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Strata 3D CX 5.0For users that scream when they see the complex interface and price of programs like Maya, Strata 3D CX will be seen as welcome relief. With a suggested retail price of $695.00, and an interface familiar to users of Adobe products such as Photoshop and Illustrator, it's an excellent tool for the freelance artist and 3D novice alike. Strata 3D CX 5.0 is the latest incarnation of a 3D modeling program aimed at the more casual user. Strata has a gentle learning curve, with the ability to import Illustrator files and use Photoshop in conjunction with it, making editing textures on the fly a cinch. You can now render your scenes in layers, which will export individual components such as Specular, Transparency, Background, and Shadow Color as a layered .psd file. The modeling area of the program is wonderful for creating type, logos, and other simple creations in 3D, but it is not adequate for the easy creation of higher-end models that you would find in films or next-generation games. Bringing illustrations into full 3D is within your reach however, and moderately easy once you understand the program.
Animation gains a boost with the addition of Inverse Kinematics and easier timeline adjustments, allowing you to animate all aspects of your scenes, from textures and lights, to the pathing of characters and effects. Granted, this is something that has been a staple of the higher-end 3D programs for a long time, but it's a boon to those without big-budget wallets. New in CX 5.0 is LUA scripting, used by companies like Blizzard, Bioware, and LucasArts. The uses range from the simple, such as scripting animated rotations and scaling, to the complex, such as completely changing the way a scene renders depending on camera angle, and creating your own special effects. Strata has a wide range of rendering options, with the beautiful (albeit slow) raytracing, raydiosity which allows for accurate reflections, atmospheric effects such as fog and clouds, and the toon option, which makes your scenes look like hand drawn cell-shaded creations. Lightboxes and High Dynamic Range Intensity lighting options contribute to making your scenes look even more gorgeous with just a few clicks. The ease of use is a blessing or a curse, depending on what you wish to accomplish. For someone with experience using higher-end programs like Lightwave, Strata doesn't offer enough control and customization in most areas, particularly modeling and texturing. There are freeware programs that import/export models and UV maps which help with this, but it takes more time and energy for something you'll wish was included in the base program. For a user that is new to 3D, or the artist that wants to add some 3D sparkle to their works without having a nightmare of a learning curve and expenses, you'll find this program to be all that you should need.
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The texturing portion of Strata is
mixed. While you can easily import, layer, and change textures on the
fly from Photoshop, don't expect to have an easy time texturing
complex shapes. Precise UV texturing isn't possible with Strata
alone, although simpler shapes are fairly easy to texture, especially
with the abundant number of textures supplied with the program, as
well as those found online. Editing the bump map, specular, glow
properties and more of an object is fast and easy.
