Description
If you are a designer who wants to add limitless options to your arsenal, then Strata solutions are perfect for you! Strata Design 3D CX 8 has an intuitive interface designed to make the transition from 2D to 3D as simple as possible. If you use Adobe solutions, you will find you are up and creating stunning 3D designs and/or animations in no time!
Strata Design 3D CX 8 is the professional-level 3D modeling and animation software for Mac that delivers end-to-end power for the entire 3D design workflow. Quickly bring your creative ideas to life with a simplified learning curve, tight integration with Adobe Photoshop and award-winning rendering quality rivaling any software at any price.
The Winter 2015-16 Release adds Embree Raycasting technology by Intel® to improve rendering speed up to 800%. Also new is the Stage Model feature, making it easy to place your models in professionally created templates for a finished presentation.
Up to 800% Speed Increase
The remarkable efficiency of the Embree raycasting engine, combined with new improvements in the Strata rendering engine come together to provide speed increases of up to 8x the previous release. Depending on the image and configuration of your model and lighting, you can see speed increases that will greatly enhance your productivity. Do more for your clients – or just spend more time doing what you love – the extra time is all yours!
Deeper, Broader and More Refined Antialiasing
What else can you do when you have lightening fast raycasting? Use it to improve image quality through superior antialiasing for one. With the Winter 2015-16 Release Strata were able to change how Design 3D antialiases images by going into darker and broader color areas to refine edges of objects and textures. This gamma adjusted antialiasing takes more rays cast into more areas but the results are well worth it.
Better Displacement Mapping on Subdivision Surfaces
It takes a lot of rays to refine a surface that’s using both polygon subdivision and displacement mapping. With Embree we were able to greatly improve on this combination. Now you can use the “Displacement” texture type with confidence on your subdivided objects. Just use the popup menu in the left side of the Resource/Texture palette.
Stage Model Feature
Now you can easily stage your finished models in any one of nearly 30 professionally created templates. Just select the model you want to stage, click on the Stage Model button in the button bar and up pops the setup assistant Stage dialog. Choose your template, decide whether to have your model automatically scale to the template and whether to rotate to face the camera. Just click the “Stage Model in Template” button and your model is ready to render.
See details on the latest release:
RENDERING FEATURES:
64-BIT RENDERING / MEMORY
Design 3D 8.0 can access massive amounts of memory during rendering.
RENDER GAMMA CONTROL
The gamma function shifts pixel intensity values in a way that more closely approximates the way humans perceive light. This creates more realistic lighting and makes lighting a scene easier. Linear gamma tends to be more contrasted, with areas near light sources that can be over exposed, and areas farther from lights tending towards under-exposure.
HIGH PRECISION FLOATING-POINT COLOR OUTPUT (OPENEXR)
Renderings can be saved in OpenEXR format which stores high precision color information. Among its features is the ability to save pixel intensities which can far exceed the white point. In both 8 and 16-bit color white is always white. No intensities beyond it are available for editing once the bitmap is saved.
HIGH PRECISION INTEGER COLOR OUTPUT (16-BIT)
16-bit color avoids gradient banding problems common to 8-bit per channel color. With 16-bit integer color each channel contains 65,536 value steps, whereas 8-bit contains only 256 steps per channel.
LIVERAY, RAPID SCENE/OBJECT RAYTRACED PREVIEW
LiveRay allows for quick tests in any modeling or scene window (including camera windows) with a fast raytraced overlay. This helps to visualize complex material setups that aren’t visible with the standard OpenGL display. LiveRay also allows for rapid lighting visualizations without having to invoke the standard render mechanism.
NEW ANTI-ALIASING FILTER MECHANISM
A new anti-aliasing mechanism allows the renderer to produce sharper or softer pixel filtering for aliased geometry and textures. Three presets (sharp, medium, soft) allow for easy access to these filters. Very nuanced settings can be accessed to manually adjust the anti-aliasing system.
FASTER RENDERING OF 7.5 FILES
Design 3D 8.0 provides improved rendering performance when compared to version 7.5.
IMAGE BRIGHTNESS CONTROLS DURING RENDERING
A rendering can be image adjusted during the render process. This is most useful for adjusting the overall brightness (or lack thereof) for a rendering. This helps to make fine-tuned adjustments to an image without needing to change lights or materials, or to stop a rendering to make these changes.
