Table of Contents

1.1 System Requirements
1.2 A Special Note On Terminology
1.3 A Word From Zax
1.4 Getting Ready - Installing The Software
1.5 An Overview Of The 3D Invigorator Window

2.1 Quick Start
2.2 Think Like A Photographer

3.1 Expanded Quick Start - Step #1 - Create The Beginning 2D Shapes
3.2 Expanded Quick Start - Step #2 - Adding The Shapes To The 3D Invigorator
3.3 Expanded Quick Start - Step #3a - Adjust The Camera, Lights or Objects
3.4 Expanded Quick Start - Step #3b - Setting Object Attributes
3.5 Expanded Quick Start - Step #4 - Rendering The 3D Graphic
3.6.2 Target Rendering
3.6.3 Saving Your Work
3.6.4 Reloading A Scene
3.6.5 A Warning About Option-Dragging

4.1 OBJECT BASICS
4.1.1 Adding Objects To The Scene
4.1.2 The Object List
4.1.2.1 Fill object
4.1.2.2 Stroke object
4.1.2.3 Compound object
4.1.2.4 Group object
4.1.3 Working With Text
4.1.4 Using Scanned Artwork
4.1.5 Selecting Objects
4.1.6 Selecting & Working With Multiple Objects
4.1.7 Current Selections & The Active Object
4.1.8 Disabling Objects
4.1.9 Setting Object Positions/Rotations
4.2.1 A Special Technique When Using The Tumble Tool
4.2.2 Use Object Axes
4.2.3 Object Nudging
4.2.4 A Special Note About Nudging
4.2.5 Passing Attributes Along To Other Objects
4.2.6 Passing Attributes To ALL Other Objects
4.2.7 Deleting Objects
4.2.8 Clearing Out A Whole Scene
4.2.9 Resetting Objects
4.3.1 Undo / Redo
4.3.2 A Note About Slider Ranges
4.3.3 The Busy Cursor
4.3.4 The NO Symbol

5.1 OBJECT SURFACES
5.1.1 Surface Presets
5.1.2 Assigning Colors
5.1.3 Returning To The Original Vector Color
5.1.4 Highlight Sharpness
5.1.5 Highlight Brightness
5.1.6 Transparency
5.1.7 Reflection
5.1.8 The Global Environment
5.1.9 Making Your Own Surface Presets

6.1 OBJECT SHAPES
6.1.1 THE VECTOR SHAPE
6.1.1.1 A Good Size For Your Vector Shapes
6.1.1.2 Editing The Shape Of A 3D Object
6.1.1.3 More About Hot-Links
6.1.1.4 Losing the Hot-Link
6.1.1.5 Replace
6.2.1 THE EDGE STYLE
6.2.1.1 What Is An Edge Style?
6.2.1.2 The Edge Style Preview Window
6.2.1.3 Changing The Edge Style
6.2.1.4 Browsing The Edge Style List
6.2.1.5 Object Depth
6.2.1.6 Maintain Edge Shape As Depth Changes
6.2.1.7 Changing The Width Of The Edge Style
6.2.1.8 Negative Width
6.2.1.9 Outside Edges vs. Hole Edges
6.2.2.1 Use Different Style For Hole Edges
6.2.2.2 Use Different Scale For Hole Edges
6.2.2.3 The Object Smoothness Controls
6.2.2.4 Why Are There Two Flatness Sliders?
6.2.2.5 The Generate Options
6.2.2.6 Using the Generate Options For Speedy Previews

7.1 LIGHTING CONTROLS
7.1.1 The Lighting Tab
7.1.2 Lighting Presets
7.1.3 Moving The Lights
7.1.4 The Light List Pop-up
7.1.5 Ambient Light
7.1.6 Light Color
7.1.7 Enabling Lights
7.1.8 Making Lights Cast Shadows
7.1.9 Positioning Shadows
7.2.1 Learning Shadow Control
7.2.2 Shadow Darkness
7.2.3 Shadow Softness
7.2.4 Setting The Quality Of A Shadow
7.2.5 View From
7.2.6 Making Your Own Lighting Presets
7.2.7 Disabling All Shadows

8.1 CAMERA CONTROLS
8.1.1 The Camera Tab
8.1.2 Moving The Camera
8.1.3 Camera Nudging
8.1.4 View Presets
8.1.5 Lens Presets
8.1.6 Saving Views
8.1.7 Views Are Saved With Each Scene

