Here's a handy flyer for the file formats that can be imported and exported to in 3DPaintBrush. You can import 3D formats widely used such as Sketchup,3DS,OBJ to images,videos and other 3D formats.

We, the team of 3DPaintBrush, are huge fans of science fiction movies and especially the Star Wars/Trek franchise. We started with the aim of creating a clip from the latest Star Trek movie using 3DPaintBrush in the shortest possible time, and here's the rough cut :

Get ready with those dilithium crystals!

Customer feedback is an essential ingredient for successfully developing a product. At 3DPaintBrush we constantly seek feedback from our users. User feedback is a major driver for features in future versions. Here's a brief of what our customers say about 3DPaintBrush:

"Extremely pleased with 3DPaintBrush and its extremely short learning curve which for a beginner in graphics helps to create professional looking renders" - Sarajit, Editor & Content Creator

"If you need a animation, and you don't have lots off learning-time, patience nor heaps off money, and you want a piece of software with a normal UI, nice features and that's fun to work with, I'll say take 3dPaintbrush." - Leo, Jewelry Designer

" Great Program" - Ron, Architect & 3D enthusiast

We are all ears!
-srio

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a set of specifications based on XML and used to describe 2D vector graphics. The specification is an Open Standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. You can create SVG images from your 3D Scenes using 3DPaintBrush.
Advantages of having SVG content are :

• SVG images and their behaviours are defined in XML text files. This means they are Search Engine friendly.
• The image is lossless. Unlike other Raster Image formats ( JPG,BMP,PNG), SVG is a Vector format and can be scaled up to any size.
• Easily editable (using any Text Editor)
• Suited for compression

The main reason for the muted use of SVG content is the lack of proper support on Internet Explorer. You could overcome this issue by using SVG Web - a javascript library that provides SVG support to browsers. The library uses Flash for actual rendering. Majority of the users already have Flash installed. Give it a spin!

Moving objects in a 3D scene is difficult. Gridlines et al provide a basic reference mechanism but are still inadequate.Users typically rely on a number of visual cues to create or modify their 3D scene. In the latest version of 3DPaintBrush, we have tried to solve this pain area of our users.

We have included a better and intuitive way of manipulating objects within the scene. We display guide planes and lines that would give you a direct visual cue so that its easier for you to move objects in the scene. The translucent Guide Plane passes through the center of the 3D and used to get in line with other objects. The normal line (parallel) to the Guide Plane is used to denote the measure of distance from the original position

Watch the short demonstration and do give us feedback on this new feature.

With 3DPaintBrush, you can position Lights on the Camera or in the World space. In this tutorial we cover how you can modify and position Lights in the world space.

You can now move and position lights within the Graphics Area itself, just like moving components. To do this select the Lights node in the Scene Panel. Select "Fix Lights in WorldSpace" for Positioning. Now by selecting "Show Light" & "Show Lights Range", you can visualize the Lights in your scene in the graphics area. Right clicking on a Light in the Graphics Area provides you with an option of moving them, just like moving components. Lights shown in the graphics area also show their properties like the type of light ( Directional, Point or Spotlight), its color, spread angle etc.

You can also modify the color, position, attenuation & direction properties in the Properties Panel on the left. Activate this by selecting a particular light to edit in the Scene Panel. Watch the video below for a complete tutorial on Preset Lights, modifying and positioning lights in worldspace and altering Light properties like color, direction, attenuation, position, & spread angle

3D content in any application drastically improves the visual appeal and coolness quotient. 3DPaintBrush can be used to quickly create this content for your WPF applications in Microsoft Expressions Blend. 

Here are the steps :

1. Create 3D scenes ( you could optionally use models from Google 3D Warehouse - a huge online repository of 3D models)
2. Export them to XAML using File->Export as XAML ( Note : In Options Choose Viewport 3D & 3D data )
3. Open a project in Blender
4. Insert (alternately use Ctrl + I ) and browse to the saved XAML file
5. Build and Run the Project in Expressions Blend !

We had recently conducted a user survey to prioritize features and get the pulse of our users. We got a huge response and thank you all for participating. Winners were randomly picked from the entire list of participants and have been given a 3DPaintBrush Version 2.0 license absolutely free!

The list of people who won is given below :

1] Tosiharu Kimura
2] Neill Chapman
3] Hector L. Rivera
4] Rere Lebon
5] Albert Ewan

We have already sent mailers to the winners with the licensing and other info.

