Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio Handout
Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio is a program designed to allow people to easily create 3D images and animation without having to understand all the complexities of 3D graphics. Yet the program is powerful enough to achieve some very professional results if you learn more about how 3D graphics work.
Cool 3D Production Studio Layout
Camera View Attribute Panel
Location Toolbar Object Toolbar
Object Manager Project Window

Easy Palette

Timeline with Key Frames

Location Toolbar Layout

Move Tool Resize Tool X Axis Coordinates Z Axis Coordinates

Rotate Tool

Y Axis Coordinates
2003, 2004 by Scott Schonefeld
scott.schonefeld@cpsb.org

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Axis Coordinate Reference X Axis Runs through object left and right (Width) Y Axis Runs through object up and down (Height) Z Axis Runs through object forwards and backwards (Depth)
Move Tool Default Object Coordinates X: 0 Y: 0 Z:0 X Changes: Negative numbers moves object to left / Positive numbers moves object to right Y Changes: Negative numbers moves object down / Positive numbers moves object up Z Changes: Negative numbers moves object forward / Positive numbers moves object backward Rotate Tool Default Object Coordinates X: 0 Y:0 Z:0 X Changes: Negative numbers rotates object up / Positive numbers rotates object down Y Changes: Negative numbers rotates object to left / Positive numbers rotates object to right Z Changes: Negative numbers rotates object to left / Positive numbers rotates object to right Resize Tool Default Object Coordinates X:100 Y:100 Z:100 X Changes: Numbers below 100 shrinks object on the left & right / Above 100 enlarges object Y Changes: Numbers below 100 shrinks object on the top & bottom / Above 100 enlarges object Z Changes: Numbers below 100 shrinks object on front & back / Above 100 enlarges object

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Create a simple animation Note: The key concept of this activity is introduce dragging and dropping objects from the Easy Palette window and how to create a basic animation using the Timeline. 1. If a new project window is not already open, do File / New to create one. 2. Go to the Easy Palette window and browse the Objects menu. When you find an object you wish to place in your project, point to the object preview in the Easy Palette then drag and drop it into the project window. 3. Return to the Easy Palette window and browse the Scene menu for a background. When you find a background, drag and drop the background into the project window. 4. Go to the Timeline window and note the current number of frames in the animation (indicated by the highlighted range of frames along the timeline.) Right-click anywhere along the timeline and choose Change duration. Set the Change duration to box to 60 and click OK. Frames 1 through 60 should now be highlighted in the Timeline window. 5. Click on Frame 1 in the Timeline window. Use the Move, Rotate and Resize tools to set the 3D object to the view you desire for the animation to start with. Be careful not to accidentally change the frame you are working on, otherwise you may have unexpected results. 6. Click on Frame 60 in the Timeline window. Once again use the Move, Rotate and Resize tools to create the ending view that you want your object to have in the animation. As you make changes, note that small black dots are placed under frame 60 which indicate a change in object properties at that point in the animation. 7. Go to the Navigation toolbar and click on the Play button to view the current animation given the properties you have set. You can edit these properties at any point in the timeline until you have the animation you want. 8. To create a completed animation file, do File / Create Video File. Enter a name in the File Name box and use the default AVI file settings. Click on the Save button and a preview window will open as the final animation is rendered frame by frame. When the render is complete, you can play the animation with Media Player or place it into a PowerPoint presentation, web page or video-editing project.

