Designing with Ray Dream Studio - CIOL Tips and Tricks

Designing with Ray Dream Studio

This 3D graphics software lets you create nifty illustrations for both print and online media in a few simple steps. We create a 3D letter box in this article

Jose P M

Thursday, October 23, 2008

BANGALORE, INDIA: Ray Dream Studio (RDS) is a rendering application suite for creating 3D illustrations and animations.

The cross platform package has seven different modules: free-form, modeling wizard, cone, cube, and light modules like background, atmosphere, shaders, etc. You can create objects on different planes using Free-form modeler.

The Modeling Wizard allows designers to create simple objects with predefined shapes, like extruding, lathing etc. It has tools for creating objects like lofting, sweeping and Boolean. The Shaders Editor enables animators to create innovative shades and textures.

You can use particle based primitives like 'Fire', 'Smoke' and 'Fog' to add special effects to the images. The Studio includes more than 500 editable models. Here, we show how you can make a postal box-like object in a few simple steps.


When you open RDS, you can see 'Perspective', 'Hierarchy', 'Properties' and 'Browser' windows. Open the 'Perspective' window to start drawing.	The red triangle lights the object. Go to the 'Panel' button at the left side of the screen and press the white area of the panel. This will show you the other two perspective windows.

Select 'Cylinder' from tools box and press the Perspective window. This shows the cylinder and images on other two planes. Increase the height of the Cylinder to make it visible.	Drag the free-form to the Perspective window and name it. It consists of three planes. Pink lines represent the extrusion paths which control the object shape.

Now switch to 'Drawing Plane view'. For that, go to View >Preset position >drawing plane. Select 'Pen' from tool bar and draw a triangle. Change it to Wireframe for better view.	Zoom the top area of the triangle and select 'Convert' tool. Drag the top point of the triangle horizontally to give it a good shape.

Go to View >Preset position >Reference and switch to preview mode by clicking 'Preview' icon on top. Click on >Edit >Jump out to return to Perspective window.	Select the new object at the back plane and bring it above the Cylinder. Change the height, width and shape of the object to fit it with the Cylinder.

Press 'Select' tool and select the new object. Place it on top of the first object. For proper placement you can use the corners of the back plane of both objects.	Select the top portion and double click on 'Shade' to start rendering. Write 'Letter Box' using 'Text' tool and drag it on to the Cylinder. Rotate the top portion for front view.