3D Graphics with Anim8or

With this tool, you can create and modify 3D graphics and simple animations with ease. It also allows you to render images, apply lighting effects, and much more

Friday, February 01, 2008

Anim8or is an excellent 3D graph -ics and animation program. You don't have to be an expert to use it because it's very easy to learn. It is designed to allow straight forward creation of animations. To get you started, you get sample animations such as spheres, cylinders, platonic solids, etc. You can apply textures, shadows and spotlights to images, add 2D and 3D text for any True Type Font, or add reflections to objects, and much more. Another good thing in Anim8or is that you can directly import and modify 3D StudioMax and Lightwave object files and then export them as 3D Studio files. This program saves all of its animations as AVI files. You can even apply camera techniques to animations like fog scenes.

This software is easily available for free download. In this article, we'll tell you how to make a 3D pillar in just a few minutes.

First you have to fix the grid settings. Go to Options >Grid and set the values. Select the 'Fixed spacing' and 'Black Lines,' so you can see the grid of black lines	Open the 'Viewport EdItor' menu, and select textures and shadows box. Pick up the 'Cylinder' tool from the tool box and draw a vertical line. Double click on it to set its length, diameter, etc.

You can toggle with different view icons. There's wireframe view, flat shaded view and smooth shaded view. You can access them from the top left side of the screen	Create a material for the pillar to make it more attractive. An empty 'Material' palette will open when you click on the 'Material' icon. Click on the 'New' button to open the 'Materials' Editor

Click on the Textures button from 'Materials Editor' to open another palette called 'Surface Texture Editor'. Here, click on the '...' button for the Diffuse value	From the 'Texture Selector' you can load the pillar material. Click 'Load Texture' and browse to the .gif or .jpg file for the material. You will see a preview of the texture file

Click 'OK' and close all palettes. You will see the Material thumbnail preview on Materials list. Click the 'Apply' button on top of preview, to see the final image	The pillar is almost ready. Now you have to make cube or sphere on top of the pillar. Select the sphere tool from the tool box and draw a sphere on top of the pillar

Select 'Smooth Shaded View'. If you want to change the diameter, location and smoothness of the sphere, double click on it to open the 'Sphere Editor' palette	Your pillar is now ready. You can change its perspective by clicking on the Perspective icon, or play around with the textures as per your liking. Enjoy!

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