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Tips for building 3D models in Motion

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Last modified: May 10, 2016 10:31 PM
3 6668 Last modified May 10, 2016 10:31 PM

Motion 3D is designed for fonts only. I have no problem with that. I was doing illustrations back in the 80's before there ever was an Adobe Illustrator in Fontographer. Multilayered greyscale PostScript illustrations using fonts (for LaserWriter output.) I hope you can get over the concept that fonts are an inconvenient step. They can contain virtually unlimited layers of graphic pieces in one file location without littering your system with individual SVG files (you'd still be stuck with one shape per file.) Consider creating a font file as compiling your 3D project(s) sources into a single file.


When designing your model, create your "space" in the illustration program. If you're on a budget, iVinci Express is free on the App Store and perfectly suitable for your 3D projects. Create one single shape piece per layer (you can use cutouts - but the graphic should be a solid black for the solid 3D parts of your model.) If you're building an item that has connected parts, it helps to have your layered SVG project perfectly aligned to each other. As an example, a sword model would have the blade, the grip, the hilt, etc. - each would have different properties in Motion so you'd want them to be different characters in your project.


Once you've assembled your artwork, one layer per resultant character, "Save As" each layer separately by turning off all other layers (if using iVinci, they're automatically SVG files) and they're ready for converting to a font (TTF).


I recommend IcoMoon App (mainly because it's the one I'm most familiar with - but Glyphter should also be perfectly acceptable... if you follow the general instructions below.) IcoMoon App is located here.


When you open IcoMoon, click on the Import Icons button. Locate where you saved your SVG model files in the file browser. Shift or command click the multiple files to upload in one action. Once uploaded, you should see small thumbnails of each "layer". When uploaded, the newly added items will be unselected — you'll need to select all of them to be compiled into a font.

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Go to Page 2 — Click the Generate Font button at the bottom right side.


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You can ignore most of the stuff on this page except: click the Preferences button. (You'll need to find this option on Glyphter as well and using the advice set here... I'm only referencing IcoMoon's method.)


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Give your artwork a Font Name. You can leave the Class Prefix and Class Postfix at their defaults. You can unselect Support IE 8 or leave it on, it's meaningless (I just LOVE saying that 😉). Same with CSS Selector - not going to be used.


Font Metrics. Important. Explanation not simple.


Most fonts have an "Em Square" of about 1000 to 1024 (TTF fonts use Power of 2 - PostScript and other fonts can use pretty much any value... but DON'T.) You will see 8192 used in the example above. That is the *maximum* allowed value allowed by IcoMoon (and Glyphter.) I have worked with fonts for over 30 years (bitmaps before PostScript came along) and I have a difficult time relating this information to those who are not familiar. It's just a grid. It's a grid that Bezier points and control points are mapped on - it has no real dimensional space - so don't bother thinking of it in that way. When printed, everything is scaled into the font space by "point" size. It's not important to understand to use in Motion for 3D models other than to realize that there is a "cap" on the amount of resolution provided in the vertical direction. If some of your parts are very small, then you need the extra vertical resolution for Motion to render them correctly, or sometimes you might think you're using a circle, but Motion renders a semi-circle or piece of an arc, etc.


The Baseline Height is best set at 0 or 50%. I use 50% because this centers all the pieces of my model with a baseline running through the absolute middle of my artwork. I design all my artwork with this precise baseline in mind. It is an immense help to have all characters line up together through this middle part of the "model space". You may prefer to have it run along the bottom edge of the model space. Either way is good, and any value makes no difference assembling your model as long as all your parts fit in relation to each other. That is not always possible and often not even desirable, so make that consideration during your design process. Centering seems to work best for my mindset.


The Whitespace Width is the distance provided for a metric referred to as Sidebearing (left and right.) It can be ignored, but set it to zero to keep the space tight for Motion (I'm not sure if it's counted in the resolution - and Motion will "max out" somewhere around 5000 pixels or so depending on Font Size). Although font characters are limited by their vertical dimension, you can go well beyond that vertical distance in the horizontal direction. It often helps to design your artwork horizontally if you need the extra resolution... I'll leave you to ponder that and experiment. You may not find it necessary.


