newbie - realistic texture mapping

[_nameless]

Hi guys,

I made the cover of a software product box in Xara X (I can export faces as bitmaps) and now I need to produce a boxshot (3d perspective, 2 or 3 faces showing).
What proggie could I use for this (preferably small and free [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img])? - there must be something that can map 2 textures on a box and set a camera angle...

[sorry if the crosspost is considered a no-no [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]]

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.

[_nameless]

Hi guys,

I made the cover of a software product box in Xara X (I can export faces as bitmaps) and now I need to produce a boxshot (3d perspective, 2 or 3 faces showing).
What proggie could I use for this (preferably small and free [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img])? - there must be something that can map 2 textures on a box and set a camera angle...

[sorry if the crosspost is considered a no-no [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]]

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.

[randyrives]

Try Blender it is a small download and it is free.

http://www.blender3d.com/

--Randy

[Mark (theKeeper)]

If it's just a basic 'box shot' you need... then why not just use Xara for that? It's quite capable of doing perspective distortions. And creating the other sides of the box isn't difficult.

If you need help with creating the other sides of the box, i'm sure there are a lot of folks in the Xara forum that would jump at the chance to explain that to you. In fact, Gary Priester has a Xara tute on that. Checkout his site for it: www.xaraxone.com

PS: i would here, but this is the 3D forum. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

"The lessons to be learned, are found along the path of your journey, not at your final destination. That is only where you will rest, between lessons"

[bmh216]

I agree with Randy, but if you can grasp Blender without ordering the manual, you're better than most (Blender's interface is, to say the least, very unusual: filled with buttons and icons that aren't labelled or tool-tipped, leaving the uninitiated a bit overwhelmed). Excellent work can be turned out with Blender, but the learning curve is steep.

My choice, especially since you only seem to want to map what is essentially a rectangular box, would be Strata 3Dbase, which is a free download. Go to http://www.strata.com and click in the navigation bar where it says "Strata 3D product line", then you'll see it (they hide it a bit in favor of their commercial products-who can blame them!)

Strata 3D has been around a long time, and alot of excellent 3D artists that have long since moved on to the "big 3" (Maya, Lightwave & 3DStudio Max) began their exploits in Strata 3D. It is an awesome tool for the price (free) and will give you an excellent start in 3D graphics.

Hope this helps, and good luck. Let us see what you come up with!

Brett

[_nameless]

Have a little faith in me guys, I'm quite a programmer - I'll eat Blender for lunch (or the other way around

Live healthy, exercise more, still die.

[randyrives]

Brett your are exactly right. I started out with the Free Strata and even bought the Pro 3.0.

The download is bigger than Blender but it is much easier to use. I should have thought of it.
Just when I think small and free Blender comes to mind (only 1.6mb).

nameless - you will be rendering much faster with Strata than Blender.

--Randy

[bmh216]

Randy, I'm glad to see cooler heads sometimes do prevail. I've seen flame wars over "Blender vs. Strata" before! Blender proponents are many and strong, and I was hoping not to be run out of town for mentioning Strata [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

nameless, Randy's right, start with Strata to save yourself the initial frustration, and download Blender when you're a bit more comfortable in 3D space (like we all don't live in it every day anyway!).

Good luck,
Brett

[Mark (theKeeper)]

ooo ya sorry _nameless... i forgot all about the free Strata 3D! Do that then, it's MUCH less hassle than Blender.

Oh ya and Brett... i want to add a 4th to your "big 3" list -- Cinema 4D. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Definately not to be overlooked.

"The lessons to be learned, are found along the path of your journey, not at your final destination. That is only where you will rest, between lessons"

[bmh216]

Sorry Mark, I didn't mean to exclude Cinema, it's just that the top animation houses (at least in the U.S.) generally use one of the "Big 3" that I mentioned. I know in Europe, Cinema is very big in television production (especially in Germany, from what I understand).

I have had some experience with Cinema. I found it very impressive, especially for the price. The renderer is unparalleled, especially with the SLA shaders (those things should be available for Lightwave!) I am not crazy about the interface, I had to struggle to get enough screen real-estate for the views, but after some customization (namely moving the material browser from the bottom of the screen to its' own tab on the right) I became quite comfortable with it. Very similar to 3D Studio Max in basic layout, yet not as daunting. I turned out some decent renders with Cinema, and the animation tools are very nice. IK is a bit clunky, and forget about non-linear animation, but overall I liked it alot.

So, to sum up this (overly long) explanation, I in no way meant to slight Cinema 4D XL!
One more thing: Body Paint is a thing of beauty, Deep Paint 3D doesn't come close.

Brett