3D text
It seems no Web page is complete without a 3D banner or three. Here are some of the top tools for creating 3D graphics and animations from text.
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| Products in this feature include: |
3D text It seems no Web page is complete without a 3D banner or three. Here are some of the top tools for creating 3D graphics and animations from text. |
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| Font F/X 1.10 | ||||||
| Font F/X has a deceptively simple interface, which might make you think it's not as powerful as it is. After selecting a style for the text from the templates, the main view has toolbars for lighting, camera, colours, styles and moving and rotating the text. Backgrounds, colours and textures can be dragged onto the text or background. You can also apply paint-program-style image effects such as noise, blur, brightness and contrast to the final image. On the downside, it doesn't animate the text and it doesn't let you change the text bevelling style once you've selected it, so choose your style carefully. | ||||||
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Download the version for your operating system
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| Requirements: | Demo, watermarks all images. Expires after 30 days. | |||||
| Install instructions: | Internet Explorer users just click on the file and choose Open to run the setup program straight from the CD. Nestcape users download to your local drive and run the EXE file. | |||||
 Links online: |
http://www.dcsifx.com/ | |||||
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| Logomotion | ||||||
| Create animated 3D text and logos without spending hours reading manuals. Logomotion is a powerful animator that uses an intelligent drag-and-drop interface to build complicated animated sequences in minutes. A series of 'stagehands' assist you in adding animated props, moving cameras, lights and backdrops. The moving camera effects are particularly impressive. A small preview window shows you what each of these will look like before you apply the effect. You have a great deal of control over the text or objects you want to animate, everything from colour and texture to refelctions and transparency. | ||||||
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Download the version for your operating system
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| Requirements: | Demo. You cannot save your work. | |||||
| Install instructions: | Download to your local drive, then unzip it (for help click here). | |||||
| Links online: |
http://www.metacreations.com | |||||
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| Ulead Cool 3D | ||||||
| A 3D text animator that's powerful and easy to use. Bevelling, colour, texture, camera angle, background and animation style are all applied by dragging from the large range of examples and dropping on the text. There is a selection of pre-made examples which can also be instantly applied. As well as the usual movement effects, Ulead Cool 3D can do morphs and animated textures. Our staff managed a 3D banner with a moving texture that flips and changes colour all in under a minute. Morphing is as simple as adjusting the first frame and the last frame — the software takes care of the rest. The control over text formatting is tricky — size and spacing can only be changed by repeatedly clicking buttons, and only one line of text can be animated. | ||||||
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Download the version for your operating system
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| Requirements: | DirectX. Demo, expires after 3 days. | |||||
| Install instructions: | Internet Explorer users just click on the file and choose Open to run the setup program straight from the CD. Nestcape users download to your local drive and run the EXE file. | |||||
| Links online: |
http://www.ulead.com | |||||
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| Xara3D | |||||
| A small application with quite a lot of power. Small dialogs help you easily adjust the extrusion, text formatting, bevel and animation. There is also a handy text formatting toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Light sources can be moved around with the mouse. The animation is not as smooth as some of the other programs in this section, but is sufficient for animated GIFs to use on Web pages. An annoying feature of this demo is that the background can't be changed, which sometimes makes it hard to visualise how the finished product would look. | |||||
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Download the version for your operating system
here:
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| Requirements: | Demo, expires after 15 days. Background can't be changed. | ||||
| Install instructions: | Internet Explorer users just click on the file and choose Open to run the setup program straight from the CD. Nestcape users download to your local drive and run the EXE file. | ||||
| Links online: |
http://www.xara.com/xara3d/ | ||||
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⌐ Australian Consolidated Press 1998
