Presenter 3D is a professional 3D modeling, rendering, and animation tool that is both powerful and intuitive to use. It is recognized as having the premier spline-based modeling capability on the Macintosh. It's four-window design, camera, light, and directional microphone handling interface set the standard for design and animation on the Macintosh.

3D MODELING

Digital Clay(tm) (push and pull 3D surfaces) is excellent for organic modeling and reshaping of 3D objects using Bezier spline geometry that provides faster display and uses less storage space than polygonal models.

Multi-Target Morphing for creating multiple targets for us in blending targets for animation

Boolean Solid Modeling for performing Union, Difference, and intersect on 3D spline and Boolean forms.

QuickDraw 3D support with QuickDraw 3D viewer and 3DMF import/export (includes NURBS surfaces)

Hierarchical Grouping of objects and folders similar to the Macintosh file and folder structure eases complex modeling tasks and prepare objects for animation.

Libraries with object instancing used for making multiple copies of objects and saving space.

Statistics

Object measurement offering:

  1. Surface Area
  2. Volume (dry or liquid, English or metric units)
  3. Volume of object wall thickness.
3D Modeling/Sculpting Tools with intuitive, in-place preview of 3D operations
  • LATHE with graphic angle of lathe and bank options
  • EXTRUDE with graphic angle of extension and depth
  • LINEAR DUPLICATE used to distribute multiple copies of selected 2D or 3D objects along a user-defined vector.
  • LOFT for putting a surface over selected contours.
  • SWEEP for creating springs and other swept objects.
  • POLAR DUPLICATE used to distribute multiple copies of selected objects along a circular or spiral path.
  • BEVEL EXTRUDE for extruding 2D characters and shapes with standard and freeform bevels.
  • PATH EXTRUDE using selected objects projected along a path to create a 3D surface..
  • PATH DUPLICATE used to distribute multiple copies of selected objects along a user defined path.
  • PUNCH for cutting any shape hole in 3D surfaces.
  • BOOLEAN Cut, Join, Intersect solid-modeling options

3D Operations

  • TRANSLATE for movement of object a specified distance.
  • ROTATE for rotation of object by set angle.
  • RESIZE for scaling object by ration or actual value.
  • JOIN ELEMENTS for joining separate 2D shapes or splines.
  • ALIGN for positioning objects relative to one another.
  • OBJECT MOVE TO for moving objects to a location.
  • VERTEX MOVE TO for moving vertices to a location.

Design Tools

  • 3D Spline with familiar Macintosh spline controls
  • Line
  • Circle
  • Ellipse
  • Text
  • Arc
  • Polygon
  • Rounded Rectangle
  • Ninety Degree Arc
  • Spline mesh

Snap Operations

  • Free
  • Grid
  • Vertex
  • Intersection
  • On contour
  • Center
  • Marker
  • Midpoint

Draw Options

  • Corner to Corner
  • Corner to Center
  • Center to Corner

Modification Tools

  • Scale
  • Mirror
  • Fillet
  • Scissors
  • Add Vertex
  • Delete Vertex

3D Primitives

  • Cube
  • Prism
  • Pyramid
  • Cone
  • Cylinder
  • Sphere
  • Torus

Additional Features

  • Global Reshape
  • Accurate Snapping Options
  • Clone and duplicate objects
  • Display PICT image for use as template for tracing. Image can removed, rotated and resized.
  • Statistics and Groups dialogs fold up to be out of the way
  • Fast Gourad shading preview with multiple lights
  • Automated smoothing of polygonal surfaces (add normals)
  • User definable window layout, cursor icon, grid size/color, guide colors, scene scale and accuracy, etc.
  • Precise numeric control for accurate model-making
  • English and metric units from angstroms to parsecs.
  • Vertices selectable from 3D window
  • Spline mesh vertices convertible to straight or rounded edges in horizontal or vertical direction
  • Snapshot of 3D window produces PICT image
  • Reference grids in 3D window for front, top, and side orientation and to any height within selected orientation
  • 3D window viewable in top, bottom, front, back, right, left, angled, and perspective orientations
  • Automatic depth setting in any orthogonal view

3D RENDERING/ANIMATION/SOUND

Digital SoundStage(tm)

The ability to pull together 3-D Sound, Live Action Movies, and Animation in a single application.

Directional 3-D Sound(tm)

The ability to:
  • Place 3-D directional and omni-directional microphones into a scene.
  • Link sound to motion.
  • Record stereo and Doppler effects.

Multi-Target 3D Morphing

Presenter 3D provides powerful and intuitive controls for:
  • Facial animation
  • Muscle flexing animation
  • Character reshaping controls
  • Lip motion synced to sound.

