Skiv – ‘Disturbed walk’ album Teaser #2 from Plynt Records on Vimeo.

Video by Benjamin Tomad
Additional modeling by Maud Romera

SKIV///
‘Disturbed Walk’ album out on Plynt Records
www.plynt.be

English getting started video by JoJoe (20 min.)

French getting started video by Pilou (12 min.)

The official Qubicle.Unite tutorial video by Tim Wesoly (1 min.)

Terminology

First of all lets define some terms so we all now what we are talking about:

• A cube model – or just model – is a collection of one or more cube matrices.
• A cube matrix – or just matrix – is a collection of cubes (or voxels) aligned in a 3D grid.
• Cube matrices can be edited on slices. Think of a slice as a 3D layer.

Rules

The following rules enable you to create complex models out of multiple smaller matrices which are easier to edit and modify:

• All cubes of all matrices are aligned on the same global 3D grid.
• All cubes have the same size
• All cubes have the same orientation in space
• All faces of a cube have the same color
• Matrices can only be moved by steps of 1 unit
• Matrices can’t be freely rotated

User Interface Overview

• Use the File Options Bar to quickly open and save cube models
• Use the Modifiers Bar to modify matrices
• Use the Display Options Bar to toggle visual helper or to set camera options
• Use the Cam Cube to orient in space
• The three Edit Modes let you edit your objects on a model, matrix or slice level
• The Toolbox contains the tools to edit matrices
• The Workspace is the area where you edit your model
• The Status Bar provides usefull information like cursor position or mouse over help
• Use the Color Map Bar to manage colors you want to use for your projetcs

Using the Camera

To change the camera’s postion, rotation or zoom press [ ALT ] and simultaneously one of the three mouse buttons:

• [ ALT ] + [ LEFT MOUSE BUTTON ] : Rotate
• [ ALT ] + [ MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON ] : Track
• [ ALT ] + [ RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON ] : Zoom
• To zoom in and out you can alternatively use the mouse wheel

Creating a Matrix

Creating a matrix can be done in two ways: either you create a standard primitive with the Add Matrix buttons or you paste bitmap data from the Windows clipboard.

To create a standard primitive

1. Click on one of the six Add Matrix Buttons
2. In the Create Matrix Dialogue that pops up set the color and the size of the new cube matrix
   The size sliders accept a max value of 50. To set higher values than 50 use the text input fields
   If Preview is selected a matrix preview is displayed in the workarea, marked with a pink bounding-box
3. Click Create to add the cube matrix to your model

To create a matrix with the Windows clipboard

1. Open an external application and copy bitmap data to the Windows clipboard
2. Go back to Qubicle Constructor
3. Select Edit → Paste from the main menu to create a new cube matrix

The new cube matrix has got the width and height of the pasted bitmap and the depth of 1.
Any pixel of the pasted bitmap that has the color fuchsia ( #FF00FF ) is ignored.

Both of these actions can only be done in model-edit-mode. So let’s talk about edit modes next.

The three Edit Modes

In the terminology paragraph we learned that with Qubicle Constructor you can edit cube models, cube matrices and slices. For each of those types there is an edit mode. Each edit mode has got it’s own purpose

Use the model-edit-mode to

• create, move and modify cube matrices
• import and export data
• render

Use the matrix-edit-mode to

• edit cubes of a matrix in 3D
• apply modifier on a selection of cubes
• extrude

Use the slice-edit-mode to

• edit cubes on a slice. This is like drawing on a canvas of an standard image editor

You can see in which edit mode you are by looking at the edit mode palette to the left. To switch edit modes you can either click on one of the three buttons of the edit mode palette, or to speed things up you can:

• double-click a matrix to switch from model-edit-mode to matrix-edit-mode
• double-click on an empty space of the workarea to switch from matrix-edit-mode back to model-edit-mode
• tab [ SPACE ] to switch from matrix-edit-mode to slice-edit-mode and vice versa

Tools

Tools behave differently depending on the edit mode. In model-edit-mode e.g. only the move tool is available. With the move tool you can select a matrix by clicking on it, or by dragging a selection rectangle. Once you’ve selected one or more matrices move arrows appear, drag them to move your selection. That’s all you need to know about tools in model-edit-mode.

So let’s say you have created a matrix and you want to edit its cubes. What you do is switch to matrix-edit-mode by double-clicking the matrix. Now all the tools in the toolbox are availbale. Select a tool e.g. the pencil and click on a cube. Now the cube is painted with the foreground color. I guess you have already worked with an image-editor and have an idea of how the tools behave in 2D. These tools work in 3D. So you can select in 3D and flood fill in 3D for example. But what about adding a cube in 3D? Well the easiest way is to use to slice-edit-mode but we discuss this mode in the next section. You can add neigbor cubes in the matrix-edit-mode as well, but you have to change the tool mode first. To do so double click its icon in the toolbox. So double-click the pencil tool and you are in add mode. Now you can add a neigbor cube to an already existing cube by clicking on one of its six sides.

A faster way to add cubes is to draw them in slice-edit-mode. To switch to slice-edit-mode tab [ SPACE ]. Now you should be on slice number 1 of the front view (because you haven’t picked another slice yet). You can see the current slice number and viewing direction on the slice palette to the right. Now you can draw on slice 1 of the front view. But how to get to let’s say slice 5 of the top view?

Slice Picking

Slice picking can be done in a number of ways. Which one you prefer is a matter of taste and workflow. For now I will just explain how to use the slice scrollbar and the slice palette.

The slice palette can be used to read the current slice number and the max slice number of the current viewig direction. Furthermore you can change the current viewing direction by clicking on one of the six buttons front, back, left, right, top, bottom.

Using the slice scrollbar is one way to change the slice number. The more you drag it up the higher the slice number gets. So the top position is the last slice and the bottom position is the first slice.

Like I said, there are more ways to pick a slice (with the mouse-wheel with keyboard shortcuts or with the slice ribbon). To learn all about slice picking please refer to the user-manual (User Interface -> Slice Picking).

Modifier

Modifier are used to manipulate cubes of a matrix. If you apply modifier in model-edit-mode all cubes of a selected matrix are modified. In matrix-edit-mode and slice-edit-mode modifier can be applied to a selection of cubes. Let’s modify in model-edit-mode first, so switch to model-edit-mode by double-clicking on a free space of the workarea (ouside the canvas if you are still in slice-edit-mode).

All modifier can be found on the modifier bar. Now select a matrix and click on the rotate button.

In the rotate matrix dialogue that pops up you can change the rotation axis and the angle. If preview is checked the selected matrice’s bounding box is colored in pink indicating that this is a preview of the modification. If you’ve selected more than one matrix only the first gets a preview.

Now let’s watch the difference between modifying in model-edit-mode and matrix-edit-mode. Switch to matrix-edit-mode by double-clicking the matrix. Modifying in matrix-edit-mode is a 3 step process.

1. Select some cubes (e.g. with the rectangular marquee tool)
2. Apply the modifier – just like you did in model-edit-mode
   Once you click on a modifier button the selected cubes are detached from the matrix, so now you can freely move them without overriding other cubes. Detached cubes are indicated by pick outlines.
3. In the last step you need to reattach the detached cubes. You can do this by either clicking on the detach button of the modifier bar (the one that turned pink) or by pressing [ ENTER ]

Thanks for listening

That’s the end of the getting started tutorial.

I hope you enjoy Qubicle as much as I do. If you like to showcase your works on www.qubicle-constructor.com or if you find a bug or if you like to request a feature send an e-mail to tim@qubicle-constructor.com.
Cheers, Tim

The making of by director Mike Scott