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Applying Appearances

Appearances add visual characteristics to models without adding the physical properties of materials.

Light cards scene applied - Default scene

Warm Kitchen scene applied

Hierarchy of Appearances

When you apply appearances to models, the following hierarchy prevails:

  • Component appearance (assemblies only) overrides face appearance.

  • Face appearance overrides feature appearance.

  • Feature appearance overrides body appearance.

  • Body appearance overrides part appearance.

You can determine the hierarchy of appearance from the callout. For example, an appearance specified for the face takes precedence over the appearance for the feature, body, or part. If no appearance is specified for the face, the feature appearance is used. If no appearance is specified for the feature, the body appearance is used.

Default plastic is used as the default appearance.

Appearance Properties

Colors

Appearances can include up to three layers, depending on the type of the 3D appearance. For example, a brick appearance has two colors, one for the brick and one for the mortar.

Only Procedural appearances have color properties that you can edit. The color of a 2D texture mapped appearance is determined by its associated image file.

Metallic

Include a metal layer and a bump mapping layer for the metallic structure.

Only appearances with an appearance Type of Multi-layer Paint or Car Paint on the Illumination tab provide the metallic appearance properties. These appearances are in the \miscellaneous folder by default.

Satin Finish

Satin finishes blur reflections of the surrounding reflective spherical environment and inter-reflections of objects in the scene.

 Anisotropic

Include properties that provide a type of shading that behaves differently when the appearance is rotated around the normal vector. For example, brushed aluminum looks different when seen in the brushing direction than when seen perpendicular to the brushing direction.

This tab is available only if the selected Procedural Appearance has anisotropic properties, for example Circular Burnished Aluminum.

To apply appearances:

  1. Click the Appearances/PhotoWorks tab in the Task Pane.

  2. From the Appearances tab , browse through the appearance folders on the top pane.

  3. Select a preview from the bottom panel and:

    • Drag the preview to the graphics area to apply the appearance only.

    • Alt + drag to apply the appearance and display the Appearances PropertyManager.

Display the Appearances PropertyManager later by clicking Appearances in the Heads-up View toolbar.

  1. On the pop-up toolbar, indicate where to apply the appearance, for example, the face, feature, body, or model. As you hover over the toolbar, you see a preview of the change.

  1. In the Appearances PropertyManager, select the Color/Image tab and apply the properties.

  2. Select any of the other tabs to apply the appropriate properties.

  3. Click .

Alternatively, select one or more items in the graphics area, display the Appearances tab in the Task Pane, and double-click an appearance preview.

Custom Appearances

You can modify predefined appearances and save them in the custom folder of the appearance Library.

  You can use Pack and Go when you send models with appearances, decals, scenes, or lighting, or you can select Save appearance in the Color/Image tab of the Appearances PropertyManager.

To save modified appearances:

  1. In the Appearances PropertyManager, select the Color/Image tab and apply the properties.

  2. Select any of the other tabs to apply the appropriate properties.

  3. From the Color/Image tab, click Save Appearance.

  4. In the Save As dialog box:

  • For Save in, accept the last folder visited or browse to an existing folder. Typical location is: <install_dir>\data\PhotoWorks\custom.

  • Type a name for File name. Options for File Locations allow use of different appearances with the same name.

  • Select Appearance Files (*.p2m) or All Files (*.*) for Save as type.

  1. Click Save.

    The file is saved and a new appearance is added to the Task Pane. Custom appearances display a blue folder.

Additional Custom Appearance Tasks

  • Delete a custom appearances folder. Right-click a custom folder in the Task Pane and select Delete to delete from the Task Pane and disk.

  • Delete an appearance. Right-click an appearance in a custom folder and select Delete to delete. This deletes the appearance from disk.



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