Showcase 2012 is a capable rendering environment. The interface however is not quite intuitive, at least not until you get past a few things that can seem confusing at first.
Alternative lineups
Showcase allows users to set up different visual scenarios that Autodesk calls ‘Alternative lineups’. You can turn on the Alternatives Palette using the A hotkey. These consist of the following lineups:
- Model
- Material
- Positional
- Using these, you can plan various camera angles, component materials and arrangements in your still and slide show renders.
Today I simply want to show you the basic steps for creating a Material Alternative.
Create a Material Alternative
The basic steps to create this are:
Set the materials as you desire (M Hotkey)
Select the components that you desire to be incorporate in the alternative
Open the Alternatives palette (A), and pick Create > Material Lineup
Click on the default, empty ‘Add Next Alternative’ frame
A new alternative frame will appear with the selected components possessing the specified materials. Any time you pick one of these, the model components will change to suit that alternative. The key here is that the Select portion of the task is often overlooked. The rest is quite intuitive.
Options
From here you can apply your alternative to a current Storyboard scene by right-clicking the alternative, and selecting ‘Add to Current Storyboard Slide’.
Additionally you can Select and remove contents that you may or not want in your alternative through the same right-click context menu.
