Published by CFS Documentation cell Division of Centre for Electronics Design and Technology of India A Scientific Society of Department

of Electronics, Govt. of India, New Delhi.

First Edition: 1999

TRADE MARKS: All brand name and product names mentioned in this book are trade marks or registered trade mark of their respective companies. Every effort has been made to supply complete and accurate information. However, CEDTI assumes no responsibility for its use, nor for any infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties which would result from such use. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or reproduced in any forms or by any means, electronic, photocopy, photograph, magnetic or otherwise, without written permission of CEDTI.

CEDTI/CFS/99/4/5.4/R1

FOREWORD
The Information Technology and Telecom sectors have suddenly opened up avenues, which require a very large specially trained manpower. These sectors are highly dynamic and need training and re-training of manpower at a rapid rate. The growing gap of requirement of the industry and its fulfilment has created a challenging situation before manpower training institutes of the country. To meet this challenge most effectively, Centre for Electronics Design and Technology of India (CEDTI) has launched its nation-wide franchising scheme. Centre for Electronics Design and Technology of India (CEDTI) is an Autonomous Scientific Society under the Govt. of India, Department of Electronics with its Headquarters at New Delhi. It operates seven centres located at Aurangabad, Calicut, Gorakhpur, Imphal, Mohali, Jammu and Tezpur. The scheme will be implemented and coordinated by these centres. The scheme endeavours to promote high quality computer and information technology education in the country at an affordable cost while ensuring uniform standards in order to build a national resource of trained manpower. Low course fees will make this education available to people in relatively small, semi urban and rural areas. State-of-the-art training will be provided keeping in view the existing and emerging needs of the industrial and Govt. sectors. The examinations will be conducted by CEDTI and certificates will also be awarded by CEDTI. The scheme will be operated through all the seven centres of CEDTI. The CEDTI functions under the overall control and guidance of the Governing Council with Secretary, Department of Electronics as its Chairman. The members of the council are drawn from scientific, government and industrial sectors. The Centres have separate executive committees headed by Director General, CEDTI. The members of these committees are from academic/professional institutes, state governments, industry and department of electronics. CEDTI is a quality conscious organisation and has taken steps to formally get recognition of the quality and standards in various activities. CEDTI, Mohali was granted the prestigious ISO 9002 certificate in 1997. The other centres have taken steps to obtain the certification as early as possible. This quality consciousness will assist CEDTI in globalizing some of its activities. In keeping with its philosophy of Quality in every Activity, CEDTI will endeavour to impart state of the art computer and IT training through its franchising scheme. The thrust of the Software Courses is to train the students at various levels to carry out the Management Information System functions of a medium sized esTablishment, manufacture Software for domestic and export use, make multimedia presentations for management and effectively produce various manufacturing and architectural designs. The thrust of the Hardware Courses at Technician and Telecommunication Equipment Maintenance Course levels is to train the students to diagnose the faults and carry out repairs at card level in computers, instruments, EPABX, Fax etc. and other office equipment. At Engineer and Network Engineer levels the thrust is to train them as System Engineers to instal and supervise the Window NT, Netware and Unix Networking Systems and repair Microcontrollers / Microprocessor based electronic applications.

An Advisory Committee comprising eminent and expert personalities from the Information Technology field have been constituted to advise CEDTI on introduction of new courses and revising the syllabus of existing courses to meet the changing IT needs of the trade, industry and service sectors. The ultimate objective is to provide industry-specific quality education in modular form to supplement the formal education. The study material has been prepared by the CEDTI, document centre. It is based on the vast and rich instructional experience of all the CEDTI centres. Any suggestions on the improvement of the study material will be most welcome.

(R. S. Khandpur) Director General (CEDTI)

3D LOFTER Introduction
In a 3D Lofter , 2D objects are extruded along a desired path to create 3D Mesh Objects. 3D Lofter imports a 2D shape from a 2D-Shaper, arranges the shape on a path in 3D space, lofts the shape along the path to create 3D mesh object. The Activity of a 3D mesh could be summarized as

The shapes and paths are splines consisting of vertices and segments. The shape and the path together creates a model. The models are saved in .lft files. On lofting a model to a Mesh object , the resulting mesh object goes into 3D Editor as part of a 3D scene where it could be edited, applied with material, light and camera to give life to the object.

LOFTING SHAPE

CONCEPTS 3D Lofter transforms the 2D shape into a 3D space. More than one shape can be lofted. Creates a mesh object s, which needs to be converted to model in a 3D Editor.

TRANSFER OF 2D SPACE TO 3D SPACE. In a 2D shaper, we work on a 2D space consisting only the width & height. (Front View) On transforming from 2D space to 3D space the depth runs away from the viewer. The 3D Lofter uses Cartesian co-ordinate with an arbitrary point in the space as the origin. The 3D Lofter helps viewing the object in all the different plane like in XY plane, XZ plane and the YZ plane.

VIEWING 3D OBJECTS;

The 3D Lofter provides 2D projection for viewing 3D mesh object Front ( X / Y) Back ( X / Y), Top (X / Z), Bottom (X / Z) Left (Y / Z) Right (Z / Y) Apart from the six orthographic views the 3D Lofter also gives projection that displays all their dimensions. This is the user view or the isometric view. In 3D Lofter one can see three different views at a time.

