3D Sphere PRO - v1.2,  (c) 2007 Richard Rosenman Advertising & Design. Release date: 10/19/03, Updated 09/05/07.



INSTALLATION:

Simply unzip "3dspherepro.zip" and copy "3dspherepro.8bf" to your "\Photoshop\Plug-Ins\" folder, or whichever plugin folder your host program uses. Load your program, open an image, go to the plugins menu and select the plugin.



INSTALLATION FOR REGISTERED USERS:

If you have registered your copy of 3D Sphere PRO, simply place the license file you have received via email into THE SAME FOLDER AS YOUR "3dspherepro.8bf" FILE. This is very important as placing the license file in a different folder than the one it currently resides in will not switch your copy of 3D Sphere PRO to REGISTERED mode. As an example, if you followed the steps outlined in the above INSTALLATION section, you would also place the license file into the "\Photoshop\Plug-Ins\" folder.



REGISTRATION:

If you would like to register 3D Sphere PRO, please visit http://www.richardrosenman.com



LICENSING:

You may freely download the plugin and try it as much as you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, by whomever you want, while in DEMO mode. Once registered, ONE (1) 3D Sphere PRO license entitles ANY user to UNLIMITED use of the software, for an INDEFINITE period of time, on ONE (1) workstation ONLY. Currently, there is no floating license option. If you wish to use 3D Sphere PRO on multiple workstations such as in a studio environment, multiple licenses are required for EACH node.



3D SPHERE PRO 1.0 FEATURE SET:


•Fully customizable 3D sphere generator with object, surface, lighting, transparency and masking configuration support.

•Full texture mapping support including user defined image maps and/or 66 pre-configured procedural texture maps. Ability to combine pre-configured procedural maps with user defined image maps.

•Full UVW mapping support including scaling, offsetting, tiling, flipping and rotational transformations. Any and/or all UVW transformations can be enabled/disabled for each map channel (Texture, Lighting, Transparency, Masking, Diffuse Color C, Forced Background Map).

•Edge-aliasing support.

•Fully user-configurable sub-pixel sampling support including Nearest Neighbor, Bisquare, Bicosine, Bilinear, and Bicubic interpolation.

•Full color control including additive and subtractive operations as well as self-illumination and ambiance color control.

•Optional texture map generation capabilities for external program support.

•User configurable specular control.

•Full lighting control including position, intensity, backlight and inversion support as well as 32 pre-configured procedural lighting effects.

•Full transparency control including color, background or texture map specific capabilities. 

•Full masking control including color, background or texture map specific capabilities.

•Statistical information output.

•Optional color inversion control for any/all maps.

•Global and local resets.

•Full Saving/loading support.

•Image and display settings information window.

•Complete previewing optimization control for FAST display such as realtime (on mouse drag) or non-realtime (on mouse release) previewing, in conjunction with resolution controllable (per-row) control (eg. Apply an effect in realtime to every third line of resolution.), as well as standard zoom preview options. 



DESCRIPTION:


This filter generates 3D spheres. 


Sphere Properties
-----------------

This is where you define all the geometric properties of the sphere.

Radius: Controls the radius (size) of the sphere. The default radius during startup is set to the minimum horizontal or vertical screen resolution - whichever is smaller. For example, if your workspace is 1024x384, the default sphere radius of 50 will equal 384 pixels. Radius increases will slow down rendering while radius decreases will speed it up.

Axis X: Controls (in percentage) the horizontal placement of the sphere. This means that -100% will place the sphere's center at the left hand side of the screen (pixel 0) while +100% will place it at the right side (pixel MAX-X-Res).

Axis Y: Controls (in percentage) the vertical placement of the sphere. This means that -100% will place the sphere's center at the top side of the screen (pixel 0) while +100% will place it at the bottom side (pixel MAX-Y-Res).

Ellipse: Controls the horizontal and vertical elliptical properties of the sphere. Increasing this variable will stretch the sphere horizontally while decreasing it will stretch the sphere vertically.

Cone/Flat: Controls the cone and flat properties of the sphere. Increasing this variable will produce flattened, button-like spheres while decreasing it will produce sharp, pointed spheres, much like a cone.

