Metacreations CANOMA user Manual

User Guide

for Windows® and Macintosh

Trademarks

Credits

MetaCreations and the MetaCreations logo are registered trademarks of MetaCreations Corporation. Canoma is a trademark of MetaCreations Corporation.

“Macintosh” is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Incorporated. “Windows” is a registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. “Pentium” is a registered trademark and “i486” is a trademark of Intel Corporation. All other product names mentioned in the manual and other documentation are used for identiﬁcation purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Registered and unregistered trademarks used herein are the exclusive property of their respective owners. MetaCreations Corp. makes no claim to any such marks, nor willingly or knowingly misused or misapplied such marks.

This manual, as well as the software described in it is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license. Program ©1999 MetaCreations Corporation, including the look and feel of the product. MetaCreations Canoma User Guide ©1999 MetaCreations Corporation. No part of this guide may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of MetaCreations Corporation.

Canoma was Engineered by Tilman Reinhardt, Robert Seidl, Luc Heinrich, and Gerald Guyomard, with support from Arnoud Berry, Brian Wagner, Seath Ahrens, and Alexei Lebedev. Installer by Carin Lew.

User Interface Design by Robert Bailey. Product Management by Robert Seidl. Quality Assurance Testing management by

Michael Cinque. Quality Assurance Testing by Brian Romero, Joe Grover, Steve Rathmann, John Taylor, Eric Gruye, and Dan Huver.

The Canoma User Guide was written by Linda Stevens, assisted by Robert Seidl and Tilman Reinhardt; project managment by Linda Stevens and Erick Vera; layout design by Tish Loosley

Art Directed by Brian Moose; manual illustration by Aaron Begley, Quick Reference Card design and layout by Jeffry Schwartley; Box Design by Nathan Harris.

Thanks to John Leddy and Pierre Berkaloff for their support.

Some images provided by Photodisc.

Notice

Before using this software or reading this user guide, make sure you have read, understood and agreed to the license contained in the back of the Canoma User Guide.

Contents

Welcome to Canoma

Application Overview

Tutorial

What is Canoma?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

When You Have Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Technical Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Installing Canoma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

The Canoma Workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Status Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

About Canoma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Accessing the MetaCreations Web Site. . . .28

Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Creating a 3D Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Lesson1: Pinning Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Lesson 2: Viewing Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Lesson 3: Adding Textures and a

Ground Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Filling in the Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Lesson 1: Adding a Second Image . . . . . . . . . . .35

Lesson 2: Modeling Nearby Objects . . . . . . . . . .38

Lesson 3: Adding a Close-up Image . . . . . . . . . .40

Canoma Basics

Lesson 4: Editing Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Creating a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Lesson 1: Starting with One Object . . . . . . . . . .42

Lesson 2: Completing the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Reducing Confusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Lesson 3: Navigating Through a Model . . . . . . . .45

Aligning Objects Precisely . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Lesson 1: Using Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Picking Up Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

Lesson 1: Duplicating Similar Elements . . . . . . .50

Lesson 2: Adding Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Lesson 3: Adding a Ground Plane . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Table of Contents

Customizing Canoma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Setting Canoma Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Saving Workspace Customizations . . . . . . . . . . .56

Using the Active Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Choosing a 2D Image Editing Application and

Image Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Setting Up Your Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Working in the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Using the Camera Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Understanding the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Changing Canoma Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Creating a Canoma Project . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Organizing the Project Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Using 2D Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Creating 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Adding Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Creating Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Undoing Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Saving and Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Saving the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Closing Canoma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Importing, Exporting, and Rendering . . . .62

Importing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Rendering 2D Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Rendering Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Preparing Projects

Taking Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

What Works Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Using Several Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Working from Overviews to Detailed Photos . . .69

Don’t Move Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

One Photo, One Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Modifying Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Canoma

Building Projects

Controlling Exposure and Lighting . . . . . . . . . . .70

Handling Camera Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

How Canoma Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Modeling 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Using 2D Source Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Modeling from the Ground Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Always Calculating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Before You Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Using the Canoma Workspace . . . . . . . . . .75

The Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Camera Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

2D Image Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

Selecting Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

Working with Canoma Projects . . . . . . . . .76

Table of Contents

Working with Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

Matching Objects to Photo Elements . . . . . . . . .77

Selecting the Correct Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

Objects with Editable Polyline Contours. . . . . . .85

Calibrating a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

Adding an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

Setting Selection Based Options . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

Selecting an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Deleting an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Checking Object Information . . . . . . . . . . .89

Stacking Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

Duplicating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Pinning Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

Viewing Projects in Progress . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Using Beads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Defining Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Using Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Gluing Objects Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Deleting All Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Using Solo Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Using Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Displaying the Background Image . . . . . . .96

Avoiding Model Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Working with Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97

Adding Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97

Stealing Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97

Adding More Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Using the 2D Image Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

vii

Canoma

Viewing Models

Editing Textures

Positioning the View of Your Model . . . . .102

Using Canoma Camera Controls . . . . . . . .102

Using the Trackball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Using the Cross Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Using the In-View Navigation Controls . . . . . . .104

Banking Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Field of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Zooming and Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Resetting the Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Creating Animations

Table of Contents

Retouching or Editing Textures in 2D . . .110

Editing for 2D Renders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Using the Alpha Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . .112

How Animation Works in Canoma . . . . . .116

Creating an Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Using the Animation Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Creating Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

viii

Advanced Modeling

Setting Animation Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Previewing an Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Rendering an Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118

Modeling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Adding Source Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Free vs. Constrained Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Misleading Canoma and Stressing a Model . . . .121

Listening to the Canoma “Heartbeat” . . . . . . . .122

Using Geometric Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

Establishing Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

Starting Simple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

Modeling the First Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

Using Temporary “Helper” Objects . . . . . . . . . .124

Creating the Same Orientation . . . . . . . . .124

Duplicating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Freeing Necessary Parameters . . . . . . . . .126

Monitoring Stress in the Model . . . . . . . .126

Using Glue to Align Objects . . . . . . . . . . .127

Using Point To Point Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

Don’t "overglue" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

Using Point to Edge Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130

Creating a Balcony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132

Canoma

Table of Contents

Welcome to Canoma

What’s in this Chapter:

What is Canoma?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

What Can You Do with Canoma? . . . . . . .15

When You Have Questions . . . . . . . . . . . .18

About your User Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Installing Canoma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

What is Canoma?

Canoma lets you quickly create photorealistic 3D models from scanned or digital photographs, without extensive 3D modeling skills. No need for specialized equipment or calibrations. Canoma even works on historical photographs. Canoma models can be posted on Web sites or in electronic catalogs, or imported into traditional 3D modeling and animation software. Canoma is a perfect companion to other Web authoring tools.

Easier to learn than traditional 3D programs (with all their modes, tools, and windows), Canoma lets 2D graphic illustrators and designers create and manipulate realistic 3D models—applying all their retouching and ﬁltering skills to 3D objects.

Here’s how Canoma works:

• Take one or more photos of what you want to model in 3D. More photos mean greater detail.

• Select 3D shapes (called objects or pimitives,) then pin them to the corners of objects in your photograph. (There are ways to also control edges and alignment.)

• Preview your 3D creation—move in for a close-up look or away, rotate around the model, or just walk through it! Canoma adds texture to your model right from your photographs.

• You can edit areas of texture, letting Canoma open your favorite 2D program, present you with a head on 2D view of the area to edit, then watch as Canoma reapplies the edited texture in proper perspective!

• Create animations or export your 3D model to other 3D programs or for use on the W eb.

Welcome to Canoma

The Canoma workspace.

What Can You Do with

On-line Catalogs

Canoma?

With Canoma you can create very realistic three-dimensional (3D) computer models from one or more photographs, a process called image-assisted modeling. Canoma models have simple geometries and use photographs as texture source, allowing the pixels to do the work of making your models look good.

Select the face of a Canoma model, bring up a 2D pixel editing tool, such as Painter or Photoshop, and retouch the surface texture, add text, or apply a 2D ﬁlter. Watch Canoma reapply the altered pixels, while retaining 3D perspective.

3D models can be rotated and viewed from different directions, allowing customers to thoroughly inspect product or merchandise models. Once 3D models are completed, you can create a simple animation or “walk through”, even publish those on the internet.

Canoma lends itself well to regular, man-made objects. Amorphous or very complex shapes that may occur in nature such as trees, mountains, or curved objects can also be approximated, using simple stand-in geometry. Canoma also supports translation sweeps or extrusion, whic h allows a polyline contour to be swept along a straight axis.

You can publish a Web catalog full of Canoma models. For example, you could use Canoma to create a catalog of “hard goods”, such as furniture or appliances, then output it in the Metastream format.

Examples of models created for catalogs.

Canoma

The Metastream format is widely distributed by Microsoft and Intel and can be downloaded for free from www.metastream.com. Metastream uses small, compact ﬁles and outputs a single ﬁle that is easy to maintain and post.

Streaming a 3D image allows customers to experience instant gratiﬁcation, as they manipulate a 3D object. High quality, interactive vending, all from within a standard Web browser.

Interior/Exterior Design and Remodeling

If the project is to remodel a kitchen, bathroom or the outside of a house, a photograph session and a quick modeling session—without becoming a wizard—creates a model of how the project looks right now. Repeat site visits are replaced by a photorealistic 3D model, that’s always available for a design meeting.

Canoma creates quick, low-polygon count, photorealistic models. This can be a fast, costeffective way of disseminating information, without the security risk that distributing detailed blueprints from a CAD program could introduce.

Web Sites, Travel and Tourism, Commercial Real Estate

A 3D preview of property can be a strong sales incentive for online travel, real estate sales, or vacation rentals. Entertainment, restaurant, and hotel information sites all beneﬁt from the photorealistic 3D models.

• Using the texture editing feature, you and your 2D pixel editing tool, such as Painter or Photoshop, can make changes to surfaces or simulate different lighting.

• With Canoma’s animation feature, y ou can “walk” perspective clients through the suggested changes.

A Canoma model created from a photo of San Francisco. The "For Rent" sign was added using a 2D pixel editing program.

Welcome to Canoma

Walking through a kitchen model.

• With a 3D program you can go further, changing tiles, sliding in a ne w dishwasher, or actually trying out planned spotlights to illuminate that kitchen counter.

Before

It’s easy to add billboards, place advertising on buses, and change details—all in photorealistic perspective, using only Canoma and your favorite 2D image editing program. You can output the results as 3D models, rendered 2D images, or even animations.

After

Spotlights added to a Canoma model in a 3D program.

Graphic Design and Advertising

Industrial design and graphic artists can take existing products and packaging, extract the graphics, and edit the designs. They can create animations or place a package in a different environment.

You can edit Canoma models with an image-editor.

Architecture, Urban Planning, Property Development

Architects can produce rough models of areas where new buildings are planned, then integrate the photorealistic model produced in Canoma with the detailed engineering model of

Canoma

the planned building, giving everyone a good preview of how a building might ﬁt into the neighborhood.

A Canoma model generated from a photo of the New Y ork skyline can let you see how a new building might look in the cityscape.

Computer Game Dev elopers and 3D Artists

With Canoma, you can quickly model a house or ofﬁce, change some textures, add in a few monsters, and really try out ideas . 3D artists can use Canoma to create quick photorealistic clip objects that can be used to enhance existing 3D models and animations.

Canoma models of complete houses or interiors can serve as starting points for more detailed 3D modeling, since the y pro vide scene measurements and object dimensions.

When Y ou Have Questions

You can ﬁnd answers to most of your questions in the following ways:

• Canoma User Guide - Providing all the information you need to get the most out of Canoma. The User Guide is also provided as a PDF ﬁle on the Canoma CD.

• Online Help - Providing direct access to speciﬁc chapters in the User Guide. Online Help contains the same information as the User Guide. Adobe Acrobat Reader software is required to read online Help or the PDF version of the User Guide. Adobe Acrobat Reader software is on the Canoma CD or downloadable for free from www.adobe.com.

• Status line tips - Check the bottom of your screen for UI related information.

• Active Guide - Text can pace you through the creation and application of your ﬁrst few primitives. The Active Guide goes away after you’ve gained some experience or y ou can turn it off in the program preferences.

About your User Guide

The Canoma User Guide is for both Macintosh and Windows. By convention, Macintosh commands precede W indows commands in the text. For example, Command/Ctrl+I, is equivalent to the Macintosh Command-I and the Windows Ctrl+I. For simplicity, the term “folder” refers to directories as well as folders. The Canoma interface for Macintosh and Windows platforms is identical, unless otherwise speciﬁed.

Welcome to Canoma

When a modiﬁer key differs between the Macintosh and Windows platform, the Macintosh modiﬁer is listed ﬁrst followed by a slash and the Windows modiﬁer key. Option/ Alt means Macintosh users press the Option key and Windows users press Alt.

There are several conventions used to identify paths to certain tools and controls. The convention to a menu follows the rule of the

menu name > menu item

palette follows the rule of the

subpalette name

menu follows the rule of

menu> menu item

. The convention to a palette

. The convention to a

palette name:

palette name: palette

Technical Support

MetaSupport is a portfolio of free and feebased support options designed to provide quality support to you.

The options are as follows:

FREE On-line Support

On-line support is available on our Web site at www .metacreations .com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Access a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for each product and ﬁnd solutions immediately. If, after searching our on-line options, you still need assistance, you can contact MetaCreations Technical Support through one of the Telephone Support Services listed here.

Telephone Support

support duration. The length of the complimentary support period depends on whether your MetaCreations product is a Level I (receive 90 days of complimentary support for a ﬁrst-time purchase, or 30 days for an upgrade) or Level II (receive complimentary support for one incident for a ﬁrst-time or upgrade purchase) product. The support period begins with your ﬁrst call into MetaCreations Technical Support, provided you have registered the product.