PATH: The shapes are lofted along a path, the default being a straight open polygon with two end points shown as a blue line. The default path can be edited. The default straight path can be replaced by with a polygon created in 2D shaper. An open, closed, or self/ intersecting polygons could be used a paths. However multiple, nested object cannot be used as path. As the path is just a guide it does not form part of the mesh.

ORIENTATION OF PATH On accessing a 3D Lofter the default path could be viewed in three different views, Top ( X/ Y), Front ( X/ Y) and the user. As the path is displayed along the Z direction i.e. the depth, the path is visible only on the X/ Z and the User view.

The Default path has two end-vertices the Start and the End vertex , represented by a cyan mark. Between the end vertices are small blue tick marks representing the path step. The current path is represented by a white tick mark. LOFTING MULTIPLE SHAPES Complex objects could be created using multiple shapes Each shape much be at a different level. All shapes should have same number of vertices in a polygon. The first vertices of all shapes to be aligned.

3D LOFTER DISPLAY The Editor display is divided into four view-ports. The Two orthographic views, A User view showing an isometric view and a Shape view. These views can be toggled and switched to a different viewport as the current viewport. The status line displays:

Lv1: Lv1 X : :

[N]

The event level of the path. Current position of cursor on the X-axis.

Y3 N

: :

Current position of cursor on the Y-axis. The amount length of path.

LOFTER COMMANDS The commands in Lofter can be grouped into five major categories. Shape Path Deform 3D display and Object. SHAPES The shape commands Imports shape from 2D shaper, Sends back to 2D shaper or save them to Disk. Copy shape after shape position by rotation,

Scaling on a path and Deleting the shape.

The modification of shape can be in the form of object. Movement Rotation Scaling Centering Aligning

PATH: The path is the directional vector along-which an object is centered and extruded. The default path in a 3D Lofter is a Straight line. i) ii) iii) iv) v) The default path can be replaced by importing an open or closed polygon from 2D shaper. With Circular, Spiral- shaped or Straight path. Send the current path to 2D Editor for spline editing. Modify path by scaling, skewing & rotating. Edit path by inserting and deleting of vertices.

PATH / SURFREV: Surface involves surface created by revolution of object along a circular path. The diameter of the circular default path is dia 100 which could be changed to any desired value.

PATH / HELIX This is defined with a starting and ending diameter with the number of turns one the height of the helix.

DEFORM: The Deform command helps the current model by altering the scale, angle or rotational position of the shape relative to the path. Five commands used to deform are Scale, Twist, Teeter, Bevel and Fit. The deformation grid graphs the degree of deformation along the path as the shapes are extruded during the lofting process. The deformates to the model can be applied in combination regardless of the orientation of path and shape in 3D space. The deformation affects each shape only with respect to its orientation on the 2D X / Y plane. COMPONENTS OF DEFERMATION GRID The deformation Grid consists of a series of vertical and horizontal lines. The white and grey vertical lines are fixed and represents the amount of deformation. The vertical blue deformation is adjusted to affect the deformation applied to each level of the path. The horizontal line represents the path level in the model cyan line represents vertices and gold line represent path steps. The number of horizontal level determines the number of level in the current path.

DEFORMATION / SCALE The scale deformation grid is divided by white vertical line representing 100% increment and gray 10% . The grid runs form 0 percent to 100 percent at the left of the blue spline, and to 400 percent at the right. If the blue spline crosses the first grey line at the first path level the shape on the level is scaled down to 10% of original size during the lofting process. Since symmetry is on by default, the shapes one affected unformally on both both the sides of x, Y-axis.

DEFORM / SCALE / MOVE Move a vertex on the blue splines of the scale dyormatias grid and optionally alter spline value.

DEFORM / SCALE / INSERT: This command helps to specify scale values at various location on the grid. The vertices added does not affect the number of vertices on the path. DEFORM / SCALE / SYMMETRY: The specified scale applied to one grid applied equally in other. DEFORM / TWIST: The twist deformation grid is divided by white vertical line representing 450 increments and the gray line representing 150 increments. The Grid runs from -1800 to 150 at the left and + 150 to 1800 to the right. The twist command helps in moving / inserting refining and deleting of vertex.

DEFORM / TEETER:

The teeter command alters the blue deformation spline that affects the rotation of each cross section on the path about X, Y or both the axis during lofting process. By default the Teeter deformation grid is divided by white vertical lines representing 45-degreesincrement and the gray line representing the 15-degree increment. The spline position at each point on the grid optionally alters the spline value of the vertex. The spline position at each point on a grid determines the angle of rotation for each shape on the corresponding levels of the path.

DEFORM / BEVEL This alters the unit size of rested polygons in the opposite direction during the lofting process. On selecting the bevel, the shape viewport is replaced by the bevel deformation grid. When nested shape is lofted, the outer polygon becomes longer in size and the inner polygon becomes smaller. The level values are measured in absolute units. Using bevel, the vertex could be moved inserted, Refined & Deleted.

