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| Chapter
3 is the first hands-on example in this book. It walks you
through the process of creating a Shockwave 3D file, using
an example of a fly-through house. It covers storyboarding
it, 3D modeling it, and moving it into Director via the
Shockwave exporter. Once it's in Director, you can apply
behaviors or Lingo to it to make it interactive, or to give
the interface a design. Finally, you can export it to the
Internet for delivery. This excerpt covers how to build
the model after you've already storyboarded it. You can
download the entire chapter below. |
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Building
the model
"Before you start modeling a final
product, you should conduct experiments to determine how much
detail you should include in your models. Keep in mind this
simple formula—the more detail you include, the slower
the animation. Making this formula even more fun to work with
is the fact that the speed of your animations will vary from
PC to PC, due to CPU differences. Generally, Shockwave 3D
can handle as much detail as you want, because it can adaptively
adjust the model quality (the number of polygons) on-the-fly.
However, note that performing these on-the-fly adjustments
causes a reduction in frames per second, rendering slower
animation speeds. |
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| "There
is no best-practice policy when modeling for Shockwave 3D
because there are many options to work with to get the desired
quality or animation effect. I generally favor modeling very
high-quality and detail-oriented models. I then output my
model to Shockwave 3D to see what type of performance I'm
going to get. As might be predicted, the model is usually
too slow. Thus, I go back to 3ds
max and make changes to reduce the number of details I'm
going to use. |
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| "3ds
max 4 has a great Polygon Counter tool (see Figure 3.2) that
allows you to see the total polygon count for an entire scene
and for specific models. This tool is located in the Utilities
tab. The counter will also let you set a color range if your
models start to get close to 10,000 polygons, for example. |
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| Figure
3.2: Use the polygon counter to help create models with
the smallest polygon count possible while still maintaining
quality. |
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"Because
one of the biggest performance factors is the video card
that is in your target machine, you should either find out
as much as possible about your target audience or tell your
target audience that you recommend specific hardware for
the best performance, such as an OpenGL or DirectX capable
video card. |
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| "The
Polygon Counter tool is useful when you build parts that are
in the range of 10,000 polygons. With the tool, you can also
see different parts of a model that are complex or that have
too many polygons. The more sections included in a geometrical
piece, the more polygons needed. Again, the more polygons
needed for a model, the slower the animation. |
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| "The
other option that you have is to use Shockwave's Polygon
Reduction and Addition tools. These are great tools. Included
in these is the Lingo LOD modifier that adjusts the level
of detail of a model as it moves closer or further away from
the camera. You can hard-set the detail with a slider value
from 0 to 100. Values of 0 turn your models off, whereas values
of 100 perform no polygon reduction. The LOD command is not
only used for polygon reduction, but also to make models disappear
and reappear by setting the option to 0 to represent an invisible
state. Another way to use this is to adjust the setting based
on the animation. If your model is not moving, then the LOD
setting can be high, such as 70. When, however, the model
is about to transition into an animation state or it is about
to be moved by the user, you can quickly reduce the LOD setting
to 20. Then, you can reset it to 70 when the model comes to
a standstill. |
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| "You
should experiment with the LOD setting for each model independently,
because each model is going to require customized adjustments.
Be careful with this setting! The LOD command can turn perfect
spheres into pyramids or other unintended shapes if you set
its values too low. Experimentation is the only way to learn
how to use this setting. Okay, now it's time to get back
to our house model. |
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| "Recall
that we decided on a rough look for the sketch. With a drawing
in hand, we can start the modeling process. Because I want
to focus on the Shockwave 3D aspects more than the modeling
aspects, I'm only going to give brief descriptions of
the creation process for this house. |
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| "The
modeling application I use here is 3ds max, version 4.2 (3ds
max 4). If you don't have 3ds max and you are using another
modeling application that can perform simple extrusions and
Booleans, then this should work for you. Do ensure that you
have the Shockwave 3D exporter for your application. If it
isn't included on the CD-ROM that came with this book,
then check the manufacturer's web site. If you don't
have a 3D application that can support Boolean subtractions,
I highly recommend you obtain one. Booleans are at the heart
of the best photo-realistic models, and they are the fastest
way to create geometry. |
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| "The
3D cube is drawn to closely resemble the rectangular shape
of the house, and is extruded in proportion to the length.
If you have a scanner, and your 3D application supports the
viewing of bitmapped images, you can trace a poly-line to
the exact shape of your house perimeter, then extrude it with
both ends capped for the same result. |
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| "Next,
the base cube you extruded is going to be duplicated and positioned
above the original cube in the z-axis (see Figure 3.3). We
are going to use a copy of the original cube to create a Boolean
subtraction that will become the empty volume of the house's
interior. |
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| Figure
3.3: Copy your original cube to use as a subtraction object.
