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Ellipse Functions | 
 
 
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\Standard  Use the ellipse functions to access a great palette of tools, from standard operations to features like color and brightness adjustment. These combined functions are the key to great-looking textures.  | 
 
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Outline  These functions give you the ability not to draw a filled ellipse but only its borders. The thickness of the borders can be adjusted by the pen size parameter. If you set the opacity value to lower than 100 the ellipse will blend with the texture. Used for : Basic pattern creation  | 
 
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Solid  This function draws a solid ellipse over the texture with the primary color. If you set the opacity value to lower than 100 the ellipse will blend with the texture.  | 
 
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\Special  Here you get some special ellipse functions which can create interesting effects.  | 
 
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Gentle Blend  This function adds a smoothly blended ellipse to the texture using the primary color. You can simulate shiny spots on the texture. Use it several times with a decreasing radius to simulate glowing metal. Used for : Illumination  | 
 
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Blending Drop  The blending drop is a highlighted sphere that is added to the texture. The location of the highlight is determined by the light source's direction setting. Used for : special effects  | 
 
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\Special\Overblend  The overblend functions add a gradient \ blend to the texture, with very bright results. Used for : Special light effects  | 
 
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Normal This function draws an ellipse which is very bright at the center.  | 
 
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Reversed  This function is similar to the normal overblend function, but the blending is sharper at the edges than at the center.  | 
 
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\Gradient  These ellipse functions fill the selected area with a color gradient going from the primary to the secondary color. You have the following possibilities :  | 
 
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Blend  This function blends the texture and the ellipse with the primary color. The ellipse becomes weaker at its edges. Used for : Bumpmap creation, illumination, special effects  | 
 
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P2S (primary- to secondary color)  Here a color gradient from the ellipse's center to its border is drawn with the primary color in the center and the secondary color at the border. Used for : Basic operations, special effects  | 
 
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\Distort  Use these ellipse functions to distort the texture within the selected area. Used for : special effects  | 
 
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Linear  This function contracts every pixel within the ellipse toward the center. Interesting effects are produced on simple and clean textures (like a checkerboard pattern, for example).  | 
 
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Warp  Warp distortion is similar to linear distortion, but the texture will look as though it were under a glass object. For example, you can simulate water drops with this function.  | 
 
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\Bump  Textures usually look better if you make them a bit three-dimensional. However, the bump functions can do a lot more. For example, they can also unsharpen textures to create interesting and complex patterns. Used for : Texture refinement, illumination  | 
 
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Shadow  This is a very powerful function. It simulates a light source at the center of the selected area and traces shadows behind high objects. By using the shadow ellipse you are able to create very interesting 3D textures. For example, create a further texture with the same size and draw something on its surface. Then set this texture as source. Now draw several shadow ellipses on your target texture and see the source-texture as an illuminated relief.  |