Load. This button allows you to load an image or movie to use as a map.
To load animations consisting of sequentially numbered files, locate and load the first file; Strata 3D will load all other sequentially numbered files with the same name that are present within the same folder.
Play Movie. This button displays the animation playback window and plays the movie specified in the Map field.
The animation playback window doesn't support sequentially numbered images. However, sequentially numbered images are acceptable formats for use as maps, even though they can't be viewed from this dialog.
View Scale. You can scale the view of the selected map to one of the values listed in the pop-up list.
Image Size. The pixel size and the scale of the image are displayed to the right of the View Scale pop-up.
Track. This field lists all tracks in the current movie. If no movie is present, this field is not available.
Playback. This pop-up controls how the movie plays back. Available choices are: Once, Loop and Back and Forth.
Frame rate. You can select a frame rate for the movie from this field. This pop-up is not available if no movie is present.
Sample. This pop-up lets you specify how the pixels within the image are sampled:
· Direct. Pixels in the image are left as is. No interpolation takes place. You may want to select this option if the map you're using is sized to fit the object correctly. However, if you zoom in too close, the image will appear pixelated.
· Smooth. Pixels are interpolated (values of adjoining pixels are averaged together) to produce a smoother appearance. If you're going to zoom in close to the surface of the object that this texture is applied to, selecting this option will create a smoother appearance.
Color Depth. You can select a color depth for the image or animation from this pop-up list. Reducing the color depth saves memory. A color map stored as a 32-bit image requires four times more memory than an eight-bit color map. However, if you change the color depth, then save and close your model, when you open your model again, you'll need to re-load the map to revert to its original color depth.
Orientation. You can change the orientation of the map. The Orientation pop-up includes the following choices: Normal, Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical, and Flip Both.
Invert. The Invert checkbox is used to invert the map. This feature can be very useful. For example, if you want the light areas of a map to become the depressions in the surface of an object, rather than the high areas, you simply invert the grayscale map and use it as the new bump map. Color maps can also be inverted.
Color/Grayscale. These buttons indicate the status of the currently loaded map. You can change a color map to a grayscale map by clicking the Grayscale button.
When you click the OK button, the dialog closes and the map appears in the appropriate place in the texture editing dialog.