On 3/30/07, MenTaLguY <mental@...3...> wrote:
One, we really just want the 3d box as a framework for whatever drawing we're doing. Boxes are great here.
Alternately, we want just the VPs and resulting perspective grid for the sake of drawing features in perspective "freehand". For that purpose, a box is just in the way.
What exactly do you mean by "drawing in the perspective"? I think any kind of drawing in 3D starts with defining the box that your object will be inscribed into. Without the box, you cannot really ensure your object is in a correct perspective.
Also, while I don't think boxes are a bad idea, I'm less comfortable with the idea of adding more 3d primitives -- there's a lot of potential for scope creep. Where do we stop, exactly? Should we support lighting?
Of course not. No attempt to render anything except the _shapes_ of the 3D objects. Colors, lighting, shading etc. is entirely the responsibility of the artist - all parts of 3D objects remain regular paths that can be styled, cloned, masked, applied path effects, etc. all without losing the 3D editability of their parent object.
Import of arbitrary triangle meshes? Import of color and finish (e.g. diffuse versus specular) information? Mesh editing?
No, no, and no. The important thing to understand about this tool is this: we are not making another 3D editor. There are already lots of them, and we won't be able to come up with anything really new and inventive. Instead, we are making a tool in a 2D vector editor aiming to help 2D artists to quickly and easily produce 2D art that gives a believable impression of 3D. No more, no less. That seems to be a sadly neglected area, and I think we'll be able to do something quite novel if we concentrate on it.
One consequence of this approach is: there won't be really any 3D objects stored in the drawing. I don't think we'll store, for example, 3D coordinates of all corners of a box. Instead we will have 2D objects which just obey certain rules designed with the goal of 3D believability (but not necessarily absolute correctness). Some of these 2D objects can be mapped to orthogonal 3D boxes; some (e.g. those with skewed perspective) cannot. The ultimate goal is to make the 3D functionality as helpful as possible and yet as transparent as possible, so that it does not require any complex setup, any preliminary 3D layout planning, or any unnecessary limitations or complications of the regular drawing process. You just pick the tool and start _drawing_, not "building the 3D world" as with a typical 3D application.
Camera focal length settings?
Also no. This one in particular is illustrative of the approach we are taking. In a regular 3D app, you indeed change the focal length, and the perspective - vanishing points - of your view changes accordingly. In our tool, you can achieve the same but from the other end: you simply drag the vanishing point where you want it to be, and this affects the perspective of the 3D objects, essentially giving you the equivalent of switching from wide angle to tele or back.