The "entry level" designation is more indicative of the price range than the software's capabilities. The list price for Raydream 3D is $149.00 but it's showing up in software catalogs for around $100. Yet Metacreations has included all the necessary functionality for 3D renderings and animation. That's not too surprising although it is a far cry from what was considered "entry level" for 3D a few years ago. What is surprising is that Raydream 3D also sports a number of unexpected features and benefits.

Raydream's Wizards and its drag and drop interface allow a complete novice to create something quite extraordinary the first time they launch the program. They've also included libraries of pre-made ready to render files so can dabble with the program for quite awhile without getting involved in the more complex aspects of 3D. If you want to get more deeply involved with 3D and animation the program won't disappoint you and the interface, manuals and Wizards will help you make the transition.

Raydream 3D's interface is a little different from other 3D software packages that rely on fixed views from several different angles. Raydream's primary workspace is the Perspective window. Users have the flexibility of setting up their own views, cameras and perspectives as they see fit. The Perspective window's drag and drop interface is combined with a hierarchical window and numeric inputs for adjusting an object's placement, size and grouping.

Drop objects into either the perspective or hierarchical windows to setup your scene. These objects can be models, cameras or lights. You can move the objects with your mouse by selecting either the object itself or it's "projection" - a boxed outline on the gridded planes surrounding your view. You can also use the Properties Window to adjust your object by inputting specific X,Y,Z coordinates. The Scene Wizard provides around 40 preset scenes that can be customized by simple selections or by inputting your own text.

You can have as many camera views as you like and you can now save ALL aspects of that camera's properties recalling them at will, even from the preset window. If you've ever used any version of Raydream before you'll appreciate this addition. Unlike other programs the Perspective window view is always a camera view. Which makes it easy to move your Rendering camera by accident. Being able to save the camera shot you've lined up so carefully can save a great deal of aggravation.

You can add "gels" to project shadows or color effects through your lights. These gels can be made from texture maps, presets or even animations. This is very useful for projecting the shadow of leaves on your outdoor scenes, or creating stained glass effects, but imagine how useful it can be in creating underwater scenes.

Modeling in R3 is accomplished from within the program with the Modeling Wizard, primitives (including an infinite plane), text modeler or the Free Form modeler. The Modeling Wizard steps you through a number of simple self-explanatory and illustrated steps to help you create a number of shapes and models. The Free Form modeler is a unique approach that should be particularly easy for beginners when compared to most other forms of modeling. It is basically an extrusion modeler with adjustable cross sections (similar to lofting), envelopes and sweep paths. If you are new to modeling think of extrusion as using one of those child's toys that forces clay through different shaped openings, stars, octagons, circles, etc. Then imagine being able to create a new section at any point along the extrusion and change it's shape while the computer figures out how to match up the differences. It's a powerful tool. Especially since you model any number of items by using primitive shapes alone.

Since modeling some objects can be complex and difficult for even the experienced, newcomers to 3D are always searching for model files. Raydream 3D comes complete with over 750 model files and over 400 pre-made shader files. These models cover a wide spectrum of topics from household items to the Nueschwanstein castle. The majority of the models are good-to-excellent quality though the texturing is not all that exciting. Still, a new user can merely open up a model directory from the CD and drag objects right into the Perspective window and then render it on the spot. Studying, dissecting and playing with these files is a marvelous way to learn how to model and shade your own objects. This library of files alone would justify the purchase price of the program and certainly wouldn't be expected in an entry level program.

The Raydream shaders are one of its crowning glories. Shaders are Raydream's version of textures, but go well beyond what is normally considered textures for 3D. Textures define the surface properties of your objects. The Shader's different channels allow you to apply the normal range of colors, bitmaps, highlights, specularity, bump mapping, transparency, refraction and glow using built in procedures, external bitmaps or even animations. The Shader editor also gives you the ability to mix these effects within a given channel or globally between different shaders. The end result is a shader editor that is deceptively simple at face value, allowing you to create effective shaders very quickly and easily but also providing the capability to create uncommonly creative and complex shaders as well.

