3D feature requests

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 5:35 am

I love the new 3D features in Anime Studio 7, but I feel like they're just the beginning of what could be the ultimate tool for seemlessly combining 2D and 3D animation. Here are my top 6 feature requests for 3D in Anime Studio. Feel free to add your own.

1. Fix broken silhouette edges (Problem with 3D line rendering). It is already possible to get rid of the broken edges by moving (not zooming) the camera away from the object, so a proper fix shouldn't be too difficult.
2. Ability to change direction of light source, both globally and for specific layers.
3. For toon shading, ability to set number of tones, their color, and separation. At the moment, the second tone is way too close to the first tone, IMO. The option of a highlight, with control over glossiness, would be nice too.
4. Ability to use same effects on 3D shapes and lines as 2D shapes and lines, eg shape effects, brushes, alpha, scale compensation, and vector noise.
5. Be able to map a 2d layer (from current or external document) to a 3D object, with control over whether line widths get scaled according to depth or not. An important part of this would be allowing the base object to be transparent so you could make it look like the mapped 2D lines were just floating in space. The optiions this would open up for combining 2D and 3D elements are mind-blowing, IMO.
6. Control over line-width of 3D edges. If you could map 2D vector layers to 3D objects and there was also a mesh-type gradient fill effect, you could use it as an animated line weight map to have full control over the width of the 3D edges.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Sun Jun 20, 2010 6:34 pm

I agree with you, I don't see 3d options like a menace. Actually I have used it for a couple serious projects so far, without problems. It doesn't transform AS in a 3d application, it only gives you more freedom to solve certain problems.
Actually, I don't know if anyone remembers, but I think the options of 3d were programmed by Mike several years ago with his software Spatch (sadly, I can found the software at internet now). Maybe he "just" take that code and put it inside Anime Studio.
Anyway, it would be awesome to have more control on it, this way it would be easier to blend the 3d on the 2d. I like your requests, sounds clever to me.

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 2:25 am

selgin wrote:I agree with you, I don't see 3d options like a menace. Actually I have used it for a couple serious projects so far, without problems. It doesn't transform AS in a 3d application, it only gives you more freedom to solve certain problems.
Actually, I don't know if anyone remembers, but I think the options of 3d were programmed by Mike several years ago with his software Spatch (sadly, I can found the software at internet now). Maybe he "just" take that code and put it inside Anime Studio.
Anyway, it would be awesome to have more control on it, this way it would be easier to blend the 3d on the 2d. I like your requests, sounds clever to me.

I mentioned on a different thread that the ability to import 3d objects into AS has bee around ever since I can remember, and I first started using Moho way back in 2004. Also, I've always thought that the core philosophy of AS was to bring across some of the core technologies from 3D animation and apply them to 2D animation to make it more efficient.

It's interesting that you mentioned sPatch (I have it somewhere if you want it). For the longest time I thought that Bezier surfaces would be the way to improve 3D integration in AS. I even invested a lot of time researching a technique for converting them to directly 2D vectors, without converting them to polygons first, using a multi-purpose algorithm called Bezier clipping. However, I'm now convinced that Mike's approach of operating on mesh objects is the way to go. It's much more flexible on the objects it works on, and there's no reason Mike can't add the 2D effects to the extracted edges.

Anyway, I think what's happening is people are cross that certain features they wanted did not make it into this version of AS, so they naturally blame a feature that they don't think they will find useful. However, they seem to have overlooked that some pretty hardcore 2D featues have also been included in this version, like improved curve calculation, stroke exposure, and curve profile. I don't see any reason why the next version of AS won't be a good mixture of improvements and new features as well, plus it's most likely only 11 months away!

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:03 am

Rudiger wrote:
Anyway, I think what's happening is people are cross that certain features they wanted did not make it into this version of AS, so they naturally blame a feature that they don't think they will find useful. However, they seem to have overlooked that some pretty hardcore 2D featues have also been included in this version, like improved curve calculation, stroke exposure, and curve profile. I don't see any reason why the next version of AS won't be a good mixture of improvements and new features as well, plus it's most likely only 11 months away!

Amen brother, said very well and I agree. IMO the 3D part is not important, I simply ignore it (tho I have played around with it) I am happy with the physics and curve profile and to me the 3D part is just a bonus.

P.S. If there was no 3D upgrade and everything else be as is, what would they blame their dissatisfaction on? Makes one wonder tho...

Vagabond · Post by **Vagabond** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:59 pm

Another 3D feature that might not be too difficult to implement would be rendering a modern 3D movie. I read that new 3D movies are a composite of a 45degree left and a 45degree right image that are shown at once. Can ASP calculate these other two views from the existing camera so this can be a new rendering option?

Just wondering...

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 5:05 pm

Another 3D feature that might not be too difficult to implement would be rendering a modern 3D movie. I read that new 3D movies are a composite of a 45degree left and a 45degree right image that are shown at once. Can ASP calculate these other two views from the existing camera so this can be a new rendering option?

Just wondering...

This already exists. Check enable stereo on project proprieties.

ASP · Post by **ASP** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:23 pm

Spatch is a free 3D
http://www.eatonhand.com/images/spatch.htm

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:04 am

ASP wrote:Spatch is a free 3D
http://www.eatonhand.com/images/spatch.htm

...and guess who created sPatch

?

I do like the inflate and extrude options in AS7, but I still wouldn't say no to an sPatch object type that remained as vectors instead of polygons.