Toll call:

• Premium Pay as You Go

When your standard support period ends, you can now receive priority access personal service regarding installation, conﬁguration and general usage questions from our qualiﬁed support specialists. You pay a ﬂat fee that covers all of the necessary support for the particular incident.

Toll-free call:

• Premium Plus Annual Contract

Annual support contracts are available to meet your ongoing support needs. Sign up for an annual support agreement to receive one year of toll-free priority access personto-person assistance. Get answers to installation, conﬁguration and general usage questions.

• To order toll-free call:

• For support toll-free call:

831-430-4200

888-456-6382

800-846-0111

800-683-5872

• Standard Support

Talk person to person with technical support representatives and get answers to installation, conﬁguration and general usage questions. Each product has its own

For a list of

Level II products options pricing

www.metacreations.com.

currently supported Level I and

and the

, please visit our web-site at

Telephone Support

Canoma

Technicians are available

Friday, 6am to 5pm Paciﬁc Time

Monday through

How to Contact Us

• Free On-line Support: www.metacreations.com

• Standard Support: Toll call 831-430-4200

• Premium Pay As You Go: Toll-free call 888-456-6382

• Premium Plus Annual Contract:

• To order toll-free call: 800-846-0111

• For support toll-free call: 800-683-5872

System Requirements (Windows)

• Pentium processor

• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT

• 32 mb free RAM (48+ mb recommended)

• 50 mb of hard-disk space

• 16 bit color (24 bit recommended)

• CD Rom drive (for install)

System Requirements (Macintosh)

International Support

The telephone support services listed here are available only in the U.S. and Canada. However, if you live outside of the U.S. and Canada, you can still access our free on-line support, and you can contact a local MetaCreations distributor or other third party that may provide technical support in your area. Visit our W orld Wide W eb site at

www .metacreations.com

for information about how to contact a MetaCreations distributor in your country.

Installing Canoma

Installation instructions are provided for both Windows and Macintosh. Follow the instructions appropriate to your system.

Note

Canoma is intended for local installation only. Do not attempt to install it onto a network server.

• Power PC

• System 8.0 or higher

• 32 mb free RAM (48+ mb recommended)

• 50 mb hard-disk space

• 16 bit color (24 bit recommended)

• CD Rom drive (for install)

Web Installation

To install Canoma from the Web:

Go to the MetaCreations Web site.

Follow the instructions on the Web site to download the appropriate self-installing

executable ﬁle (Windows or Macintosh).

Double-click the ﬁle to run it.

Follow the instructions provided by the installer . The installation dialog displa ys an

important ReadMe.

Click Yes/Accept after reading the complete ReadMe.

Welcome to Canoma

Windows CD Installation

Canoma Installation Tip

To install Canoma from a CD:

Launch Windows .

Insert the Canoma CD-ROM into your computer’s CD-ROM drive. The Install

Canoma dialog appears.

Double-click the Canoma icon.

Follow the instructions provided by the installer . The installation dialog displa ys an

important ReadMe.

Click Yes after reading the complete ReadMe.

Macintosh CD Installation

To install Canoma on a Macintosh:

Insert the Canoma CD-ROM into your computer’s CD-ROM drive. The Install

Canoma dialog appears.

Double-click the Canoma icon.

Follow the instructions provided by the installer . The installation dialog displa ys an

important ReadMe.

• Macintosh tip: Increase available RAM available to Canoma by allocating unused RAM to Canoma. This can allow Canoma to run faster and handle larger ﬁles or larger renderings.

Be sure to leave some RAM for the system software, though! System software needs to be able to dynamically allocate RAM to itself when required.

Click Accept after reading the complete ReadMe.

Canoma

Welcome to Canoma

Application Overview

What’s in this Chapter:

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

The Canoma Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Status Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

About Canoma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Accessing the MetaCreations Web Site . . .28

Introduction

Canoma lets you quickly create 3D models from scanned or digital photographs. Canoma models can then be posted on Web sites, used in electronic catalogs, imported into traditional 3D modeling and animation software, or rendered as 2D image ﬁles.

The Canoma Workspace

This section leads you through the Canoma Workspace.

The ﬁrst thing you’ll notice about Canoma is that it doesn’t have traditional ﬂoating palettes and toolbars. All of Canoma’s features are integrated into the Workspace, whic h takes over your entire screen. This helps keep everything uncluttered and easy to locate.

On Windows, Canoma always runs maximized. You can’t reduce the window size , although you can minimize the Canoma window, using the minimize control or switch applications, using AL T-TAB or the application buttons in the Task Bar. On the Macintosh, you can switch applications by clicking inside the window for the other application or by using the Application List.

The Canoma Workspace is very ﬂexible. Several controls “ﬂoat” over the Workspace and can be moved by dragging them to other locations on the application workspace.

The Canoma Project Window

The Canoma Project Window is a square shaped window inside the Canoma application window. It’s where you construct and view a Canoma model.

The Project Window is used when you edit your models, manipulating object wireframes in Edit mode. It’s your work area where you’ll pin 3D objects to picture elements. The Project Window can be resized to suit your needs (grab

The Canoma Workspace takes over your screen and provides access to the Canoma controls.

Your operating system’s standard menus and windows are still available from within Canoma. You can switch between Canoma and other applications, such as 2D paint programs, Web browsers, or 3D programs.

Application Overview

it by the lower left corner) and moved to another part of the Canoma workspace (by the title bar.)

The Canoma Project Window is where you view your 3D models.

The Canoma Project Window is where you construct 3D model.

The Project W indo w is also where you vie w the 3D models you create. The vie w you see of y our model in the Project Window is taken through a stationary “camera.” You can reposition the Canoma camera in order to view your model from different angles or distances. When you view a 3D model, y ou’re in a three dimensional space. That means you can even view your model from below or above.

Just outside the Project Window are some information displays and buttons. Along the top of the window is the title of your project and its size. To the top right of the window are three buttons that toggle display options on and off. To the bottom right of the window are buttons that let you change the color for program elements such as the background, selected objects, unselected objects, objects in the stress display, shadows, and object constraints.

Camera Controls

Use the Camera Controls to change the position and function of the viewing camera.

Tip

The Edit and View buttons switch between:

• Edit mode, where you can see the wireframe objects that make up your model and

If you’re familiar with Bryce 3D or Poser by MetaCreations, the Camera Controls feel very familiar.

Canoma

• View mode, where you can see the untextured or textured 3D model.

The Camera Crosses let you move the view of the camera speciﬁcally along X, Y, and Z axis. The Camera Trackball lets you rotate the camera in any direction and around any axis. The Banking and Field of View control spheres tilt your Camera and act like a wide-angle lens control. Refer to “Positioning the View of Your

Model” on page 102 for more about positioning

the camera around your model.

Use the Camera Controls to adjust the position of the 3D viewing camera.

The Creation Tab

The Creation Tab contains the 3D objects, like boxes, rectangles, and even editable polyline contours. Select one of these 3D objects, position it, then “pin” it to an element in your photograph. Once pinned into place, Canoma

uses that placement information to create a 3D model, which can then be “covered” with the pixels from your photographs.

Use the scrollbar on the Creation Tab to view all the objects you can choose.

Refer to “W orking with Objects” on page 77 for more about the Creation Tab.

The T oolbar

The Canoma Toolbar holds the tools you’ll use to manipulate objects, view your work, and apply or edit textures. Click a button to activate that tool.

The Toolbar contains (from left to right):

•

Arrow

(select, pin, or apply beads)

Glue

•

(glue objects together)

Zoom

and

Pan

(move into, away from, or

around your scene)

Point Pen

points)

Texture Brush

level)

Quick and Quality Textures

photograph pixels as textures for your 3D scene)

(add/delete polyline contour

(change textures at a pixel

(apply

Application Overview

When a tool is selected, it is highlighted in the Toolbar. At the top of the Toolbar is a title that identiﬁes which tool is active.

The Canoma Toolbar.

Selecting Objects

You can use the Object List to easily select an object in your scene. The Information button brings up a dialog of object settings for the selected object. You can even switch into Solo Mode, where it’s easier to see just the object that you’re working with.

project. Refer to “Using 2D Source Images” on

page 74 for more about using the 2D Image

Views window.

The 2D Image palette.

Click the Information button for object settings, then use Solo Mode to focus on one object at a time.

2D Image Palette

A thumbnail of your photograph is displayed on the 2D Image P alette. This is a thumbnail of the active image. The 2D Image Palette opens downward to reveal all the photographs in your

Texture Controls

The Texture Controls apply the pixels of your photograph to your 3D model. You can use Quick Texture (fast) or Quality Texture (slower, uses more memory, but looks better.) You can also use the Texture Resolution popup to choose a resolution setting for the textures you apply.

Choose Quick or Quality Texture, as well as a resolution setting.

Refer to “Working with Texture” on page 97 for more information about adding Texture.

Canoma

The Animation T ab

The Animation Tab holds the controls you need to use in order to quickly deﬁne key frames and set options to create an animation. Move the camera, take a “snapshot,” move the camera, take another snapshot, then Canoma completes the work by interpolating between the keyframes you’ve snapped or “ﬁlling in the gaps.”

The Animation Controls.

each. Use Status Tips to “browse” around the work area and become familiar with Canoma tools, palettes, and dialogs.

Check here for Status Tips

Status Tips help you become familiar with Canoma tools, palettes, and dialogs.

About Canoma

You can view information about which version of Canoma you are using.

The Animation Tab contains controls for adding and deleting keyframes, a looping option, a way to set the playback duration, and buttons for previewing your animation. Refer to

“Previewing an Animation” on page 117 for

more about the animation controls.

The Menu Bar

The Canoma Menu Bar contains eight menus: the File menu, the Edit menu, the View menu, the Model menu, the Texture menu, the Animation menu, the Window menu, and the Help menu. These menus provide another method of access to the Canoma feature set.

Status Tips

As you move the cursor over an element of the Canoma workspace, text in the lower right corner of the screen explains the purpose of

To see Canoma information:

•

Click the word Canoma.

Accessing the MetaCreations Web Site

You can access the MetaCreations Web Site directly from within the Canoma program.

To access the MetaCreations Web Site:

•

Click the word MetaCreations. This launches your browser and opens the

MetaCreations W eb Site.

Application Overview

Tutorial

What’s in this Chapter:

Welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Creating a 3D Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Filling in the Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Creating a Building Model. . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Aligning Objects Precisely. . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Picking Up Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

Canoma User Guide

Welcome

W elcome to the Canoma Tutorial. These lessons are designed to introduce you to the major features and functions of Canoma. The main goal of the tutorial is to teach you all the basic techniques you’ll need to use Canoma to create 3D models from 2D images.

Each lesson builds upon skills learned in the previous lessons. At the beginning of each section is a list of what you have learned up to that point.

Creating a 3D Model

The ﬁrst thing you need to do is launch the Canoma application. Once it appears, Canoma displays the Workspace in its default conﬁguration.

For these tutorials, you may want to leave the controls in their default positions. Refer to

“Using the Canoma Workspace” on page 75 for

more about conﬁguring the Canoma Workspace.

Note

For the sake of clarity in this manual, we used higher contrast and larger pins in illustrations than you will see in the Canoma product.

Lesson1: Pinning Corners

To create your ﬁrst 3D model:

Start Canoma.

Select

File menu > New

menu > Add Image Tutorials: tutorial1.jpg

Click the Creation tab.

The Creation Tab.

Click the Box object. A red wireframe of a Box is displayed. (Do not click any

Selection Based Options.)

, then select

and open

Canoma:

File

The Canoma workspace.

Tutorial

The Box object.

Selecting a Box adds a wireframe object of a box to your project.

To start pinning:

Drag the box wireframe close to the Ray Dream Studio 5 box.

Click the Zoom button on the Toolbar and click the Ray Dream Studio 5 in the

picture. Zooming in makes the next step easier. (Use the Pan tool—the hand button on the Toolbar, if you can’t see both the wireframe and the Ray Dream Studio box.)

The Zoom button.

Click the Select button (the arrow) on the Toolbar, then click and drag a corner of the

wireframe to a corner of the Ray Dream Studio 5 box. A triangle appears when the cursor is over a corner of the wireframe.

Click and drag a corner of the wireframe to a corner of the Ray Dream Studio 5 box.

This process feels like pinning the corners of a springy wireframe to a tackboard using push-pins. If you think you made a mistake, you can always Undo (Cmd/Ctrl + Z.)

That's really the main goal—pin as many corners of the wireframe as you need to get a reasonable match between the wireframe and the underlying photograph.

Click and drag the remaining corners of the wireframe to corners of the Ray Dream

Studio 5 box, as shown in the following

Canoma

illustrations. Drag each corner in the same sequence as is shown below and try to be fairly precise.

Drag each corner of the wireframe to a corner of the Ray Dream Studio 5 box.

Drag each corner.

Continue to drag corners of the wireframe to corners of the Ray Dream Studio 5 box.

Tutorial

Try to be reasonably precise.

Drag another corner.

Lesson 2: Viewing Progress

To look at the 3D model:

Click and drag across the trackball controller . Y ou’ll see a shaded 3-D box with

the correct dimensions. As you drag the trackball, the camera rotates around the box.

Drag the trackball to rotate the model.

Reset your viewpoint to the one shown in the 2D photograph by clicking on the

photograph's thumbnail.

Click to return to the viewpoint in the 2D photo.

Canoma

Click Edit to switch back to Edit mode.

