DIGITAL DIRECTIONS

RayDream Flying Fonts

Visual Reality

Digital TextEffects for Labs

PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT • JUNE 1996

Text typed into trueSpace edit screen Text rotated

Text expanded into 3D Color added to 3D text

IN PREVIOUS articles, we have en-couraged you to incorporate digital photog-raphy into the photo lab as an added ser-vice, not as a replacement for traditional

trueSpace2

Jack & Sue Drafahl

services. Well, there are some exceptions tothat guideline! Digital photography is con-stantly improving, resulting in betterimage processing times, and it is becoming

more and more economical. Computer gen-erated special effects used in text slideshave been improved so much that they areactually replacing traditional methods in

PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT • JUNE 1996 29

many of the progressive photo labs.Computer generated special effects slides

have been around for years, but were limitsed to basic effects. When more complexeffects were attempted on the older com-puters, they became time consuming andexpensive. With today's faster computersand complex software, just about anythingthat was done in the traditional lab cannow be done on the computer. In fact,many of the 3D text slides designed oncomputer are more cost-effective thanthose done in the traditional photo lab.

So, where did all these special effectsprograms come from? Actually, most ofthe 3D software programs today are mold-ed after the text effects you see on yourtelevision screen. You know, the oneswhere you fly over the words, or the textrevolves in space and then zooms passyou—the kind of effects that make youask, "How did they do that?"

Before we look at these new and exciting3D text programs, we need to back up andtake a look at computer requirements.These programs are complex and need allthe speed you can get out of your computer.In the PC world you will need a 486-66 orbetter to make your service cost effective.

We tried all the programs in this article ona 486-66, and they all worked. Some of theimages had to be processed at nightbecause of the lengthy time needed forimage processing. We then tried a Pentium100, and the imaging times dropped fromhours to minutes. The speed of your com-puter will definitely factor into how muchmoney you will make, since time is money.

For most of the applications we tried,we had to have 64 MB of RAM to keep theimage processing restricted to memory.We did find an effect that required 90 MBof RAM. Fortunately, the software letsyou know when you don't have enoughRAM. It is also fortunate that the price ofRAM in the last few months has takendrastic reductions, which allows you tohave more memory for your buck.

The actual computer and RAM require-ments that we recommend are more thanthe software manufacturer requires, but ifyou go with the minimum, your processingtimes will translate into lost dollars. Sincethe end product from these programs is abitmap, you will need from 8-34 MB foreach image, assuming you don't use imagecompression in your lab.

In preparation for this review, we visited

some large computer stores in our area,and then let our fingers do the walkingthrough several computer magazines to seejust what software packages seemed to bethe latest and greatest. We narrowed ourchoice to four software programs thatseemed to show up everywhere. We decid-ed to give these programs a few assign-ments to see how they performed.

The first order of business was to studythe technical manuals and then try a fewtutorials. We found that the programs hadmany features in common. The main differ-ence was in the presentation of the editscreen, and the additional features eachprogram possessed.

If we look at the common features of thesoftware programs, we find that they allallow you to type in text and select a widevariety of font types. At this point the textis in a 2D format, namely X and Y axis.You then extrude the text into the Z planeso that it now is 3D. From there you can ro-tate it on any or all of the X, Y, and Z axis.This enables you to look at the side, top, orbottom of the extruded text. The rotatedtext can be colored, or covered with a tex-ture or bitmap. Lights are then added sothat the text has a lighting ratio, shadows,

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and a photographic look.If you plan to use the image in an an-

imated sequence, you can add a path forthe text to follow so that it can fly throughthe scene. The finished file is then ren-dered to a file for imaging on a film re-corder or printer, or presented as an ani-mation on the computer screen.

This all may sound pretty simple, but ifyou plan to jump right in and make 3Dtext slides as soon as you install the pro-gram, stop right there. We have foundthat since most people who work on com-puters have been working in 2D, it takestime to learn to work in a 3D environ-ment. If you plan to use these programsin your lab, build in at least a full day ofself-instruction before you turn someoneloose with the program. It will be timewell spent.

Following is a description of each of thefour programs we used for this article. Wewill not compare the programs to eachother, because each has a slightly differentaudience, application, and price range.

"Flying Fonts" from CrystalGraphics, Inc.is a 3D special effects program designedmainly for text manipulation. When youfirst start the program, a black screen isopened as the edit area. You select the texticon, and type the text directly on thescreen. You can then change the font style,color, and any text attributes associatedwith that font. You can then select theextrusion or "bevel" button and pick one of16 types of bevels and their extrudeddepths. When you select the rotate button,an X, Y, and Z axis appears on the text. Torotate the text, grab one of the letters, andmove it. The text will follow your move-ment until you stop.

When you select the "materials" button,you will be presented with five submenus.Each submenu has 16 choices, each withseveral hundred variations. The maingroups of materials include wood, marble,glass, metal, and effects. The first fourgroups mentioned add a color or textureto the text. "Effects" allows you to havelight beams glowing from the text alongwith several other neat effects.

Different types of lights can be added tothe scene, using the "light" button. Barebulb or spotlights can be used to light the3D text from different sides. You couldlight the front with a white spotlight andthe top and one side with a red spotlight.A special viewer allows you to back offfrom the scene or to look down from thetop so that alignment of the lights be-comes easier.

Up to this point the text on the screen isin what is called a "wireframe" mode.This allows everything to be drawn on the

PHOTO LAB MANAGEMENT • JUNE 1996

screen quickly in order to make fastchanges. To see what the final image real-ly looks like, you can select "render toscreen," and a quick render of the imagetakes place. If you like the image, youwould then set the final image size andresolution and render the image to file,usually a TIFF or TARGA file.