DEFORM / FIT This command helps to change the size of each cross section along X or Y axis by fitting it to two closed polygen created in the 2D shaper. It uses two closed polygons called fit polygons To determine the final form of the mesh object. One shape / fit polygon along X -axis and the other effects shape along Y-axis. If systemically is on it uses same polygon and when the systemcially is

off it uses the different polygons. The polygons created in 2D shaper on imported into 3D Lofter Fit grid. As the shapes are extruded along the path during lofting process, they are sealed to fit within the boundry of the fit polygon. CREATING FIT POLYGON For fit polygon the polygon must be signle and closed. The top & botton of the fit polygon ( as seen from X & Y axis) must contain atleast one and not more than two vertices. When the fit shape is imported into the 3D Lofter and placed within the fit deformation grid its end vertices concides with the end vertices of the path. The fit polygons cannot contain spline segments that extract beyond the top or botton vertices. Polygons cannot contain undercuts.

DEFORM: The Deform command helps the current model by altering the scale, angle or rotational position of the shape relative to the path. Five commands used to deform are Scale, Twist, Teeter, Bevel and Fit. The deformation grid graphs the degree of deformation along the path as the shapes are extruded during the lofting process. The deformates to the model can be applied in combination regardless of the orientation of path and shape in 3D space. The deformation affects each shape only with respect to its orientation on the 2D X / Y plane. COMPONENTS OF DEFERMATION GRID The deformation Grid consists of a series of vertical and horizontal lines. The white and grey vertical lines are fixed and represents the amount of deformation. The vertical blue deformation is adjusted to affect the deformation applied to each level of the path. The horizontal line represents the path level in the model cyan line represents vertices and gold line represent path steps. The number of horizontal level determines the number of level in the current path.

DEFORMATION / SCALE The scale deformation grid is divided by white vertical line representing 100% increment and gray 10% . The grid runs form 0 percent to 100 percent at the left of the blue spline, and to 400 percent at the right. If the blue spline crosses the first grey line at the first path level the shape on the level is scaled down to 10% of original size during the lofting process. Since symmetry is on by default, the shapes one affected unformally on both both the sides of x, Y-axis.

DEFORM / SCALE / MOVE Move a vertex on the blue splines of the scale dyormatias grid and optionally alter spline value.

DEFORM / SCALE / INSERT: This command helps to specify scale values at various location on the grid. The vertices added does not affect the number of vertices on the path. DEFORM / SCALE / SYMMETRY: The specified scale applied to one grid applied equally in other. DEFORM / TWIST: The twist deformation grid is divided by white vertical line representing 450 increments and the gray line representing 150 increments. The Grid runs from -1800 to 150 at the left and + 150 to 1800 to the right. The twist command helps in moving / inserting refining and deleting of vertex.

DEFORM / TEETER:

The teeter command alters the blue deformation spline that affects the rotation of each cross section on the path about X, Y or both the axis during lofting process. By default the Teeter deformation grid is divided by white vertical lines representing 45-degreesincrement and the gray line representing the 15-degree increment. The spline position at each point on the grid optionally alters the spline value of the vertex. The spline position at each point on a grid determines the angle of rotation for each shape on the corresponding levels of the path.

DEFORM / BEVEL This alters the unit size of rested polygons in the opposite direction during the lofting process. On selecting the bevel, the shape viewport is replaced by the bevel deformation grid. When nested shape is lofted, the outer polygon becomes longer in size and the inner polygon becomes smaller. The level values are measured in absolute units. Using bevel, the vertex could be moved inserted, Refined & Deleted.

DEFORM / FIT

This command helps to change the size of each cross section along X or Y axis by fitting it to two closed polygen created in the 2D shaper. It uses two closed polygons called fit polygons To determine the final form of the mesh object. One shape / fit polygon along X -axis and the other effects shape along Y-axis. If systemically is on it uses same polygon and when the systemcially is off it uses the different polygons. The polygons created in 2D shaper on imported into 3D Lofter Fit grid. As the shapes are extruded along the path during lofting process, they are sealed to fit within the boundry of the fit polygon. CREATING FIT POLYGON For fit polygon the polygon must be signle and closed. The top & botton of the fit polygon ( as seen from X & Y axis) must contain atleast one and not more than two vertices. When the fit shape is imported into the 3D Lofter and placed within the fit deformation grid its end vertices concides with the end vertices of the path. The fit polygons cannot contain spline segments that extract beyond the top or botton vertices. Polygons cannot contain undercuts.

DEFORM / PREVIEW This command helps in previewing the models consisting of the path with the shape placed on same or all of its levels. It reflects all curvent deformation setting and with tween & contour. The Tween command places a cross- section on all path levels. When inactive it uses only the levels that contain shape and the path vertex. Or when Contour button being on, the shapes on often perpendicular to the path & when inactive it extrudes along X / Y plans.

3D DISPLAY The 3D Display helps viewing the 3D- Mesh object in the 3D editor while in the 3D lofter, which preview the object Mesh. Displays & more construction plan. Display & manipulate a tape measure to measure distances an angle within the active viewport.

OBJECT COMMAND i) The object command lets you create mesh object from the current model. Displays a preview of the mesh object using the current model and a guide.

LOFTING PARAMETER : The lofting parameter in object control box are: Object Name Cap Start object Cap End Determines the face to be created as surface. Prompts for the object name When a capped object is rendered ,surface is created at each end of the

Smooth Prompts to input whether the smooth shading is to be applied along Length /Width the length or the width.