The placement of these shaders isn't as intuitive as it could be. Procedurals are about as predictable as one would expect but lining up texture maps just seems more difficult than I have experienced in other programs. The program does include some "paint directly on the object" features which are very useful in applying label-like effects or making a slight adjustment to an objects map. Shaders, objects, lights, cameras and behaviors are all accessible from the Browser window.

Every program's rendering engine has it's own artistic look and style. Raydream has an excellent Raytracer and a couple of other selections to speed up proofing or the rendering itself. What is really unique is its Natural Media renderer. Based on Thinkfish Productions, Inc. technology, this Natural Media renderer makes your renderings look more like 2D hand drawn artwork in a number of different styles - Sketch, Silk Screen, Ink wash to name a few.

Animation is of course the major difference between Raydream Designer and Raydream 3D. And what a difference it is. Practically everything is animatable - lights, cameras, objects, object's shapes, shaders, you name it. Animation has also been made fairly simple by using timeline keyframing. You make changes to your scene and by selecting different points in the time line window the program records the changes to your scene. You can then use the Time Controller to play the animation in your Perspective window or render the file to disk to create your animation. You can also apply Behaviors such as spin or bounce to objects to animate them over time.

Motion paths are a fairly recent addition to the Raydream products yet is included in Raydream 3D. They allow you to see a graphic representation of an objects animation path before you run the animation. Raydream's "Rotoscoping" effects are accomplished by using a Movie (meaning an AVI or Quicktime file) as a background while placing other objects animated or not in the foreground of your animation. What is really amazing is that Raydream 3D supports inverse kinetics - the ability to link objects together to create realistic motions. The most obvious use of inverse kinetics are for animating figures so that hands stay connected the forearms which remain connected to the upper arm which remains connected to the shoulder and so on. Raydreams IK also allows you to define range and types of motion for these connections. By using the tweener function you can make the movements in your animation more sophisticated by fine tuning the changes from one state to another. Inverse kinetics have until recently been considered a fairly advanced feature in 3D.

Metacreations has also left Raydream's extensibility intact so third party programmers can continue to add to the program's capabilities. Raydream 3D will support the extensions such as Rayflect's Four Elements which adds additional shader capabilities, a landscape generator based upon internally generated or imported heightmaps, some impressive sky effects and much more. Although the Four Elements extension has to be purchased separately there are a few Four Elements shaders included with Raydream 3D. Unfortunately there is also a bug associated with these shaders so you will get a warning message asking you for the serial number every time you use one. You can download a patch from the Metacreations site to fix this though.

Raydream 3D imports and exports model files in either DXF or 3DMF formats, which opens up a whole world of pre-existing files that you can use. DXF is basically the lowest common denominator in 3D models. Since it has been around awhile there are libraries of free files just waiting for you on the Internet. 3DMF is a much more recent file format but is gaining in popularity.

Metacreations new Raydream 3D has wide variety of uses. You can use it to create photorealistic print graphics and digital animations. You can also do unique things such as make 360 degree panoramas by using the IVRM camera settings. These panoramas are becoming very popular in adventure games and as virtual worlds on the World Wide Web. You can also create VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) files directly from Raydream to make VR files for the web. Overall Raydream is perfect for creating web graphics since it creates GIF and JPEG files as well as animations.

Prior to Raydream 3D's release there was some conjecture on the Internet as to whether or not it would be a full fledged product or just a "crippled" version of Raydream Studio to entice users to upgrade as soon as possible. The features they did pack into Raydream 3D are remarkable and give the software a number of uses. If you need to add dimension to any print graphics or website designs, create photorealistic pictures, animations or just want to learn about 3D, Raydream 3D would be an excellent choice.


This review was written by Preston Chesser who can be reached by email at pchesser@visicom.com and has a homepage at www.yup.com/chesser.