms 2 (yellow), 3 (green), and 4 (turquoise) and repeat the test with ztranslate.

Now you know where the flatness is. Next is what to do about it.

There are a few basic things that can be done.

If you’re still designing your flame, go to each bit of flatness ie. the transform associated with each, and attempt to expand it into 3D by exploring variations which create shape.

If that seems unsuccessful then try deleting the transform and watch to make sure it doesn’t make other changes in your flame that you don’t want. If it just goes away and the things you like are still there, you’ve succeeded.

If deleting it makes unwanted changes elsewhere, use the <undo> to restore the transform, then enter a large value (positive or negative) in ztranslate so that the white line moves up or down far enough to be out of visibility in your rendering.

Enable a Final Transform (FX) in the Transform Editor. Go to the post_rotate_x and the post_rotate_y parameters and adjust them just enough to tilt that flat plane so it is no longer a line. However, this tends to enlarge the view of that feature, but it's no longer the disturbing line through your image.

Finally, if you don't want to tilt things and you don't want to make other changes as suggested so far there is one more option. Go ahead and render the image and then open the finished render in an image editing program. Select a half of the image that is on one side of the offending line, and move it just enough to cover the line. Make sure to keep all other visual elements aligned.

Remember that if you expand the bits of flatness, you can position the results wherever you like in the up/down range by tweaking the ztranslate value.

Remember to save parameters whenever you see a significant change that you want to perhaps return to later.

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