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Perform
a uniform scale on the copy of the house. The result is
a scaled piece that is going to be used for the subtraction.
The scaled piece needs to be approximately 96% of the size
of the original (see Figure 3.4). You can use a more non-uniform
scaling to match the sides as closely as possible if you
are trying to make the Boolean interior perfect. Additionally,
you could scale a copy of the polyline before extruding
it into a 3D shape. |
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| Figure
3.4: Using the Scale tool, scale the copied box 96%. |
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| "You
want the scaled copy of the house's sides to be almost
exactly the same size of the original house. This is easy
to do on a square shape, but it's not easy to do on a
rectangular shape, unless you scale the length of the sides
to a different percentage. |
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| "After
you get the copied shape scaled, move it in the z-axis back
to the original shape. Try to watch the left wireframe view
as you are positioning the copied cube; position it so that
the distance from the bottom is equal (as accurately as possible)
to the distance from the sides (see Figure 3.5). |
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| Figure
3.5: Lower the copied, scaled subtraction block into the
original, but leave a part of it sticking out at the top.
|
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"Perform
the Boolean subtraction to eliminate the overlap of the
images. After the two shapes are lined up, subtract the
copy from the original using the Compound tool in 3ds max.
This will form the box shape of your house (see Figure 3.6).
This is the fastest way to construct this type of room or
house shape. |
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| Figure
3.6: After the subtraction, your cube should look like
this. |
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Empty Cubes
Empty cubes are used so often, it is a puzzle why they
are not just added as generic primitives to the toolbar!
|
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"Next,
you need to insert the walls and extrude them. This is easy
to do. First, draw where the walls are going to exist, then
extrude them to the same height as the original surrounding
cube walls. The simplest way to do this is to switch to
the top view and use either the Polyline tool or the 3D
box tool and draw where your walls should go, then extrude
them up (see Figure 3.7). |
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| Figure
3.7: Draw and extrude your walls. |
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| "Mark
the doors and windows for a Boolean subtraction by switching
to the side or front view and drawing a cube wherever you
want a new window or door (see Figure 3.8). Just like the
huge subtraction you did on the house foundation, do the same
for the doors and windows. The easiest way to do this is to
draw your windows and door shapes from the front, left, and
right views (see Figure 3.9). The depth of the cube(s) is
not important as long as it doesn't run through another
object causing you to inadvertently create a hole in another
wall during the Boolean operation. |
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| Figure
3.8: After the walls are done, you are ready to add the
doors and windows. |
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| Figure
3.9: The extruded house with walls and the Boolean doors
and windows ready for subtraction. |
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"After
the subtraction pieces are lined up and you have performed
the Boolean, your shape should look like a house (see Figures
3.10–3.12).
|
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| Figures
3.10 (top), 3.11 (right), 3.12 (bottom): The house with
the extruded doors and windows is now ready for the real doors
and windows to be added. You can even add blinds if you want!
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Framing Windows
The level of detail that you use in your Boolean operations
is up to you. In this particular example, one subtraction
was used to make the windows; however, if you used two
or three subtractions while gradually increasing the window
sizes, the windows would take on a framing effect. Note,
adding subtractions will introduce more polygons to the
overall model size, which results in slower animation.
|
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"Next,
you get to add more detail and realism to the model. You
can add glass and blinds to Boolean windows, and doors can
be added. The glass is simply a rectangle that is drawn
in the top view; then it's extruded to meet the length
of the window hole (see Figures 3.13–3.14). Later the
glass's opacity can be adjusted and a reflection map
can be added. |
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| Figures
3.13 (top) and 3.14 (bottom): The house with its windows
and shades ready to be installed, and the lights ready to
be set up. |
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| You
can download the entire version of Chapter 3 below: |
|
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|
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| About
the author
Jason Wolf has been working with Macromedia Director
since version 1.42 and with 3D applications since the days
of Swivel 3D. Jason's first jobs were for LucasFilm Games
and Koei Corporation. Jason later spent five years at Macromedia,
where he authored the first book on Shockwave, Macromedia
Shockwave for Director: The Complete Guide, and where
he developed the Macromedia.com site. He also authored several
interactive CDs, videos, and demos for Fortune-500 clients.
In addition, Jason served as Director of Multimedia and
Research and Development for marchFIRST. Jason currently
freelances from home as an independent multimedia engineer
and CTO. In his spare time, Jason writes books, such as
this one and The Last Mile: Broadband and the Next
Internet Revolution (McGraw-Hill, 2000), a New
York Times bestseller. In his free time, Jason likes
to ride his Honda CBR F4 motorcycle and build electronic
devices. |
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