The Edit/View buttons switch between Edit and View modes.

Lesson 3: Adding Textures and a Ground Plane

To add texture to the model:

Click the Horizontal Rectangle object.

Click the Quick Texture button (the rabbit) on the Toolbar. This applies textures from

the photograph and automatically switches to View mode.

The Quick Texture button maps pixels directly from the photograph and switches to View mode.

Texture enhances the model, but the box still looks like it’s "ﬂying in space."

To add a ground plane:

Click Edit to return to Edit mode.

Click the Creation tab.

Use a rectangle for the gray poster board. (Notice that, because it’s not selected, the Box object wireframe is now yellow.)

Pin the corners of the rectangle to the corners of the gray poster board

underneath the Ray Dream box.

Pin corners.

Tutorial

Click the Quick Textures button to add texture to the ground plane. The result is a

pretty realistically textured 3D model on gray poster board.

Filling in the Details

The Story So Far

You learned the basic principle of the Canoma program—pin wireframes to photograph elements. You also learned how to view, rotate, and apply texture to your model.

In the following section, you’ll learn how to ﬁll in areas that are not textured, by adding information from additional photographs.

Lesson 1: Adding a Second Image

Create textures and the box is no longer ﬂoating.

Use the trackball to preview & rotate your model in 3D.

Rotate your 3D model.

Using just a single photograph, Canoma could not create textures for the back sides of the box or for the obscured area of the ground plane. Now that you know how to go from wireframe mode to View mode and back, it’s time to add more textures.

You can add images from different viewpoints to ﬁll in the "bald spots" on any model. Later, we’ll discuss other tricks for ﬁlling in areas where you have no additional photographic information. For this tutorial, a single additional photograph, taken from behind the box is used to complete texturing the model.

This lesson starts where the previous ended. If you still have that project ﬁle open, skip ahead to “To load another photo:” on page 36.

To open an existing project:

Select

Open the ﬁle

ﬁnished1.3dv

File menu > Open

Canoma: Tutorials:

Canoma

Click the Quick Textures button.

The Quick Textures button.

Use the trackball to rotate the box, so you can see the back of the box. The back of

the box is untextured. To add texture information for the back, you need to add a photograph of the back of the box.

Your task is to make the wireframe match this second photograph. Always look at how the wireframe and the photo line up, then use the trackball to roughly adjust the alignment. Only then can you start using pins.

Aligning the wireframe ﬁrst saves a lot of effort (far fewer pins are needed) and also makes Canoma’s mathematics more stable.

Roughly align the new wireframe to the second photograph, BEFORE you start pinning.

The back of the box and the ground plane behind the box are untextured. This is because Canoma has no texture information for these areas.

To load another photo:

Click the + on the 2D Image Palette and load

Canoma: Tutorials:tutorial2.jpg

Click the Creation Tab.

Click the box object. Wait! Do not start pinning!

A new wireframe is now superimposed on the second photo, but the alignment is all wrong.

Tutorial

To align the wireframe:

•

Use the trackball to rotate the whole model about 180 degrees, so y ou are looking from

roughly the same viewpoint as the second photograph. Notice how the program snaps back from Preview Mode to Edit

Mode as soon as you let go of the trackball. It only does this during rough alignment (before any pins have been placed.)

First, rotate the whole model about 180 degrees

To pin and texture the second image:

Place pins on the corners of the rectangle and the box. Place pins ﬁrst on those

corners where the ﬁt is worst. As you add pins, the rest of the wireframe

soon ﬁts the photograph.

Add pins and the wireframe soon ﬁts the photo.

Switch to V iew mode , either b y clicking the View button or by clicking the trackball.

The 3D camera position matches the photograph quite well.

.Now that the wireframe is more closely aligned, you can start pinning.

Don’t worry about getting the model perfectly aligned. Roughly the same viewpoint is ﬁne. If you can see the correct face of the box, you’re OK.

After you release the trackball, the superimposed wireframe already matches the second image much better.

Click the Quick Textures button (the rabbit) on the Toolbar to generate textures

based on both photographs. The back side of the Ray Dream Studio 5

box, as well as the previously obscured (white) pieces of the ground plane are now ﬁlled with texture. Your model might have some white boundaries or visible seams. More precise pinning helps reduce that, but there’s a special texturing tric k that can also improve the texture quality. More about that later!

Canoma

Use the trackball to verify that you have texture all around the 3D model.

The ﬂat CD is visible from the front, too.

Fully textured.

Lesson 2: Modeling Nearby Objects

Notice that there is a CD case behind the Ray Dream Studio 5 box. This is very typical of real world examples. As you add photographs, you may discover objects that were partially or fully obscured. When that happens, you can choose to model the objects. If you don’t model them, their image is ﬂattened onto other objects.

Look carefully at the CD case’s texture in the 3D preview. It looks like a truck drove over it.

Your next task is to model the CD case. To do that, you’ll want to take a look at things up close.

To model the CD case:

Click Edit to switch back to Edit mode.

Click the Zoom button on the Toolbar, then click and drag the cursor over the area

where the CD is located. This deﬁnes a rectangular area to zoom in on.

The CD case is ﬂat.

Tutorial

Drag the Zoom tool to deﬁne a zoom area.

The CD case close up.

Create a box.

Pin the new wireframe to the CD case, three or four pins should be enough.

Click the View button and verify the existence and size of the new 3D object.

Check the new CD case model in View mode.

Up until now, you’ve used Quick Texture. Canoma can also create high-quality textures. Quality Textures compensates for brightness differences between photographs that can show up as seams. It also ﬁlls in white gaps for which there is no available information. Quality texturing takes longer, but it looks better.

Pin the wireframe to the CD case.

To use Quality Texturing:

Select

T exture menu > Quality Resolution

and choose a 1:1 resolution setting from the popup list.

Click the Quality Texture button (the turtle) on the Toolbar.

Click to turn on Quality Textures.

Canoma

After textures are generated, they look better (although it does takes longer to generate them.)

Lesson 3: Adding a Close-up Image

You could stop there, but what if you need better textures for the front of the Ray Dream Studio 5 box? You might want to animate walkthrough, and for that y ou’ d w ant more detail. To add that detail, you’ll add yet another image. The image you’ll add does not show any new information, but it does show the front of the box in more detail.

You can imagine doing something similar with architectural photographs:

• ﬁrst create a model using an aerial photograph

• then add detail with close-ups shots taken at ground level.

To position a wireframe using beads:

1 Move the cursor over any edge (rather than

a corner) of the wireframe. A little disk appears.

2 Click on the edge of the wireframe to

create a bead and drag it to the edge of the gray ground plane.

To add and pin the third image:

Click the + on the 2D Image Palette and load

Canoma: Tutorials:tutorial2b.jpg

2 Roughly align using the Trackball. 3 Click the Ra y Dream Studio box to select it

and pin the visible corners.

4 Click the gray ground plane to select it, but

don’t start pinning. Close-up views often have the same

problem. You just can’t see the entire photo element you previously modeled. In this third photograph, none of the gray ground plane’s corners are visible.

You can use a second (of three) Canoma tools to position the wireframe for the ground plane. These tools are called beads .

Tutorial

Use beads to position the wireframe for the third image.

3 Now switch to View mode. 4 Click the Quality Textures button, and

select a 1:1 resolution.

This time Canoma is going to work for a while. Once textures are complete, you can zoom in on the result. The texture on the front of the box is noticeably improved.

2 Click the Texture Brush in the Toolbar.

The T exture Brush

3 Click the face of the Ray Dream box.

Canoma opens a 2D editing program.

Use beads to position the wireframe for the third image.

Lesson 4: Editing Textures

Why stop now? You can edit the texture on the Ray Dream Studio box, using a 2D pixel editing tool, such as Painter or Photoshop . You can edit the image in 2D ("head on" view), then Canoma automatically displays the results of your edits, in proper perspective.

Note

When you edit texture, Canoma saves a ﬁle of the resulting edit in a subfolder, inside your main project folder. If you create a layered ﬁle during editing, you may want to save a version of that ﬁle in another location, just in case you need to do any additional editing.

Note

Since this is the ﬁrst time you’ve used the Texture Brush, Canoma asks you to choose a 2D pixel editing program, such as Painter or Photoshop. You can also select the application and 2D ﬁle format using File menu > Application Preferences.

4 Make a change to the image—change the

color , add some text, or retouch something . You can change the resolution, but don’t change the aspect ratio.

5 Save your work. Save a ﬂattened image ﬁle,

to the same ﬁlename as the original. If the original was a JPG ﬁle and you added text or other layers, be sure to ﬂatten the image before saving.

6 Click back inside the Canoma’s program

window.

To edit textures:

1 If necessary, click the View button to

switch to 3D Preview mode.

Canoma

The edited texture is displayed in proper 3D perspective.

You can edit the texture with your favorite image editing tool

Creating a Building Model

The Story So Far

In the following section, you’ll try a bigger model. This section of the tutorials takes a little longer, so reserve some time. The instructions describe tricks for modeling some of the buildings. You can go further and model other buildings for additional practice. A ﬁnished example ﬁle—Canoma: T utorials: ﬁnished3.3dv—is available for you to study.

Lesson 1: Starting with One Object

To model the ﬁrst photograph:

1 Start Canoma. 2 Select File menu > New, and open

Canoma: Tutorials: tutorial3.jpg.

You learned how to add photographs to an existing project, to ﬁll in the gaps. You also learned how to roughly align the wireframe to a new photograph using the trackball (before any pinning!) You learned that fewer pins are needed in the additional photographs. You no w understand the differences between Quick and Quality Texturing and between low and highresolution settings. You learned how to edit textures with a 2D pixel editing program.

You may have noticed that a red wireframe is the "active" or selected one currently being pinned, all others are yellow. You know how to add close-up pictures to get crisper textures and how to add beads rather than pins when you cannot see the corners.

Tutorial

Open tutorial3.jpg.

Start by modeling the main white building.

To add the ﬁrst object:

1 Use the Zoom tool to get a close-up view of

the white building for better precision.

Add and pin the ﬁrst object.

2 Click the Creation Tab. 3 Select the Box object. 4 Pin the box wireframe to the main part of

the white building. Notice that the building has a notch out of

the left front corner. It is not a full box. Do not model the notch! Keep it simple.

This is a typical trade-off in Canoma between "getting fast results" and "making it correct". Quite often, the fast results are good enough.

Since you can’t actually see the corners of this building, you must estimate in order to put pins where you think the corners are located.

In the last tutorial we suggested that you only place pins where you can see real corners. Here, by looking at the top edges of the building, which are very visible, you can safely estimate the location for the pins.

Notice that there are structures on top of the white building. Now that the base structure is pinned, it’s time to model some of the structures on top.

It is important to understand that by default, all objects you create sit on the ground, at height

0. Sometimes, such as in this case, you may need to put objects on top of other objects.

To model objects that are on top of other objects:

1 Make sure the white building wireframe is

selected, i.e. that the wireframe is red. If it is yellow, click to select it.

2 Click the Creation Tab. 3 Click Stack in the Selection Based

Options, then select the Box object.

Using the Stack option places a new object on top of the active object.

Canoma

4 Pin this box to the relatively ﬂat

superstructure that sits on top of the building.

Pin the “on-top” box to the ﬂat structure on top of the building.

Lesson 2: Completing the Job

Now that you’ve modeled part of the building, you can go on to model the rest of the photograph.

5 In View mode, click Quick Texture.

Add Quick Texture.

To create the ground plane:

1 Click the Creation Tab. 2 Click the Floor Rectangle object to create a

ﬂat rectangle that’s large enough to be the ground plane for your entire scene.

3 In View mode, click the Quick Textures

button.

Continue to model structures in the photograph.

A Few Things to Remember

• In general, the ﬁrst few objects really help Canoma determine the camera viewpoint and perspective. Larger objects, with well deﬁned perspectives allow better operation than smaller objects or objects viewed head-on.

• Remember to always model objects from the ground up. First model the base of a building, then create a pyramid or roof on top of that.

• You can also establish perspective early on by using a temporary object, suc h as a large ground plane, to show Canoma the vanishing directions (how parallel lines such as the roads converge.) You can delete the temporary object after the rest of your modeling is complete. Like removing a scaffold after real-world construction.

Tutorial

Reducing Confusion

As you add more objects, some with objects on top of them, the wireframe display can get cluttered. Here is a trick to reduce the confusion.

To use Solo Mode:

• Click the Solo Mode button to dim all

wireframes except the one you are currently working with (the selected one, in red.)

The Solo Mode button.

This color-coding lets you see where objects are located and also lets you quickly select one for further work, without ha ving to switch betw een Solo and regular editing Mode.

The Solo Mode button is only available when there is more than one object in your scene.

T o s witch fr om Solo Mode to normal editing:

• Click the Solo Mode button again.

Even while you are in Solo Mode, when you move the cursor over other areas of the photograph, existing, but currently hidden wireframes, temporarily show up outlined in yellow.

Use Solo Mode to reduce confusion.

The ﬁnal project.

Lesson 3: Navigating Through a Model

You know how to use the trackball to rotate a 3D model. There are other ways to navigate through a model.

Canoma

Using the Cross Control

Camera Cross controls let you move the view of your model along speciﬁc axes. When you’re using these controls, the view does not tilt or rotate from its original position. It only moves up, down, back, or forward.

Canoma’s Field of View control automatically adjusts the distance, so that objects in the center stay about the same size.

The Field of View Control.

The Cross Controls.

