Inside TrueSpace 4

• Complete review by Caligari trueSpace Evangelist Terry Cotant
• Written by the leading trueSpace expert, Frank Rivera
• Officially endorsed by Caligari's President, Roman Ormandy, the creator of trueSpace
• The only professional level book available on trueSpace--the most popular low-priced 3D package on the market

Table of contents

• Introduction
  • Inside trueSpace4 Chapter by Chapter
  • Extra Goodies
  • Keep in Touch

Part I - Introduction

• Chapter 1 - What's New, Features at a Glance
  • Modeling
  • Animation
  • Render Engine
  • 3D Widgets and Menus
  • Other Improvements
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 2 - Getting in the Right State of Mind
  • Viewing the World Around Us
  • Viewing the World Through trueSpace
  • A Brief Look at the trueSpace Interface
  • 3D Object Construction Basics
  • About the Tutorials in This Book
  • The trueSpace Manual
  • Take the Time to Observe
  • Unbottle Those Creative Juices
  • Summary

Part II - Modeling

• Chapter 3 - Modeling
  • The trueSpace Modeling Environment
  • Selecting Vertices, Edges, and Faces
  • Manipulating Selected Surfaces: The Point Edit Panel
  • The Point Draw Tools
  • Away with Those Superfluous and Redundant Polygons
  • Modeling by Extruding Surfaces
  • Modeling with the Surface Sculpt Tool
  • Modeling and the Deform Object Tool
  • Modeling with Metaballs
  • Understanding NURBS
  • Modeling with NURBS
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 4 - Character Modeling
  • Modeling Frankenstein's Monster
  • The Simple Method
  • Modeling a Superhero from Spheres
  • Modeling the Human Form with Metaballs
  • Modeling a Cybernetic Marine from Simple Primitives
  • Summary

Part III - Surfacing and Texturing

• Chapter 5 - Surfacing
  • Surfacing 101
  • Surface Attributes: Exploring Reflective Surfaces
  • Understanding UV Space
  • UV Projection Per-Face
  • Surfacing Groups of Faces
  • Decaling
  • Procedural Textures
  • Adding Fine Details to Surfaces
  • Material Libraries
  • Selecting Images, Things to Consider
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 6 - Texture Creation and Management
  • Acquiring Images
  • Other People's Stuff
  • Post-Production Modifications
  • Creating Seamless Textures
  • Creating Bump Maps
  • Creating Alpha Channel Textures
  • Using Textures in trueSpace Scenes
  • Summary

Part IV - Animating

• Chapter 7 - Animation
  • Creating Your First Animation
  • Animating with Deform Primitives
  • Animating with the Deform Object Tools
  • Bones
  • Animating with Spline Paths
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 8 - Secrets of The KeyFrame Editor
  • KeyFrame Editor Basics
  • The Toolbar
  • The Object Tree
  • The Animation Track Pane
  • Editing Keyframes and Actions
  • Scene Keyframes
  • Function Curves
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 9 - Advanced Bones
  • Bones and Humanoid Characters
  • The Skeleton Panels
  • Editing Joints
  • Attaching Skin to Skeleton
  • Flexing Some Muscle
  • Attaching an Object to a Bone
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 10 - Character Animation
  • Plan, Plan, Plan Your Character First
  • Posing Your Characters
  • Animating Franky
  • Tweaking a Walk Cycle to Change a Character's Mood
  • Skeletal Animation and Reusability
  • Summary

Part V - Lighting and Camera

• Chapter 11 - Rendering Precursor, What Are Your Options
  • Understanding 3D Light
  • The Render Options Panel
  • The Radiosity Panel
  • Hybrid Radiosity
  • Preview Scene to File Panel
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 12 - Lighting in trueSpace
  • The Light Control Panel
  • Light Types in trueSpace4
  • The Ins and Outs of Shadows
  • Effective Lighting
  • Color and Mood
  • Putting It All Together
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 13 - Atmospheric Effects and Advanced Lighting
  • Creating Particle Effects
  • Enhancing Effects with Photoshop Filters
  • trueSpace4's Lens Flares and Glow
  • Effects Compositing
  • Object Generation for Atmospheric Effects
  • Using Shaders to Create Atmospheric Effects
  • Fog
  • Volumetric Lights
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 14 - Previsualizing Pyrotechnic Effects
  • Previsualization
  • The Explosion
  • The Aftermath
  • Black Rising Smoke
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 15 - Radiosity
  • Radiosity Basics
  • The Radiosity Panel
  • Working with Radiosity
  • Modeling Considerations
  • Correcting Radiosity Artifacts
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 16 - trueSpace Cinematography
  • The Camera Tool
  • Thinking Like a Cinematographer
  • Following the Action
  • Motion Blur
  • Summary

Part VI - Taking the Next Step

• Chapter 17 - Creating a Short Film
  • Tell a Story
  • The Storyboard
  • After the Storyboard: The Workflow
  • Budget
  • Managing The Tomb Project
  • How Does It End?
  • Summary
    
• Chapter 18 - Creating Your Very Own 3D Media Studio
  • Tools of the Trade
  • What Can Be Done in Your Digital Studio?
  • Input Devices: Working with the Real World
  • Output: The End Result
  • Summary

Part VII - Appendixes

• Appendix A - Creating Games
  • Games Are Serious Business
  • Game Design I: Refine Your Idea
  • Game Design II: Implementation
  • Target System Concerns
  • Summary
    
• Appendix B - Shading Formulas
  • Transparent Objects
  • Ceramics
  • Metals
    
• Appendix C - Getting Your Work Viewed by the Masses
  • Contests
  • Mass Market Videos
  • Magazines
    
• Appendix D - What's on the Resource CD
  • Actions
  • Adobe
  • Animator
  • Artbeats
  • VCE
  • Bitmap Genesis
  • Chapters
  • Codecs
  • DarkTree Textures
  • Exploder
  • Games
  • Images
  • Plug-ins and Filters
  • Textures
  • Marlin Studio
    
• Glossary of 3D terms
  
• Index