RealPhysics(tm) Object Dynamics

The ability to apply physical laws to objects for creating natural and realistic motion dynamics. Available dynamics include Attraction, Elasticity, Gravity, Mass, Momentum, Collision Detection, Harmonic Motion, Spline Path, Torque, Wind, and others.

KineMagics(tm) Motion Control Animators

The KineMagics(tm) plug-in motion and effects animators provide automatic control and flexibility of movement of objects and between multiple objects. Included plug-ins are:
  • PATH provides control of motion along a path with automatic banking.
  • FLOCK for flexible group movement with random motion as occurs with birds flying in formation or a school of fish swimming.
  • LINK for fixed group movement where multiple objects are locked into position.
  • TRACK for making sure that selected objects always point at the target object. This is useful for getting cameras, lights, and microphones locked on target.
  • SHATTER for exploding objects into variable size pieces with selection of explosion location, force, and size of pieces.

QuickTime VR

Presenter 3D generates QuickTime VR movies ready for the QTVR player without post-processing.
  • Automatic QuickTime VR Panorama movie generation built-in.
  • Automatic QuickTime VR Object movie generation built-in.
  • Optional QuickTime VR Multi-Node movie generation capability available that supports QTVR panoramas from photographic or other 3D software tools.

Real-Time Surface Attribute Edit

Presenter 3D provides realtime feedback for selelection of surface looks, making a usually time-consuming effort more efficient.
  • Explore mode enables real-time fine tuning of surface shading parameters using graphic display of multiple options.
  • Expert mode features real-time preview of effect of varying surface settings (specular, transparency, reflectivity, diffuse, glow, refractivity, and highlights).
  • Quick Set mode provides a simple way to change object color and set gloss, reflection, and glass surface settings with realtime feedback.

Texture Mapping

Presenter 3D is currently the only application that offers Wrap mapping for improved texture map rendering along with the othier projection methods that can have texture map distortion and "creep" problems.
  • Wrap allows mapping directly onto a spline object, lowering distortion caused by projection methods and eliminating texture map "creep" common with projection maps.
  • Cylindrical, Spherical, Cubic, and Direct projection mapping with intuitive placement control.
  • Bump Mapping with positive and negative extensions.

Time Line Animation

Provides an event-based, time line interface for camera, light, microphone, object animation with:
  • Cut, Copy, and Paste of events and timeline spacing in and across channels.
  • Easy camera edits across multiple cameras.

Photorealistic Render

Presenter 3D offers blazing render speed rivaling and surpassing other renderers.
  • High speed photorealistic Ray Trace shader.
  • Extremely fast Phong shader.
  • Unparalleled interface to MacRenderMan (procedural shaders, motion blur, fog, CSG Booleans, etc.).

Virtual Control Room Window

Provides intuitive and speedy preview of camera and light positions for single frames or or for animated preview of camera and light views with stereo sound playback.
  • >Provides real-time graphic feedback on camera lens angle and position, spotlight beam and projector beam.
  • >On-screen editing allows "splicing" of segments from each camera into a final "film" for preview in the 3-D window.

Render/Animation/Sound Tools
Cameras

  • Still cameras with bank angle, field of view, focus, F-stop, and shutter speed selection.
  • Motion cameras with bank angle, field of view, focus, F-stop, and shutter speed selection.
  • Stereoscopic Pairs special effects stereo camera.
  • Red/blue Stereo special effects stereo camera.
  • Autostereogram hidden 3D image camera.

Lights

  • POINT (light bulb)
  • DIRECTIONAL (sun)
  • SPOTLIGHT graphically adjustable beam, soft edge control and features view from light previews.
  • SLIDE PROJECTOR-Projects PICTs onto objects in the manner of a real-world projector and features view from light previews.
  • MOVIE PROJECTOR-Projects QuickTime movies onto objects in the manner of a real-world projector and features view from light previews.

Microphones

  • Omni-Directional audio pickup with numeric or graphic sensitivity selection and mono, stereo left, and stereo right assignment.
  • Directional audio pickup with numeric or graphic sensitivity and audio falloff selection and mono, stereo left, and stereo right assignment.

Additional Features

  • Non-sticky and sticky mode for selection of tools
  • Smooth Ease In/Out control (excellent for flying logos, camera fly-bys, etc.)
  • Unlimited Cameras and Lights
  • Fully Animated Shaders
  • Wireframe and rendered animation preview window
  • Changing any parameter over time with Smooth Ease In/Out
  • Automatic depth setting in any orthogonal window

General Features

  • Supports the 68K Macintosh and the Power Macintosh
  • Keyed selection of tools
  • Hierarchical Grouping
  • Wireframe and rendered animation preview window