Just play around with the Cross Controls - you can always reset to the viewpoint of a particular photograph by clicking on its thumbnail.

The Banking control sphere tilts your Camera (really rotating the camera on the Y axis,) creating the effect of a tilted horizon. This control is great for creating tilted airplane cockpit views. Banking simulates a Roll action.

The Banking Control.

The Field of View control sphere acts like a wide-angle lens control. The higher the setting, the wider the ﬁeld of view for your lens.

Tip

You can also navigate right in the Project Window. Refer to “Using

the In-View Navigation Controls” on page 104 for another way to

navigate around your model.

Aligning Objects Precisely

The Story So Far

In the previous lessons, you learned how to create objects on top of other objects. You learned how to use Solo Mode to help you remain focused on desired objects. You learned how to add a ground plane even when there are no good corners visible and how to use beads instead of pins when you need to model a partial object. Finally, you learned how to navigate through your models using the Cross Controls, the Banking Control, and the Field of View Control.

In the following lessons, you will learn how to use glue to align objects precisely.

Tutorial

Lesson 1: Using Glue

You are about to make a model of a building in Washington, DC. You will use glue to align objects precisely.

To start with the 2D image:

1 If you haven’t already, select File menu >

Close to close the previous tutorial.

2 Select File menu > New. 3 Load Canoma: T utorials: tutorial4.jpg.

To start modeling:

1 Model the base of the red building, using a

Box. You cannot really see the front bottom or

the back top corner, so you can use beads for the edges there.

Box and pin it. Use a bead to raise the top of this second wireframe to the proper height.

Use a bead to estimate the edges.

Model the base with a box.

2 With the ﬁrst wireframe still selected, click

Stack and Aligned in the Selection Based options on the Creation Tab, then create a

Tip

The next step is to model the small structure on top.

Since you know that each section of the Red building is aligned with the rest, using Stack/Align for the second wireframe tells the program that the elements are aligned, which creates a better model.

3 With the second wireframe still selected,

click Stack and Aligned in the Selection Based options on the Creation Tab, then create a Box and pin it.

Since the bottom corners of the third box coincide with the top of the second box, you can use glue rather than pins to give them approximately the same location.

To glue the third box to the second:

1 Click the Glue button (the glue bottle) in

the T oolbar .

Canoma

2 Click and drag a bottom right corner of the

topmost box.

4 Now do the same thing for the right-back

corner of the roof and the left-front corner .

3 Move that corner over the edge of the

second box. A little yellow bead is visual feedback that you are gluing to the edge of the box.

4 Let go of the mouse button.

Circles tell you that the object is glued to the one below.

The next step is to create a roof on top of the topmost box.

To glue on the ﬁrst roof:

1 With the topmost wireframe box selected,

click Stack and Aligned in the Selection Based options on the Creation Tab, then create a Roof.

2 Click the Glue button (the glue bottle) in

the T oolbar .

3 Click on the right-front corner of the roof

wireframe and drag it to the top-right-front corner of the topmost box.

You’ll see a yellow pin that indicates you are gluing, rather than pinning, the roof to the box. When you release the mouse button, a circle shows that the corner is glued.

Note

Do not pin or glue the left-back corner of the roof. Since it can’t be seen, it’s not a good idea to introduce a pin or glue that could easily be inaccurate.

With three corners glued to the box, the roof’s orientation is ﬁxed.

In real life the roof extends beyond the edge of the building. Model the roof to be the same length and width as the building. Don’t force the roof out past the edge of the box with a pin. Refer to “Avoiding Model Stress” on

page 96 for more about how to

avoid introducing unnecessary stress into your Canoma model.

5 Now ﬁx the height of the roof. You could

use a pin in the front top corner or a bead on the top edge, but a bead is better in this case.

6 Switch to View mode to see the results. A

perfect ﬁt. If things went awry during this step, use Undo (Cmd/Ctrl+Z) and try again.

Now it’s time to put a roof on the second level of the building.

Tutorial

To add a ﬁnal roof:

1 Select the second Box that you created (the

middle level of the building.)

2 Click Stack and Aligned in the Selection

Based options on the Creation Tab, then create a Roof.

W ait! the orientation of the Roof wireframe is all wrong. That’s probably going to happen a lot, but it’s easy to correct the orientation.

3 W ith the roof wireframe still selected, click

the object information button or select Edit menu > Get Information.

The object information button.

The Object Information dialog is displayed.

4 Click the Rotate by 90º around Y-Axis

button.

5 Now that the orientation of the wireframe

is correct, glue the roof as you glued the previous roof. Glue only the three visible corners of this part of the building. Model the roof to be the same length and width as the building, ignoring any "real life" overhang.

6 Use a bead to "pull up" the roof to the

correct height.

7 Switch to View mode, select Quality

Textures, with a 1:1 resolution and create the textures for your model.

8 Congratulations!

The Object Information dialog.

The ﬁnal results.

(If you get good at this, you can do this whole part of the tutorial, with texturing, in under two minutes. Refer to “Setting

Selection Based Options” on page 88 and

review the Concentric option for information about another feature that can save you time when you’re creating models.)

Canoma

Picking Up Speed

The Story So Far

You learned how to use glue for precise alignment (both corner-to-corner and cornerto-edge). You learned how to notice and avoid inconsistent input.

In the following lessons, you’ll learn how to speed up modeling by duplicating similar elements in a photograph. You’ll learn to use glue to precisely connect shapes.

You’ll learn the importance of modeling large scale features ﬁrst, ev en if your early models are only used as stand-ins, for more detailed models later. After establishing good perspective, you can delete temporary objects and replace them with successively more detailed models.

Lesson 1: Duplicating Similar Elements

To start with the 2D image:

1 Select File > New to create a new project.

perspective for your scene - as you add more boxes, they should "fall into place" with only a few pins. Instead of completing this building, proceed with one of the two identical H-shaped buildings right behind the red one.

2 Use a single box for the ﬁrst H-shaped

building and pin it into place.

Use a single box for the ﬁrst H-shaped building.

Tip

If you zoom in on a building before you create an object, the object gets created close to where you need to place it.

2 Load Canoma: Tutorials: tutorial5.jpg.

You’ll recognize the red building from the previous tutorial, but no w you’ll model the whole area surrounding the red building. The trick is to model large structures ﬁrst, as that establishes good perspective for Canoma. Only then should you proceed with more detailed models.

To model around the red building:

1 Create and pin a Box on both the larger

building at the top of the photograph and the red building in front. This sets the

Tutorial

3 Assume that the two H-shaped buildings

are symmetrical and aligned. Instead of just using create box, keep the H-shaped building’s box selected and press Shift + Cmd/Ctrl+D to create an aligned duplicate of the selected box.

4 All you need to do is pin this duplicate to

the other H-shaped building. Two pins are probably sufﬁcient, because all other dimensions are known to Canoma from the ﬁrst H-shaped Box.

6 Use aligned duplicate (Shift + Cmd/Ctrl +

D) again for the second square-shaped building.

Use aligned duplicate (Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + D) whenever possible.

Use Aligned Duplicate (Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + D) to create the second H-shaped building.

Use Edit menu > Duplicate when you are sure two objects have the same dimensions.

Use Aligned Duplicate (Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + D) when the dimensions and alignment are both identical. This reduces the number of pins needed to place wireframes and at the same time makes your 3D model more precise.

5 Create a box for the ﬁrst small square-

shaped building.

Now you have 5 Boxes across the whole picture.

Tip

It’s a good idea to model large objects around the entire photograph ﬁrst, to establish perspective. Don’t start modeling in great detail in one corner of a photograph, because it’s easy to imprecisely place a pin, causing Canoma to estimate a wrong perspective.

Canoma

7 Rotate the model in View mode to check

whether the dimensions match your expectations. This helps to verify whether a reasonable perspective was established.

4 Use Align Duplicate to create a Box f or the

near end.

5 Create a Box for the center.

Verify perspective.

If the perspective seems squashed or stretched, it’s probably off. If that happens, it is probably best to start over. Which is not so bad, since you’ v e only had to place a few Boxes.

Lesson 2: Adding Detail

What if you want to model in more detail? Once you are satisﬁed that Canoma has a good perspective, you can delete the "stand-in" or rough models you have just created, then replace them with more detailed models.

To add more detail:

1 Select one of the H-shaped Boxes and

press the Delete key or select Edit menu > Clear.

2 Zoom into that area of the photograph. 3 Create a Box and pin it to the far end of the

building.

Duplicate and Aligned Duplicate are your friends!

6 Since you know the building parts border

each other, click the Glue button on the Toolbar to glue (not pin) top corners of the center box to the nearest top edge of the end boxes.

7 Now use a bead for the center Box’s bottom

edge, to slide it into the right place. You could have modeled each of the 3

Boxes separately, but it would have been more work and they might not have aligned as nicely as they do now.

You can now model the second H-shaped building in more detail, using the same techniques.

Tip

As a ﬁnger exercise, complete the red building model in the front.

Tutorial

Lesson 3: Adding a Ground Plane

Finally, add a ground plane the same way you did in the 3rd tutorial.

To create the ground plane:

1 Create a Horizontal Rectangle. 2 Pin the far corner to the street corner at

the far end (near the two red cars.)

6 Click Quality Textures buttons, with a

resolution of 1:1 to create the textures.

3 Use beads to stretch the rectangle around

all your buildings. Parts of the rectangle now extend outside

the photograph - that's ﬁne.

It’s OK if parts of the rectangle extend outside the photograph.

4 Switch to View mode. 5 Select Texture menu > Mirror Textures.

This tells Canoma to “steal” the texture from another place on the object, since pixel information is not available.

Looking good!

7 Rotate the model. You may be surprised.

The back sides of the building, whic h were not visible in the photograph, are now textured. Canoma actually “mirrored” textures from elsewhere and did a pretty good job.

Before Texture menu > Mirror Textures is used

Canoma

After using Texture menu > Mirror Textures. Canoma “steals” textures from a portion of the model where textures are available, then applies them to non-textured sides.

Tutorial

Canoma Basics

What’s in this Chapter:

Setting Up Your Workspace. . . . . . . . . . . .57

Creating a Canoma Project . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Using 2D Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Creating 3D Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Adding Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Creating Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Undoing Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Saving and Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Importing, Exporting, and Rendering. . . .62

Canoma User Guide

Introduction

This chapter describes how to setup Canoma and shows you some basic techniques you’ll need to know in order to create 3D models.

Customizing Canoma

Saving Workspace Customizations

Canoma is intended to be a ﬂexible, creative tool, so there are many w ays you can customize it to suit your style of working. Move toolbars and palettes, resize the project window, or choose a color scheme.

Setting Canoma Preferences

Set Application Preferences to suit the wa y you like to work.

To open the Canoma preferences dialog:

•

Select

File menu > Preferences

the Application Preferences dialog.

to display

The Maintain Custom Conﬁgured Workspace option toggles between discarding those changes or keeping them from session to session.

Save or discard changes you make to the workspace.

To save changes you make to the Canoma workspace:

Select

File menu > Preferences

the Application Preferences dialog.

Click the

workspace

that the option is selected. The next time you start Canoma, your

workspace is as you left it when the application was closed.

T o discar d changes you make to the Canoma workspace:

Maintain custom conﬁgured

option. A checkmark indicates

to display

Setting Canoma preferences.

Canoma Basics

Select

File menu > Preferences

the Application Preferences dialog.

Click the

workspace

displayed when the option is not enabled. The next time you start Canoma, your

workspace is displayed in the default conﬁguration.

Maintain custom conﬁgured

option. No checkmark is

to display

Using the Active Guide

When you start creating objects and afﬁxing them to photo elements, you can get some help from the Active Guide. This handy window offers tips to pace you through the creation and pinning of your ﬁrst few primitives.

Select a default 2D pixel editing application, such as Painter or Photoshop. The default 2D pixel editing tool is opened whenever you use the Texture Brush from the Toolbar to edit the texture on the face of an object.

The Active Guide offers tips to help as you create and pin objects.

To turn the Active Guide on or off:

Select

File menu > Preferences

the Application Preferences dialog.

Click the Display Active Guide option. A checkmark indicates that the option is

selected.

to display

Choosing a 2D Image Editing Application and Image Format

Make subtle or major changes to the texture of a 3D modeled scene, using your favorite 2D pixel editing program or use Canoma to keep that 3D look, without creating a 3D scene. Edit an area of texture, then have Canoma display the results in proper 3D perspective. What a time saver! Refer to “Retouching or Editing

Textures in 2D” on page 110 for more about

editing a perspective image.

Selecting a 2D editing application.

You can also select a Default File Type to be used for the image ﬁles generated when you edit textures.

To select a 2D image editing application:

Choose

Click the Browse button and navigate to select a 2D pixel editing program.

Click Apply .

To choose a default 2D Image File Type:

•

Click the Image Format drop down list and choose a format.

File menu > Preferences

Setting Up Your Workspace

Working in the Project Window

In Edit mode, Canoma’ s Project Window shows the active photograph and any 3D wireframe objects you have created and placed. In View mode, the Project Window shows your textured

Canoma

or untextured 3D model. Refer to “Using the

Canoma Workspace” on page 75 for more about

the Project Window.

Understanding the Toolbar

The Canoma Toolbar holds the tools you’ll use to manipulate objects, view your work, and apply or edit textures. The Toolbar can be repositioned on the workspace. Refer to “The

Toolbar” on page 26 for more about the

Canoma T oolbar .

The Canoma Toolbar.

Changing Canoma Colors

The Project Window in 3D Preview mode.

