CompuServe Messages

Corel Draw has about the best "auto-trace" utility that I've seen. In that, you can output the result as an .ai or .dxf file, and then bring it into the 2D Shaper in 3D Studio before lofting it into a 3D object. HOWEVER, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. The autotrace generates a lot of vertices, and is more or less successful, depending on the quality of the original raster image. When you get it into the 2D Shaper, you'll have to do a lot of vertex editing to get something you can loft, and the end result will be what looks like a cardboard cutout of a horse, rather than a true, 3D horse. It would be far easier to simply map a bitmap flic of a running horse onto a 3D plane as a combination texture and bump map. It would still look like a cutout, but you'd have it up and running in no time. What I'm trying to say is: 3D animation takes work. Ask anyone on this forum. It's relatively easy to do flying logos or to model mechanical or abstract objects, but humans and animals are extremely difficult. I have not yet seen a 3Dtruly lifelike 3D animation of a human figure or face. – Jack