You can choose from a wide variety of image files, not just .PIC files. Click the arrow beside the File Types text box to see a list of the supported graphic file formats.
Loading (Creating) Sources and Clips
You can load as many image files into Softimage as you wish. For example, before beginning a scene you could load all of your images into the Sources folder so they are readily available to you in clip form.
Note that Softimage converts all image clips into linear floating point data. To accurately convert and render out each image clip, you can select the color space in which your original image was created. This indicates to mental ray how to convert (if necessary) the image clip from its current color space to the linear floating point color space, including whether or not any gamma correction data is stored. For more information, see the Color Profile options on the Adjust tab of the Image Clip Property Editor [Properties Reference].
As a convenience, you can also set a color profile preference that declares to mental ray the color space that you typically use to create your input images, so that by default, all newly created image clips will be converted accordingly. See the Color Profile options in the Rendering Preferences [Preference Reference].
The easiest way to create sources and clips is to drag and drop selected image files from an Softimage browser into the background of a viewport. This is particularly useful for importing a large number of images. On Windows, you can drag and drop from the Windows Explorer or a folder window.
If you want to create sources but not clips, open an explorer, set its scope to Sources/Clips, and drag the images directly onto the Sources node.
To create sources and clips from the Render toolbar
• Once a scene has been created or opened, choose Get > Clip from the Render toolbar. The menu offers you three choices for creating clips:
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If you choose... |
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Create Source from File |
A browser opens from which you can select an image file. Once a file is selected, an image source is created for it; as well, the image source property editor opens, in which you can rename the source. |
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A browser opens from which you can select an image file. Once a file is selected, an image source is created for it as well as an image clip immediately afterward. The image clip property editor opens, in which you can edit or manipulate the newly created image clip |
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Another sub-menu opens prompting you to select an existing source file to be copied as an image clip. Once a source is selected, the image clip property editor opens. You can use it to edit or manipulate the newly created image clip. |
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You can choose from a wide variety of image files, not just .PIC files. Click the arrow beside the File Types text box to see a list of the supported graphic file formats. |
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When using TIFF files as image clips, make sure to save them without LZW compression. LZW-compressed TIFFS are not supported by the mental ray renderer, and will not render correctly. |
A clip (or instance) of the image source is created every time it is used.
When you create a clip of a source (as described previously), it becomes available from any list of image clips in your scene. For example you can choose image clips from the Image menu in an Image shader’s property editor.
Some menus in Softimage give you access to both clips and sources. If you apply a source as a texture, for example, a clip is created from the source and that clip is applied, not the source itself.
Creating an Image Clip from a Sequence Texture
Instead of applying a static image file as a texture, you may want to apply an animated sequence as a texture to an object. For example, a raindrop sequence applied to a window.
To create an image clip from a sequence texture
• Do one of the following:
- Create a script with an SCR extension or a simple text file containing a series of picture file locations with absolute paths. Instead of creating a clip from an image file, use this script file.
or
- In the script editor, type the following:
CreateImageClip "<Path and sequence name>.[<first frame>..<last frame>].pic"
For example:
CreateImageClip "\\mymachine\000\sequence.[1..30].pic"
Deleting Unused Clips and Sources
As you develop your scene, it’s likely that you’ll end up with image sources and clips that you don’t use at all. Banish them from your scene using a couple of handy commands.
To delete unused clips and/or sources
• From the Render toolbar, choose one of the following:
- Clip > Delete Unused Image Sources to delete unused sources.
or
- Clip > Delete Unused Image Sources and Clips to delete both unused sources and unused clips.
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5