Mapping: Determine whether Mapping Co-Ordinates are applied along the length and Perimeter of the Lofted Object. Mapping Co-Ordinates are required for any object assigned with Material with Texture, Bump or Opacity Map. Mapping Co-Ordinate tell the Render where on the object Bitmap should appear. The left Edge of the Bitmap starts at the first vertex of the shape and is mapped in a clockwise direction about the perimeter of the object. Optimization: When this option is chosen, the program ignores shape steps in a linear segment during the lofting process, resulting in less complex meshes. When optimization is off ,it uses all the shape steps depending on the shape detail setting. Example A flat N-Gon and a circular object N-Gon cannot be lofted using optimization. Weld Vertex. Choose this option to remove core vertices and faces when lofting a surface of revolution object. When set ON vertices that are within the axes specified by the weld. Threshold parameters are welded into a single vertex. Path Detail: Determines the no. of steps generate cross-section during the Lofting process. Choosing low to use no steps, Medium to use half of the current path step setting , or on high to use all the current step settings Shape Detail Determine the no of shape steps are used during the lofting process. Choose Low for no step, Medium to use half of the current shape and the High for all current shape setting.
Tween / Contour: These parameter duplicates the effects of Tween and contour button in the Icon Panel

3D EDITOR
3D Editor is the first option to be seen on a Computer screen when 3DS is opened. 3D Editor performs: Load geometry from disk in .3ds, .dxf, .fkm, .dsc formula. Create basic primitive such as sphere Cube, Cone etc. Create 3D mesh, face or create mesh by boolean operators. Import object created through 3D lofter and help editing the mesh. Apply material. Create, position and adjust lights to cameras. Render the scene to add colur.

CREATION OF 3D OBJECTS 3D editor helps creating basic promitives like cube, sphere, cylinder, cone etc.

It helps alter shapes Import meshes from 3D lofter meshes Add Material.

CREATING SCENE 3D Scenes are created by Importing object from 3D editor. Alter shapes Add lights & cameras Adjust reflection, shadow. Create mood by altering color texture.

VIEWING 3D OBJECTS The 3D editor creates 3D mesh objects which could be viewed through six 2D projection in terms of X, Y & Z axis. They are X/Y plane X/Y X/Z X/Z Y/Z Y/Z Front Back Top Bottom Left Right

Apart from these Six & Orthographic projections the viewer is also in a position to an isometric view of an object through user view and sometime drawings views are made looking the object adjusting the viewing angle

The Vports could be made active by pressing the cursor arrow key.

The Isometric display is a two-dimensional view and has no depth. CAMERA VIEWS Camera view is a view generated as seen through the lens of the camera. The view is based on the focal length and position of camera and gives the real perspective of the object. SPOT LIGHT VIEW Spot light view helps viewing rendered 3D Scene from the location of spotlight that is created towards the target of spot light. With the area affected by spotlight shown, the area affected by spotlight could be viewed.

GRAPHIC COMPONENTS OF MESH OBJECT

The primary function of 3D editor is to create and edit mesh obect. The graphic components is normally built up of Vertex, Faces, Edges, Ends, Sides, Segments, Objects and Element. VERTEX Vertex is a point in a space on which faces are built. When mesh is created faces and vertices are created together.

FACE Faces are triangle formed out of three vertices. Mesh object create faces of various different sizes. Each face in an object presents a surface to the renderer. The brightness of a face depends on its angle to the view and the light source in the scence. EDGE The line formed between two vertices of a face. Each face consists of three edges, although triangular faces can share the same edge.

END The end of a mesh object i.e ends of a cylinder mesh object are created. SIDES The flat surface that run from are end of a mesh , mesh object to other In 3D lofter, the number of sides is determined by the shape steps you use to create a mesh object plus one, multiplied by the number of vertices. Example: If a circle is lofted to a cylinder using four vertices and with a step value of 3, the resulting mesh object has 16 sides ( 3+1) x 4 = 16

SEGMENTS

The portion of an object between two of its cross sections. The total number of segments in an object are one less than the total cross sections. OBJECT A collection of one or more vertices forming a net like appearance. ELEMENT One of two or more individual mesh object grouped together into one larger object.

LOCAL & GLOBAL AXIS 3D Studio uses two axis the global axis and the local axis. Global axis is the default positioned at 0,0,0 origin of 3D space. The local axis are positioned at the centre of one or more selected graphic components.

To use Local axis click on the Local Axis from the Icon Panel or by pressing "X" key DRAWING AREA The drawing area is divided into four viewports of equal size. The available views are Six orthographic views An Isometric user view Camera view Spot light view

By default, the top viewport display the top ( x/z) from ( x/y)

STATUS LINE The 3D editor status line displays information rotated to the current operation when an object is rotated or moved, the status line displays the angle of rotation or the displacement. EDITOR COMMANDS The editor commands could be grouped into eight categories. Create, Select, Modify, Surface, Light, Cameras, Render & Display. CREATE The create command helps Creating 3D primitives such as boxes, spheres, tubes and cones. Increase complexity of an object by adding vertices, faces, elements or other existing object. Alter the shape of the object by extruding one or more of its faces Delete faces or elements from an object, thereby creating additional objects. Copy, faces, elements or objects Import faces 2D shapes from Shaper. Perform Boolean operations on object. Create array of new object from existing object.

