This video shows FELIX's typical workflow.

This video shows the main areas of work: The Project Tab, the Material Setup Tab and Tab Editor

This video shows how to move the camera in the 3D View window.

The main functions are:

"Lmb" + MOUSE: moves the camera back and forth or from left to right (on the horizontal plane)

"Rmb" + MOUSE: moves the camera up and down (on the vertical plane)

R + “Lmb”: orbits the camera

O + “Lmb”: orbits the camera around a selected object in the scene

Y + “Lmb”: dollies up/in the camera

H: aligns the camera to the horizon

D + “Lmb”: sets the camera focus on a particular object in the scene

F + “Lmb”: zooms in or out

Focal length, focal distance, f-stop and shutter speed can also be adjusted with the assigned sliders in the Camera Parameters rollout.

You can access the object library from the Projects Tab and from the Material Setup Tab. Simply drag the objects onto your scene. To move, rotate and scale an object choose the "object" selection mode from the selection tools in the 3D View window, select the object and:

move: simply drag the selected object. The right mouse button will move the object vertically.

rotate: drag the object by pressing the "r" key on your keyboard.

scale: drag the object by pressing the "s" key on your keyboard.

clone: press the "SHIFT" key on your keyboard and drag the object

select multiple objects: press the "CTRL" key on your keyboard and select the objects.

FELIX stores all 2D and 3D data of each image on his datacenters.

Retrieving this data is as easy as to drag-and-drop it from the desired image into the current scene.

FELIX's image viewer subdivides the image into five sectors: camera, environments, materials, geometry and objects.

If you want to retrieve the camera position from a previous rendering, you only have to click on the upper left quadrant and drag the camera into the current scene.

You can also retrive just one single material from an image by pressign the CTRL key and drag on the the 3D view.

You can also retrive just one single object from an image by pressign the SHIFT key and drag on the the 3D view.

This unique feature gives you true creative freedom.

You can apply endless changes to your project, as your client is requesting, without having to worry about retrieving information from the previous version.

It takes less than one minute to add an object to the library.

This is the procedure from the "object editor" tab:

• choose "add" from the "objects" window
• click on the empty thumbnail to browse your hard drive and choose the object
• rotate the object for proper orientation with the rotation tools
• there are three attachment options: floor, wall and ceiling
• assign materials from the "Materials" window
• render!
• choose the proper category and define the visibility (public, protected or private)

This video shows how to import a new texture into FELIX's texture database and how to create a new material. At any time you are allowed to modify the categories you define for a texture/material... simply select the texture or material, click on "Edit" and redefine the category.

For people and trees FELIX uses a technology called "billboards" or "spites". In your modeling software you have to create one layer for each kind of vegetation.

For each vegetation instance simply build a triangular polygon. For example, if you want five trees in a garden, you have to build five polygons in a layer called "big trees". Each polygon has to be coplanar to the ground. The polygon's size is not relevant. 

Load the geometry into FELIX and assign a tree material from the tree library to the layer "big trees”.

The tree materials in FELIX are in groups of trees. In this way FELIX will automatically alternate various types of trees on each of the polygons of your layer, thus avoiding the typical repetitions of the single instance.

If the tree library of FELIX doesn't fit your needs, you can build your own "tree materials" with the Material editor.

Please install the latest VLC player on your PC.

First of all you have to create a new animation project by clicking with the right mouse button over "Project" column.

In the same way create a project version in the "version" column.

Now you can drag a rendering on to the Animation Timeline. You are creating an animation "Clip" which by default is 75 frames long (3 seconds PAL). By doing this you are also telling FELIX that you want to define a camera path for the scene shown in the rendering.

You can drag various renderings from different Projects and different set-ups on to the same Timeline. Each one will create a new animation "Clip". This gives you a decent overview even on complex animations.

The small red markers are the key-frames. If you point the cursor on a red maker you will see it surrounded by a White Frame. This means that now you can edit the camera position. With the right mouse button you can add or delete keyframes.

To switch from one key frame to the next one you can use CTRL + →.

To stretch an animation clip to increase or decrease it's duration press CTRL and drag the white right marker in the clip.

To replace a previous rendering in the Timeline drag the new one over the old one by pressing the CTRL key. In this way you can update the scene status by maintaining the previously defined camera path.

The cost of the animation depends by four factors:

• Animation resolution
• Animation quality
• Animation length
• Efficiency factor of the renderings in the Timeline. Lower is the efficiency factor higher will be the animation cost. Try to setup your scenes obtaining at least 15.0 of Efficiency.

By default FELIX applies a cubic mapping to the entire layer on which you have assigned the material. If you have geometries which are not aligned to the main X, Y, Z axis you can use FELIX's texture alignment tools. First of all you have to select the geometry by using the selection tools, then you can choose between cubic mapping and spline-based mapping.

1. by redefining the XYZ axis orientation
2. by redefining the XYZ axis orientation and origin
3. by defining a path between two splines which will be followed by the texture. Take care to press the "space bar" on your keyboard between each spline. To terminate the function press the "space bar" again.

You are also allowed to edit the splines by clicking on the knots.