9.1 RENDERING CONTROLS
9.1.1 What Is A Rendering?
9.1.2 Pixel vs. Vector Rendering
9.1.3 Setting The Resolution
9.1.4 Target Rendering
9.1.5 The Measurements Pop-up
9.1.6 DPI
9.1.7 Image Quality: Anti-Aliasing vs. Resolution
9.1.8 Horizontal & Vertical Measurements
9.1.9 Lock Dimensions Checkbox
9.2.1 File Output: Save To Page
9.2.2 Power Tip for File Output
9.2.3 File Output: Save To File
9.2.4 Alpha Channels
9.2.5 Clipping Paths
9.2.6 Render RGB/CMYK
9.2.7 Image Smoothing - Anti-Aliasing Controls
9.2.8 Background Color

10.1 DISPLAY OPTIONS
10.1.1 Display Shading
10.1.2 Display Edges

11.1 Beyond Logos

12.1 APPENDIX A - Troubleshooting
12.1.1 Spikes On Smooth Curves
12.1.2 Spikes On Points
12.1.3 Loops
12.1.4 The Holes In Objects Are Filling In
12.1.5 Renderings Are Appearing Very Coarse
12.1.6 Cannot See Reflections In Objects
12.1.7 Shadows Aren’t Appearing On The Background

13.1 APPENDIX B - Error Messages
13.1.1 No Replacement Art Selected
13.1.2 Invalid Authorization Code
13.1.3 Shading Only Available With QD3D Extension
13.1.4 Render Start-up Failure
13.1.5 Not Enough Memory To Render (need XXX Mbytes for image buffer)

14.1 APPENDIX C- The Edge Styles
14.1.1 Power Trick For Combining Edge Styles
14.1.2 Edge Style Reference Guide

15.1 Disclaimers and Acknowledgements

System Requirements

A Power Macintosh computer
13" monitor displaying Thousands of colors
Mac OS 7.5.3 or higher
QuickDraw 3D 1.5.1 or higher (available from www.quickdraw3D.com)
Macromedia FreeHand™ 7 or 8 (for 3D Invigorator for FreeHand)
Adobe Illustrator™ 6 or 7 (for 3D Invigorator for Illustrator)
4 Megs free RAM once host application is open. More RAM will be required for large or high resolution renderings.

Recommended System Additions

Large screen or dual monitors displaying Millions of colors 64 Megs or more of free RAM

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A Special Note On Terminology

Unless the manual is discussing something specific to either FreeHand or Illustrator, these names will not be used. Instead, the term “host application” will be used to refer to the software that the 3D Invigorator is currently running inside of.

Most of the time the Invigorator functions exactly the same whether you’re using FreeHand or Illustrator. So we will refer to them both as the host application and call them out by name when exceptions arise.

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A Word From Zax

Welcome to the 3D Invigorator, an amazing design tool that helps you create eye-catching 3D graphics directly inside FreeHand and Illustrator.

If you are brand new to the world of 3D you will find the 3D Invigorator to be very easy and inviting. You can play and experiment with your designs to create graphics which will add sparkle and life to your projects.

If you are already familiar with 3D applications you will find the 3D Invigorator to have a very powerful and fast toolset. The modeling occurs in the blink of an eye and you are freed to concentrate on the artistic aspects of your project, without getting mired in the technical side of 3D.

Either way, the 3D Invigorator will be an experience you won’t find elsewhere. It combines the latest interface and workflow design with a working environment that is tightly integrated with it’s host application. As a result, the software frees you to do more. You are never forced into a preordained working pattern and you are free to revise and change your work at any time, even making changes to an image or graphic after the graphic is rendered.

If you can imagine having a framed picture hanging on your wall which you could change any part of, then you’ll start to understand how powerful this software is, especially when you’re faced with having to satisfy clients who change their minds.

So, again, welcome to a whole new way of looking at graphics inside FreeHand and Illustrator. Please keep an eye on our web site as we will continue to post tutorials, new environments, tips, advice and pictures from your fellow users.

Happy Invigorating!
Zax Dow President, Zaxwerks Inc.

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Getting Ready - Installing The Software

The 3D Invigorator is a powerful software for creating eye-catching 3D graphics directly inside the superb design, illustration and layout programs, FreeHand and Illustrator. Technically speaking the 3D Invigorator is a plug-in, however it’s not the sort of plug-in you’ve ever seen before. It is an entire 3D application, so well integrated with its host, that it feels like a new window has opened up that you just never knew about before. It provides a method for creating 3D graphics that is new to both the 2D and 3D communities alike. Best of all it happens right inside your own program so you never have to leave what you are familiar with.

Before you can start, you have to put the 3D Invigorator where your host application can use it, and enter your authorization code.