CREATING / BOX Creates a 3D six sides box of varied width, height and length. To create box of equal sides hold down the Control key which clicking in a non-camera, non-spot light viewport. CREATING / SPHERE Creates sphere with a specified number of segments. L-sphere is made up of faces in a longitudinal and latitudinal arrangement. When an Lsphere is created in an orthographic viewport, it is placed at the centre of the construction plane, if created in a uses viewport it is placed in the centre of user plane.

G-SPHERE Creates a 3-D sphere with a specified number of faces. A sphere is made up of faces in an avangment similar to geodesic dome. When a Gsphere is created in an orthographic viewport it placed at the center of construction plane

HEMISPHERE Hemisphere is half on an Lsphere and is made up of faces in a latitudinal and longitudinal avangment.

CYLINDER: Cylinder is made up of two identical end polygons with connecting segments between them. A segment is the area between two cross sections.

TUBE Crates 3-D tube with inner and outor diameter.

TORUS Creates a 3-D donut shape.

CONE Creates 3-D cone whose end polygons may or may not be of different sixe.

VERTEX Loads one more vertices to an existing object. The created vertices are placed on the current construction plan. Vertices cannot be created by can only be added.

FACE Create face between array three existing vertices. Create new object by copying one or more faces. Alter the shape of an object by extruding one or more faces.

Detach one or more faces. Tesselate one ore more faces. (Tasselate adds a vertex to the centre of the selected face and draws three connecting lines from that vertex to the three original vertex. CREATING FACE Faces are created by connecting vertices of the same object. The vertices to be connected could be in separate element but must be in the same object. If faces are to be created using vertices of different objects. Combine the object into one so that they become element of the same object.

Imp: When vertices are connected in a counterclockwise direction, the face normal is on the rear side A face normal is a vector in the center is a vector in the center and perpendicular to a face, projecting outward toward space, The direction normal is usually specified "outside" of an object.

CREATING ELEMENT Create element Creates new object by copying an element of an existing object.

Creates new object by detatching an element from an existing object. Tasselate all faces of a selected element.

Explode an object into multiple elements or object based on the angle of its edges.

CREATING ARRAY Array is copying an object to make number of copies in a linear or along a curved path or circle.

LINEAR ARRAY Linear array creates a specified number of copies of an object along a straight him. The name of the object arrayed are incremented automatically. The object spacing specifies the distance between the

center to the end of the object. The array length specifies the overall length of the array. If the overall length is known click on calculate to adjust the spacing. RADIAL ARRAY Circular array could be created about global or local axis. The value beside the degree button specifies the distance between the center of the object in degrees. They are length specified overall length of the are. The objects are copied is copy is activated. SELECTION OF OBJECT Selection is set of temporary collection of one or more graphic components assigned to any group A/B/C. The entries which could be selected are Vertex, Face, Element & Object.

MODIFY Modify lets to Edit objects at object, element, face, edge or vertex level.

Modify Vertex Command Edits geometry by manipulating or deleting one or vertices Cloning Vertices The vertices can be cloned by selecting a set of vertices by holding down the shift key before selection. The vertices thus becomes separate object without face. Moves one or more vertices in a mesh object. Rotate one or more vertices about the global / local axis. Scales one or more vertices to and from the global or Local axis, along the plane of the active viewport. Scale increases or decreases the distance between the selected vertices and the active axis.

Modify / Vertex /Move Modify /Vertex/ Rotate Modify/ Vertex/ Scale

Modify / Vertex /Skew

Distorts an object by skewing two or more of its vertices on a plane parallel with the Global /Local axis.

Modify / Vertex /Mirror

Moves one or more vertices by mirroring their orientation.

Modify /Vertex /Bend Bends a portion of an object by bending a selected pattern of vertices. This command works only with the selected set of vertices.

To create a smooth bend, the selection set must have enough vertices to allow the gradual application of the bend. On bending a six segmented cylinder, the bend appears faceted since there are no intervening vertices.

Modify / Vertex / Taper Widens or narrows a portion of an object by tapering a selected portion of vertices in relation to the Global / Local axis.

Modify /Vertex /Align Aligns one or more vertices to the construction plane of the active viewport.

Delete objects, elements, faces, edges & vertices.

Modify /Element /Align Aligns an element to the construction plane of the active viewport

Modify /Object /Align Aligns an object to the construction plane of the active viewport

Display hide & move the location of global axis. Alter the attributes of an object including name, shadow-casting properties and matter attributes or assign an animated external process file.

Modify /Object /Reset Xform Resets the orientation of the local axis of an object to align with the world co-ordinate system. In the 3D Editor, the objects are rotated and scaled to the world coordinate system, as represented by the orthographic View-ports. However, in the keyframer the objects are rotated and scaled according to their local axis. The orientation of the local axis in the keyframer could be viewed using Hierarchy / Object Pivot command

When Xform is applied to an object, the orientation of the Local axis coordinates are reset to align with the World system, regardless of the current orientation of the object.

