Part 3. StudioPro

The final step is to import the DXF file from Form Z into StudioPro where I apply colors and textures. First create a new file in StudioPro and set up the following defaults at the top left corner of the new active window. Lens-Orthographic, Display-Wireframe and View-Top. Then select the Import command. In the Import Options dialog box, the only Import option that I concern myself with is making sure that the Top view relative box is not selected. By unselecting this box and, the model comes in plan view relative automatically. Click to place the model and select Fit Views to All.
There are any number of ways to set up a rendering, I will use the process I use as one potential approach. First step is to apply colors and textures to all the objects in my model. This is done by selecting each object individually with the Edit Shape command. When the dialog box for the shape comes up, Select All and then Group. Now it's simply a process of selecting a color or texture and then pressing the Apply button. At this point there are two options available for editing the texture, first is the Mapping tool and the texture Edit tool. Mapping allows you to alter the scale and location of a texture map on an object and texture Edit allows you to change texture characteristics such as opacity, reflectivity etc.
Once I've applied a texture or color to all the objects in the model I am now ready to set up lights. In this model I placed two types of lights, a point light and a spot light. A point light acts like a raw lightbulb in that it shines in all directions equally. A spot light acts like a recessed downlight, it has both direction and a limited angle of light throw.
Now I place my cameras so that I can establish the view that I want to render. It's best to place a camera when your view is set to Front because it will set the camera up at the correct orientation relative to the ground plane. When I've placed my cameras I then go to the point of view of the camera to see what the camera is seeing and to set up the type of lens that I want to use for the rendering.
The final step is to use the various rendering options under the Render menu. Options such as whether to use Phong shading or Raytracing, allow shadow casting and transparency are set at this time.
Now I am ready to select a camera view and begin to do test renders to see that my light levels are good, my textures are reading correctly and that the overall effect is what I'm after. This is the part of the rendering that takes the most time because there are so many factors that can be altered. Typically, I set aside as much as a two to three days before I'm really ready to do my final renderings. This time is usually not accounted for by most of the offices that I've done renderings for and the result is that this phase of the process is hurried and the results always suffer.
All that's left to do is to shoot the final renderings, and save them as PICT files so that I can take them into a page layout program such as QuarkXpress.

Part 4. QuarkXpress

Once I completed the renderings, I used Quark to lay them out for two different applications. First was for my portfolio and second, as a package to send to magazines. Quark allows me to combine text and images to create a page layout similar to what a professional typesetter would do for a magazine. In this case, I did a mockup of how my project would appear in GA Houses and I sent the mock up to that magazines U.S. editor. The good news was that, by doing this, my work was accepted by GA and it appeared, as layed out, in the Projects issue for 1996.

Part 5. Program by Program

Why then did I use these programs as opposed to all the others available? I would like to conclude by covering each program individually in order to answer that question.

Powerdraw. approx. $700.00

Powerdraw is a simple to use 2D drafting program that is wonderful to use despite its many gaping flaws. There are numerous so I will only highlight a few. First, it is a raster based program meaning that circles or curves are not lines but are a collection of pixels that create the look of a circle or curve. Because of this, you are unable to trim a line against a curve. There is a work around, but it doesn't work consistently. Secondly, the accuracy is similar to drawing by hand, meaning that you could easily be off by 2" to 3" instead of AutoCad's accuracy of up to 8 decimal places. Why do I use it anyway? The simple answer is that it's so simple and intuitive to use. I have trained many people to use Powerdraw and it typically takes a couple of hours to get them up and running. It's that easy.

Form Z approx. $1400.00 w/o Renderzone and $1800.00 w/ Renderzone

Form Z is flat out the most powerful 3D modeller available for the Macintosh. If you can imagine it, Form Z can build it. The only complaints are in the renderer and very esoteric modelling options that I wish it had, such as the ability to rotate a cube around a segment regardless of its relationship to the reference plane, and skinning. The downside is that it takes a lot of dedication to really learn the program. A few weeks of intense use and a new user can get around pretty well, but it takes months to really get comfortable.

Photoshop approx. $800.00

The standard of the industry. If you want to do something to a photograph this will do it. Similar to Form Z, it takes a fair amount of time to really learn it.

StudioPro approx. $700.00

StudioPro is slow, has a strange interface design, and is missing some rendering features that other rendering programs offer. (speed in the case of ElectricImage, and partial wireframes in the case of 3D Studio) However, the images are always pleasing when they do finish. Version 2 should be out soon and supposedly addressing most of these concerns, particularly speed.

QuarkXpress approx. $700.00

Also an industry standard (sorry Adobe). Its only downside is that is unnecessarily complex when it comes to very simple operations. Why, for example, if you want to resize an image proportionally do you have to hold down three keys instead of the Macintosh standard of the Shift key? My intuition says that people feel that it must be more powerful if it takes three keys. (I base that last remark on my own experience, apologies to all those who have objective reasons for using Quark) Still, your local service bureau probably uses it so you should so that they don't have to translate your Pagemaker document.