Happy Painting and Stay Tuned In,
Srio

I am pleased to anounce the launch of 3DPaintBrush Version 2.0. A few highlites of this release are :

• Ray Tracing (Beta) : For exporting realistic images from 3DPaintBrush.
• Lights Movement : For simplified visualizing and positioning lights in the scene . As always with 3DPaintBrush, the modifications are are reflected in the Graphics area in Real Time.
• Export to 3D PDF (Beta), Executable & GIF formats : Now there are even more options to export your scenes to other formats.
• Support for Google Sketchup 7 : Sketchup 7 models are supported now. You would also notice improved performance while working / importing Sketchup files.
• Store Camera Views and Orientations : For ease of working with scenes and collaborating.

Click here to download this version and give it a spin! 

You could send in your feedback / comments / suggestions to support@3dpaintbrush.com 

As I said, there's something in the rays!

User surveys are the best way to collect objective data about your product's users. We recently conducted an user survey and are overwhelmed with the responses. We have prioritized many our tasks as per your suggestions and enhancement requests.
In case you missed the poll, you could take it here or ping us on Facebook or Twitter. You could also mail us at "support at 3dpaintbrush dot com". We would love to hear from you.
Thanks a ton for the participating and helping us make the product better.

Happy Painting,

Srio

Altering Camera properties in the scene is one of the easiest ways to create animations. These type of animations are called 'Camera Animations'. Camera Animations are typically used to create 360 degree views of a product or creating walk-through through a scene,say, an architectural building. All you need to do is to "Add Camera Keys" at the various orientations/ positions of the camera. Check out the Youtube video for step by step instructions on creating such animations.Happy Animating!

We have launched new channels on popular social sites to connect with you.

Youtube Channel : Watch demo videos and feature tutorials.

Facebook Page : Become a fan of 3DPaintBrush on Facebook and connect with other users.

Twitter : Follow us on twitter for announcements,tips and a lot more.

Flickr : We showcase lots of images rendered in 3DPaintBrush.

www.flickr.com Go to 3DPaintBrush's photostream

3DSnip is a tool bundled with 3DPaintBrush that helps you grab 3D data from any OpenGL/DirectX based application running on your desktop.

You can capture 3D information, along with colors, textures and use it inside 3DPaintBrush in any way you wish. This tool enables you to use 3D models from applications with proprietary formats, without the need of any expensive viewer or lossy translator.
 
Here is how you can use 3DSnip :-
1. Run 3DPaintbrush, and click on "Tools > 3DSnip" to launch 3DSnip
2. Start the application from where you want to grab 3D data
3. Open your 3D model in the application.
4. Press the 3DSnip hotkey.
 
The 3DSnip icon in the System Tray area flashes indicating that the data capture is in process. After the icon stops flashing, the 3D model will be shown in a new instance of 3DPaintBrush for your use. You can also customize the hotkey used for capturing in 3DSnip.

The video below demonstrates the use of 3DSnip for capturing 3D data from SketchUp.

 

In 3DPaintBrush, you can apply textures on 3D models, just by dragging them from the Materials tab on the right hand side and dropping the texture on the component of your choice. If the selected component already has a texture applied, then 3DPaintBrush replaces the texture with the new one. However, and in many cases, components do not have any texture applied on them. In this scenario, 3DPaintBrush automatically calculates and applies the necessary texture coordinates. 

After dropping the texture, you can tweak its display as well. To do so, select the component you have just applied the texture on. The property panel on the left hand side will get populated with the editable properties for the component. You can modify color properties for the texture as well as rotate, translate and scale the texture image applied. All changes you make are instantaneously visible in the graphics window. For example you can hover your mouse over the color pallette for diffuse color property or change the transparency value using the slider and the changes are visible on the actual model in real-time, giving you more options and time to tweak the finer elements of your 3D scene. You can also use any image (BMP/JPG/PNG) and apply it as a texture or a background in your scene.

Release 1.2 of 3DPaintBrush is now available for download.
New features in this release are :

• Support for importing Rhino models
• Support for importing Active Camera & Camera Animations from SketchUp models
• Box Zoom and Box Select functionality
• Maintain aspect ratio while exporting images
• Reuse Textures with "Add to My Textures" feature
• Shortcuts & Hotkeys

You can download the new release from here. To get a free 15-day evaluation of 3DPaintBrush, please click here.
Happy New Year & Happy Painting!