Color Control
You have already seen the COLOR Control Panel in earlier tutorial - Set Color and Texture.

In that tutorial you saw that the COLOR Control opens when you select Color   or Image   from the Action Panel.

The same Control Panel opens when you select the Texture action button from the Action Panel:

  Texture 

When you select any of the above Actions you will also be prompted with an additional dialog box to select the color or image/texture file.

The COLOR Control can define four color features that can be applied to a Segment of an Animoid:

• The main Color that's illuminated by the directional light.
  (This also acts as the background color to your texture file.)
• A texture Image file that's effectively wrapped around a Segment.
• A Highlight intensity that is effectively a white light that forms the shininess seen when the directional light reflects from your Animoid.
• An Ambient intensity that is effectively a (normally dim) white light that illuminates your Animoid from all directions.

1. By selecting an AnimoidTexture file (.texture) using the Texture button   .

2. By selecting a local image file (.gif or .jpeg) using the Image button   as described in the next sub-section.

Conventional Image files (.gif and .jpeg) (if suitably sized) can be loaded and used as is. However, they can also be converted to AnimoidTexture files as described below.

Setting (Texture) Image
To choose the image file for a texture, click on the Image button   and a standard File Chooser Dialog appears:

Just click on the image file (gif or jpeg) you want then click the Open button to accept it.

So far you have not change the texture of your Animoid. However, when you pick a texture from the Dialog, the area next to the Choose Image button changes:

This area is actually a button. You click this button then click on the Segment of your Animoid that you want textured.

When you click this set image area, the Action on next Pick field changes to say: set image. That reminds you that you will change the texture image of your Segment when you click on it.

Just start clicking on Segments of your Animoid to set the texture of the Segments.

Alternatively, press the Replace all button on the COLOR Control Panel to apply the selected colors and texture to all Segments.

If you decide you want to remove a previously set texture image , just click the (Remove) Image button   . Then click on the actual Segments to removed the texture image from your Animoid.

Note: A texture image file is just a normal gif or jpeg file (that you might create using Microsoft's MSPaint or download from a camera). Internally, ANIMOIDS converts your file to be square and it's size a power of 2. (But that's done automatically as of ANIMOIDS 2.2.04.)

Set Highlight and Ambient Intensity

Setting Highlight and Ambient intensity is quite different from setting the base color and texture. For Highlight and Ambient intensity you must first pick the required Animoid Segment. Then you use the two sliders to directly control the respective intensities:

Tips:

• You'll often find the Highlight intensity set at or near full scale. That often enhances the 3D appearance of your Animoids.
  
• The Ambient intensity should normally be set low, but not on zero. If you set this too high you'll wash out the main color of your Animoid.

The Replace all button on the COLOR Control Panel to apply the Highlight and Ambient intensity (as well as the selected primary color and texture) to all Segments.

Saving Images as Animoid Texture Files
The Animoid Texture files described here are the ANIMOIDS specific objects that appear in the Local Textures folder of the Options Panel or are opened from the Texture button   . These texture files may contain (or refer to) an image, the basic/background color and the Highlight and Ambient intensities.

These files let you package a set of color information that you can easily save and reuse.

Don't confuse a texture file (with extension .texture) with image files (extensions .gif, .jpeg, etc.). A texture file may contain an image, but it also contains other color information for use by Animoids.

The COLOR Control Panel provides three buttons to maintain these texture files:

Clicking the Load button (looks like a magnifying glass) copies the color and texture information from the currently selected Segment to the COLOR Control Panel. (You might use this to save someone else's texture as a texture file that you can then reuse on your own Animoids.)

Clicking the Open button (looks like a file folder) opens a load file dialog with a list of available texture files.

Clicking the Save As button (looks like a floppy disk) opens a save as dialog. From here you can update an existing texture file or create a new one simply by typing in the new file name.

Note: if you need to change the texture of an object during a Movie Scene you must use an AnimoidTexture (.texture) file. If you use a conventional image file (.gif or .jpg) you won't be able to upload your Movie Scene to animoids.com as a contest entry.

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the Edit Texture Coordinates tutorial.