# 1.12 - Visual Styles

*Modeling conceptual masses is just half of what FormIt has to offer. The other half are beautiful graphics that help to tell a story to a client, or team member. In this chapter, we will cover ways to set up your* ***graphic visual styles*** *and create animations.*

*If you did not complete the last section, download and open the* ***1.12 – Visual Styles.axm*** *file from the* ***FormIt Primer Part 1 Datasets**.*

## **Create an Animation**

*In these next steps, we will learn how to use* ***Scenes*** *to create an animation.*

1 – To create the first **Scene**:

1. Turn on all the layers except **Terrain**, **Plan Image,** and **Massing**.
2. Make sure the camera mode is set to **Perspective (VP)**, and position the camera so that it is looking at the entire house from slightly above, similar to the image below.
3. Open the **Scenes Palette**.
4. Click on the **+** icon to create a new scene from our current view.
5. Rename it to **Aerial View 1**, and match the other **Scene Properties** to what is shown in the image below.

![](/files/-MlG7vvaoFJqX60bSVfl)

2 - To create the second **Scene** and then animate between them:

1. Adjust the camera to a new position so that you are looking at the house from a different angle. Create a new **Scene** named **Aerial View 2** using the same process we followed in the previous step.
2. Click the **Play** button. After the set **Pause Time** of **2 Seconds**, the animation will start slowly moving back and forth between the two scenes. This will continue until you click the **Stop** button to stop the animation.

![](/files/-MlG7vvc7dCWvmNrWyKy)

***Note:*** *You can adjust the* ***Pause Time**,* ***Transition Time**, and* ***Camera Speed*** *using the settings at the bottom of the* ***Scene Properties**. Try adding some more scenes and playing with these settings to customize your animation.*

## **Customize the Visual Styles**

*Now we are going to create another scene with some customized **Visual Styles** settings.*

1 - First, open the **Visual Styles Palette**. Note there are four (4) tabs at the top, each containing different visual settings: **Surfaces**, **Edges**, **Environment**, and **Model Diagnostics**. To learn more about each tab visit the **Visual Styles** chapter in the **Tool Library** section.

2 – To customize some settings in the **Surface Tab**:

1. Turn on **Shadows (DS)**.
2. Turn on **Ambient Shadows (DA)**.
3. Turn on **Monotone Surfaces (DM)**. This makes an abstract black and white image without any materials.

![](/files/-MlG7vvfIK-hL5UnfZCb)

3 – To customize some settings in the **Edge Tab**:

* 1. Adjust the sliders to lighten the **Edges** contrast to around **30%**.
  2. Turn on the **Extend Edges (DX).**
  3. Adjust the sliders to lighten the **Silhouettes** contrast to **30%**.

![](/files/-MlG7vvg-jXJmuHbuKfC)

4 - To customize some settings in the **Environment Tab**:

1. Turn off **Axes**.
2. Turn off **Levels**, if on.

![](/files/xFJHtK5u41FcpeRavnNz)

5 - Create a new scene called **Customized Scene** to save these settings. Now you can switch back and forth between the **Scenes** to reset the graphic settings.

![](/files/-MlG7vvjlgCCMmEOiHup)

***Note**: If you uncheck the* ***Camera*** *property of the new scene, you can use it to only toggle on the visual settings we just created without move the camera position. Give it a try by going to one of your previous Aerial scenes, and then double-clicking on the* ***Customized Scene*** *and watching what happens!*

***Note:*** *To Learn about* ***Visual Styles Diagnostics*** *and advanced applications for* ***Scenes**, check out the* ***Primer Part II**.*


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