Using the Camera Controls

The Camera Controls are used to position and rotate the camera that views your model. They can be repositioned on the workspace. Refer to

“Using Canoma Camera Controls” on page 102

for more information about how to use the Camera Controls.

You can customize the colors that Canoma uses to display application elements. Use the color selection buttons outside the lower right corner of the project window to select a color scheme that works best for you.

To change the background color:

•

Click the Background Color button, then select a color. The default background

color is dark gray.

Click to change the background color.

Y ou can move the Camera Controls to another place on the workspace.

Canoma Basics

To change the color used to highlight the selected object:

•

Click the Selected Object Color button, then select a color. The default selected

object color is red.

Click to change the selected object color.

To change the color used to highlight unselected objects:

•

Click the Unselected Objects Color button, then select a color. The default unselected

object color is yellow.

Stress” on page 96 for more about using

the stress display to check for errors that place stress on the 3D model.

Click to change the stress display color.

To change the color used for shadows:

•

Click the Shadow Color button, then select a color. The default shadow color is light

gray. Refer to “Using Shado ws” on page 95 for more about wireframe shadows.

Click to change the color of unselected objects.

To change the color used for objects in the stress display:

•

Click the Stress Display Color button, then select a color. The default stress display

color is white. Refer to “Avoiding Model

Click to change shadow color.

To change the color used for highlighting a selected object constraint:

•

Click the Selected Constraint Color button, then select a color. The default

selected constraint color is cyan. When

Canoma

you move the cursor over a constraint, such as a bead or pin, the selected object constraint color is used.

Click to change the selected constraint color.

Creating a Canoma Project

A Canoma project is made up of photograph(s) or image(s) over which 3D primitives are projected. Refer to “Working with Canoma

Projects” on page 76 for more about creating a

new project or opening an existing project.

Organizing the Project Folder

Using 2D Images

When you create a Canoma project, y ou’ll start by loading a photograph. This ﬁrst photograph lays the groundwork for further work. Images are stored in the 2D Image Views palette. The 2D Image Views palette can also be repositioned on the workspace. Refer to “Using

2D Source Images” on page 74 for more

information about that palette. If you need better textures for the front of a

building or the side of a box, y ou can add more detailed texture by adding photographs. For example, you might want to add detail for one side of a building, to show what ofﬁces are available. Refer to “Adding More Detail” on

page 98 for more about using additional

photographs to add detail.

It’s a good idea to create a project folder, before beginning work on your 3D model. A main project folder holds all of the photographs your project requires, as well as the Canoma project ﬁle (when saved.)

Because Canoma expects all project ﬁles to reside at the same hierarchical level, do not place photographs in a subfolder and take care to save the project ﬁle so that it resides in the main project folder. Any subfolders that are required by the project are created within the main folder by Canoma.

Canoma Basics

The 2D Image Palette.

Creating 3D Models

The goal of Canoma is to make 3D wireframe primitives match underlying images. To do that, you pin the corners of wireframe primitives, such as boxes or pyramids, to get a reasonable match between the wireframe and the photograph. Refer to “Using the Canoma

Workspace” on page 75 for more information

about building 3D models. Refer to “Modeling

Objects” on page 120 for some interesting

modeling techniques.

Once created, you can view it as a 3D model, using Canoma’s camera controls. Refer to

“Using Canoma Camera Controls” on page 102

for more information about viewing your models.

Refer to “Retouching or Editing Textures in

2D” on page 110 for some great tips about

editing areas of texture in a 2D program.

Adding Texture

Adding texture is the process of mapping pixels of an underlying image to the surface of an object, without changing that object’ s geometry.

Canoma offers two types of texturing: Quick Texture and Quality Texture. Quality texturing compensates for brightness differences between photographs that can show up as seams. It also ﬁlls in white gaps f or whic h there is no available information. Quality texturing takes longer and takes more memory, but it looks better. Refer to “Working with Texture”

on page 97 for more information about adding

surface textures.

Use the Texture Brush to select an area to edit in a 2D pixel editing application, such as Painter or Photoshop.

Creating Animations

Animation is the process of recording the motion of the camera as a 3D model is being viewed.

To create an animation:

• Complete a 3D model.

• View it.

• While viewing, record keyframes.

Canoma creates a motion path from your recorded camera movements and then generates an animation. Refer to “Creating an

Animation” on page 116 for more information

about creating animations.

Undoing Operations

The Undo command and the Revert to Saved command let you discard the effects of changes you’ve made to your model.

Canoma uses pixel information from the photograph to apply texture to a model.

You can Undo an operation up to 10 times in a row. You can also Redo what you’ve undone. If you’ve made changes and change your mind completely, you can discard an y changes y ou’ve made, without exiting the program.

Canoma

To undo the last operation:

•

Choose Ctrl+Z).

To redo the last operation:

•

Choose

To revert to the last saved version of your model:

•

Select

Edit menu > Undo

Edit menu > Redo

File menu > Revert to Saved

(or press Cmd/

Be sure to save the new project ﬁle so that it resides in the same folder as the project photographs. Canoma assumes that all project ﬁles are at the same hierarchical level.

If texture was edited with a 2D pixel editing program, such as Painter or Photoshop, the resulting ﬁles from those edits are placed in a subfolder created by Canoma. This subfolder’s name matches the new project name. If you do not want texture edits to apply to the copy, remove the texture edit ﬁles or remove the entire subfolder.

Saving and Closing

The Save command lets you save your work.

Saving the Project

To save a project ﬁle:

Choose

Use the Save dialog controls to choose a location for your work, then click Save.

Be sure to save the project ﬁle so that it resides in the same folder as the project photographs. Canoma assumes that all project ﬁles are at the same hierarchical level.

To save a ﬁle under a different name:

Choose

Enter a new name and/or location in the ﬁelds provided and click Save.

A copy of your work is saved, leaving the original intact.

File menu > Save

File menu > Save As

Closing Canoma

To close Canoma:

•

Choose Q/Ctrl+Q . When you close the application,

Canoma asks if you want to save your work.

File menu > Quit, or press Cmd-

Importing, Exporting, and Rendering

Importing

Canoma supports the following 2D ﬁle formats for import into your model:

• JPG

• TIFF (includes alpha information)

• PNG (includes alpha information)

• GIF (includes alpha information)

• PSD (includes alpha information)

• BMP (Win only)

• PICT (Mac only)

Canoma Basics

Exporting

When you export your Canoma model for use on the Web or in another 3D program, Canoma automatically creates a folder to hold the various ﬁles that are created.

With Canoma, what you see is what gets exported. If you edit textures after emitting a model, those image ﬁles are not picked up by the exported model. If Texture menu > Mirror Textures is Off, untextured surfaces are untextured in the exported ﬁle. If Texture menu > Mirror Textures is On, untextured surfaces will be ﬁlled with pixels from the corresponding side.

Canoma supports the following ﬁle export formats:

• MetaStream (for posting on the Web) When exporting to MetaStream, two ﬁle

formats are generated:

• HTML which embeds (using the

EMBED tag) MetaStream output generated by Canoma

• MTS ﬁle containing compressed

geometry and textures.

Double-click the HTML ﬁle to open the output.

The proper usage of MetaStream objects is as embedded objects in a HTML page. This gives the page author full control over a wide range of rendering and interaction options described at the MetaStream Web site (http://www.metastream.com). If you were to just open a raw MTS ﬁle, the plug in runs with all attributes set to default values, which is unlikely to be correct for all cases.

Textures generated by Canoma are already lit (by real light) and do not need to be additionally shaded by synthetic lights, so texture shading is set to off.

Inﬁni-D: If Inﬁni-D is installed, the MTS ﬁle appears with an Inﬁni-D icon and launches the application when doubleclicked, so just double-click the HTML ﬁle .

Make sure the path and the ﬁlename are correct and that all required libraries are available or an error message is displayed. Should that happen, just open the HTML ﬁle.

• OBJ ﬁle format (for import into Poser, Bryce 3D , Ra y Dream Studio, and other 3D programs)

Ray Dream Studio: The geometry and textures import nicely, but the bounding boxes are drawn incorrectly.

Poser: Exports to Poser Prop export a.pp2 ﬁle and several .bmp (Win)/.pict (Mac) textures. You then need to manually copy or move the.pp2 ﬁle to any immediate subfolder of Runtime\libraries\props and move or copy all the .bmp or .pict ﬁles to <PoserAppDirectory>\Runtime\textures\. The Canoma generated object or scene appears in the list of props (without a special icon) and the name you give the prop. You can place & work with the prop like any other. To make things simpler: Keep shortcuts/aliases to the Poser texture and prop type folders handy to where you generate the prop ﬁle, then just drag the ﬁles onto the shortcuts - faster than hunting the directory down. One word of caution: don’t name two Canoma generated Poser props the same name or you will overwrite part of the other props textures.

Maxon Cinema: Maxon Cinema imports the OBJ geometry ungrouped and untextured.

NewTek Inspire 3D modeler: NewTek Inspire 3D modeler loads the geometry untextured.

Canoma

• VRML 2 (for use in Cosmo 2.1, Blaxxun Community Client, Visscape Superscape VRML, and 3D Studio Max)

Textures generated by Canoma are already lit (by real light) and do not need to be additionally shaded by synthetic lights, so texture shading is set to off.

The VRML that is exported contains one viewpoint for each source image and also an extra one for the current 3D view camera (which need not coincide with any source image point of view.) Typically, VRML browsers let you step between viewpoints. Consult your Browser documentation for details. For example, in Cosmo 2.1, PgUP and PgDn go to the Next/ Previous viewpoint.

If you created an animation in Canoma, the starting point of the animation gets recorded in the VRML as a special viewpoint called “T our . ” After selecting “Tour” as your viewpoint in the VRML browser, click anywhere in the scene to start the animation you had in Canoma. After the animation is ﬁnished, the “Tour” automatically returns to the starting point, ready for another “click” to start it again.

Canoma exports VRML ﬁles as text ﬁles. Typically, these are not large compared to the associated texture ﬁles, but you can gzip the WRL ﬁle for extra compression, using the 3rd party gzip software utility. Remember to rename the .wrl.gz ﬁle extension back to .wrl, even though it is now compressed. Browsers use this extension to route contents to the correct plug-in (in this case VRML.)

If you import Canoma models into a 3D modeler and the objects seem too bright, either turn texture shading off altogether or attenuate your texture light emission.

• Caligari trueSpace 3D

All objects are exported as one group. All image viewpoints are saved as cameras in TS4. The ﬁrst four are opened as views in the workspace. Canoma exports to .scn ﬁles, to load scenes. If you want to create separate reusable objects, load scene, ungroup, and Save Selected Objects as .cob ﬁles.

Due to a problem in TS4.0, some textures may display black. Registered users can upgrade to 4.1 by contacting Caligari directly. This ﬁxes the problem.

• AutoCAD DXF Files exported as DXF may import into 3D

applications very small. In some cases, you can adjust the DXF units during import. In most cases, you should scale the model. In a very speciﬁc case using Artiﬁce Design Workshop, the imported DXF model imports objects ungrouped. Group the model before scaling.

Rendering 2D Images

You can produce a 2D image of your Canoma scene. When a 2D image is rendered, Canoma automatically creates a folder into which it saves any associated image ﬁles.

When you render an image, a popup menu with output ﬁle size choices is displayed. Any rendered image is locked to the aspect ratio of your project window.

To render a 2D image of your model:

1 Select File menu > Render Image. 2 Set the desired size.

Canoma Basics

Rendering Animations

You can produce a QuickTime movie of camera movements around your Canoma scene. When an animation is rendered, Canoma automatically creates a folder into which it saves any associated animation ﬁles.

Note

When you render an image, a popup menu with output ﬁle size choices is displayed. Any rendered image is locked to the aspect ratio of your project window.

At the time you render an animation, you can edit the module, setting additional options, including animation compression and frame rate.

You can also select to output your animation as a sequence of image ﬁles.

To render an animation, QuickTime 3.0 must be installed. It is available on the Canoma CD , or can be downloaded at www.apple.com.

To render an animation:

1 Select File menu > Render Animation. 2 Set the desired size. 3 Select between outputting a QuickTime

animation or a series of keyframe images. Selecting to output as a series of keyframe

images outputs single image ﬁles for each keyframe (BMP on PC, PICT on Mac). This generates as many single ﬁles as there are frames in your movie.

4 Press Edit, to edit the module you just

selected.

Canoma

Canoma Basics

Preparing Projects

What’s in this Chapter:

Taking Photographs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Canoma User Guide

Taking Photographs

Good photographs are an important part of using Canoma to create models. As you venture on your own to make photographs, here are a few suggestions to help assure a successful project.

What Works Best

Canoma does best with objects that have sharp corners, rather than round ones. The trouble with round corners is that you can’t really tell exactly "where the corners are". This is especially true if you have multiple images.

reward for taking as many photos as possible is the time and frustration you’ll save when you have lots of choices during modeling.

Varying the Angles

When you take several photographs of a single object or building, try to take them from very different angles. For example, take one from the front, then another from the side at a 90 degree angle from the ﬁrst. This allows you to put pins for the same corners in multiple images, allowing Canoma to give you precise models.

Using a “Panorama” Approach

Canoma expects you to pin the same corresponding points in all photographs. Sometimes you can fake it and use beads or other techniques to tell Canoma where corners might be located. However, if you keep “sharp corners” in mind, you won’t be disappointed.

Canoma works best with sharp corners. The object on the right has sharp corners and will give the best results when modeled.

