Illustrate! 2.0

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Introduction You're a 3D animator and need to produce 2D cartoon or technical illustrations from your work with a minimum of fuss. Illustrate! will revolutionize how you go about producing 2D animations and illustrations. Take advantage of the vast array of 3DS MAX modelling and animation tools to produce your work then let Illustrate! produce the final 2D illustrated image from your scene. Illustrate! will take your 3DS MAX scene and produce a 2D rendering that appears as though it was hand-drawn. Objects are drawn in a flat color with the edges drawn using a brush, stroke, and paint of your choosing. The numerous options allow you to produce any style of illustration. Cartoon and comic book style output is automatic. Load your scene then press Render.

Complex technical illustrations are just as easy with a multitude of options that give you precise control over the final output. Choose from different line-styles and include hidden-line removal to create accurate illustrations from your existing models. Work in any units you wish, including points, picas, mms, etc. Do you want to output to poster format? Change the output size and Illustrate! will scale everything automatically. Speed and simplicity were the driving forces behind the design of Illustrate!. The interface is extremely simple and layed out so everything is available with just one click. A unique interactive help system and the easy tutorials will get you up to speed in no time. The rendering engine incorporates proprietary techniques to ensure maximum speed while maintaining absolute accuracy. Image quality is assured with Illustrate!'s unique anti-aliasing method. Whatsmore you can use the FULL UNLIMITED version for 30 days for free!

Minimum Requirements

3DS Max 1.1 with the same memory and hardware requirements.

Art Materials

Illustrate! is designed to be as integrated as possible into the core 3DS MAX product. As such, it makes as much use of your existing knowledge as possible.

Art materials are the illustration equivalent of 3DS MAX Materials for photorealistic renderings. Art materials allow you define your own illustration styles that can be applied individually to each object. Below are the art materials available.

Style

The style defines the way in which each individual object will be drawn, much the way assigning a MAX Material to an object will determine how it is rendered.

Surface

• Set the type of surface to None for wireframe output. Clear allows you to have hidden-lines drawn while Paint allows you to assign a paint object to the surface(See Paint below).
• The transparency of the object is taken into account.

Edges

• Possibly one of the most powerful features of the plug-in is to classify different edge types and assign an individual brush, paint, and stroke object to it. This gives total control over the drawing of edge lines.
• Each of these edge types are supported and can be mixed and matched within a single object:

All - includes all edges

Interior Outline - outline interior to the object

Exterior Outline - outline exterior to the object

MAX Defined - edges defined as visible by 3DS MAX

Material Change - edge where two faces have different materials

• For each of these edge types you can assign an individual brush, paint, and stroke to be used when the line is either visible or hidden. You can therefore quickly show hidden lines with a dashed or dotted style and others solid. You can also set whether hidden or visible lines for each edge type will be drawn.
• Prioritize the edges types so certain edges are classified before others and therefore are given a higher precedence.
• Activate and disactive the drawing of different edges types for quick control and experimentation.

Brush

A brush essentially defines the footprint used to paint with. The brush dialog box allows for real-time editing of brush options. Change an option and you get direct feedback as to what the final brush will look like. The brush options are:

Shape

• Choice between two stock shapes; Circle or Square.
• Define the size of the shape interactively. Fractional sizes(eg. 1.34 pixels) are supported. This can be animated so your edges can become progressively thicker or thinner throughout an animation.

Image

• Define a bitmap as the brush shape. This gives you an infinite number of possible brush styles and designs.
• The scale of the bitmap can also be animated.

Paint

Now that you've got your brush defined, dip it in some paint. The paint options are:

Color

• The paint color can either be a solid color that you define or the ambient, diffuse, or specular color of the material assigned to the object. The color can be animated.
• You can also modify the brightness of the color. This is useful for Disney-like edges where the edge color is a slightly darker shade of the surface color. The brightness can also be animated.

Stroke

You now have the brush dipped in the paint. The next step is to specify how you are going to "dab" the brush along the edge. The stroke options are:

Spacing

• Define the spacing of brush dabs as a percentage of the brush size or set it to automatic for continuous lines. This provides brush independent spacing and accurate control.

Pattern

• Define "line-styles" by choosing from one of the predefined: Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Centre, or define your own by marking out a line of down/up markers that the brush will adhere to along the stroke.

Canvas

Now you are ready to paint. But paint on what? This is where the canvas object comes into play. The canvas defines the "background" on which the illustration is drawn. It takes the background set in 3DS MAX(single color or environment map) and modifies it to produce a "textured" output.

Texture

• Set a bitmap image that defines the "texture"(grain) of the canvas.
• Set the lighting color, angle and elevation to get varying degrees of roughness and contrast. All these parameters are animatable.