Umm... I've been playing with the DTE recently, and, well, I'm pretty much lost. Is it possible to actually control what you're going to get out of a particular part or do I merely have to hit randomize until I get something I like? Oh yeah, I don't quite understand the "phase" bit either.. exactly what does that do.. and please don't tell me to read the manual.. I did, and it doesn't explain what the phase palette does.. only says that it adjusts the phase. Like that helps a hell of a lot! Thanks, Rosh

well, randomize is good, but you can put the same texture in three windows and then adjust each one to get a different effect. Rotate, and like that. change the apply settings. Phase, that's hard to explain. The only way I can do that is by using music. Say you have two waves, harmonic and subharmonic. Both waves vibrate at the same frequency and so have the same wavelength and are, in effect, identical. But if you use a phaser on it, you slowly move one wave out of phase, moving it back or forward until you get a complex wave. If you play guitar, it's like, that soft, slinky sound from the lead Guitarist of Dire Straights is from putting the pickups out of phase. The clear crisp sound of B B King is in phase. It's basically the same thing with visual media. The phase increases the frequency of the material, similar to what the noise filter does, but it accomplishes this in different ways. There. Now I've probably confused you totally

Sort of, though I think I understand better. Thanks for helping. =) Is there any way I could get a particular effect I want from the DTE without randomizing till I find it? Rosh

Hi Rosh, The DTE is and endless abyss for sure. keep in mind that the bottom middle window in the final texture and the 3 top windows are the individal texture components. What I usually do is select a texture from the presets that is close to what I want. then in the DTE i Play with the dropdown menus on the individual texture components windows(not to be confused with material components.. by the way the "C" "A" "B" on those windows are for Color,Alpha,and Bump respectively) noise ,Phase , filter,Color,Alpha, and Bump make up the basic texture. the txture components make up the "Material" components. Like I said ...and endless abyss. lol also the blend modes (the arrows between the windows) can make drastic changes. and my favorite is the "Filter" dialog . try selecting Altitude mode and drag in the window to move the texture up or down through the texture. I hope this did'nt add to the confusion. good luck Hawkfyr

Thanks, I think I'm starting to understand. I'll see what I can cook up. You can see some of what I've made in my "Shades of Madness" post.. everything but the glass around the eyeball are DTE-generated, though a couple started out as presets, like the eyeball.. Thanks again, Rosh

You know, I always learn stuff from Hawkfyr

I always learn stuff from everyone on here, you included. =) Rosh

Great thread--there's a good DTE tutorial somewhere--I wish I was on my own computer and I'd pull it from my bookmarks. I'm digging through DTE also. Bone--I like your explanation of 'phase'. Diane B

Thanks Diane. Next I'll lecture on Quantum physics, lol