All files in this archive are copyright Jeff Holinski 1994. You're free to
use them in any animations, but they can't be included in a commercial
package without prior permission.



This fish is a sample from an upcoming object set. 
The archive should include the following files:

Fish.txt -- This readme file
fish.3d --- The straight fish object used for mapping
fish.morph.1 -- One of the morph targets
fish.morph.2 -- The other morph target
fish.splines -- The spline cage used to build the fish.
fish.swim.scn -- A scene file of the fish swimming past the camera
fish.view.scn -- A scene file of the fish from the side. (still profile view)
3d.fish.color -- The color and bump map 
3d.fish.trans -- The transparency map
fish.nullobject  A nullobject used to keep the fish and morph targets
together and have them line up with paths properly.


How to use the fish:

First, copy the objects in the archive to your hard drive.
The image maps should be in the directory images/fish/
The scene files should be in the directory scenes/
All other files should be in the directory objects/marine/


If you have an underwater scene you want to use the fish in go to the object
menu and select load from scene. Choose either of the scenes included with
this archive. Don't load lights.
If you don't have an underwater scene yet, try the fish.swim.scn. It has a
blue gradient background and fog that are a good starting point to work
from.

To move the object move the fish.nullobject. If you load the fish.3d or the
morph objects into the modeler you'll notice that they don't run along the
'Z' zxis. That's because the spline cage had to be modified to fit the
image map used for this fish. Since you don't have a lot of control over
image positioning in modeler, I built the fish and morph objects along the
'X' axis and rotated them 90 degrees using the fish.nullobject. This way
the nullobject can align to paths and have the fish pointed in the corect
direction.


How to improve the fish:

Build a mouth.
The fish is hollow and has an open mouth. This allows you to see inside.
Unless you've got shadowcasting turned on the inside will be brightly lit.
Of course the fins underneath look more realistic if you trace shadows
anyways.

Make the fins semi-transparent.
The transparency map used on this fish was designed for use as a clip map
and is only 2 colors. While this uses very little memory, it doesn't look
as real as it could. If you put some grey on the end of the fins on the
transparency map they would look semi-transparent towards the tips. 16
shades of grey should be an improvement without making the image take up
too much memory.

Fix the tail.
The top of the tail is dark blue because the spline cage didn't line up
quite right with the image before I patched the cage. You could modify the
spline cage and re-patch it or use an image morphing program to modify the
color map to make it fit the tail.

Better motion.
The morph targets were made by using the bend function of modeler. While
it's quick and easy it doesn't give the best possible motion. To improve
the motion you could modify the morph objects till they look a little more
realistic or you could add bones to the fish and delete the morph objects.

Of course all of these will be done on the final release version of the
fish pack. (Wadda ya want for free?)  ;^)

Faster rendering.
Turn off the bump map. It adds to your render time, and if the fish is a
ways from the camera you won't notice the difference.
Or map the color and trans images onto a flat plane. with the same
dimensions as the images. It won't shade quite right, but you only need 1
double sided polygon so it works well for large schools.



The company:

This archive was brought to you by the Liquid Light Construction Company. 
It's part of a commercial underwater set still under construction.
The set will contain 13 3d fish including a hi-res shark with boned motion.
There will also be a number of 2d fish for use in backgrounds where detail
isn't as important. There will also be a few underwater scenes that you can
simply add your own objects to.

We also do custom modeling and animation.

For more information about the object set contact Jeff Holinski at the 
following e-mail addresses:

Jeff_Holinski@mindlink.bc.ca

or 

User number 71172,1417 on Compuserve



							Jeff H...
							LLCC