For FreeHand users:
1- Put the 3D Invigorator disk into your computer.
2- Open the disk icon and drag the Zaxwerks folder, containing the 3D Invigorator plug-in and the folder called Zaxwerks Environments, into your Macromedia Free-Hand X-tras folder.
3- Launch FreeHand. If Free-Hand is already open, quit and re-launch.
4- During FreeHand’s startup phase, the 3D Invigorator’s authorization dialogue box will appear. Enter your Name, Organization, FreeHand Serial number and Invigorator Authorization code into the dialogue box. Be sure you type the authorization code exactly as written. It’s case sensitive so use all capital letters, no numbers.

5- The 3D Invigorator will appear in FreeHand’s Windows menu >Xtras >Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator menu item. Selecting it will cause the Invigorator interface to open.

For Illustrator users:
1- Put the 3D Invigorator disk into your computer.
2- Open the disk icon and drag the Zaxwerks folder, containing the 3D Invigorator plug-in and the folder called Zaxwerks Environments, into your Adobe Illustrator Plug-ins folder.
3- Launch Illustrator. If Illustrator is already open, quit and re-launch.
4- During Illustrator’s start-up phase, the 3D Invigorator’s authorization dialogue box will appear. Enter your Name, Organization and Authorization code into the dialogue box. Be sure you type the authorization code exactly as written. It’s case sensitive so use all capital letters, no numbers.
5- The 3D Invigorator will appear in Illustrator’s Windows menu. Selecting it will cause the Invigorator interface to open.

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An Overview Of The 3D Invigorator Window

You will see how the window is divided into a preview window; then a toolbar just below the preview window; then an area containing camera and rendering controls.

The camera controls area will change based on which of the Tabs is currently active. If the Lighting tab is active (blue) the lighting controls are revealed. If the Object tab is active then some of the object controls are shown.

The majority of the object controls are contained in the right half of the 3D Invigorator interface, which is revealed by clicking on the interface toggle, (the small arrow located at the top right of the Invigorator window).

This half of the interface controls the shape and surface color of the 3D objects.

As each object is selected, this area updates to show the settings for the currently selected object. If there is more than one object selected, only the settings for the first object selected will be shown.

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Quick Start

These are the basic steps required, to create a 3D graphic.

1. Draw some 2D shapes on the page of your host application. Leave them selected.

2. Open the 3D Invigorator and bring the shapes into it by clicking on the Add Outlines button. They will automatically become 3D objects.

3. Enhance the object shapes, set surface looks, set lights, position the camera, set rendering size and quality.

4. Create the final 3D image by clicking on the Render button.

Steps 1, 2 and 4 are very fast. Step 3 can be skipped if you like the defaults, otherwise this is where your individual artistic sense comes through.

There are a variety of presets available for edge styles, surface looks, lighting setups and camera positions. We encourage you to play with these presets and create variations of your own. Your settings can be saved for future use and any 3D scene you render can be reloaded into the Invigorator for further refinement.

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Think Like A Photographer

It’s important to remember that when you work with the 3D Invigorator you are using a real 3D program. 3D programs simulate a photographer’s studio. You can move objects, set lights, and reposition the camera. The Preview window is like the lens of a camera. If you want to do something, like make the objects larger or smaller in the preview window, do what you would do if looking through the lens of a real camera... either move forward or backwards, or use a different lens. Once you start to think like a person shooting a picture with a camera, things start to make more sense.

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Expanded Quick Start - Step #1 - Create The Beginning 2D Shapes

Draw shapes, or import vector clip art, onto the host application’s page. It’s best to draw them off to one side, because moving the 2D shapes later will move their 3D counterparts.

The shapes must be vector outlines. Pixel images or scans won’t work unless you trace them to turn them into vector outlines. See the section called Using Scanned Artwork for important information about this.

Don’t overbuild. Keep the line art simple. Most of the pizzazz comes from the Edge Styles applied to the line art inside the 3D Invigorator.

The vector outline paths must be filled to create solid 3D objects. Stroked paths create hollow 3D objects. Stroke widths are ignored.

If you’d like to use text, convert the text to outlines before adding it to the Invigorator. See the section called Working With Text.

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Expanded Quick Start - Step #2 - Adding The Shapes To The 3D Invigorator

On the host application’s drawing page, select the shapes you want to Invigorate.

Open the 3D Invigorator.

Click the “Add Outlines” button in the lower left hand corner.

If you want to add more shapes select them and click Add Outlines again.

An outline may be added more than once to create multiple 3D objects which all reference the same original outline. When you do this though, the 3D shapes will all be in exactly the same place making it look like you have only one 3D object. Click on the Object tab, then use the move tools to move them apart.