Reset: Resets all 'Sphere Properties' controls to default.


Rendering Properties
--------------------

This is where you define all the surface properties of the sphere.

Diffuse A: Defines the diffuse (general) color of the sphere. This is by default the color of the sphere.

Diffuse (Swap): Swaps diffuse color A with diffuse color B.

Diffuse B: Defines the alternate diffuse (general) color of the sphere. This is the secondary diffuse color which is often combined with Diffuse A for most procedural texture maps.

Maps (Var): This variable controls various properties of each of the procedural texture maps. For example, it will control the number of tiles for gradients, the brightness of the background map, the size of checkers, the center of a two-color stripe, and much, much more. For other procedural textures which don't require user input, it may be ineffective. It is encouraged to be played with but try to keep it at 0 when switching from one procedural texture to another as most maps are set to work best with this default setting. 

Maps (i): Inverts the texture map. (Color).

Maps (dropdown): This specifies which procedural texture map to use for texture mapping. 3D Sphere PRO currently supports 66 procedural textures and many more are slated for future releases.

•Diffuse Color A
•Diffuse Color B
•Background
•Horiz Grad
•Vert Grad
•Diag Grad1
•Diag Grad2
•Radial Grad
•Ellipsoid Grad
•Pyramidal Grad
•Beam Grad
•Angular Grad
•Star Grad
•Quart. Pyramidal Grad1
•Quart. Pyramidal Grad2
•Quart. Radial
•Horiz Duotone
•Vert Duotone
•Horiz Duo Stripe
•Vert Duo Stripe
•Cells
•Checkers
•Grid
•Mix Diffuse A&B
•Mix Diffuse A&BG
•Mix Diffuse B&BG
•Diffused BG
•Radial Stripes
•Horiz Stripes
•Vert Stripes
•Horiz Shad Stripes
•Vert Shad Stripes
•DinoSkin
•Rainbow
•Rainbow B
•Rnbw Sin Waves
•Sinus Waves
•Cosine Waves
•Tangent Waves
•Horiz RYG Grad
•Vert RYG Grad
•Horiz RMB Grad
•Vert RMB Grad
•Horiz GCB Grad
•Vert GCB Grad
•Horiz Grad Bars
•Vert Grad Bars
•Diamonds
•Squiggles
•Circle (Hard)
•Circle (Soft)
•Square (Hard)
•Square (Soft)
•Rectangle (Hard)
•Rectangle (Soft)
•Polkadots (Hard)
•Polkadots (Soft)
•Horiz Lines
•Vert Lines
•Horiz Spectrum
•Vert Spectrum

Scale U: Scales the texture map horizontally (in the U). Increasing this variable will stretch the texture map horizontally up to twice as large while decreasing it will scale it down up to half as small.

Scale (R): Resets Scale U and Scale V controllers.

Scale V: Scales the texture map vertically (in the V). Increasing this variable will stretch the texture map vertically to twice as large while decreasing it will scale it down to half as small.

Offset U: Offsets (shifts) the texture map horizontally (in the U). Increasing this variable will offset the texture map horizontally to screen right while decreasing it will offset it to screen left.

Offset (R): Resets Offset U and Offset V controllers.

Offset V: Offsets (shifts) the texture map vertically (in the V). Increasing this variable will offset the texture map vertically to screen bottom while decreasing it will offset it to screen top.

Tile (U/V): Tiles the texture map horizontally (in the U) and/or vertically (in the V). When scaling the UV's smaller than full size, the areas outside of the texture map dimensions will revert to Diffuse Color A. If you want the texture map to tile (repeat) instead, simply check off 'Tile' for the U (horizontal) and/or V (vertical).

Flip (U/V): Flips the texture map horizontally (in the U) and/or vertically (in the V).

Tile / Flip (R): Resets the Tile/Flip and Rotation controllers.

Rot: Rotates (in degrees) the texture map clockwise. Remember to use 'Bicubic' sampling for best results.

Edge Alias: Softens the edge of the sphere against the background.