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Create an animated still life Note: The key concept of this activity is creating objects from scratch and modifying their properties using the Attributes panel. 1. If a new project window is not already open, do File / New to create one. 2. It is very helpful to have the Object Manager window show all the objects in a project. To open this window, do View / Toolbar Manager and select Object Manager. 3. Go to the Insert Geometric Object tool and click on its drop down menu. You will see a variety of 3D shapes to choose from. Select one and it will appear in the project. 4. Go to the Attribute Panel and select Geometric Objects from the drop-down menu. You can change the shape properties from this menu. Experiment with the values until you have it the way you like. 5. In the Attribute Panel select Color from the drop-down menu. In the Surface Color section, click on the color box and then select a color from the palette. You should see the object color change to the new color. Use the Surface Color option sliders to change the brightness and saturation of the color. To change the objects highlight color, go to the Specular Color section and make the desired changes. 6. Use the Move tool to shift the first 3D shape from the center of the project window to prepare for adding another shape. 7. Now use the Insert Geometric Object menu again and add a different 3D object. Remember that new objects are placed in the center so if there is an object already there you may not see it until the other object is moved because object can exist one inside the other. Note that the Object Manager window should list a new object in the project. 8. Go to the Easy Palette window and go to Object Styles / Material Attributes / Image Texture. Select a texture and then drag and drop it on top of the second 3D shape you added. (You can also use any graphic file as your own custom texture by using the Texture menu on the Attribute Panel.) Change the 3D shape by using the Geometric Objects menu on the Attribute Panel. When finished, use the Move tool to shift the shape away from the center of the project. 9. Make another 3D shape and use the Material Gallery under Object Styles on the Easy Palette to assign a color and/or texture. With this object experiment with transparency. Go to the Attribute Panel and select Transparency from the drop-down menu. Move the slider to the right to make the object transparent. You can increase the effectiveness of the effect by placing the object in front of another object. 10. Make a flat plane for all of your objects to rest on. Insert a 3D cube into the project. Use the Geometric Objects property on the Attribute Panel to change the Height property to 3 and change the Width and Depth properties to make the area of the plane large enough to hold the objects. Use the Camera View window and change to the Top view to look down on the scene to make sure the plane is large enough. You can also use this view to change the arrangement of your objects. 11. Once you have an interesting arrangement of objects, group the objects together so you can animate the entire still-life at once. To do this, go to the Object Manager window. Click on the first object name in the list so it is highlighted. Now hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and click on each of the remaining objects in the list until are highlighted. You can now group the selected objects by clicking on the Group Objects icon at the top of the window. A Pivot Settings window will appear. Click on Center of all subgroups pivot and click OK. The individual object will be placed under a group name which can also be edited to help you remember different groups of objects. You can now work with either the entire group at once or still work with the individual objects by selecting them in the Object Manager window. 12. Create an animation by right-clicking on the Timeline and set the Duration of the animation for 60 frames. Go to frame 1 and then select the still-life group in the Object Manager window. Set the stilllife view the way you want. Now go to frame 60. Click on the Rotate tool and set the Y box to 360. Click on Play in the Navigation window and you should see the still-life spin around one time. 13. To create a completed animation file, do File / Create Video File. Enter a name in the File Name box and use the default AVI file settings. Click on the Save button and a preview window will open as the 2003, 2004 by Scott Schonefeld scott.schonefeld@cpsb.org Page 4 of 7

final animation is rendered frame by frame. When the render is complete, you can play the animation with Media Player or place it into a PowerPoint presentation, web page or video-editing project.
Creating Animated Text with Effects Note: The key concept of this activity is that complex animations should be built out small steps that build upon one another. 1. If a new project window is not already open, do File / New to create one. 2. It is very helpful to have the Object Manager window show all the objects in a project. To open this window, do View / Toolbar Manager and select Object Manager. 3. Go to the Insert Text tool and click on it. In the Insert Text window type a single word using a large font (such as Impact.) Click OK when complete. 4. Go to the Easy Palette window and browse to the Object Style and select a color or texture from the Material Attributes or Material Gallery. Drag and drop the selection into the project window on top of the just created text. 5. Create an animation by right-clicking on the Timeline and set the Duration of the animation for 60 frames. Click on frame 50 and then click on the text object to select it and then click on the Move tool. Return to the Timeline and make sure that the Position attribute in the Timeline is highlighted. Then click on Add Key Frame icon (the + symbol at the bottom of the Timeline) so that a key frame is created on frame 50 for object position (check for the black dot to appear in the Timeline.) By doing this you have set the position point at which the text object should be at frame 50 because we will be making the text zoom in to this point. 6. Click on frame 1 in the Timeline. Make sure the Move tool is still active and then hold down the rightmouse button and repeatedly drag the cursor down to cause the text object to move towards you until it just goes out of view. (This should cause a value around -800 to appear in the Z axis box.) If you play the animation at this point, the text should appear to suddenly appear near your view point and then move back away from you into the middle of the scene. 7. Click on frame 50 and then click on the Rotate tool. Enter the value 360 into the Y axis box. Playing the animation at this point will have the text rotate one time while traveling towards the center of the scene. 8. Click on frame 1 in the Timeline. Go to the Easy Palette window and browse to the Text Effects and click on the Explosions listing. Locate the second to last effect where the word cool appears to reform from exploded pieces. Drag and drop this effect into the Project Window. Playing the final animation has all of the earlier actions plus the text seeming to form out of many fragments that swirl around. If needed, you can tweak the Explosion settings in the Attributes panel to see how the effect can be changed. 9. If you wish to take the activity further, try adding other motion, text or global effects to the animation. Remember that if the added effect does not work out, go to the Attribute panel and remove the effect by clicking on the Remove Plug-in button (the - symbol on the Attribute window.) 10. To create a completed animation file, do File / Create Video File. Enter a name in the File Name box and use the default AVI file settings. Click on the Save button and a preview window will open as the final animation is rendered frame by frame.