SOFT SHADOWS FOR GLOBAL LIGHTS
Global lights can now cast soft shadows by setting the ‘Size in Angular Diameter’ parameter. This is very useful for realistic lighting, especially when using the Sun & Sky function.
SPHERICAL CAMERA
A new spherical type allows easy creation of spherical HDRI images from any existing scene. These can be saved as floating-point EXR files and then used in the Lightdome to provide lighting.
MATERIAL EDITOR ENHANCEMENTS
DIRECTLY IMPORT AI/PDF FILES IN THE MATERIAL DIALOG
Native vector source files for textures can be imported directly into a material channel. This helps to bypass generating intermediate files from a source file.
INTERACTION WITH LIGHTRAY
Texture changes can be easily previewed from within the material dialog with LightRay by pressing the Apply button.
BUILT-IN COMMON TEXTURE MAPS
The materials dialog has easy to access general-purpose bitmaps such as masks, normal maps, anisotropic reflection maps and color maps.
IMPROVED OPENGL
BETTER INTERACTIVE LIGHTING
Working interactively with models is easier now. Instead of needing to place many global lights around a scene, a single color can be placed in the Lightdome to provide even lighting. Models that have metallic surfaces (or surfaces with no diffuse component) are also fully illuminated, whereas those would appear as black in 7.5.
PUBLISH 3D
SKETCHFAB, PUBLISH YOUR MODELS ONLINE
Send your content from Design 3D, using the new Publish 3D interface, for use in realtime 3D anywhere on the web. Use high quality interactive 3D that’s as easy to use as YouTube. Embed models on Kickstarter, Facebook, your client’s website or your own.
AUGMENT, PRESENT YOUR IDEAS IN CONTEXT
Send your content from Design 3D, using Publish 3D, for use in augmented reality. Show clients and customers your products on a shelf or a model in their hands—all without making physical prototypes. iPad, iPhone and Android devices become virtual windows for your ideas using Augment.
MATERIALIZE, EASY TO USE 3D PRINTING
Send your content from Design 3D, using Publish 3D, for easy 3D printing with one of the worlds leading 3D print services. i.materialise provides a huge variety of materials and finishes. Virtually every 3D printing technology is at your fingertips.
Strata Design 3D CX offers subdivision- and spline-based 3D modeling as well as texturing, lighting, and rendering. It is built around an Adobe user interface standard. Its interface is as straightforward as Photoshop, plus it is more intuitive to navigate than many 3D programs.
Photoshop files can be imported and mapped without flattening and it has excellent and rendering quality. Its ability to export to a number of file formats, including EPS and Flash, will certainly be welcomed by print graphic designers.
“Strata Design 3D CX has a lot to offer 3D or 2D artists who want to integrate 3D elements in their work, and it’s also backed up by community forums, videos and the web-based Strata 3D University.”
—MacUser UK Review, October 2011
All the Power for One Simple Price
Unlike some 3D applications, Strata Design 3D CX gives you all of its 3D tools for one great price. The makers of Strata Design 3D CX don’t force you to decide how you’re going to use the product in the future, or make a guess ahead of time about which tools you might need for future projects. The only pricing decision you need to make is whether to buy Design 3D CX by itself, or as part of the Strata 3D CX Suite.
Simplified 3D Learning Curve
Strata Design 3D eases the learning curve for 2D designers who are new to 3D. Quick start templates, libraries, predefined effects, backgrounds, environments and more allow designers to create complex scenes in minutes. With a user interface and tools that are familiar to today’s 2D designers, you invest your time learning 3D design concepts rather than a new design paradigm.
Model Anything in 3D or Import Existing 3D Assets
For many, the thought of 3D modeling is a daunting task. Design 3D offers an extremely friendly modeling toolset and environment for manipulating your polygons, splines, and primitives into any 3D object or scene you can imagine. If you’re working with existing 3D assets, Strata Design 3D CX utilizes a host of filters and options to accurately import third-party 3D models and scenes.
Apply Surface Textures with Precision
In the world of 3D, texturing may just be the most important component in creating convincing final renderings. Once you have designed your 3D model, Strata Design 3D CX gives you powerful tools to create, apply and manipulate surface textures with beautifully accurate results.
Set-Up Your Scene with Lighting, Backgrounds, Cameras, etc.
Scene composition is a critical step in producing stunning images. Design 3D CX makes it easier to control the environment than any photography studio you could imagine. Position your 3D objects and then place lights, reflection panels, cameras, backgrounds, environments, reflection elements and more produce a superior final render or animation for your design project.