The Metadata section is where you'll apply your creator's information, site URL, a description if you like, but most importantly, in the License field, state All Rights Reserved, or whatever License you would like to provide (CC by #, etc.) Like all 3D models, they are most effective when you *pay attention to the details* and your rights are a detail you should pay attention to.


You can dismiss this dialog by clicking the X at the top right corner, your preferences (and all your "project" information) are saved to Cookies with the browser. You can manage up to four IcoMoon projects for free.


You can now click the Download button at the bottom right corner of the window.


Find your new project font and double click to unzip it. Open the folder (Named by font name) and find the "fonts" folder.


Before installing, I'd like to go over a feature in Motion and some features of Font Book to make your model building easier. (Since developing 3D models in Motion, I've actually come to live in Font Book these days -- it's open most of the day.)


In Motion, when you create a font object, and go into the Inspector > Format, at the very top of Basic Formatting is a Collection parameter:

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That is SO cool! You can organize all your fonts in Font book with respect to how you work in Motion (IF ONLY FCPX had this!!!!) You can see how I've organized some of mine below (kind of messy - but I can live with it. I keep my 3D font projects in specific collections, e.g.: Icons4Motion, my SVG fonts, etc.)

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Now that you know that's there, let's launch Font Book. At the lower left corner is a very innocuous '+' sign. Click it to create a new collection. User uploaded file

Give your Untitled collection a name (suggestion: SVG Models or 3D Models, whatever floats your boat.) Find the font you downloaded from IcoMoon and drag it from the Finder into the blank column between the collections column and the display area on the right.


Note: during your development process, you may go back and forth editing (or adding to) your original SVG shapes, going to IcoMoon and regenerating fonts. These following instructions are important if you don't want to "bash" your collection setup! 1) select the font you want to remove from your selection. 2) click on All Fonts. 3) scan down the list to where your selected font will appear (it will be "highlighted" but not really selected -- but easy to see.) 4) right click on the font name and Remove "FontName" Family from the All Fonts collection (NOT the collection itself.) 5) click back on the Collection you saved your font to. 6) Quit then restart Font Book (it clears a cache, otherwise you will not see the updates.) This sounds ridiculous - but adhering to it will save you time and some grief (when you delete a font from a custom collection - you cannot re-add it to that same collection). You must also quit and restart Motion for any changes to be recognized. You must quit and restart Motion if you add a font while Motion is running for the additional font to be recognized. Don't forget to save!


Does this sound like a lot of work? It's not. Once you get used to the workflow, it's easy... almost second nature (now...)


On to your 3D Masterpiece!


IcoMoon (and Glyphter) save your SVG shape designs as characters to a part of the Unicode space that is beyond your ability to type in the characters (starting, in fact at Unicode +E900 hex.) You will need to have Font Book open, your font selected and its characters showing in the display window to use in Motion. In general, Motion is *smart* enough to know the font the characters are being copied from and will automatically set that when you copy and paste each character into Motion. Here's the workflow:


Open Motion and create a new project (or open an existing one). Open Font Book and locate your model font. Select a character from your font in Font Book and Command-C copy it. Move over to Motion and create a new Text object. Paste the character which should appear at the insertion point. In the Appearance inspector, Turn on 3D Text, then Command-D duplicate the character. Go back into Font Book and select another character. Back in Motion, navigate to the Format tab and in the Text box at the bottom of the column, select the old character and Paste the new one in it's place. If you build your model graphics to fit each other, you will notice that the new character is *perfectly* aligned with the first character for the model - JUST LIKE YOU DESIGNED it in your illustration application! Continue this process until you've copied and pasted all your model parts into Motion... then go to town and finish creating your masterpiece.




Hope this helps!


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