Creation Date: 2003-07-24
AltSci3D Manga Director
Introduction
AltSci3D Manga Director (alias asmd alias as3dmd) is a tool for a
3D digital artist. You can
download the
source/binary/data right here on
Javantea.com. If you don't know
what it is, you should probably
check out
the info page. You can also
get
info on the latest build. If you're like me, you probably just
want to
skip to the screenshots. If
you're a veteran of JF viewing, you have seen AS3DMD in about 90%
of the 50 MB of pictures on JF. Nearly
every
3D picture is taken from AS3DMD, so check it out if you want
to see what AS3DMD is capable of in its current form.
That Sourceforge logo isn't just for looks. I became a member and
registered as3dmd at sourceforge.net. Sweet! They gave me CVS,
FTP, SSH, and HTTP services. I spent the last three hours getting
CVS working. It's up and ready. I have the three release versions
ready for upload. As soon as I finish this paragraph, I'm going to
upload the website. Now you know that AltSci3D Manga Director is
going to be huge. ^_^
Home
Info
Download
Change Log
Screenshots
The idea behind AltSci3D Manga Director is to create a 3D
development environment for manga/comics at the object level (as
opposed to the triangle level, like
MilkShape3D
or the pixel level like
The
Gimp). Given models from MilkShape3D, a person will be able to
create a 3D comic as an entire virtual world in real-time. While
it requires a decent video card for developers, the end result is
something like JF, a PNG/JPEG image that looks and feels like a
comic should. It is currently built for Linux, but it is almost
ported to Win32, and I will have a binary download in the near
future (check back in two weeks, 03/01/2003).
While I am focusing mainly on software, a person who focuses on
art and models would be able to create a massive manga in very
little time with no standard artistic drawing. Since AS3DMD is
open source, free software, and unique it is the perfect choice
for the new artform of low-poly 3D manga.
AltSci3D v4
AltSci3D v4 is a 3D engine by AltSci Concepts (aka. Javantea) that
uses Linux/C++/SDL/OpenGL. It is almost ported to Win32, and will
have a binary in the near future. It has been recently
open-sourced along with AltSci3D Manga Director. One would imagine
that a 3D engine would be a static or dynamic library, but
currently in high development, it is simply a seperate set of
files to be placed in your app directory. If one wishes to create
AS3D from ASMD, s/he can simply take AS3DMD and delete a few
manga-related functions. If you want to use it before it hits
prime time (right now), download the recently released code. For
support, just
e-mail
me at jvoss@myuw.net.
To use the AS3D engine, you can simply change the data file and
modify the as3dapp.cpp file to run your program. All the hard
stuff that takes months of development are done for you in the
form of classes. You simply call them and the code runs. You
control what keys run each functions and what button on the
interface runs each function.
My plan is to create a few programs using the AS3D engine and
refine it. Since it's seperate from the application, the changes
can propagate down to all the other applications running on the
AS3D Engine. So then each time I update code for AS3DMD, I'll
probably update the engine to make it better for all the other
apps that run on it.
AltSci3D Terrain Works
AltSci3D Terrain Works is the second program written using the
AltSci3D Engine. I wrote it in 3 hours using existing program. It
takes a heightmap and turns it into a mesh and renders it. You
control the precision with the data file. As with most AS3D
programs, you have full control over the camera to check the mesh.
In the near future, I plan to add a triangle reduction algorhythm
and dynamic mesh precision. See the
screenshots
as a Making of JF Page.
AltSci3D Particle Works
Particle Works is the next program that I plan to write in
AltSci3D Engine. It was originally written in DirectX8.1 and is
currently available for Windows Download along with a full essay
at
it's website.