Render Photo-Real Images and Animations at Blazing Speeds
Design 3D is well known for its extraordinary rendering technology. Whether you’re after photo-realistic results or some other style for your static or motion graphics, you will find the rendering options to suit your needs and output the results using one of the fastest rendering engines in the industry. After all, it’s all about the final results and Design 3D delivers.
Learn Design 3D CX Online at Strata 3D University
Learning 3D doesn’t have to be difficult. Especially with Strata’s online training library at your fingertips, covering every aspect of Strata Design 3D CX and the entire 3D design workflow. Strata 3D University makes it simple to find the subject of interest and quickly get up to speed with short, informative videos created by professional 3D designers.
Native UV Mapping for Perfect Textures
Powerful UV Mapping environment that makes exact placement of textures easier and faster than ever. UV texture mapping is a technique used to accurately wrap a 2D image texture onto a 3D model, where the image texture can then be stretched, squeezed, and rotated to fit correctly. UV coordinates maintain the relationship between the texture and 3D model, even when the model is further manipulated.
A New Standard in Rendering Perfection
Design 3D CX establishes rendering superiority with an array of updates that advance overall output quality and speed. Added support for blurry transparency and reflectivity produces stunningly lifelike realism. Instance Rendering Properties offer control over how an individual object’s shadows, caustics, reflections and transparencies are rendered, or whether an object is even displayed at all.
Modeling Evolved with Polygon Editing Enhancements
Ample improvements to the polygon modeling toolset and workflow include new Flatten, Weld, Unweld, Flip and Save Subset features. When combined with more intuitive mouse interactions and visual feedback, hard edge handling, selection options and new customizable keyboard shortcuts for common modeling tasks, Design 3D CX takes one giant step towards modeling bliss.
Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts Let You Define Your Workflow
All graphic designers rely on at least a few keyboard shortcuts in their favorite design programs. Others can tell you every shortcut that’s available. We all have our own preferences and opinions on what key combinations make sense for certain tasks, so who are we to decide what’s right or wrong? Design 3D CX allows you to take control and create your own Keyboard Shortcut Sets to match your favorite design programs or your own personal preferences.
Boolean Modeling Refined
Boolean Modeling allows you to add, subtract, intersect, and cut 2 different objects to create a new 3D object. Produce cleaner, more accurate and reliable results.
Texturing Options with Normal Maps
In addition to greyscale Bump Maps, Design 3D CX ushers in the ability to use Normal Maps for creating realistic surfaces details through the use of an RGB image. Normal Maps can also be used to “fake” lighting details of an object instead of modeling all of the details. It’s just one more way that texturing in Design 3D CX makes your life easier.
Time Saving Project Templates
New 3D scene templates offer designers an easy way to jump start their 3D projects, without beginning in the vacuum of a New Empty Project. Scene templates include advanced lighting with soft shadows, environments, backgrounds and more, which can all be edited to suit your needs. Working with templates is also a great way to learn how to formulate your own 3D scenes.
Unique Surface Realism Through Anisotropy
Anisotropy is an advanced surface property that yields subtle, yet realistic effects to surfaces and reflections. An example of Anisotropy is a surface that blurs in a vertical direction, but not in a horizontal direction, such as brushed metals. Anisotropy settings are a new addition to the Image Texture controls.
Grid Templates Make Modeling Easier
To aid in certain modeling processes, images can now be applied to X,Y, and Z Grids for use as a template. The opacity of the grids can be adjusted to behave similar to tracing paper, which allows you to quickly model to proper proportions and accurately locate the components that make up your 3D model.
Match Motion Brings the Real World and CG World Closer Together
Visual effects artists often use a combination of live action and 3D action, which visually match up to create a realistic scene. Match Motion imports camera data from Pixel Farm’s PFHoe to create a 3D scene, which matches the motion of a live camera scene.
Sun and Sky Backgrounds add More Reality to Your Environments
A new background type is available in Design 3D CX that will give your projects a real world feel. Sun and Sky backgrounds change colors to mimic a real sky and horizon as you move your light source. Features like haze and turbidity provide additional realism. If you want your scenes to change from sunup to sundown this is your feature.
That’s Not All
Design 3D CX offers too many new features to list here, but you will also benefit from numerous productivity enhancements, support for new file formats, long file names, view persistency, and a new Collect and Save function that gathers your model file and linked files all in one location. Buy Design 3D CX today and see for yourself why it’s Strata’s most important release to date.
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