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Expanded Quick Start - Step #3a - Adjust The Camera, Lights or Objects

The 3 tabs (Camera, Light, Object) located below the preview window, tell the program which type of object will be affected when you use the movement tools, also located under the preview window.

To rotate or move an object, first click on the Object tab, then use the rotate (tumble, roll) or slide tools.

To rotate or move the Camera, click on the Camera tab, then use the rotate or slide tools.

Lights are handled the same way, except you can only tumble the lights, you cannot slide or roll them.

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Expanded Quick Start - Step #3b - Setting Object Attributes

Using any of the 4 movement tools, (rotation, slide), or using the selection tool, click once on an object to select it.

When an object becomes selected you will see a wireframe box around it and its name becomes bold in the Object pop-up menu.

Once selected you can apply Edge Styles, Surface Colors, a new position, or rotation, to the current selection.

All objects currently selected will get the new adjustments.

Hold the shift key and click on objects to add them or take them away from the current selection.

If you make changes to the settings but you don’t see the changes taking effect, you must remember to select the objects first, then change the settings.

A Note About Reflections

If you apply Reflection to an object, or select a Surface Preset which includes Reflection, you must also select an environment picture from the Global Environment pop-up.

You can use your own environment pictures. Environments are PICT files, and they must be inside the “Zaxwerks Environments” folder, which must be in the same folder as the 3D Invigorator plug-in. See the section called Global Environments.

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Expanded Quick Start - Step #4 - Rendering The 3D Graphic

The rendering options are controlled from the Camera tab.

Rendering can be done to a file on disk, or directly to the host application’s page using the Target Rendering technique.

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Target Rendering

To render to a target spot on the page...

1- Draw a rectangle in the position and size you want the rendering to fit, leave it selected.

2- Click the Set Target button in the Camera tab.

You will then see alignment guides in the preview window for composing your shot. When you render, the image will be dropped onto the rectangle. Subsequent renderings will replace the previous rendering.

Illustrator Users: You do not have this option. Illustrator always works in a high rez display mode.

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Saving Your Work

When an image is rendered to the page, the 3D scene is embedded into the rendered image. (FreeHand: embedded TIFF; Illustrator: uncompressed EPS bitmap). By saving your page layout file with the image in it, you will be saving the Invigorator scene to work on at another time.

Embedding images can create large files. To keep file size down, either render a small image or set the dpi to be very low. The 3D scene is embedded no matter what the size of the rendered image, so the fewer pixels there are for the host application to save, the smaller the file size will be.

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Reloading A Scene

If you click on a rendered image, so that it is the only thing selected, you will notice the Add Outlines button becomes the Load Scene button. Click it and all objects and settings that were current when that image was rendered will be reloaded into the Invigorator.

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A Warning About Option-Dragging

The one thing you have to be careful about is that once objects are inside the Invigorator, do not Option-Drag their 2D source shapes. The Invigorator knows which outline created which 3D object, based on an outline’s internally stored name. When you Option-Drag to duplicate an object, the internal name is duplicated as well. This causes the Invigorator to lose track of which outline created which 3D object.

The same problem can occur when you Copy and Paste outlines.

If you are planning on Invigorating identical objects, either duplicate them before you add them to the Invigorator, or use the Add Outlines button to add a single outline more than once, and position the objects separately inside the Invigorator.

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OBJECT BASICS

There are 3 types of things that can be controlled: Cameras, Lights and Objects. This section discusses what can be done to objects and how to do it. There are many powerful techniques and features contained in this section. It’s definitely worth reading.

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Adding Objects To The Scene

You can add as many objects to the 3D scene as you wish. They can be added all at the beginning or at any time during the progress of your project.

Objects are added to the scene by first selecting them on the host application’s drawing page, then clicking the Add Outlines button at the lower left corner of the Invigorator window.

Surface Color, however, is treated a little differently. If the path’s Fill attribute is black, then when the object is added it will pick up the current Surface Color. However, if the path is any other color, the 3D Invigorator assumes that you set this color intentionally and the color is preserved. Thus, if you have a specific color set you want to use, (PMS colors, Corporate colors, etc.), you can apply these colors to the 2D line art in your host application and the Invigorator will use them automatically.

The Object List

The Object list shows you a complete list of every object in the current scene.

Objects are named based on what kind of vector object they started as, in the host application. The possibilities are: Fills, Strokes, Groups and Compounds.

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A Fill object is a single vector path that has been filled with a color. It is an independent entity and can be colored, moved and styled on its own.