If you are creating a special effect for anAV presentation, or computer animation

sequence, you can select the "path" but-ton, and a menu with 16 paths are pre-sented. Combinations of paths can beused and individual letters can moveindependently in their own direction.When you render this image and path todisk, the program will ask you how manyseconds you want the effect to last andhow many images you want per second.For example, if your client has a six-

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projector-slide setup and wants a specificeffect to last 4 seconds, you could type in 6per second for 4 seconds for a total of 24images. The program will then make 24registered images in TIFF or TARGA for-mat, ready to output to a film recorder.

Ray Dream Designer was recentlyacquired by Fractal Design Corporation. Itcomes in two basic versions: The full blownCD package contains the main 3D editsoftware, an animation program, a libraryof 3D images, and an extensions portfoliofor cross platform 3D applications. A small-er version also comes with CorelDraw 6,and is used to enhance the CorelVector/Raster illustration software pack-age for Windows 95. Ray Dream not onlydoes 3D text manipulation but also workswith all kinds of 3D objects and 3D illustra-tions.

The text function is selected via an icon,and a subscreen appears. On this screenyou can select bevel type, fonts and all itsattributes, and depth of the extrusion.When this is done, the 3D text is placed onthe main edit scene. The main edit screenis made up of a grid system for the X,Y,and Z axis. When the text is moved to this

edit screen, a low resolution render is madeso that you can quickly make any nec-essary changes. You can rotate the text onthe X,Y, and Z axis with the "rotate" but-ton, and then add color or bitmap patternswith a menu called "shaders."

The "lights" function is very sophis-ticated and allows you control of the light'sintensity, angle of coverage, distance of fall-off, and even adjustment to the edge oflight beam. After each adjustment, you cando a quick render to see how you are doing.The final image size and type is selectedand rendered to disk for final output toinkjet printer or film recorder. If the finaldestination is animation, click into the ani-mation menu, and set up a path, numberof images and how long the effect will take.Once all this is selected, this series ofimages can then be output to disk.

trueSpace2, from Caligari Corporation, isalso a full blown 3D edit package that willedit text, objects, and 3D illustrations. Theedit screen is a grid floor stretching out intothe Z plane. Text edit is selected via one ofthe many dozen icons located around theedit screen. The extrusion of the text isdone directly on the screen, using the

mouse and dragging the text to the desiredlength. You can then select the front orback of the extrusion and enlarge or reducethe front or back of the 3D text. You canselect individual letters, or points on eachletter, and edit a half dozen different lineattributes. Lights and texture can be addedwith several different icons.

When you select a specific function viaan icon, all related functions open as moreicons. For example, if you select the lightsfunction, icons for intensity, reflectance,refraction, bitmap patterns, falloff, andbevel accuracy all appear. If you select oneof these icons, a submenu appears. Whenyou add lights, views from 3/4, top, side,and bottom allow you to align the lightswith the text.

The most impressive part of this pro-gram is all its bells and whistles thatallow you to do anything to the text.When you press the "render" button, sev-eral choices become available. You canrender to screen, render part of a scene,view in wireframe, or render in any reso-lution up to 8K resolution images (morethan 128 MB). Once you have the textlooking the way you like it, you can then

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add animation if you desire. Here youhave two choices: You can have the textmove in the scene, or you can movethrough the scene. You can fly toward thetext and fly right through the hole in a let-ter and swing back around to your origi-nal position. A wireframe preview of theanimation is available to save time onediting. Both still images and animationimages can then be rendered to disk.

Visual Software's program, VisualReality, offers an approach to the renderingsteps that is a little different from the firstthree software programs. It uses the basicsteps discussed earlier, but operates out ofseveral module programs that copy datafrom one another during the process. Forexample, to create 3D text, you would startby opening the "Visual Font" utility. All theattributes of the 3D text would be made atthis time, and then copied to the "LiveRenderize" utility. Here the text would berotated, texture added, illuminated withlights, and rendered to disk. If you need toadd a 3D object to the scene, you wouldopen "Object Designer" and it would becopied to "Live Renderize." If you want touse animation, you would then start up the

"Animation" utility and apply animation toany part of the scene.

The edit screens in "Renderize Live" arelayered so that as you move through thevarious steps, the related edit screen willappear and then disappear when that stepis done. These edit screens include: lights,objects, materials, backgrounds/bitmaps,and the overall 3D scene. The final image oranimation is then rendered to several file for-mats. "Visual Catalog" is a small programthat allows you to look at any or all part of a3D scene. These parts can then be copied toany of the other programs for editing.

A smaller version of Visual Reality iscalled "Simply 3D Super Pack" and comeswith two additional programs called"WinBlob and DoubleVision." This 3D pro-gram also has an interface with Corel-Draw, which allows images to transferfrom one another.

We enjoyed working with all four pro-grams, and only scratched the surface ofwhat they can do. These programs aremore complex than most graphics pro-grams, and you may get frustrated atfirst. If you read the manuals, and trysome of the tutorials, you're going to love

the results. It will definitely be worth thetime invested to get them online. Onceyoiir lab has mastered them, you can offera showpiece service that will make yourlab look like a million bucks. Hopefully itwill make that much for you too!

Contact Information:

CrystalGraphics, Inc.3110 Patrick Henry DriveSanta Clara, CA 95054

Ray Dream, Inc.1804 N. Shoreline Blvd.Mountain View, CA 94043

Visual Software, Inc.21731 Ventura Blvd., Suite 310Woodland Hills, CA 91364

Caligari Corp.1933 Landing DriveMountain View, CA 94043

Jack and Sue Drafahl own and operate a customlab in Portland, OR. They are also professionalphotographers, specializing in underwater pho-tography.

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