Using Several Photographs

One of the best pieces of advice is not to be afraid of taking too many photographs. Photos are cheap, especially in this age of digital cameras, compared to redoing a photo shoot. Inevitably, some photos won’t turn out as well as others and you’re bound to need detail where you didn’t expected to need it. The best

When you take photographs of a room or enclosed space, stand in one place and take some from the same position. Turn your head a little bit each time, just like you would if you were creating a panorama.

As you use this approach, make sure that you have some overlap between photographs. In particular, make sure that at least one object is visible in any pair of adjacent photographs. This is because you have to match up a model made from one photograph with something in the next photograph. Having an object on the left or right border makes the job much simpler.

Tip

It is also a good idea to create pictures with different exposures, in order to avoid big contrasts later. That way, you can select those that match best.

Preparing Projects

Working from Overviews to Detailed Photos

Overview Photos

Be sure to take plenty of overview photos. When you start modeling, you should start with an overview photo. Using overview photographs can make initial modeling easier. It can be difﬁcult starting with a close-up view.

As you take overview photos of a scene, try to get at least some objects fully into view, so you can see their corners. If you cannot see corners, make sure you can at least see edges, for example where two walls meet or a wall and the ﬂoor. Also, try not to get too far away from the scene, since details fade and distortion sets in the further away you get from your subject.

Tip

Detailed Photos

When you need for a particular object in your model to have better textures, be sure you take extra close-up photographs of that object. When taking close up photos, try to keep the whole object in the photograph. Also, try to take a close-up from right in front of the surface.

Although most digital camera don’t offer extremely wide angle lenses, scanned photographs where wide angle lenses (2835mm) were used can introduce spherical distortions—where lines become curves. When this happens, precisely matching things in the photograph becomes difﬁcult. Canoma can not undo these types of distortions.

For example, say you want to get a highresolution version of a painting on your wall. Let us assume you already have pictures of the room, complete with edges and corners of the walls, which you used to model the wall and painting.

Take a close up image of just the painting, making sure you see all of it and perhaps its frame. Add that close-up to your model and pin the corners of the painting. Canoma automatically uses your close-up shot to get the best texture resolution.

Don’t Move Things

This sounds simple, but try to take pictures of the same things. Don’t move chairs, boxes, cars or anything while you’re taking pictures. Canoma assumes objects do not move between photographs.

One Photo, One Image File

Use only one photograph per image ﬁle. If you used a scanner to digitize photos, don’t scan more than one photo into a single image ﬁle. You can’t load an image that contains several photos into Canoma and expect a successful modeling session.

If you did capture several photographs in one scanned image, you may need to split, rotate, edit or crop your scanned photos into individual image ﬁles. Save them as BMP or JPG, approximately 800x600 resolution, which works out to between 100-300Kb per image.

Modifying Photos

Even the best photographs sometimes need retouching. This can be especially useful when you’re using a single image or have historical photos to use for modeling purposes. You might need to remove scratches, ﬁne-tune colors, or

Canoma

colorize old photos, using an image editing tool, such as Painter or Photoshop. Should you need to edit photos, remember these important tips:

• Never change the aspect ratio or dimensions of a photo after you’ve already started using the image in a Canoma project. Canoma can’t compensate for a distorted photograph.

• If you’re using more than one photograph, be careful to adjust color, exposure levels, or lighting so that the photos match after you’ve ﬁnished editing.

• Avoid cropping photos. It’s better to have lots of photos, with varying detail than to try and “crop out” images of objects within a photo. Canoma may get confused if all you feed it is bits and pieces of photographs.

• Avoid using photos with white borders or photos that were scanned from a book that include superﬂuous materials around the image you’re scanning (such as bits of text.) White borders are common in older photos and Canoma treats the border or extra material as part of the image to be modeled. For best results, remove the white borders or superﬂuous material before loading the image into Canoma.

• Control contrast by putting small light objects on top of dark backgrounds or small dark objects on top of light backgrounds.

• W atch out for glare! You don’ t want glare to bounce off of shiny parts of important objects, obscuring necessary texture details.

Handling Camera Location

If you can, tak e some photographs from slightly above your objects. If there is a block-like object in the scene, it is best to show 3 sides of it in the photo, because that allows you to put more pins onto a single box.

Make sure you see the bottom edges of objects or the ﬂoor in some pictures. Canoma works much better if you can point out some bottom corner or edges with pins or beads. Without that, wireframe bottoms might wobble around.

Controlling Exposure and Lighting

Try to use similar exposure and lighting settings for all the photographs of a scene or object. Canoma compensates for somewhat different lighting between photographs in fancy texturing mode, but it can’ t mak e the difference between sunny and rainy day photographs disappear.

Things to remember:

Preparing Projects

Photographs from this angle give very poor results.

This angle would be a little better, but not much.

Three visible three bottom corners gives excellent results.

Canoma

Preparing Projects

Building Projects

What’s in this Chapter:

Working with Canoma Projects. . . . . . . . .76

Working with Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

Pinning Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

Using Beads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Using Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Using Solo Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Using Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Avoiding Model Stress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Adding More Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Canoma User Guide

How Canoma Works

Modeling 3D Objects

Canoma is designed to help you quickly build 3D models. Using information you give it, Canoma tries to ﬁnd parameters such as: camera location, focal length (zoom), object positions, object orientations, and object dimensions.

To give Canoma information about how to construct these models, you’ll afﬁx 3D objects to photograph elements, using pins, beads, and glue. These constrain parameters into taking on correct values. Refer to “Working with Objects”

on page 77 and “Modeling Objects” on page 120 for some interesting modeling

techniques.

Tip

Using 2D Source Images

To create Canoma models, you must provide one or more photographs of the object(s) being modeled. For most projects many photographs are available. In general, multiple images provide views from different angles, making determination of perspective and object dimensions more accurate. When only one image is available, “on creation” options should be used to give Canoma additional parameter information. Refer to “2D Image Palette” on

page 76, “Using the 2D Image Palette” on page 99, and “Adding More Detail” on page 98

So, y ou’ ve got your digital camera out and are eying your desk as a likely ﬁrst project. Think again! Desktop areas are often cluttered with objects of varying difﬁculty and parameters. For a good ﬁrst experience: do the Tutorials, start simple, then tackle more comple x projects.

for more about using source photographs. Refer to “Adding an Object” on page 88 for more about using “on creation” options.

Modeling from the Ground Up

Scenes are usually modeled from the ground up. Working from a ground plane, you place objects on the ground, then place objects on top of those, and so on. By default, you cannot have an object just “ﬂoating in space.” These restrictions make modeling a lot easier.

In general, the default constraints are useful, sometimes you may have to change them: for example if you know an object is not sitting on the ground plane or if it has an arbitrary orientation. In those cases you can “unlock” some or all of the ﬁxed parameters. Refer to

“F reeing Necessary P arameters” on page 126 for

more about freeing object parameters.

Always Calculating

Canoma is almost always “active”. Unlike a draw or a paint program, which only reacts when you have the mouse button down, Canoma tries to calculate decent parameter values, even after you let go of a pin or bead.

Canoma tries to minimize the stress that can be caused by simple errors, like misplacing a pin, by adjusting across all objects simultaneously . A special Stress Display mode shows any disparity between how you position objects and how Canoma converts those instructions into 3D representations. Refer to “Listening to the

Canoma “Heartbeat”” on page 122 for more

about how Canoma is always working and

“Avoiding Model Stress” on page 96 for more

checking how Canoma is interpreting information as you work.

Building Projects

Before Y ou Start

Using the Canoma

As you start to model, keep these basic concepts in mind.

• Model from less-detailed overview photos to more-detailed or close-up views. Add more images to supply additional texture detail.

• Choose a good ﬁrst picture, one that shows a lot of your scene. Model a few elements in that picture, maybe three to ten, before even thinking about loading additional images. Refer to “Taking Photographs” on

page 68 for more information on taking

photographs that might make modeling easier.

• Start by afﬁxing simple 3D objects to a photograph, like Bo xes. Using a few simple objects helps establish perspective—the camera position, orientation, and focal length—for your scene. Refer to “Starting

Simple” on page 123 for more about using

simple objects to set parameters.

• Use temporary objects to set perspective. For example, if there’s a staircase that needs to be modeled, try using a box for that element, then replace it later with a staircase. Refer to “Establishing

Perspective” on page 123 for more about

using temporary objects while modeling.

• All objects are by default created on the ground plane (except for on top objects.) In addition, objects are by default only able to rotate around their vertical axis. Refer to

“Adding an Object” on page 88 and “Freeing Necessary Parameters” on page 126 for more about object parameters.

• Organize your project and all project photographs into a single directory or folder. Refer to “Organizing the Project

Folder” on page 60 for more information

about organizing your projects.

Workspace

The Project Window

In Edit mode, Canoma’ s Project Window shows the active photograph and any wireframes of objects you may have created to match that image. In View mode, the Project Window lets you view the project you’re creating.

The Canoma Project Window.

To resize the Project Window:

Move the cursor over the bottom right corner of the Project Window.

Click and drag the window to the desired size.

To move the Project Window:

•

Click and drag the title bar above the Project Window .

Canoma

To adjust the aspect ratio of your project scene:

•

Click the Size Indicator above the right hand corner of the project window and

enter a new aspect ratio. When you render an image or animation, a

popup menu with output ﬁle size choices is displayed, but any rendered image or animation is locked to the aspect ratio of your project window.

Camera Controls

The Camera Controls, used to view and rotate your project can be repositioned on the workspace. Refer to “Viewing Projects in

Progress” on page 93 for how to view models in

progress. Refer to “Using Canoma Camera

Controls” on page 102 for complete

information on how to use the Camera Controls.

• background color (choose a color that makes viewing textures easy, the default color is dark gray)

• selected object wireframe color (the default color is red)

• unselected object wireframe color (the default color is yellow)

• stress wireframe color (the default color is white)

• shadow color (the default color is light gray)

• selected object constraint (the selected pin, bead, or point of glue)

Refer to “Changing Canoma Colors” on page 58 for more about how to customize colors in Canoma.

Working with Canoma Projects

2D Image Palette

The 2D Image Palette can also be repositioned on the workspace. Refer to “Using the 2D

Image P alette” on page 99 for more information

about the 2D Image Views palette.

To move either the Camera Controls or the 2D Image Palette:

•

Click and drag the edge of the controls or palette to a new position.

Selecting Colors

You can customize your Canoma workspace even more by choosing different colors for such things as:

Building Projects

A Canoma project is made up of photograph(s) or image(s) over which 3D objects are mapped. Refer to “Organizing the Project Folder” on

page 60 for more about organizing your project.

The ﬁrst thing you need to do is launch the Canoma application. Once it appears, Canoma displays the Workspace in its default conﬁguration.

To create a Canoma project:

Start Canoma.

Select the opening credits canvas, select

File menu > New Add Image

Canoma supports the following 2D ﬁle formats: JPG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, PSD, BMP, and PICT.

, or select

File menu >

To open an existing 3D project:

•

Select

File menu > Open Project

Working with Objects

Matching Objects to Photo Elements

The goal is to make 3D objects match an underlying image. To accomplish that, you’ll create objects and pin them to elements in a photograph, pinning as many corners of each wireframe as is needed to get a reasonable match between the wireframe and the photograph.

The Canoma coordinate system is based upon the following deﬁnition:

Y points up - the “height” dimension. X points right - the “width” dimension. Z points towards you - the “length dimension.

Selecting the Correct Object

Model large elements around the entire photograph ﬁrst. This establishes perspective (camera angle and focal length.) If you start modeling in great detail in one corner of a photograph, it’s easy to imprecisely place a pin, causing Canoma to estimate a wrong perspective.

Tip

Want to import and place into your scene a model created in another 3D program?

• Create a simple Canoma object, to deﬁne the position and orientation for the object you are importing.

• Import, size and position the imported model, using the Canoma object for placement purposes.

• Delete the Canoma “helper” model.

As you get ready to create objects and pin them to elements in a photograph, consider the following information about each object type.

•

Box

- A box is a good object to use when starting a scene. Helps to determine initial perspective. Often useful as temporary “helper” objects for the purpose of determining perspective. With a box, four pins are usually enough to get started.

The Box is a good choice when starting a scene.

Canoma

•

Rectangle

when the photograph element you’re modeling is ﬂat (no height).

The Rectangle.

When you need to model a carpet on the ﬂoor, where both are modeled as rectangles, a big one for the ﬂoor and a smaller one for the carpet, select the ﬂoor rectangle, then create the carpet rectangle with Stack selected. That raises the carpet rectangle slightly to avoid rendering problems when 2 rectangles exist in the same plane.

•

V ertical Rectangle

can be used when the photograph element you’re modeling has height, but no width or depth.

The V ertical Rectangle.

•

Guide Line

geometric aid is required. A Guide Line

- The Rectangle can be used

- The V ertical Rectangle

- A Guide Line is used when a

does not show up in 3D preview or 3D ﬁle export formats.

A Guide Line is a geometric helper.

Guide Lines can be used to add “real world” inf ormation to y our model. You can enter an absolute length measurement for a Guide Line.

When you select Object Information for a Guide Line object, you’ll see two additional options. There is an entry box where you can enter the length of the line and a checkbox where you can have Canoma use the line length to calibrate your scene.

You can also use the Calibration option to automatically calibrate your entire model to reﬂect the length you enter. If Calibrate is checked, the entire scene is calibrated according to the Guide Line length you enter . If Calibrate is not checked, the scene does not change, except to reﬂect any length setting you may have entered for that line. When you enter a length (calibration or additional measurement), the length of the line is locked to that length. In order to unlock it and have it become a normal guide line again, delete the line and create a new one from scratch.

