 | 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 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
, 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 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 to display the Object Operation
Panel.
Click on the sphere to select it, and then click on 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 to display the Material Panel.
Click on a texture in the Material Panel's Texture
Library.
Click 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 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 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 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 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 to
play the animation.
Click to
record the animation to a Video (AVI) file. |
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