Sampling: Specifies what type of pixel sub-sampling to use. (Nearest Neighbor being fastest, Bicubic being best.) This variable is very important to understand as it greatly impacts your rendering speed. For more detailed information, please see the 'WORKFLOW TIPS' below. It is recommended that one use 'Nearest Neighbor' sampling for working, and switching to 'Bicubic' for final output.

Add Tint: Specifies an additive color to tint the sphere with. This is useful for fine-tuning your sphere's color palette.

Tint (Swap): Swaps Add Tint color with Sub Tint color.

Sub Tint: Specifies a subtractive color to tint the sphere with. This is useful for fine-tuning your sphere's color palette.

Self-Illum: Specifies the self-illumination color of the sphere. (White is fully self-illuminated.) Self-illumination will illuminate the sphere from the inside so that the shaded parts of the sphere will disappear as the color is brightened.

Self-Illum (Swap): Swaps Self-Illum color with Ambient color.

Ambient: Specifies the ambient (shaded) color of the sphere. This is the part of the sphere that is not hit by any light and is by default shaded black. Ambient color will replace the shaded black color.

BG: If selected, the background will be replaced with either the BG Color (Use CL) or the texture map (Use MP). This option is by default enabled as it is easier to see your texture mapped sphere against a solid color instead of the background image. 

BG Color: This specifies what color to replace the background with. The default color is a neutral gray: RGB(180,180,180).

Use CL: This specifies to use the BG color to replace the background with.

Use MP: This specifies to use the texture map (from the maps dropdown) to replace the background with. This is an especially useful option because it enables you to display the texture map in the background that will be mapped onto your sphere. Any UV transformations such as SCALE, OFFSET, TILE, FLIP, ROTATE as well as sphere positional transformations such as AXIS X, AXIS Y and ELLIPSE will be reflected in the texture map.

Sphere: When this is deselected, the sphere will not be rendered. This is useful for generating only the texture maps for use in other programs.

Specular: Controls the specular properties (gloss/shininess) of the sphere. If you want the sphere to be even more specular than the limits allow, simply switch to 'High, Medium or Low Gloss' in the 'Lighting Effects' dropdown and the two effects will be compounded together.

PI/2PI: The texture map will be mapped entirely on the front of the sphere, as opposed to front and back. For example, with this option enabled, the entire texture will be fitted and mapped onto the front of the sphere. If you could see the backside of the sphere, there would be no texture on it. With this option disabled, the left half of the texture will be fitted and mapped onto the front and the right half of the texture around the back.

Reset: Resets all 'Rendering Properties' controls to default.


Statistics
----------

This is where your rendering statistics are displayed.

Preview: Prints the total rendering time elapsed for generating the preview image.

Full Image: Prints the (estimated) total rendering time required for generating the full size image.


Light Properties
----------------

This is where you define all the lighting properties affecting the sphere.

Light X: Specifies the horizontal location (in the X) of the light source.

Light Y: Specifies the vertical location (in the Y) of the light source.

Light Z: Specifies the depth location (in the Z) of the light source.

Intensity: Controls the intensity (brightness) of the light source.

Backlight: When selected, a light directly opposite the light source will be enabled.

Inv Light: Inverts the intensity of the light cast from the light source.

Lighting Effects: Provides 32 procedural lighting effects. These various effects dictate how the sphere should be lit, although they do not influence light position. For example, if 'Use BG' is selected, the sphere will be lit using the background images' pixel brightness values. (Brighter pixels will cast more light and darker pixels will cast less light.)

•Self Illumination
•Use BG with UV's
•Use BG without UV's
•Use MP with UV's
•Use MP without UV's
•Sine Waves (Large)
•Cosine Waves (Large)
•Sine Waves (Medium)
•Cosine Waves (Medium)
•Sine Waves (Small)
•Cosine Waves (Small)
•High Matte
•Medium Matte
•Med-Low Matte
•Low Matte
•High Gloss
•Medium Gloss
•Med-Low Gloss
•Low Gloss
•Toon High
•Toon Medium
•Toon Med-Low
•Toon Low
•Ambient Glow (High)
•Ambient Glow (Med)
•Ambient Glow (Med-Low)
•Ambient Glow (Low)
•Edge Darken
•Exponential Waves
•Self Illum Waves

(R): Resets all 'Light Properties' controls to default.