A Stroke object is a vector path that only has a line weight applied, but no fill color. These paths create hollow objects, and the line weight is not taken into consideration. An object which is filled with white is still a fill, it is not a stroke.

A Compound object is an object with holes. A Compound is a single object like a Fill, however, since it also has holes, you can apply a different scale and style to the hole edges. This allows you to get unusual looks and cleans up the problem that happens when a large edge style plugs up small holes.

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When letters with holes (for instance: A, B, P, etc.) get converted to outlines they become compound paths. See more about this in the section on Edge Styles and the section on Working With Text.

Please note: a white filled object sitting on top of a black filled object does not make a compound path. They are just 2 separate fills and won’t create holes. To make one be a hole in the other, you must do a Punch command (FreeHand), or a Compound Paths, or Minus Front operation (Illustrator).

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A Group object is any number of Fills or Compounds which have been grouped together in the host application. Inside the Invigorator they are treated as one object. They can only have one Edge Style, one color, one Depth setting, etc.

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Working With Text

At this point in time, the 3D Invigorator does not support the use of text directly. However, you can still create terrific graphics using dimensional type. All you have to do is convert the text to outlines.

Layout your text the way you want, using all the tools your host application has to offer, then use the “Convert To Paths” command (FreeHand), or the “Create Outlines” command (Illustrator).

A smart way of working is to duplicate the text, and then make paths out of the copy. This way you’ll still have the original version as editable text in case you need to make changes.

1- Make changes to the text version.

2- Duplicate the text and drag it to the same spot as the old paths.

3- Delete the old paths.

4- Convert the copy into outlines and ...

5- Use the Replace command inside the Invigorator to switch out the old objects for the new ones.

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Using Scanned Artwork

A scanned photograph or piece of line art is only a bitmap. It is only made up of pixels and does not have any vector outlines in it. Because of this it cannot be used directly inside the 3D Invigorator. Even if you open it in Photoshop and save it as an EPS, it still will not have any vector outlines.

In order for you to make the scan usable, you must somehow convert it to vector outlines. There are several ways of doing this.

One way is to use an autotrace program like Adobe Streamline to convert the scanned image to vector outlines. This works well enough for straight 2D print work, but it can cause problems for the 3D Invigorator. The vectors produced by an autotrace program usually have small points which turn into spikes when Invigorated. See Appendix A for more about Spikes and how to fix them. Once the points are cleaned up the spikes go away and you’re all set.

Another way to convert the scan is to trace it by hand. This is a more time consuming process, but it produces vector outlines that will Invigorate with fewer problems.

Usually, if a client has a stat or other piece of artwork that they want you to use, chances are they will also have a FreeHand or Illustrator file too. Just ask, and you may save yourself a lot of time and frustration.

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Selecting Objects

In order to apply Edge Styles, Surfaces, or change the position and rotation of objects, they must first be selected.

Objects can be selected in 3 different ways.

1- Any of the slide and rotation tools will select objects if you click on the object, without dragging.

2- An object can be selected by choosing its name from the Object list.

3- Object’s can be selected by using the selection tool.

When this tool is active you don’t have to be as precise about not dragging, and you won’t accidentally change a position or rotation.

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Selecting & Working With Multiple Objects

Multiple Objects can be selected by holding down the Shift key when selecting objects. Multiple selections can be done by clicking in the Preview window, or by selecting from the Objects menu.

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Current Selections & The Active Object

Currently selected objects are written in bold in the Object list.

When more than one object has been selected, the Edge Style pop-up, Surface Depth slider and other attribute checkboxes and read-outs will only show the settings of the Active object.

The active object is the one whose name is shown in the Object list when you’re not clicking on it. It’s name will also appear with a bullet next to it. The active object can be changed by deselecting all objects and then selecting the one you want to be the active object first, before you make other selections.

Currently selected objects are given wireframe bounding boxes which you can see in the preview window.

The active object is shown in a red bounding box, while the rest are given a green bounding box.

When multiple objects are selected, changing any object setting, (Depth, Smoothness, Edge Style, etc.) will apply the change to all currently selected objects.

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Disabling Objects

An object can be disabled (hidden) by clicking on the “Disable this item” checkbox next to the object list pop-up menu when its name is displayed.

Disabled objects are written in italics in the Object List.

An object that has been disabled will not show in the Preview window, or during the final rendering. The model retains all of its settings, it just won’t be shown.

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Setting Object Positions/Rotations

To move and rotate objects individually, click on the

Object tab. This will make the rotation and slide tools work on objects instead of on the camera or lights.

Then click on an object to select it. (Be careful not to drag during a selection click. If you drag, it will not make a selection.)

With an object (or multiple objects) selected, you can use the tools to tumble or roll your object, or slide it parallel to the computer screen or slide it in/out perpendicular to the screen.

If you try this you will notice that all movements are relative to the camera position. For instance, since the slide tool moves the object parallel to the computer screen, then the actual movement that you’ll get will depend on the direction that you are looking at your objects.

This means that if you slide an object from side to side it will move in a different direction depending on whether the camera is looking at it from the front or from the side.

You can, however, change the influence of these tools by using the “Use Object Axes” option.

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A Special Technique When Using The Tumble Tool

When using the tumble tool you’ll notice that your object will sometimes get tilted and difficult to control. If it gets too out of control just click the Reset button and it will be put back in its starting position.

You can also use the Roll tool to remove the tilt, but this “little circles” technique prevents you from having to switch back and forth between tools.

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Use Object Axes

This option is located on the Object tab, and makes the rotation and movement tools work relative to each object’s own axes, instead of working relative to the world. This is a totally different way of moving an object, and it is very useful.

For instance, with this option enabled, the X/Y slide tool will always make an object slide in the direction that the object’s left/right or up/down axes are currently pointing.

Same thing with the Z move tool. When the Use Object Axes checkbox is turned OFF the Z move tool will always make the object slide away from you; away from the camera. When this option is turned ON the object will slide in whatever direction its front or back faces are currently facing.

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Object Nudging

Object position and rotation can be nudged with the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Select an object(s), pick the Object tab and then click the arrow keys. The objects will nudge based on which tool is selected. The rotate tools will cause rotational nudging. The slide tools will cause positional nudging.

For rotations, each arrow click will rotate 5 degrees. If you hold the Shift key down, each arrow click will rotate 15 degrees. This makes it very easy to set objects at 45 or 90 degree angles to each other, especially when using the “Use Object Axes” option.

For position changes, each arrow click will slide an object 1 point. If you hold the Shift key down, then each arrow click will slide the object(s) 10 points.

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A Special Note About Nudging

The arrow keys can affect a number of different things. They can affect either of the two Edge Styles menus. They can affect each of the four move/rotation tools as they apply to the Camera, or Lights or Objects. They can even affect the artwork on the page of your host application.

Because of so many possibilities you may get confused as to what the arrow keys are currently nudging. You may think you are trying to nudge one thing but something else actually happens.

If the 2D line art was the last thing you clicked on, then clicking the arrow keys will nudge it. If the Camera tab is active and the Tumble tool was last clicked on, the arrow keys will nudge the camera tumble. If the Edge Styles menu was last clicked on, it will be the one affected.

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Passing Attributes Along To Other Objects

Sometimes you want to assign the settings from one object, to other objects. To pass a color, edge style or other setting along to another object . . .

1- Select the object with the setting you want to pass.

2- Hold the shift key and select each of the other objects you want to give the setting to.

3- Either open the color chip, or select the menu item, or click on the slider of each setting you want to assign to the selected objects.

When you close the color picker or release the mouse, the changed setting will be applied to each object that is currently selected.

Note: Only the settings that you adjust (change) will be passed along. If you want all the settings from one object to pass to other objects, you will need to tweak the slider or menu for each attribute.

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Passing Attributes To ALL Other Objects

Sometimes you want to assign the settings from one object to All Other objects. To pass a color, or edge style or other setting along to every other object in your scene . . .

1- Select the object with the setting you want to pass.

2- Hold down the Option key and either open the color chip, or select the menu item, or click on the slider of each setting you want to assign to all objects.

When you close the color picker or release the mouse, the changed setting will be applied to all objects in your scene, whether they are selected or not.

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Deleting Objects

Objects within the Invigorator can be deleted by first selecting the object and then clicking the Delete Button.

You can also hit your keyboard’s Delete key.

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Clearing Out A Whole Scene

If you need to remove all objects and their settings so you can start fresh, hold down the Option key when you click Delete. This will clear the entire scene and reset the camera to its default position.

Reloading a previously rendered scene will also clear away the current scene so both scenes won’t overlap.

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Resetting Objects

If you need to put an object back at its starting point, you can use the Reset button to do it. First select the object, then click Reset. Any rotations or movements that you’ve applied to the object will be removed and the object is then returned to its initial position.

The Reset button does not remove any shape or surface settings you may have applied. It only resets an object’s position and rotation.

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Undo / Redo

The 3D Invigorator supports one level of undo. Any change that you’ve made to the colors, shapes, camera, or lights can be undone by clicking on the Undo button.

After clicking Undo once you can click it again for Redo.

