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MARCH 11, 2004 Anark Studio 2.5
Integrated 3D Until now, I've completely ignored the elephant in the room, which is 3D. In Anark Studio, everything is 3D. Even if you want to make a movie clip play in the corner of the screen, you have to map the movie onto a 3D rectangle to do it. Now, some of you may be saying, "Big deal! Director has had 3D for ages now." You're right, of course, but the big difference is that in Anark Studio, 3D is pervasive and, more importantly, approachable. Director's 3D engine, while powerful, requires some (in the lexicon of your average American teenager) mad Lingo skillz to even do things as simple as changing an object's material. In Anark Studio, 3D is everywhere, and is designed to be as simple as drag and drop, which instantly catapults Anark Studio way ahead of Director in the 3D department. Don't get me wrong — it's not just for newbies and the otherwise script-adverse. Anark Studio provides a complete scripting environment as well so you can create some complex 3D interactions, but the big difference is that you can take baby steps to get there. Anark Media takes advantage of all those newfangled 3D cards that most modern machines seem to come with these days, and displays (again, in real time) the compositing, 3D transforms and everything else Anark Studio can do in your choice of software redraw mode (Mac/Win), OpenGL (Mac/Win), or DirectX (Win-only), enabling you to target your audience's likely hardware settings (fig. 9). [an error occurred while processing this directive]  Fig. 09: Hardware or Software rendering? Or should we just let the program choose? And even though Anark Studio's projects are entirely 3D, it does a very nice job of integrating 2D content such as still images and video clips inside the 3D space. You have access to Photoshop-like blending modes for both 3D and 2D materials (fig. 10), which enables some really nice compositing effects. Plus, as I mentioned briefly already, 2D looks are possible even in the 3D environment by mapping 2D elements onto flat planes. Anark Studio even does the mapping for you by creating a rectangular primitive the size of your movie or still when you drag an asset of either type into the Timeline or Project windows. By default, the asset is placed in the scene without specularity or other properties that would belie its status as a true 3D object, but, of course, you can always go to town on it and add in some 3D elements (fig. 11).  Fig. 10: Not quite as many as Photoshop has, but blending modes are a nice addition nonetheless.  Fig. 11: Users of 3D programs will find the 3D material options familiar. What's more, Anark Studio lets you use models made in various 3D packages. So if you've squeezed just about everything you're going to get out of the basic primitives, you can turn to either 3D Studio Max, Maya, LightWave, or Cinema 4D to model objects for use in Anark Studio (fig. 12). Anark also supports Right Hemisphere's Deep Exploration 3D translation program. I only tested the LightWave export plug-in, but it did a pretty decent job of translating some relatively complex geometry, complete with shading and image mapping, into Anark's native AMX 3D model format (your mileage, as usual, may vary). Once your model is in Anark Studio, you can then change material elements and animate individual pieces according to how the source model was set up and exported.  Fig. 12: Out of LightWave and into Anark Studio. Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next Related sites: • Animation Artist • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Game Developer • Digital Media Designer • Digital Producer • Digital Webcast • Presentation Master • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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