Refer to “Calibrating a Scene” on page 88 for more about calibrating your picture.

Building Projects

You can create a Guide Line, glue it to the side of a box, then duplicate it to f orce one or several objects to have the same dimensions. For example:

Glue the third Guide Line to a third side of the box. Like magic, you have a cube, with equal sides, thanks to the duplicated “yardstick.” Pin anyplace on the box and watch the box change size, but remain a cube.

Create a Guide Line. Unﬁx all parameters.

Glue the Guide Line to the edge of a box. Once glued, duplicate the Guide Line.

Glue the duplicate Guide Line to a 2nd edge, then duplicate the Guide Line again.

You can use a Guide Line to align objects.

Create a Guide Line, then use pins or beads to ﬁx it in place.

Use edge to edge glue to glue objects to the Guide Line, forcing alignment.

Canoma

After aligning objects to a Guide Line.

You can use a Guide Line to distribute objects in space at equal distances, as might be needed in a cemetery or vineyard scene.

Glue objects to endpoints of Guide Lines.

Equally spaced objects.

Create a Guide Line, then use pins or beads to ﬁx it in place.

Create additional Guide Lines (selecting concentric duplicate).

Building Projects

Try It

Experiment with using a Guide Line as a geometrical helper. Load an empty, gray 600 X 400 image as the background, then use a Guide Line to try and create a pentagon object with equal sides! Hint: you’ll need more than 5 Guide Lines.

•

Roof and Slanted Roof

- Both a plain roof

and a slanted roof are available.

Roof.

Slanted Roof.

When doing roofs, it is often hand y to glue corners to a base box.

If a roof was created concentric, aligned, and stacked, a single “drop” of glue is enough. A roof doesn’t have to ﬁt exactly, but can overhand a little. Don’t use glue when this is the case. Put a pin on an aligned, concentric, stacked roof

Watch out for common mistakes. Pinning a roof, forces the rooﬂine to be ﬂush with the building front wall. To allow the rooﬂine to stick out a little, place a bead instead.

Glue three points to glue a roof into place.

If an aligned stacked roof starts life at the wrong orientation, you can always rotate it 90 degrees.

Canoma

After rotating.

•

Pyramid

incorrect top pin placement.

The Pyramid.

If you can not see the top of the pyramid in your photograph, use a bead on one or more of the vertical edges, instead.

- A pyramid is fairly sensitive to

Use beads on edges when the top of a pyramid can’t be exactly seen.

•

Truncated Pyramid

top “cut off.”

A Truncated Pyramid is useful for roofs, towers, or (very) rough stand-ins for people.

•

Table

- With a table, all four legs have the same dimensions and are placed symmetrically around the table center.

- A pyramid with the

It’s tricky to use pins when securing a pyramid at the top.

Building Projects

A T able.

While you are pinning the table, the legs may temporarily “detach” or ﬂoat outside the tabletop. This is not a problem. Pins or beads can return the unruly legs to their proper place.

Table legs can temporarily “detach” or ﬂoat outside the tabletop.

If that should happen:

• Recreate the table and pin it.

• Create an aligned concentric box.

• Unﬁx Y to allow the box to ﬂoat upwards.

• Glue a top corner to the top of a table leg.

• Move the bottom of the box up with a bead.

•

Arch

- The arch can be tall and slim, short

and squat, or thick and blocky.

An Arch can assume many sizes.

The center portion of an Arch is made up of two straight edges, joined by a semicircle.

Tables can also be used to make chairs. To create the backrest, create a box, unﬁx all parameters, glue two of the corners.

The Arch portion of an Arch is made up of two straight edges, joined by a semicircle.

The shape of the Arch depends upon the curvature of that semicircle. Because you probably cannot see the exact top of the arched portion, place beads to help

Canoma

Canoma determine where the straight sections end and the arched portion begins.

four) will position them correctly . Y ou don’t need to pin every step.

Beads help determine where the straight sections end and the arched portion begins.

It is tempting, but not advisable, to start modeling some photo elements, such as towers, using an Arch. Better to use a temporary helper Box, to establish where the whole structure is located. Then, place the arch and build other objects on top of it. Delete the helper Box after you’ve ﬁnished. If you start with an Arch as your ﬁrst object, your model may feel “wobbly”, because an Arch has more ways to change shape than a Box.

•

Stairs

- A very convenient object. You could create them with a bunch of aligned boxes, glued together, but that could get tedious. All steps are assumed to be the same height. Usually a few pins (around

Stairs are convenient.

If you need other types of stairs, you can still use aligned boxes and even make them all the same height by using duplicated Guide Lines glued to each step’s vertical edge.

•

Floor Rectangle

object. The Floor Rectangle simply creates a rectangle presized to be big enough to ﬁt your whole existing scene. (Otherwise, it’s just a normal rectangle.) Floor Rectangles can be really handy if you want a textured “ground plane.”

- Another convenience

Building Projects

Floor Rectangles conveniently create a presized rectangle, big enough to ﬁt your whole scene.

Note

The Curtain object also has transparency properties. From inside, the Curtain is visible. From outside, a Curtain disappears, allowing you to look through to the model!

Objects with Editable Polyline Contours.

There are three objects with editable polyline contours:

•

Translation Sweeps (horizontal and vertical varieties)

powerful objects that let you approximate complex geometry with a few clicks.

Horizontal T ranslation Sweep.

V ertical T ranslation Sweep.

- Translation Sweeps are

Examples of Translation Sweeps, used to create interesting shapes, like logos, signs, or cars.

Tip

Translation Sweeps start life with a triangular contour. You can then add and delete points, to create a unique shape. A Translation Sweep must have a minimum of three contour points.

With Translation Sweeps, you can approximate curved contours, with several linear pieces. Remember that the pixels will do most of the work, so y ou don’ t need to be too precise. Approximated geometry works quite well.

You can make certain sides of a Translation Sweep the same length. Create a Guide Line, unﬁxing all parameters to allow it to rotate freely and move up or down. Glue it to one edge of the Translation Sweep. Duplicate the Guide Line, or aligned duplicate if the other edge is not only supposed to have the same length, but also

It’s always a good idea to start simple. Don’t use a Translation Sweep as the ﬁrst object in a scene.

Canoma

the same orientation as the ﬁrst Guide Line. Glue corners of the cloned Guide Line to the second contour edge.

Use copied Guide Lines to make sides equal in length.

Use aligned duplicated Guide Lines if the sides are equal in length and have the same orientation.

For Horizontal Translation Sweeps (where the contour is vertical, but the extrusion axis is horizontal), the two lower contour points which sit on the ﬂoor level are ﬁxed at Y=0. This allows them to stay on the ﬂoor, rather than ﬂoat about. These ﬁxed contour points can be changed to free parameters. If these ﬁxed contour points are deleted through contour editing, remember that replacement points have free parameters and you will need to manually ﬁx the object once again to the ﬂoor. You can’t directly “reﬁx” parameters, but you can use Guide Lines and glue to bring Translation Sweep corners to speciﬁc planes, lines, or locations.

•

Polygon (horizontal and vertical varieties)

- polygons are very similar to Translation Sweeps. They are also powerful objects that let you approximate complex geometry with a few clicks.

Polygons (horizontal).

Polygons (vertical).

Examples of Polygons.

Tip

It’s always a good idea to start simple. Don’t use a Polygon as the ﬁrst object in a scene.

Building Projects

Polygons start life with a triangular contour. You can then add and delete points, to create a unique shape. A P olygon must have a minimum of three contour points.

With Polygons, you can approximate curved contours, with several linear pieces. Remember that the pixels will do most of the work, so you don’t need to be too precise. Approximated geometry works quite well. As with Translation Sweeps, you can use can make certain sides of a P olygon the same length, with the help of some glue and Guide Lines.

Tip

For vertical Polygons, the two lower contour points which sit on the ﬂoor level are ﬁxed at z=0. This allows them to stay on the ﬂoor, rather than ﬂoat about. These ﬁxed contour points can be changed to free parameters. If these ﬁxed contour points are deleted through contour editing, remember that replacement points have free parameters and you will need to manually ﬁx the object once again to the ﬂoor. You can’t directly “reﬁx” parameters, but you can use Guide Lines and glue to bring Polygon corners to speciﬁc planes, lines, or locations.

•

Curtain

modeling for walls in rooms. The curtain is only visible from one side. You can actually

Use Polygons for “cut-out” trees and people. Of course, they’ll be quite thin. Alternately, you can completely mask obstructions by using the Alpha channel in your source images. Refer to “Using

the Alpha Channel” on page 112

for more about using the Alpha channel.

- A special object to allow better

look right through it from the other direction.

A Curtain.

Tip

Y ou can create a curtain whic h represents a wall in a room (or create several.) As seen from inside the room, the curtain is visible and textured. When you navigate outside the room in 3D Preview mode, the curtain walls disappear, allowing you to look right inside the room (like a television studio set.) Had you used rectangles for the walls, the view from the outside would still show the rectangle obscuring the room’s interior.

From outside, curtains are invisible!

It’s always a good idea to start simple. Don’ t use a Curtain as the ﬁrst object in a scene.

Canoma

Note

You can add and delete contour points with the curtain like you can in the Translation Sweep and the Polygon. A curtain must have a minimum of three contour points.

The Floor Rectangle object also has some transparency properties. From above, it is solid. From below, it’s transparent.

4 Select Calibrate. A checkmark is displayed

when Calibrate is selected. Only one Calibration setting is allowed.

You can Calibrate anytime. When you click Calibrate, any prior Calibration setting is replaced.

Adding an Object

Calibrating a Scene

You can use the Calibrate option to automatically calibrate your entire picture to reﬂect the Guide Line length you enter.

Note

Typically, you use calibration f or the ﬁrst length that you enter , in order to establish overall scale for the scene. This scale is used if a scene is to be exported to VRML. As more measurements for other line objects are added, leave the calibration box unchecked, since you want all measurements respected at the same time, i.e., have them treated like constraints, that involve solving for scene parameters.

To calibrate a scene:

1 Select or create a Guide Line object. 2 Click the Object Information button to

display the Object Attributes f or the Guide Line.

3 Enter a numeric value for Guide Line

length or use the scaling slider to set that dimension.

Consider calibrating a Canoma scene an advanced option. Be aware that when you force a numeric calibration, it affects your entire project.

Setting Selection Based Options

At the time that you create an object, orientation and alignment options are available. Selecting these options at creation provides Canoma with important information that can help you create more accurate models. Selection based options are available when an object is selected, since they deﬁne the parameters of the object to be created in relation to the selected object.

• Stack creates an object directly on top of the currently selected object. Refer to

“Stacking Objects” on page 90 for more

information about creating objects on top of other objects.

• Align Rotation creates an object with a rotation parameter the same as the selected object.

• Concentric creates an object with the same center as the currently selected object.

For example, say you want to model a tower. The base is modeled using a box, then you want to place a pyramid on top of the box to model a spire. The top of the pyramid should be exactly above the center of the box—or concentric to it. In general, concentric means "objects having the same center ." Canoma stretc hes the deﬁnition of concentric a little. In Canoma, concentric means "has the same center in Z and X",

Building Projects

not in Y. The Concentric option is very handy for building linear structures and for placing roofs onto buildings.

To add an object:

1 Click the Creation tab to display the

Canoma objects.

Object s.

2 Set object properties.

Set Selection Based Options.

To select an object:

• As you move the cursor over an object in

the Project Window (or close to the wireframe), its yellow wireframe is highlighted (thickened.) Click down to select it.

• Click the pop-up object menu below the

Project Window. Keeping the mouse button depressed, scroll through the list and release the mouse button when the correct object is highlighted.

Deleting an Object

To delete an object:

1 Select the object that you want to delete. 2 Press the delete key, or Right/Opt-click the

object you want to delete, then select Delete Selected.

3 Click the desired object. If you can’t see

the object you want, use the slider to view more objects.

A wireframe of the selected object is displayed on top of your photograph.

Selecting an Object

When an object is selected, its wireframe turns red. Refer to “Changing Canoma Colors” on

page 58 for more about changing wireframe

colors.

Checking Object Information

You can inspect object information and make some changes to objects, using the Object Information dialog.

Object information includes:

• Name (editable)

• Object Type (not editable)

• Guide Line object Dimensions, Scaling, and Calibration options (editable)

• Selection Based Options (options selected at time of creation) - Concentric, Stack, Align (not editable)

• Alignment options:

Canoma

• Rotate by 90 degrees (available)

• Unﬁx Y parameter (available once)

• Unﬁx all parameters (available once)

• Unﬁx orientations (available once)

To review or change object information:

1 Select an object. 2 Click the object information button or

select Edit menu > Get Information.

Stacking Objects

Usually, scenes are modeled from the ground up. Working from a ground plane, you place objects on the ground, then place objects on top of those, and so on. Refer to “Adding an

Object” on page 88 for more about object

selection options. When you create an object on top of another

object, its origin’s z-coordinate is not free, but is bound to the height of its base object.

To stack an object on top of another:

The object information button.

The Object Information dialog is displayed.

The Object Information dialog.

1 Make sure the object upon which you want

to place another object is selected, i.e. make sure that it is red.

If the desired wireframe is yellow, click somewhere inside the correct wireframe object to select it.

Select the object on top of which you plan to build.

Building Projects

2 Click the Creation tab.

3 Choose an object and select Stack. 4 Pin the on top box to its underlying object.

Select Stack.

