3D by Corel

Many of the tools and concepts in CorelDream 3D will be familiar to Corelusers, including the Bezier curves, object grouping and aligning, and the viewtools (see screen A). Corel licensed the core of Ray Dream Designer 3.0 andported it to NT's 32-bit environment, taking care to change the interface tomake it compatible with the other Corel applications. Although CorelDream 3D isnot as well suited as 3D/Eye's TriSpectives (see "32-Bit 3D GraphicsSoftware for NT" on page 43) for creating technically accurate models, itis a more mature product and easier to learn and use. This is fortunate becausethe manual is confusing: Corel forgot to port the manual from Ray Dream. Thus,Corel's manual is full of cross-references to nonexistent pages, some of thecommand sequences are wrong, and some described commands don't exist. It alsorefers to files with the Ray Dream .RD3 extension instead of the CorelDream .D3Dextension.

CorelDream 3D uses wizards to help you create complex extruded, lofted,swept, or lathed objects. You start with either a free-form shape or a basicgeometric shape, called a "primitive" shape, and position the modelsin a 3D workspace. Outlines of the object are projected on each of the threewalls of the space, and you can drag and stretch those outlines to position andresize the object. Double-clicking on an object brings you into an edit windowwhere you can use the splines to modify the surfaces and cross-sections.CorelDream lacks Boolean operations, so you could have difficulty creatingcutouts.

You create renderings by dragging "shaders" onto an object. Youcan edit various characteristics of the shaders, such as color, transparency,bump, and highlight. The package includes 300 shaders and 750 3D models to helpyou fill your scenes. One unusual feature in the package is that you can paintany texture on any area of an object--you aren't limited to painting completepolygons. You can save the final rendered image in a variety of bitmap formats,including PCX, BMP, and TIFF.

You create animation with Corel Motion 3D. This easy-to-use animation toolallows simple movement of objects, lights, and camera. You can create 3Danimation sequences and then save them in a multimedia file format, such as AVI,QTM, or MPEG. As Corel is quick to point out, however, Motion 3D is not afull-featured, full-blown animation program. It is directed toward the animationof text, logos, or other simple graphical images.