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A Note About Slider Ranges

All sliders have numerical readouts next to them.

Any slider that will take values higher or lower than its built-in range will have a box around its number.

To set a value beyond the slider range, double click in the box and type in the new value.

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The Busy Cursor

The Invigorator will display a busy cursor during processing and rendering.

If you see this cursor it means that the Invigorator is hard at work. However, you don’t have to wait until this cursor is gone in order to change the settings. The Invigorator is designed to check and see if you are trying to make changes. If you click on a slider or type in a new number it will pause, let you make the changes and then restart the processing using the new settings.

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The NO Symbol

When you are making changes you might see this symbol appear in the preview window ...

This sign appears whenever you interrupt the preview, and means that the drawing of the scene has been temporarily stopped. Don’t worry, the sign will, disappear and drawing will restart when you’re done making your changes. If it doesn’t start redrawing when you expect, click the Shading ball, this is the manual way of telling the Preview window to redraw.

It’s also possible to suspend drawing manually by pressing the Caps Lock key. This will stop the preview and display the NO sign. As long as the Caps Lock key is down, preview will be suspended. To resume previewing, press the Caps Lock key again. Temporarily disabling the preview window is a special feature you can use when you need to make a number of changes and you’d like to do them as smoothly as possible.

Note: Disabling the Preview window does not affect the model generation process. The model will be created normally even with the NO symbol showing.

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OBJECT SURFACES

An object’s surface settings determine what the object’s surface looks like. These settings don’t have anything to do with the shape of the object, just how the surfaces appear - the paint job, if you will. A combination of settings is usually referred to as a Surface Material, and each individual setting is called a Surface Attribute.

There are 5 surface attributes in the Invigorator: Color, Highlight Brightness, Highlight Sharpness, Transparency and Reflection.

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Surface Presets

You can use the surface attributes to create a wide variety of looks. By varying the amounts of each attribute you can make materials like glass, chrome, steel, aluminum, porcelain, plastic and rubber.

To get you started, the Invigorator comes with presets which can be applied by selecting an object and then picking a preset from the Surface Presets menu under the Object Tab.

The value of many of the presets lies not in the color they apply, but rather in their highlight, reflection and transparency settings. Think of them as Finish styles that you can then fine tune by applying your own colors afterwards. You can learn a lot about how to set up your own surfaces by examining the settings applied by the surface presets.

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Assigning Colors

The colors assigned to the vector artwork in the host application will be used inside the Invigorator unless the color is black. A black vector object will be assigned whatever the current Invigorator surface color is.

The original vector color can be overridden by selecting the object and clicking on the Surface color chip (Illustrator), or by dragging a color from the color mixer and dropping it onto the color chip inside the Invigorator window (FreeHand).

Picking a new color will override the old vector color.

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Returning To The Original Vector Color

You can return to the color applied to the vector line art by selecting the object in the Invigorator and selecting the original line art on the drawing page, then clicking the Replace button. You will be asked if you’d like to replace the outlines only or the outlines and the colors. Choose Outline and Colors and the Invigorator object will be assigned the original line art color.

Important: Be careful to select the original outlines that the 3D object was based on, or else when you do the Replace, it will change the shape and position of the 3D objects.

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Highlight Sharpness

The Highlight Sharpness slider controls the spread of the highlight. Lower values spread the highlight making it large. Higher values make the highlight small and sharp.

Highlights are one of the most important surface attributes in determining the finish of a surface. A small, finely focused highlight gives the impression of a smoothly polished surface. As the highlight spreads out, the surface becomes brushed looking and rougher.

Highlight Sharpness must be used in combination with Highlight Brightness to mimic real world surfaces. Generally speaking, as the highlight sharpness values get lower, the brightness values should get lower too.

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Highlight Brightness

The Highlight Brightness slider controls the intensity of the highlight. High values make the highlight stand out strongly, but can sometimes overexpose the rendering creating white, washed-out highlights.

Lower values make the highlight blend into the rest of the object’s shading. Setting the highlight brightness to 0 turns off the highlights giving you a matte surface, like flat finish spray paint or non-shiny cloth.

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Transparency

The Transparency slider controls how much you can see through an object. You will only see the transparency effect in a final rendering. You will not see object transparency in the preview window.

Besides being necessary for glass effects, you can create some very interesting looking pictures by using transparency with some of the fancier edge styles. The transparency lets you look down into an object, and the edge details catch nice highlights and reflections.

Oftentimes transparent objects will start to overexpose and create too-bright, washed out areas. If this happens you should darken the surface color. This will retain the object’s base hue but will reduce the build-up of surface glare.