AXIS ALIGN This helps aligning global axis to a vertex to a selected set of vertices or to an element or object. The alignment is performed only on two-directional plan. If axis needs to placed on a 3D center of object perform center alignment in two different or thographic view-ports.

SURFACE COMMAND This controls the appearance of the rendered image. This command includes 1) 2) 3) 4) Assign material from the material editor. Adjust smoothening. Assign mapping Co-ordinator. Adjust surface. The materials are either chosen from the Library or is created using the Material Editor

Surface / Mapping

Define how the mapped coordinates and materials are applied to the object.

Objects are assigned material using texture, opacity bump , specular, shininess or selfillumination . Mapping coordinate convey the Renderer whereon the geometry the bitmaps are to have effect. Without the mapping coordinates, the bitmap has no effect on the geometry, and only diffuse, ambient and specular properties are rendered. Mapping coordinates can be applied to object in lofted object along their length and perimeter or by applying directly along planar, spherical or cylindrical mapping coordinates in the Surface / Mapping branch. MATERIAL 3D editor has a library of different material on choosing the desired material it becomes the current material and can be assigned to faces, elements and objects. SMOOTHENING This helps in smoothing faces, elements or objects. Smoothening group define the portion to be rendered as smooth shaded and the parts to be faced surface. Smoothing groups are assigned as numbers. 3D Studio gives 32 smoothening group. As these are effective only in adjustment faces. They can be re-used for non-adjuscent groups.

SURFACE MAPPING It gives as to how mapped material are applied to element & object. When materials are asigned using texture, opacity, bump, specular, self- illumation etc. mapping co-ordinator tell the renderer where on the geometry the betmap is to have an effect. Without these mapping co-ordinating bitmap has no effect on the geometry and only lights are rendered. Mapping Co-ordinating can be applied in two ways. Mapping Co-ordinating can be applied to lofted objects along their length and permeter in 3D- Lofter using mapping button in the object lofting control dialogue box. Directly apply planar, spherical or cylindrical mapping co-ordinates.

The mapping adjust common helps on adjusting the position, scale, rotation and telting of the map icon before being applied to the geometry. The Region fit commel helps to define the size and aspect ratio of a planner map by drawing a quadrilal. Region fit works only with planner maps. It provides

fast & accurate means to adjust the aspect ratio of the map and is the only way to set map size to real-world units. The Bitmap fit adjusts the aspect ratio of a planer map icon to fit a selected bit map fils.

LIGHTS COMMANDS Light command create Omini light and spot light Move, Omini, Spot light and spotlight target. Adjust hotspot and fall off angle of spot light. Adjust color of ambient light, omini light & spot light. Rename omini and spot light and helps then on or off. Adjust shadow-casting, projector image all equations and so on.

AMBIENT LIGHT It is a general, non-directional and has equal intensity everywhere and does not produce shadows. The natural ambient light is the light when only ambient light is present the object appears, solid and flat. The RGB Slider range represents the intensity of drawing color red, green and blue. The HLS represent the color, lumiate and saturation. SPOT LIGHT Spot light are directional lights that directs adjustable light on a target and cast shadows. Spot light can be rendered using any shading limits. However, the edge of the light too and cast shadows can only be rendered using phong and metal shading. It a spot light is set any viewport can be viewed throught the spot light and works as a Camera viewport. The spot light could be moved can highlight a specific location, increase or decrease the width of the beam ( Hotspot adjust angle of fall off( altumation of the frings of spotlight beam as we move away from hotspot.

CAMERA The camera command helps to Create any number of cameras within targets. Move the position of Camera or their target. Adjust the roll or field of view Change perspective of Camera Set Camera range to adjust the fog and distance.

When a camera is created, the camera and target are created on a constructional plan in an orthographic viewport. The local length could be adjusted using the lens. The focal length be varied from 9.8 mm 10000000 mm. The field of view FOV can be adjusted from 0.00025 to 1750.

The roll angle can range from 1800 to 1800.

RENDER Rendering is the injunction of life into the geometry of an object with respect to material (surface) light( fun..) and the mapping parameter. Rendering is done in an active viewport. The parameter available for rendering a still image are: SHADING LIMITS Flat shading displays each face as a single solid color. The color is calculated using the surface properties of its face, location and its orientatives relations to light. Flat shading is useful for checking texture. Gourand shading displays each face as a color gradial. The program calculates the color of each vertex using the surface properties at the vertex its location. Its orientation relative to the light etc. Gourand shading is useful for checking lighting when bump mapping, shadows and reflections are not required.

Phong shading calculates the color of each piral using surface properties and create a realistic highlights and gives a smoothing appearance to the object. Metal shading is similar to phong shading but sunulater metallic effect by mining of ambient and diffused color. Phong and metal shading are required for casting shadows, mump mapping and transparency fall off effect. Antialiasing smoothens the curved lines & border drawn on roster display. The rendering can be seen while the computer is on the work by pressing the spacebar. When rendering to RCPADI driver or to a 256 color display the image is displayed using default palete. The setting up of render includes Defining atmosphere Defining background Setting Rendering Option Configuration of Renderer Adjust Shadows Making of Cubic Reflection maps.

Rendering atmosphere This effects fog, distance, cueing or layered fog. The fog and distance cueing effect the color of the objects to fade with respect to the camera. The layered fog is respondent to co-ordinates within the scene. Layered fog does not use the Camera ranges, but instead specifies an atmosphere that is fixed to the coordinates within the scene.

