RE: Good 3D App to create images for Flash

[benh]

There seems to be a lot of basic misunderstandings happening here.

Since this is my first post here I hope I am not completely incorrect

however here is how it works:


3d is just that 3d, flash is a 2d vector poackage. The two are not

inherantly compatible.

While 3d programs do save their objects etc in what could be considered a

form of vectors (although to be honest this is really stretching the

mathematical definition of a vector) they save them as true 3d objects.


When you render a 3d image using lighwave or 3dsmax or whatever it places

your objects in virtual 3d space and bounces lightrays off the objects

polygons and sees what lightrays hit the virtual camera for each pixel.

(this is a very quick and dirty lowbrow explaination).


Thus you end up with discrete data, a certain number of pixels in different

colours. (ie a bitmap image, jpg, tiff or whatever format you want).


To convert this into a 2d vector format (ie a ai, swf or eps etc) you would

then have to look at your discrete data and convert it to vector format

(essentially what happens when you use the 'trace bitmap' option in flash on

a bmp (an excellent implementation btw)).


There is no real way I can think of to short cut the process, ie the 3d

rendering package must create the image completely before it can be

processed and converted to a 2d vector form.


ie the process goes:

3d object  -rendered-> 2d discrete data (bitmap)  -converted/traced-> 2d

vector image


this is more or less inherent in how 3d imaging works.


a clever programmer could perhaps be able to side step this slightly perhaps

by converting the 3d polygon based objects to spline based objects and then

trying to convert this to a 2d vector format but this brings up a whole lot

of problems about how to render lights and remove hidden surfaces etc.


I hope that helps people understand the processes involved a little more.


Ben.


ps. 3dsmax's sdk is meant to allow people to convert 3ds 3d objects into

their game companies propriety 3d formats, while it may be useable to

convert them to 2d vector objects I don't see how.


>

From: ownershocker [dot] com [ownershocker [dot] com]On">mailto:ownershocker [dot] com]On Behalf Of John

> Croteau

> Hi all,

>

> An animation displayed as a series of bitmaps is generally

> unsatisfactory for most Flash presentations since its viewable size

> needs to be kept quite small to allow a reasonable download and frame

> rate in Flash. Also, for best results Flash movies with bitmaps should

> be set at a fixed size and not scaled.

>

> What we are looking for is not the best 3D creation program, but one

> that leads to easy vector import into Flash. Most all 3D programs have

> features and capabilities that are beyond anything needed for creation

> that is destined for Flash, most are made for use in TV,

> Film, Video or

> for multimedia use as AVI or MOV movies . All 3D programs create in

> vector format, then vector and/or bitmap surfaces are added. What is

> important for our Flash use is a program that exports the image in a

> usable vector format (ai, eps, wmf, swf) instead of a bitmap format.

>

> The DXF format export (not save as) from 3D Max and other programs is

> kind of useless since it only exports a single view of a 3D object and

> not the 3D skeleton in perspective.

> For 3D Max a better solution would probably be export in EPS

> into either

> Freehand, Illustrator or similar full function vector program. After

> importing into Freehand (or other program) as EPS, the vector portions

> can be exported to Flash as AI, swf or a Flash compatible version of

> EPS. If the surfaces are stored as bitmaps, they can be separated and

> imported into Flash as bitmaps where they can be realigned with the

> vector portion of the image. They can then be converted to vectors or

> left as bitmaps as needed. Flash 4 Wish, EPS import into

> Flash retaining

> bitmap info.

>

> Both Animation Master http://www.hash.com/ and Poser 3

> http://www.metacreations.com/ export in DXF, but if they export only a

> single side view and not a perspective view then this is worthless for

> our Flash needs.

>

> Direct export to a game engine (Flash) is possible in 3D Studio Max

> There's no need to export to an intermediate format when you

> know exactly what your game engine needs.  3D Studio MAX

> R2's proven SDK development kit comes standard.   It gives

> you access to everything in memory. You can even extract

> private data created by custom 3D Studio MAX R2 plug-ins.

> With the 3D Studio MAX R2 SDK, there's no barrier between

> your game content and your game engine.

> Or in our case the Flash Format (instead of Game Engine).........

> Maybe MM or someone else will create a converter.

>

> -----------                               -----------------------

>

John Croteau croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

> -------------                             -------------------------

> Flash Central(The Universe Starts Here) http://www.FlashCentral.com/

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