After pinning

Duplicating Objects

Use duplicate whenever you are sure two objects have the same dimensions. It reduces

Choose an object.

the number of pins you need to place and at the same time makes the 3D project more precise.

Fewer pins are required for pinning a duplicated object, because some dimensions are known to Canoma from the ﬁrst object.

To duplicate an object:

1 Select the existing object that you want to

duplicate.

2 Choose Edit menu > Duplicate.

Canoma

An object with the same dimensions as the original is created.

Use duplicate when objects have the same dimensions

If you are sure that both the original and the duplicate have the same orientation, use the Aligned Duplicate option. This will result in more precise models.

To create an aligned duplicate:

1 Select the existing object that you want to

duplicate.

2 Select Edit menu > Aligned Duplicate or

press Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + D. An object with the same dimensions as and

aligned to the original is created.

Pinning Objects

Once an object is created, it then can be pinned to an underlying photograph. Pinning a wireframe to a picture feels like pinning the corners of a springy wireframe to a tackboard, using push-pins. Refer to “Deleting All

Constraints” on page 94 for how to delete all

constraints (pins/beads/glue) for a selection.

To pin an object:

• Click and drag each corner of the object to

the corners of the element you are modeling in the photograph.

Drag wireframe corners to the corners of each element being modeled.

To roughly align an object:

1 Canoma creates objects at default positions

and orientations. If there is a big discrepancy between the initial perspective for a new object and the picture’s perspective, use the Camera controls to roughly align the two before starting to place pins. Refer to “Using Canoma

Camera Controls” on page 102 for more

about using the Camera.

Building Projects

A triangle appears when the cursor is over a corner of the wireframe. If you make a mistake, you can always Undo (Cmd/Ctrl + Z.) Refer to “Undoing Operations” on

page 61. Refer to “Deleting All Constraints” on page 94 for how to delete

all constraints (pins/beads/glue.)

To delete a pin:

• Right/Opt-click the pin you want to delete,

then select Delete Pin.

Viewing Projects in Progress

used to align objects.) Refer to “Deleting All

Constraints” on page 94 for how to delete all

constraints (pins/beads/glue) for a selection.

To look at a 3D project:

1 Click and drag the trackball controller.

You’ll see a shaded 3-dimensional box with the correct dimensions. As you drag the trackball, the box rotates.

Drag the trackball to rotate the project.

Refer to “Using Canoma Camera Controls”

on page 102 for more information about

using the camera controls to view your 3D project.

Using Beads

Deﬁning Edges

To add a bead to an object:

1 Move the cursor over any edge (rather than

corner) of an object. A little disk appears.

2 Click to create a bead.

Use beads to position an object’s edges.

3 Drag a bead to position an object edge.

Tip

If a bead does not stay exactly on an edge, your model is probably stressed. You may have pinned a corner of an object incorrectly. See “Avoiding Model Stress” on

page 96 for more about

controlling stress in your models.

Close-up views often have the problem that you cannot see a whole object you previously modeled. You can use a second (of three) techniques to position objects. Pins are for corners, but beads are for edges (and glue is

To delete a bead:

• Right/Opt-click the pin you want to delete,

then select Delete Bead.

Canoma

Using Glue

Gluing Objects Together

Use glue to align objects precisely. When you create an object aligned with another object, Canoma only has to ﬁnd a single, common rotation angle, instead of ﬁguring out two vertical axis rotations.

With Canoma, you can use these gluing techniques:

• Glue point to point

• Glue point to edge

• Glue edge to corner or to Guide Line.

A little yellow pin is visual feedback that you are gluing two object together.

Yellow pins tell you that one object is being glued to another.

3 Let go of both the Cmd/Ctrl key and the

mouse button.

Refer to “Using Glue to Align Objects” on

page 127 for more about gluing techniques.

Refer to “Deleting All Constraints” on page 94 for how to delete all constraints (pins/beads/ glue) for a selection.

To add glue:

1 Hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key and click on

the corner of the object that you want to align with another object

2 While continuing to hold down the Cmd/

Ctrl key, drag that corner over the appropriate corner of the object with which you are trying to align the ﬁrst.

To delete glue:

• Right/Opt-click the glue you want to

delete, then select Delete Glue.

Deleting All Constraints

To delete all constraints (pins/beads/glue) of a selected object:

• Right/Option-click the pin you want to

delete, then select Delete Constraints of Selection.

To delete all constraints (pins/beads/glue) of a selected object in the current image:

• Right/Option-click the pin you want to

delete, then select Delete Constraints of Selection in this Image.

Building Projects

Using Solo Mode

As you add more objects, some with objects on top of them, the display can get cluttered. Using Solo Mode reduces confusion. When you use Solo Mode, you can see clearly the wireframe for the current object, but all other wireframes are displayed very faintly. This can really help when there are many objects in your scene.

To use Solo Mode:

• Click the Solo Mode button to switch off

all objects except the currently selected, or select View menu > Show only Selection.

Unless you’ve changed colors, the selected wireframe is red.

The Solo Mode button

To switch back from Solo Mode to normal editing:

• Click the Solo Mode button again, or

reselect View menu > Show only Selection.

Even while you are in Solo Mode, when you move the cursor over other areas of the photograph, existing, but currently hidden objects, temporarily show up outlined in yellow.

Solo Mode lets you see where objects are located and also lets you quickly select one for further work, without having to switch in and out of Solo Mode.

Use Solo Mode to reduce confusion.

Using Shadows

Canoma can cast shadows from objects. Shadows can land on other objects or on the ground plane.

Shadows help you see when an object is on top of something else (the shadow shows up) or if it’s sitting at the same level (no shadow.) The distance of a shadow to an object can help you judge how high the object is above another object or above the ground plane. Shadows can act as subtle cues about the 3rd dimension. Shadows are turned Off by default

Canoma

To turn shadows On:

• Click the Show Shadows button, or select

View menu > Show Shadows.

2 Click the Show Background Image button

or select View menu > Show Background Image to displays your photograph, along

with your textured models.

Show Shadows

Click the Show Shadows button.

To turn shadows Off:

• Click the Show Shadows button or select

View menu > Show Shadows.

Displaying the Background Image

In 3D Preview Mode, you can opt to display the photograph as a background image. This can make it easier to see textured models in relationship to surrounding pixels. Displaying the background image is also useful when you want to quickly edit textures. Refer to “W orking

with Texture” on page 97 for more about editing

textures. The background image is turned Off by default

To turn background image On:

1 Generate textures, then switch to 3D

Preview mode.

Show Background Image

Click the Show Background Image button.

To turn background image Off:

• Click the Show Background Image button

or select View menu > Show Background Image.

Avoiding Model Stress

It is important not to "mislead" Canoma. For example, when you tell Canoma that an object has the same orientation as another, but it really does not, Canoma can yield inaccurate results. When that happens, the model is "stressed" or unnatural. Refer to “Monitoring

Stress in the Model” on page 126 and “Listening to the Canoma “Heartbeat”” on page 122 for more about controlling stress in

Canoma models. The Stress Display can help pinpoint exactly

which pins or beads feel the most "wrong" to Canoma (might have been placed wrong by accident or as the result of an incorrect guess.) When too much stress is present, it’s best to delete any potentially inaccurate pins or beads. The Stress Display is turned Off by default.

Building Projects

To turn stress display On:

1 Click the Show Stress Display button, or

select View menu > Show Stress Display.

available information, by ﬁlling the holes with surrounding pixels. Quality texturing takes longer, but it looks better.

Quick (the rabbit) and Quality (the turtle) Texture buttons

Show Stress Display

Click the Stress Display button.

The Project Window changes to display two sets of objects. One set is the wireframes you pinned. The other set—the gray wireframes—represent 3D objects that Canoma constructed according to your pin and bead “instructions.” If your wireframes look skewed in comparison, simply repair the offending corners or adjust any wayward beads.

To turn stress display Off:

• Click the Show Stress Display button or

select View menu > Show Stress Display.

Working with Texture

Adding texture is the process of having Canoma map the pixels of an underlying image to the faces of 3D objects.

Canoma offers two types of texturing:

• Quick Texture - fast, but can leave gaps where photographic information is missing.

• Quality Texture - compensates for brightness differences between photographs that can show up as seams. Fills in white gaps for which there is no

Adding T extures

To add Quick Texture to a model:

1 Select Texture menu > Quick Resolution

to set the desired resolution.

2 Click the Quick Texture button.

To add Quality Texture to a model:

1 Select Texture menu > Quality Resolution

to set the desired resolution. A resolution setting of 1:1 uses all the

pixels in your source image. It gives you the highest deﬁnition, but it will take longer to complete the application of texture.

2 Click the Quality Texture button. 3 Use the arrow to popup a menu of

resolution choices.

Stealing T extures

Sometimes you only have one photograph. When that’s the case, there is no pixel information for the back of objects in the model you create. There’s a quick way to steal textures from a textured side and apply it to the side that has no texture information. There are times when this can help complete the illusion of a fully textured model.

Canoma

To apply stolen textures to untextured object panes:

• Select Texture menu > Mirror Textures.

The next time you use Quick or Quality Texture, Canoma automatically calculates opposing side information and steals textures for objects that would otherwise have no texture information.

4 Once your 2D pixel editing program is

open, paste the copied texture, rescale the source pixels if necessary, save your edits, and return to Canoma. You might also need to ﬂip the source pixels horizontally or vertically, before saving.

Adding More Detail

Canoma has a good idea of where it can steal textures from for most objects. Setting Texture menu > Mirror Textures to On causes Canoma to steal all possible textures for all untextured areas in your scene. Sometimes, however, Canoma can’t ﬁnd a good place from which to steal a texture, even though it might be obvious to you where you’d like the stealing to take place. For example, in Translation Sweep objects, corresponding faces are not predeﬁned by Canoma.

When “where to steal” is not deﬁned, you can use texture editing to steal it yourself! Refer to

“Retouching or Editing Textures in 2D” on page 110 for more about editing textures with a

2D pixel editing program, like Painter or Photoshop.

To manually steal textures for untextured object panes:

1 Use the Texture Brush to click the pane of

the object that displays the texture that you want to “steal.”

2 Once your 2D pixel editing program is

open, quickly copy the texture and return to Canoma without saving.

One photograph can’t show all object sides. To include texture information for areas that are not textured in the initial photograph, you can add more photos to your project. For example, if you need better textures for the front of a speciﬁc building or need to ﬁll in texture for the back of a product box, you can add more detailed information with additional photos.

Imagine doing some architectural photographs:

• ﬁrst create a project using an aerial photograph,

• next add detail from close-up shots taken at ground level.

Close-up views often have the problem that you cannot see a whole object you previously modeled. As you position the wireframe, remember: pins are for corners that you can see, beads are f or edges or for when y ou cannot easily see the whole object, and glue is for aligning objects.

3 Use the Texture Brush to click the pane of

the object where you want the “stolen” texture to be applied.

Building Projects

Using the 2D Image Palette

A thumbnail of the currently selected photograph is displayed on the 2D Image Palette. The 2D Image Palette opens downward to reveal a tray where you can access all the photographs in your project.

The 2D Image Palette shows the currently active photograph. Click the drawer handle to open a tray of all the images in your project.

To add an image:

• Choose File > Add Image or click the 2D

Image Views add button.

Tip

Always roughly align new photographs with your model, before starting to pin.

The scrollbar at the side of the palette lets you scroll through all of your images.

Drag the scrollbar to scroll through images.

2 Click a thumbnail in the palette to select it

as the active photograph or use the selection arrows in the top right corner to move through the list of photos. A yellow border around an image thumbnail indicates that the image is currently selected.

To delete an image:

1 Click the 2D Image Palette drawer handle

to see a tray of all the photographs in your project.

2 Click a thumbnail in the palette to select it

as the active photograph.

To select an image:

1 Click and drag the 2D Image Palette

drawer handle downward to see more photographs.

3 Click the - button or press the delete ke y to

remove the image from the Image Views palette.

Canoma

To set the maximum texture resolution:

1 Select Texture menu > Resolution Max. 2 Choose a resolution size from the popup

menu.

Tip

Setting the Maximum Texture Resolution can be handy, since very high resolution texture images can consume large amounts of memory.

Building Projects

100

Viewing Models

What’s in this Chapter:

Positioning the View of Your Model. . . . . .102

Using Canoma Camera Controls. . . . . . . .102

Zooming and Panning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Resetting the Viewpoint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Canoma User Guide

Positioning the View of Your Model

When you position a view, you’re affecting the position and orientation of a camera, not the scene. The scale and position of objects remains constant; only your view of the model changes.

Using the camera controls while in Edit mode switches the application to View mode. What you see in View mode is either ﬂat shaded or textured (if you have applied textures .) While in View mode , you can also use the Pan tool inside the Project Window to move the image.

Canoma has three sets of controls for positioning your view of the model:

The Trackball lets you adjust the position of the camera, as well as its orientation. Use the Trackball to rotate your model.

•a

Trackball

objects directly in front of the photographer

• the

•

in-view navigation controls

useful for moving around in large environments like interiors or city scenes.

, which is useful for small

Camera Cross controls

, which are

Use the Trackball to rotate your model. The Camera Cross controls let you change the

position of the camera along X, Y, and Z axes.

The Camera Cross controls change the position of the camera along X, Y, and Z axes.

Using Canoma Camera Controls

Using the Trackball

The Trackball lets you rotate the camera around its origin point. The Trackball doesn’t rotate the model, it just changes the camera’s location

Viewing Models

102

Metacreations CANOMA user Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual