3D Canvas Basics

In this tutorial we will give an overview of the basic 3D Canvas features.

A new Scene is automatically created when 3D Canvas is started.

You are presented with an empty scene which includes a grid to assist you in judging proportion and aligning items in your scene.

3D Canvas uses a 3D coordinate system where X is left-right, Y is up-down and Z is near-away.

The grid lies along the XZ plane.

 

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Click on the Component Panel tab Button-Construction-Component.gif (728 bytes) which is located along the left side of the 3D Canvas Window.

This Component Panel includes all of the scene components that can be dragged and dropped on to a scene.
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Click on PrimitiveSphere.gif (1739 bytes) , the sphere primitive, and drag it and drop it on to the scene.
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Click on the sphere created.  A bounding box will be displayed which shows the boundaries of the sphere.

In addition, the Edit Control is displayed in the bottom right corner of the view . It can be used to move, rotate and scale (resize) objects.

The Status Bar located at the bottom of the 3D Canvas window displays the selected object's position in the scene, and the number of faces (polygons) and points that make up the object.

 

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Click on the sphere and drag it. This moves the sphere along the XZ plane of the scene.

As you drag the object, its position and the amount it has been moved is shown on the Status Bar.

If you want to move the object up and down you can right-click on it and drag.
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Click on the sphere to select it.

Now click and drag on the Edit Control's light colored XZ plane. This plane causes the selected object to be moved along the XZ plane as though you are clicking on the object itself and dragging it.

The Edit Control can be tricky to use at first, but with some practice it becomes quite natural.

 

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Click Button-Toolbar-RenderSmooth.gif (176 bytes) on the Primary Toolbar to turn Smooth Rendering off. The Primary Toolbar is the toolbar that runs across the top of the 3D Canvas Window.

Smooth Rendering is used for final rendering of scenes. During the modeling phase however it tends to obscure the details of an object making modeling more difficult. With Smooth Rendering off we can see the faces that make up the sphere.

 

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Click on the sphere to select it.

Now click and drag on the Edit Control's dark colored XZ plane. This will scale the object along the XZ plane.

As you scale the object, the object's size and the amount the object has been scaled is shown on the Status Bar.

If you want to the scale the object equally in all directions you can ctrl-click on the object and drag.

 

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Now right-click on the Edit Control's green axis and drag to the right or left. This will rotate the object around the Y (up-down) axis.

As you rotate the object, the objects orientation and the amount the object has been rotated is shown on the Status Bar.
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The Navigation Control is located on the lower left hand part of the scene view. Click on the Navigation Control's right most XZ plane and drag. This plane causes a zoom.

Each of the planes of the Navigation Control provides a different form of navigation. The leftmost XZ plane provides standard XZ navigation, whereas the middle XZ plane provides game-style navigation, and the rightmost XZ plane provides zooming.

 

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Click on the Navigation Control's green axis and drag to the left or right. This will cause the scene to rotate around its center (the center of the grid).

Notice that you can now see an object that looks like a camera. This is the Animation Camera. It is used to record animations to videos and take snapshots of the scene.
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Right-click anywhere on the scene and select Camera->Layout from the popup menu that appears.

You are now looking through the animation camera.

Right-click anywhere on the scene and select Look at Scene. This will move the camera so that it looks at the scene from the default 3D Canvas view. If you ever find yourself lost after navigating, Look at Scene is the solution.

 

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The sphere that we created was not very smooth. We can smooth it by applying the Smooth operation.

Click on the Object Operation Panel Tab Button-Construction-Operation.gif (726 bytes) to display the Object Operation Panel.

Click on the sphere to select it, and then click on Operation-Smooth.gif (525 bytes) to apply the smooth operation.

Notice that when you clicked on Smooth it added a layer to the Object Layers panel. This is a complete list of all changes made to an object. For this object it shows a sphere primitive that was scaled and had a smooth operation applied. This list of Object Layers can be useful for tracking changes to an object, or even disabling changes if you decide at a later time that you made a change in error.

 

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Click on the Material Panel tab Button-Construction-Material.gif (723 bytes) to display the Material Panel.

Click on a texture in the Material Panel's Texture Library.

Click Button-Toolbar-FillTool.gif (941 bytes) on the Edit Toolbar to select the Fill Tool. The Edit Toolbar is located on the right side of the 3D Canvas window.

Click on the object to fill it with the selected texture.

Click Button-Toolbar-Select.gif (187 bytes) on the Edit Toolbar to return to Object Selection Mode.

 

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We are done the modeling phase, so in order to have the scene look its best, click Button-Toolbar-RenderSmooth.gif (176 bytes) on the Primary Toolbar to turn Smooth Rendering on.
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Select View->Animation Toolbar from the View Menu to display the Animation Toolbar.

The Animation Toolbar is located at the bottom of the 3D Canvas window.
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Click Button-Animation-Animate.gif (1005 bytes) on the Animation Toolbar to enter animation mode.

Click on the animation slider which is located on the right hand side of the animation toolbar and move it to the middle position. This is the mid-point of the animation, 5 seconds of a 10 second animation.

Move the object off into the distance. As the object is moved, 3D Canvas displays the object's animation path.

 

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Click on the animation slider and move it to the end.

Move the object again. You will see that the animation path of the object is now a curve.
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Move the animation slider back to the middle.

Click on Button-Animation-Ghost.gif (161 bytes) to create a ghost view of the animation. Ghosted images are locations in the animation where 3D Canvas has interpolated a position for the object. Non-ghosted images are locations in the animation where you selected the position. These points in time where you have selected a position are called key-frames.

Click  Button-Play.gif (908 bytes) to play the animation.

Click Button-Record.gif (942 bytes) to record the animation to a Video (AVI) file.

 

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