Let's start this up again

[Acorn]

Thanks Gary, it's not as scary as I thought.
At its simplest, an OBJ file and a MTL file with reference to texture files.

I have been rendering into a web page using Three.js but it is a shedload of code at the moment.

Early days.

Acorn

[Acorn]

Here is my approach to get a Blender file to render in a web page:

• Unzip THREE - Windmill.zip
• Add & into the just-created THREE - Windmill_xar_files folder.
• It is messy as TG would accept too large a file.
• It is not my design but i kept if to line up with the following tutorial.

I worked through most of https://r105.threejsfundamentals.org...-load-obj.html to get something that worked.

Changing the unpacked .Blender files was tricky to say the least.
Getting them to play nice in Xara was harder.

I failed to render the back of the sails as I think I lost one of the textures.

I finally discovered that you cannot animate .OBJ files as everything is one lump.
I was amazed that the texture files are so big. The XAR file is all of 24kB.
I now have a use for Filer Forge 11 that I purchased a few months ago.

Moving on to gLTF files and learning about textures and texture atlases.

Acorn

[Gare]

You've outdone yourself, Acorn.


That is, I'm completely baffled over what you did: your method, as you described in your link above, is intended to allow a Web page to feature an object, not just as an image, but one that can be viewed from many angles? Not sure how Xara Designer enters the picture. :) !

I've seen rendered objects that can be rotated and stuff in (almost) real time on free and commercial model stores on the Web. Here's one such if this is related to your work...

SketchFab usually free models



That said, I took the liberty and I hope you don't mind, of doing something leagues less ambitious; I just rendered the windmill, with JPEG image maps attached correctly, did a little color correction and found the appropriate Getty image. The wavy reflection is Flaming Pear's Flood filter.




Both your approach and what I do are valid and interesting things to do in a 3D realm.

We have almost 100 hits in three days and no one has hopped in yet. Folks, post anything related to 3D that you like (SFW, okay?), that you'd like to talk about, and help us breathe some air into this forum.

I will try tomorrow to post a somewhat advanced tutorial on how to use the 3D Extrude tool to create a toy train.



[ ] Yay?

[ ] Nay?

[ ] None of the below.


;) g

[Egg Bramhill]

Here is my approach to get a Blender file to render in a web page:

I'm in awe Acorn. Great stuff. I've dabbled with Blender over a few years but I find I'm forgetting more than I can remember.

[Acorn]

Gary, I decided i wanted to present future 3D model that I design into a web page. I didn't want to just output static views (planes or cars).
My approach allows the viewer to zoom, pan & rotate without the need of a rendering engine, application or other web resource.

Here is what I did, published on-line: http://acorn.xara.hosting/windmill/.

I like your placing of the windmill against a image background.
I was working up to the background being a cubemap and also to animate the sails.

I have a friend who designs totally immersive aircraft simulators where you can make the cockpit transparent to export the wiring loom for maintenance or render every room in an apartment block for sales viewing where the cupboards open and the washing machine cycles.

Acorn

[handrawn]

[Gare]

Yeah. That's beyond me, Acorn. I definitely appreciate what is for me an extraordinarily elegant for a custom solution! When I want to reveal more than a static view, I animate. I tend to like to do "push-throughs" at low angles and such.

I want to thank you so very much for opening our 3D discussions and advice in a direction that I'd say is mind-blowing without fear of contradiction!

As I'd mentioned earlier, I'm going to break out of this thread to offer a PDF tutorial because multiple screen caps and multiple posts suck. Focus is the 3D Extrude tool, just a jumping off point (or "climbing aboard") for other explorations.

[Acorn]

Gary, in your unintended absence, I have met my own 'mind-blowing' experience with https://doc.babylonjs.com.

The effort put into the tutorials is brilliant and the ability to alter and tweak to destruction, brilliant.
A small example: https://playground.babylonjs.com/#7G0IQW.

Meshes can be imported from Blend

I've managed getting some of them to run in a Xara website but I am still experimenting...

Acorn

[Gare]

I'm very weak, but getting better, George. Thank you for sharing what looks like a totally awesome, off-the-charts piece of geometry and animation capabilities.

Did I get it right? :)

I have something far less ambitious, but a core capability of Xara, that at very least should be entertaining/educational. That's what I do. :)

My Best,

Gary


P.S. This is something I worked on because COVID caught up with us. Rather bucolic and boring, isn't it? Simple subjects and compositions can be harder to pull off than fantasy stuff, because it has its roots in reality, that, with the exception of a few politicians, is what we live in.