BACKGROUND The backgound to be displayed behind the rendered geometry and it can be a picture, a solid color or a color gradent. The configuration of rendering can be changed, the available option being.

FILE OUTPUT The image could be saved GIF, TARGA, COLOR TIFF OR MONO TIFF, BMP OR JPEG FORMAT.

THE DISPLAY Manipulate the user plane and align it to a selected face of an existing object. Alter the display of graphic component by hiding and unhiding selected faces, elements and objects or selectively exposing different combination of vertices faces of lines. Turn on & off the display of light and camera. Display and move construction plane. Display and manipulate a tape measure icon to measure distances angle within the active viewport. Determine the redraw speed. Selectively freeze and threw object.

KEYFRAMER
The Animations of Mesh object along with light, finishes and with scene are produced using keyframer. Animation is a quick & psychological vision of an object when still object is viewed in quick succession, the brain conceives it as a continuous motion. The approximate number of forms that are required to produce this effect is approx. 10/ sc. The normal number of frames used for different applications are: Cartoons 12 to 24 frames / sec. Motion Pictures 24 frames/ sec NTSC Television 30 frames/ sec

The frames produced by keyframer can be used with any playback medium and can be rum at any deserved speed. In general to creates a one minute program are needs to live about 720 1800 frames. The frames produced in a keyframer are routine incremental changes from the previous frame directed towards predefined goals. The keyframer helps creating 3D scene, Mix objects, light and cameras created through 3D editor. This forms the initial frame. When this scene is altered in a defined sequence it forms the next keyframe and so on. The keyframe then generates all the intermittent from between two keyframe and gives an animated appearance. The transformation permitted are Mesh Object. Position Rotation Scale & Morph Ambient Light Color Spotlight position, target, color, hotspot, fall off, roll camera position, target, roll and field view.

HIERARCHIAL LINKING

Components can be linked together in the keyframe so that the movement of one is controlled by one or more components. This linkage is unidirectional in which the first object controls the 2nd object but not vice-versa. The first object is called as the parent and the second the child. The parent children relatively put together is called hierarchical

PARENT

CHILD-1

CHILD-2 Branch-I

CHILD-3 Branch CHILD

CHILD Branch-II CHILD

Once the relationship is established the child maintains its position and shape relative to its parents. If the point is moved rotated, scaled, the child too is transformed. However the reverse does not apply If a child in turn has children, these children also change to maintain their relationship to their parents. All objects could be linked includes camera, target, omini, spot and spot light target but as a child. The hidden objects too are linked. Normally components could be linked for all transformets but in some case links are required to be set up. While linking ensure that complex structures are linked together. Link a camera target as a child of an object so that camera tracks the object. Link object to dummy object to built complex movement from simple movement. Dummy objects are special object created in keyframer and are invisible to the renderer.

To link two components, first click on the child object, then on the parent object. The prompt lines at the bottom of the screen show the names of the selected components and which is called as the parent and which is the parent. Linking of an object can be done using name of the object.

Normally a pivot point is set to facilitate rotate, scale an object. Pivot point is the point around which the object is rotated or scaled. I n keyframer each object has its own pivot point and is assigned its own set of X, Y, Z coordinates. Pivot point of an object is the intersection of its local axis.. It is preset t te center of the object but could be relocated to any desired point. A dummy object is normally created to attach this to a path or a source. These are invisible and aare centered on the construction plane of the selected view-ports.

HIENARCHY- LINK Hierarchy links two objects by establishing a relationship between child and parents. A child inherits the transformation of its parents but the childs transformation has no effect on the parents. Number of child, parent relationship are possible but light and target cannot be linked as parents and cameras can only be parent to light. It is possible to establish duplicate links / Branches,

Inherit link duplicates the transformation between the selected parent and the child down through the sub-tree. If a parent has more than one child, the links between the parent and the child are duplicated down each childs's sub-tree.

PATH Paths are assigned as the direction for the object transformation dummy animation. The path could be imported from 2D or 3D lofter or dxf files from the disk. The keyframer scales the important path to fit the duration of the active segment as long as there are frames available. Path / Follow Forces an object to align itself to the contours of its path as it travels. The object can be banked to a specified angle while following the path.

To smoothen sharp corners or to reduce tension the tension is adjusted through the Adjust /TCB Tension.

ANIMATION Create mesh, light, camera in the 3D editor. Open up keyframer. Establish hierarchical links, constrains and pivot point as needed. Choose the required number of frames. Create key frame wherever required and average component. Test animation by playing that segment or dragging frame slider.

Save the object and key animation to disk. Make preview of object faces and edges.

PREVIEW COMMAND
The Preview command shows the tentative display of an object using flat shading, without shadows, reflections, or maps. All lights are changed to white, non-projecting omini lights. The Preview could be stored on the disk under the name *.fli. in the desired directory. Imp: Possibly render the preview in the camera viewport as the program may miss some faces if previewed on a non-camera view-port.