Transparency / Masking Properties
---------------------------------

This is where you define all the transparency properties of the sphere and the texture.

It is important to understand the difference between transparency and masking. Transparency dictates the transparency of the sphere on the background whereas Mask dictates the transparency of the texture map on the sphere. To better understand the difference, try the following test. Set the 'Transp' color to mid gray: RGB(128,128,128). Notice how the sphere becomes half transparent. Now set the 'Transp' color back to white. Next, set the procedural 'Maps' in the 'Rendering Properties' section to 'Diffuse Color B'. Then set the 'Mask' color to mid gray: RGB(128,128,128). Notice how the red diffuse color B becomes half transparent revealing some of diffuse color A. Now set the 'Mask' color to black: RGB(0,0,0). Notice how the red diffuse color B becomes completely transparent revealing only diffuse color A. Now try setting the procedural 'Maps' in the 'Rendering Properties' section to 'Background'. Once again, notice how your 'Mask' color dictates how transparent the 'Background' texture is on the sphere. 

It is important to mention that mask will only work when a procedural texture other than 'Diffuse Color A' has been selected. This is not a bug, but rather because masking 'Diffuse Color A' from 'Diffuse Color A' will yield 'Diffuse Color A'.

Finally, it is worthwhile to discuss the 'Force Diff to CL' (Force diffuse to color) and 'Force Diff to BG' (force diffuse to background) options. You may be wondering why these are here if you already have the option to use 'Diffuse A', 'Diffuse B' or 'Background' from the procedural textures dropdown menu. The reason is because if you choose to use a procedural texture map for either transparency or masking, this will also make your sphere use the map for texturing and this may not always be desirable. For instance, let's assume you wish to use the 'Checkers' texture as a transparency map. You would set the 'Maps' dropdown to 'Checkers' and 'Diffuse B' to black: RGB(0,0,0) in the 'Rendering Properties' section and select the 'Transp' -> 'Use MP' in the 'Transparency/Masking' section. This would render your sphere as expected: with black checkers being completely transparent parts of the sphere and white checkers being completely opaque parts of the sphere. However, your texture map would also be set to 'Checkers'. What if you wanted to use a color or a background for the texture map? This is exactly when you would select 'Force Diff to CL' (force it to use Diffuse Color C) or 'Force Diff to BG' (force it to use the background). Apply UV's will apply the currently defined UV transformations to the Transparency map, Masking map, Diffuse Color C and/or Forced Background map.

Both Transparency and Masking can be used independently of one another or together. They are both extremely powerful options which allow you to customize your sphere in any manner you can possibly imagine. 

Transp Color: Specifies the transparency color. (White is fully opaque, Black fully transparent). 

Use CL: Specifies to use the transparency color for transparency.

Use BG: Specifies to use the background map for transparency.

Use MP: Specifies to use the currently selected procedural texture map for transparency.

Gray: Converts any transparency maps to grayscale for luminance-based transparency mapping. If this is disabled, color will be factored into the transparency algorithm.

Transp (i): Inverts the transparency map.

Mask Color: Specifies the mask color. (White is fully opaque, Black fully transparent).

Use CL: Specifies to use the mask color for masking.

Use BG: Specifies to use the background map for masking.

Use MP: Specifies to use the currently selected procedural texture map for masking.

Gray: Converts any masking maps to grayscale for luminance-based mask mapping. If this is disabled, color will be factored into the masking algorithm.

Mask (i): Inverts the masking map.

Diffuse C (Color): Defines the third alternate diffuse (general) color of the sphere.

Force Diff to CL: Forces the sphere to use diffuse color C.

Force Diff to BG: Forces the sphere to use the background for texture mapping.

Diffuse (i): Inverts diffuse color C or background texture map respectively.

Apply UV's (Transp): Forces any UV transformations (SCALE, OFFSET, TILE, FLIP and ROTATE) to be applied to the transparency map as well.