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Advanced: Creating the planet Earth 1. Obtain a texture map of the planet Earth so it can be wrapped around a sphere to create an illusion of the planet. NASA maintains a website where the have various pictures of Earth suitable for creating 3D objects. Go to http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/BlueMarble.html and download the Land Surface, Sea Color, Sea Ice, and Clouds JPEG image (580 KB in size.) Although there are higher resolution versions of this image, these will take much more processing time to use and may max out your computer in the process. 2. Once you have the image downloaded, start a new project. Make sure that you always stay on frame 1 in the animation timeline while constructing your object. Use the Insert Geometric Object tool and place a single sphere into the scene. 3. In the Attribute Panel select Camera and move the Distance slider to the left so you can place the camera view near the sphere, giving you a better view. 4. In the Attribute Panel, select Texture. Select the Use box and then Image. Click on the Folder icon and browse to the image you downloaded in step 1 and select it. It should now appear on the surface of the sphere, but its mapping will need to be corrected. 5. While still in the Texture settings, go to the Wrap section and change Mode to Spherical. Normal should be set to Z -. Go to the Mapping section and click on the Position Texture icon. Set the X, Y and Z boxes to read 0. This will make the image now wrap only once around the sphere. Go to the Emboss section and select the Emboss box and set Width to 2 and Depth to 3 6. Switch to Color in the Attribute Panel and set the Surface Color to white by using the color selection icon and set the Brightness slider all the way to the right. Go to the Specular Color section and set slider for Brightness all the way to the left. You should see the light highlights disappear from the sphere. 7. On the Location Toolbar, click on the Rotate tool and set X to - 90 and then press the Enter key. The sphere should now be rotated so that Earth is now upright. 8. Because Earth has an atmosphere, you need to create a thin area of haze around the planet. Open the Object Manager window if it isnt visible. (Go to the menu bar and do View / Toolbars Manger / Object Manger.) Set the object name of the sphere to Earth. Now while it is still highlighted, go to the menu bar and do Edit / Copy and then do Edit / Paste, which now places a second copy directly on top of the first one. Rename this second sphere to Atmosphere. 9. You will now change the atmosphere attributes. Making sure that it is still selected in the Object Manager, go to its Texture attributes and unselect the Use box so the image disappears and returns to a solid color. Go to the Color attributes and change the color to the RGB settings of 121, 188, 255 giving it a light blue color. Now go to the Transparency settings and move the slider to the 70% setting. 10. On the Location Toolbar, click on the Resize tool and set X, Y and Z to all read 103. This will make the atmosphere slightly larger than the Earth and create a subtle haze around the planet. 11. You will now combine the two spheres into a single group so you can then work with the two as one object. Go to the Object Manager window and select both Earth and Atmosphere by holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard while you click on them. Click on the Group Objects icon. When the Pivot Settings window appears, select Center of all subgroups pivot and click OK. Name this new sub-group Planet Earth and then save your work. 12. You can now use this object to create animations of Earth. Experiment with using the Lights property in the Attribute Panel to control the placement and intensity of the light sources in the scene. You can also place different backgrounds behind the object to create a variety of different scenes. You can check out the Hubble Space Telescope website at http://hubblesite.org to find some very nice space imagery or use a image editing program to create your own space backgrounds. Remember that to have Earth turn around on its axis, you must use the Rotate tool and change the Y settings.

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Where to purchase Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio You can buy the program directly from Ulead at http://www.ulead.com or download the free trial version of the program. The program can also be purchased at any online software vendors at prices less than those found at Uleads site. The recommended system requirements for the software are a computer with a Pentium III 800Mhz processor or faster with 256Mb of RAM. The program requires 128Mb of hard drive space to install not to mention the many megabytes needed to create any animations you create with it. Remember that 3D graphics require tremendous amounts of computing power to generate the images so you will be running at the maximum levels of your computer, so save often when working with any 3D graphics program. If you start into 3D graphics, you will also most certainly need a good image-editing program for working with image textures for your objects. I would recommend JASC Paint Shop Pro (www.jasc.com) or Adobe Photoshop (www.adobe.com) Finally, if you want to turn animations into longer videos or combine them with live action, a good video editing program will be needed. The videos that I have made were created with Pinnacles Studio 8 video editing software (www.pinnaclesys.com)

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Product Overview

Sophisticated 3D Objects

Design sophisticated 3D text and objects with intuitive tools. You can use pre-made shapes and styles or create them from scratch. COOL 3D Production Studio imports the most popular 2D and 3D file formats. Powerful Effects & Animation Control Drag and drop hundreds of customizable backdrops and animation effects. Apply video backgrounds and add audio to your creations. Use magic, natural texture and particle effects for dynamic-looking animations.