Render: The Render command is similar to the 3D Editor, but renders a series of frames resulting in an animation. The Rendered image can be stored in Traga, Tiff, of Gif or as a Flic animation. The Constituents of a Render view Dialogue Box are:

Motion Blur: Frame: Every nth: Frame Output:

This speeds up the Rendering for test. Select the frames to be Render. Skips the frames while rendering. If set to 1, the system renders every frame.

Specifies the output of the frame.

Rendering Setup
The Command covered under this head are: Define Atmosphere Define Background Configuration of output device Adjust global shadow parameter Creation of cubic reflection map Create .cub or .vue file Atmosphere: Configure Controls Background, Fog or Distance cueing. This involves setting up of File output format, Setting up Palette, Shadows, The .tga bitmap comprise the sides of a cubic reflection map of the scente as viewed from the center of a selected object. The .vue file is aan editable ASCII file

MATERIAL EDITOR
The material editor helps creats and edit surface materials. The material describes the surface characteristics of 3D the geometric scence. With the help of material editor 3D Studio assigns different material to different object by combining properties like color, shineness, transparancy, bitmap patterns , shades and special effects. COLOR * The color is defined by the combination of three properties. The ambient, the diffuse and the specular. The 3D material editor adjusts the color of these three properties to achieve the desired material effect. The ambient adjusts the color of the shaded portion. The diffuse adjust the lighted portion of the object and the specular adjust the highlight color.

* *

The Shininess and Shine determine the size and strength of the highlight. Strength sliders.

MAPPING To create complex material effect one or more bitmap images could be mapped. To simulate this in a material, a bit map created in a paint program is applied to material as a texture map. The mapping feature in the material edited works in a combination with surface name mapping command in the 3D editor.

TEXTURE MAPS Texture maps defines the surface color of an object based on bitmap image. Opacity maps specify the area s of transparency and capacity. Bump maps creates an embossed effect based on the identity of pixels in bitmap. Specular maps, map the color of the bitmap to the specular highlights. Shininess maps alter the intensity of the specular highlights based on the intensity of the pixels in the bitmap. Self-Illumination maps apply self-illumination qualities to the material based on the intensity. Reflection maps apply the bitmap so that it appears to be reflected of the objects surface. 3D Studio offers four types of reflection maps like Spherical , Cubical, Auto-matic reflection and flat- mirror automatic reflection maps.

Bitmaps can also be used to mask any of the material map types. The intensity of the pixels in the bitmap mask alter the effect of the material map. For example, when a mask is applied to a texture mao, the black pixels in the mask reduce the intensity of the texture map to zero, the grey pixels reduce the intensity of the texture map partially and white pixels let the texture map show completely. SHADING Shading is a part of the rendering that shows how the surface of the geometry reflects to light. There are four types of shading like flat, ground, phong and metal. Different objects in a scene require

different levels of shading of best effects. This is achievable by means of mixing different levels to optimize rendering speed and realism. Flat shading is a faster shading method. It applies a single color to every face of an object based on the angle of incidence of light. Gourd and Phong shading produce realistic images and are called smooth shading. Gourd shading interpolates color along each face based on the colors at each of its vertices. Phong shading interpolates the surface normal at each pixel on a face based on a normal at the vertices. The result gives the high degree of photorealism in the rendered image. Metal shading is based upon the Cook/ Torrance illumination model. It produces a metal effects by mixing ambinent and defuse colorappling an increase contras of the specular highlights and adding a brighter highlights on the surface areas of glancing light such as back light.

MATERIAL CREATION To create a new material load a material library with a library option with the library menu. Select shading mode , Select special attributes Adjust Ambient, Diffuse and specular colour controls Adjust material properties such as Shininess, Transparency and

Assign one or more maps or masks MATERIAL COLOUR CONTROL THE MATERIAL COLOR CONTROL determines the colour of all non map material . This consists of Ambient , Diffuse and Specular. Their associated color six color adjustment sliders. The three buttons work in conjunction with the color sliders to let you adjust the colors of a sample sphere. The ambient button controls the colour portion of an object not in direct light. Diffuse button controls a color of the lighted portion of an object. The specular button controls the color of the highlight on a shiny object

3D STUDIO
Table Of Contents
Introduction 2D Shaper
Basics Concepts Valid & Invalid Shapes Bezier Splines Shaper Commands Selection Modify Display 2 3 5 6 8 12 13 15

3D Lofter

Introduction Lofting Concepts 3D Lofter Display Lofter Commands Path Deform Display

16 17 20 21 22 23 31

3D Editor Introduction Drawing Area Create Selection of object Modify Surface Light Camera Render Display
Key Framer Introduction Hierarchical Linking Path Creating Animation Preview Render 58 59 62 63 63

32 37 37 44 44 51 53 54 55 57

Material Editor
Introduction Color Mapping Shading Material creations 64 64 65 66 67

Exercises

PREFACE
The objective of the book is to give the reader an insight into the Animation of an object using 3D Studio. Stress has been made to give the basic inputs required for understanding the basic steps in the computer animation. The contents in the books are so arranged to give a reader a step by step approach to give ample clarity about the subject. Efforts has been taken to give the maximum coverage and to give exercises to clear various topics. Students are requested to practice with objects , which are in common use to get the necessary exposure and ingenuity . As 3D Studio has immense application in the field of presentation The perfection on the production of real picture could come only with regular and Systematic practice.

Krishnamurthy