updated May 2008

by Julian MacDonald (comments and suggestions for improvements to this manual gratefully received via email)

Welcome to Art of Illusion, the all-in-one Open Source 3D modelling, animation and rendering studio
written by Peter Eastman (and others)


To learn more about the details of Art of Illusion, follow the links in the contents list below:



WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 2.6

1. Installation and Running
2. Art of Illusion Basics	2.1 Overview 2.2 Getting Started 2.2.1 Main Screen Layout 2.2.2 View Windows 2.2.3 Display Mode 2.2.4 Icons 2.2.5 Object List and Properties Pane	2.2.6 Hiding/Showing Objects 2.2.7 Grids 2.2.8 Coordinate Axes 2.2.9 File Menu 2.2.10 Edit Menu 2.2.11 Using Template Images 2.2.12 Keyboard Shortcuts
3. Modelling	3.1 Object Types 3.1.1 Primitives 3.1.2 Curves 3.1.3 Spline Meshes 3.1.4 Triangle Meshes 3.1.5 Skeletons 3.1.6 Tube Objects 3.1.7 Reference Image Planes 3.2 Modelling Tools 3.2.1 Array 3.2.2 Extrude	3.2.3 Lathe 3.2.4 Skin 3.2.5 Boolean 3.2.6 Tube 3.3 Editing Objects 3.3.1 Edit Object 3.3.2 Object Layout 3.3.3 Transforming Objects 3.3.4 Align Object 3.3.5 Rename Object 3.3.6 Copying Objects
4. Lights	4.1 Point lights 4.2 Directional lights 4.3 Spot lights	4.4 Lighting Effects 4.4.1 Realistic Light Sources 4.4.2 Slides, Cookies and Collimation
5. Textures and Materials	5.1 Textures 5.1.1 Uniform Textures 5.1.2 Image Mapped Textures 5.1.3 Procedural Textures 5.1.4 Assigning Simple Textures to Objects 5.1.5 UV Mapping 5.1.6 Using Layered Textures 5.1.7 Using Texture Parameters	5.2 Materials 5.2.1 Uniform Materials 5.2.2 Procedural Materials 5.2.3 Assigning Materials to Objects
6. Rendering	6.1 Cameras 6.1.1 Camera Options 6.1.2 Camera Filters 6.2 Environment Settings	6.3 Raster Engine 6.3.1 Raster Rendering Options 6.4 Raytracer Engine 6.4.1 Raytracer Basic Rendering Options 6.4.2 Global Illumination, Caustics and Subsurface Scattering 6.4.3 Advanced Settings 6.5 Saving Rendered Images
7. Animation	7.1 The Score 7.1.1 The Score Layout 7.1.2 Keyframes 7.2 Adding and Editing Tracks 7.2.1 Basic Rigid Transformation Tracks 7.2.2 Procedural Rigid Transformation Tracks 7.2.3 Pose Tracks and Skeletons 7.2.4 Distortion Tracks	7.2.5 Constraint Tracks 7.2.6 Visibility Tracks 7.2.7 Animating Textures 7.2.8 Editing Tracks 7.3 Previewing and Rendering Animations 7.3.1 Previewing Animations 7.3.2 Rendering Animations
8. Scripting	8.1 Object Scripts 8.2 Tool Scripts	8.3 Startup Scripts 8.4 Scripts and Plugins Manager