Professional Output

COOL 3D Production Studio exports files out to a variety of formats video files, alpha-channel video overlays, Web animations, images, and 3D models. You can also import a COOL 3D Production Studio project file into Ulead video editors' timelines.

System Requirements

Intel Pentium II compatible processors or above (Intel Pentium III 800 MHz recommended) Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, Me and XP 64 MB RAM (256MB RAM recommended) 128 MB available hard disk space (250 MB recommended) DirectX 8.1 driver or above Display card with 4 MB display memory (32 MB recommended) which supports DirectX 7 or above Hi Color or True Color display adapter and monitor CD-ROM Drive Windows compatible pointing device

Features

Design sophisticated 3D text and objects with intuitive tools. You can use pre-made shapes and styles or create them from scratch. COOL 3D Production Studio imports the most popular 2D and 3D file formats. Dynamic 3D Titles A single click turns ordinary text into professional-looking 3D titles. Create your own 3D text by assigning extrusion, bevel, color and texture or use pre-made styles from EasyPalette. Path and Lathe Object Editors Use the Path Editor to create original 3D graphics that are re-editable. To create cylindrical objects, COOL 3D Production Studio offers the Lathe Object Editor. This tool works much like a potter's wheel, spinning any line drawing into a fully enclosed 3D object. Import 2D and 3D File Formats Import popular vector files, including Adobe Illustrator files, WMF and EMF. Convert common image file types such as BMP and JPEG into vector paths. For those with experience working with other 3D modeling software, COOL 3D Production Studio offers direct import of 3D model formats such as 3DS and X models. FreeForm Tool The FreeForm Tool is a powerful editor that deforms 3D objects based on their vector paths. With its precision editing features, you can bend, twist, warp or fold 3D objects exactly the way you want. Pre-made Objects and Models Ulead's EasyPalette is a virtual library of hundreds of objects, attributes, effects and filters that you can drag and drop to your projects and use right away.
Powerful Effects & Animation Control
Drag and drop hundreds of customizable backdrops and animation effects. Apply video backgrounds and add audio to your creations. Use magic, natural texture and particle effects for dynamic-looking animations. Video Backgrounds Video files can be inserted into the background of your creations. Create a rich visual setting and give your 3D projects an element of movement that is independent from the main focal point object. Video Texture Wrap video files onto 3D objects as motion texture and turn them into independently animated TV screens.
Key-Frame Timeline With the expanded timeline feature, you can control precisely where objects are positioned and what styles and behaviors are applied at any given frame in the animation. Each applied attribute is displayed in the timeline when an object is selected so that every action can be clearly tracked and edited. Objects and Text Effects Use ready-made animation effects for instant impact. Choose from hundreds of selections conveniently stored in the EasyPalette. Or create your own custom effects and save them in the EasyPalette. Particle Effects Add moving particle elements to 3D projects with control over behavior variances. Choose from fire, bubble, snow and smoke. You can also create your own custom particles.
COOL 3D Production Studio exports files to a variety of formats video files, alpha-channel video overlays, Web animations, images, and 3D models. You can also import a COOL 3D Production Studio project file into Ulead video editors' timelines. Create Complete Movies COOL 3D Production Studio lets you save your movies, including any background audio you have inserted, to popular video formats such as AVI, QuickTime and RealVideo. You can also import COOL 3D Production Studio project files to Ulead MediaStudio Pro or Ulead VideoStudio. Export Video Overlays Create full-motion overlay titles that are perfect for videos. Export projects as 32-bit AVI, TGA files with alpha channels, or directly place projects into Ulead MediaStudio Pro or Ulead VideoStudio's timeline. Export 3D Models COOL 3D Production Studio lets you reuse your native 3D models in other high-end 3D modeling software. You can export your raw 3D objects into popular 3D formats such as 3DS and X models. Create Web Animation COOL 3D Production Studio easily exports 3D projects into Web-friendly 3D animation in Macromedia Flash or animated GIFs formats. Create Image Files COOL 3D Production Studio allows you to save single frames as 3D still images. Choose from a variety of formats, including GIF, BMP, JPG and TGA.