Apply UV's (Mask): Forces any UV transformations (SCALE, OFFSET, TILE, FLIP and ROTATE) to be applied to the masking map as well.

Apply UV's (CL): Forces any UV transformations (SCALE, OFFSET, TILE, FLIP and ROTATE) to be applied to the diffuse color C as well.

Apply UV's (BG): Forces any UV transformations (SCALE, OFFSET, TILE, FLIP and ROTATE) to be applied to the forced background map as well.

(R): Resets all 'Transparency / Masking Properties' controls to default.


Interface Properties
--------------------

Realtime (Pushbutton): Applies all effects (in realtime) on 'mouse drag' instead of on 'mouse release'.

Realtime (Slider): Speeds up previews by applying the effects to every (n)th line of resolution.

LOAD/SAVE: Load and Save settings. (.INI files)

OK/CANCEL: Apply or cancel the filter respectively.

Help:  Displays this help.

Reset: Resets all controllers to default settings.

?: Displays information about the source image and display settings.
  


WORKFLOW TIPS:

3D Sphere PRO has been optimized for quality. As a result, it is important to understand the basic functioning of the software in order to know how to get the most out of it. 

The single most important setting to understand is 'Sampling' (in the 'Rendering Properties') section. Sampling defines what type of interpolation to use for any and all pixel transformation routines (texture mapping, scaling, rotation, etc.). To understand this better, try the following test. Set the sampling to 'Nearest Neighbor'. Set the procedural texture map to 'grid' and reduce 'Var' to less than -80 so you can see the grid lines. Notice how jagged and pixelated the mapped grid lines are on the sphere. Now switch your sampling to 'Bicubic'. Notice how much cleaner the grid lines become. 

3D Sphere PRO ships with 'Bicubic' sampling on by default. This type of sampling provides the best quality output, but at a moderate speed sacrifice. By switching to 'Nearest Neighbor', you can gain a substantial speed increase, but at a moderate quality sacrifice. It is therefore recommended that one use 'Nearest Neighbor' sampling for working, and switching to 'Bicubic' for final output.

Should you require additional speed and/or faster previews, try unselecting the realtime pushbutton. This will now update the preview window when you release the mouse button, instead of during the slider adjustment. Zooming down a level in the preview window will add dramatic speed increases. In addition, the display resolution slider to the right of the realtime pushbutton can be increased, thus forcing 3D Sphere PRO to process only every (n)th line of the image. (Just make sure to set it back to full before applying the filter.)



MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

3D Sphere PRO will run on any PC capable of running Adobe Photoshop v4.0 or higher, or most applications compatible with Adobe's plugin specifications.

3D Sphere PRO will NOT run on Macintosh systems. This is unfortunately a compiler limitation, not a developer decision. 

3D Sphere PRO has been specifically developed for use with high-resolution displays. Therefore a minimum display resolution of 800x600 is required. A minimum display resolution of 1024 x 768 x 24 bit color is recommended.

3D Sphere PRO works exclusively on RGB images. If you see the plugin grayed out in your plugins menu, you are probably not in RGB mode. 

3D Sphere PRO works exclusively on 24 bit images (8 bits per channel). 48 bit (16 bits per channel) support is intended to be built into future updates. 

3D Sphere PRO can run with any amount of memory, so long as the host application such as Adobe Photoshop is capable of running. However, a minimum memory capacity of 256 MB is recommended.

If at any time there is any doubt regarding 3D Sphere PRO's compatibility or functioning, simply try the demo version. If it works, so will the registered version.



KNOWN BUGS:

NONE.



FIXES:

1.1 - Fixed bug when applying filter resulting in a 200% speed increase.
1.2 - New GUI design.
1.2 - Windows Vista Compatibility.



FEEDBACK:

If you love, hate or absolutely don't give a damn about 3D Sphere PRO, please let me know at richard@richardrosenman.com



3D SPHERE PRO HOMEPAGE:

http://www.richardrosenman.com



HOMEPAGE:

http://www.richardrosenman.com
