![]() ![]() I would like to be able to maybe import simple shapes (maybe black and white line art) and animate that. It's probably mine for having too many fonts installed.Īre there any things I would like to see in future versions of this product? Sure. I've had other problems with software not working well with lots of fonts installed, so I can't say that this was the fault of Xara3D. How many did I have to remove? My fonts started working again once the number dipped down to about 200 or so. I fixed the problem by moving fonts out of my font folder until the ones I wanted became active in the program. On my home PC, I have close to 900 fonts installed and Xara generally replaced about 3/4 of them with some "default" font. I found that Xara3D had a hard time seeing fonts correctly if I had too many installed. One thing did cause me some problems, though. Most people want the flashing lights and metal-like reflection anyway, so this isn't really a bother.ĭid I notice anything that bothered me? Well, not really. Unfortunately, you can't specify an intermediate step, but that's a pretty minor thing. You may also choose whether or not you want your text to be either glossy (like metal), or dull (like unpolished wood, forĮxample). You may take just about any BMP, GIF, JPEG, or PNG file and texture your image with it, without difficulty. You get to control things like color and texture as well. Xara3D will take a second or two to re-anti-alias the edges of your image and then everything will look great again. For example, if you decide to make a change to the bevel option, there will be a pause once you click OK to view your changes. ![]() Xara3D DOES anti-alias edges for the still frames of your image. Xara3D doesn't anti-alias the edges during the test animation, but it does once you export the final animation or static picture. Once you have everything set, click on the Animate button to see how your work will look.Ī few caveats here - don't be worried if the quality during the test animation looks a bit choppy and rough, especially with regards to the edges of your text against the background. Finally, control the animation objects by clicking on the animation button and setting things like the frame rate, whether or not you want the lights to rotate too, and which axis of rotation you want to use. Click on the lightbulb to display the light objects in your project so you can move them around and change their colours. Select the Bevel options button to give your text a nice "carved" finish. Click on the Extrusion button to control how much "depth" your text will have. Choose the text button to change the text string. The navigation bar provides quick access to functions that you will use in every single graphic you create. Xara3D has an interface that is very intuitive to use. I guarantee it - within five minutes of installing this program, you'll have a spinning graphic somewhere on your web site. Xara3D lets you create these special graphics with almost no work at all. Used in the right amounts, in the right situations, they can look downright fantastic. Used in excess, they can make your site look gawdy. Consider how many times you have wandered around on the internet, seeing spinning logos aplenty. What does Xara3D do then, exactly? Xara3D is a program that lets you take a block of text (as simple as a single character, or an entire sentence), apply some 3D effects to it (beveling, extrusion, special lighting), and then export it either as a static image or as an animated GIF or AVI (Video for Windows) file in which your block of text is rotating around an axis. Take out the excess, remove the fluff, and create products that do one thing really well, rather than a bunch of things so-so. Xara actually refer to their product as "slimware". When I offered to review Xara3D 2.1, I wasn't sure what to expect.Ī 3D program that fits on a floppy can't have much in it, can it? Well, Xara3D is special. Just what we need, right? Well, maybe, maybe not. You are here: irt.org | Software Reviews | Graphics | Xara 3D 2 by Jason Nugent īah - another drawing program. ![]()
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