Unless you have a lot of RAM you should use transparency sparingly. A future version of the 3D Invigorator will be able to render high resolution images with transparency without needing a lot of RAM to do it, but for the time being you’ll need to either stay with smaller sized images or use a computer with a lot of RAM (60+ Megs depending on the size, dpi, image smoothing and number of transparent edges.)

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Reflection

The Reflection slider controls how reflective an object’s surface will be when the final rendering is done. You will not see reflections on objects in the preview window.

Once a level of Reflection is set, you must also give the object an environment picture to reflect. Objects in the 3D Invigorator do not reflect each other. Instead, the reflections come from a preset image called a Global Environment. This gives you reasonably convincing reflections and keeps rendering speeds up to maximum.

Use Reflection sparingly. Too much reflection can cause over exposed, washed-out areas in your picture. If this happens you can compensate by either reducing the amount of Reflection, or by using a darker shade of the surface color.

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The Global Environment

The Global Environment is a PICT image that is selected from the pop-up menu on the Object tab.

There are several Global Environment images supplied with the Invigorator. Note that some work better than others depending on whether you want a graphic look, a realistic look, or have mostly flat objects or curved objects.

Note that there can be only one Global Environment reflection per scene. All objects with the Reflection attribute will reflect the same environment picture.

If you make your own environment reflections, they can be any size. However, the proportion of 2 wide to 1 tall works the best, (for instance: 512 pixels wide x 256 pixels tall).

Also, if you notice a little tearing or jaggedness in your reflections, either take the environment reflection picture into Photoshop and blur it a little, or turn up the Image Smoothing in the Camera tab to a higher quality. (e.g. from No Smoothing, to 2x2 or 3x3.)

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Making Your Own Surface Presets

Once you have designed your own group of surface attribute settings, you can save these settings as your own Surface Preset to use over and over.

1- To do this, first set the Surface color chip and sliders to the values you want.

2- Click the Save button under the Surface Presets menu.

3- You will be asked to name your Surface Preset.

4- When you then click OK, the custom surface will be added to the bottom of the Surface Presets pop-up menu.

Once saved, surface presets will be automatically loaded whenever the Invigorator starts up, and appear at the bottom of the Surface Presets menu.

Note that the Global Environment picture is not saved as part of a surface preset, just the Reflection value.

Surface Presets are stored in the “Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Prefs” file in the Preferences folder, inside your System folder.

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OBJECT SHAPES

The shape of an Invigorator object can be thought of in 2 parts...

There’s the basic shape of the vector artwork, and then there’s the shape of the Edge Style which makes the 2D shape into a 3D object.

The vector artwork defines the shape of the front and back faces of the 3D object, while the Edge Style defines the shape of the object’s thickness.

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THE VECTOR SHAPE
The vector shape can be drawn any way you like, although usually the simpler they are the nicer they appear in 3D.

Do not use blends in your objects because each blend will become a separate 3D object. Postscript patterns or gradients as fills are also not supported.

If you like you can use clip art, as long as it is vector based not pixel based, and you can open and edit it inside of your host application. If you start with a complex piece of clip art, you can remove the blends and simplify it into a piece of artwork that will Invigorate with great success.

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A Good Size For Your Vector Shapes

The 3D Invigorator will work with vector objects of any size, however the defaults will work better with objects that are in the 1 to 2 inches range. (25 to 50 mm or 72 to 144 points).

If you work with objects much smaller than this, their edges will appear bloated and chunky. Too much larger and the object starts off very thin.

Of course you can always adjust the Depth and Smoothness settings to compensate for this, but that just takes extra time.

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Editing The Shape Of A 3D Object

All objects inside the 3D Invigorator are “Hot-Linked” to their original 2D vector artwork. By editing the shape of the 2D outlines you will change the shape of the 3D objects! The updating is done automatically. Every time you make a change, the 3D model will rebuild itself. If you’ve added the same 2D vector path multiple times, all the 3D objects will be hot-linked to the same path. Changing that one original path will change all of the 3D objects!

If the automatic updating is slowing you down, you can temporarily make all the other objects in the scene invisible by . . .

1- Selecting all objects using the Select All command in the Object list. (You cannot use Command+A. This only works for the host application.)

2- Hold the Shift key down and click on the 3D object you will be leaving visible. This will deselect it.

3- Click on the Disable This Item checkbox. This will make all currently selected objects invisible.

Disabling all other objects will greatly speed up the redraw of the object you are editing, since it will be the only object being displayed.

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More About Hot-Links

The Hot-Link connecting a 3D object to its 2D base shape will take into account not only shape changes, but position, rotation, and size changes too.