MetaCreations Corp announced Canoma, revolutionary software that allows Web content developers and graphic artists to quickly and easily create photo-realistic 3-D models from 2-D photos or scanned images.
Canoma is much easier to use than conventional 3-D modeling programs, and offers 2-D graphic artists and Web content creators a simple solution for editing images in perspective, or creating and manipulating photo-realistic 3-D interactive models online. In the past, creating 3-D models has been time-consuming and therefore expensive to produce at the quality level that e-commerce now demands.
Using an entirely new approach called "image-assisted modeling," Canoma enables graphics professionals who may not consider themselves 3-D specialists to create convincing models of goods for sale, real estate walkthroughs and property previews that have the quality of photographs but are fully interactive.
Canoma complements and broadens the company's Creative Web strategy to provide new visualization technology for a variety of highly creative applications for the Web. The product works seamlessly with both MetaCreations' 2-D products including Painter 5.5 Web Edition and Kai's Power Tools 5, and the company's 3-D modeling and animation packages such as Ray Dream Studio 5, Poser 3 and Bryce 4.
Features:
- Image-based modeling lets users easily convert a 2-D photograph into a 3-D model without having to learn complex 3-D software
- Textures are created from source photographs or images to make 3-D models look realistic
- Single or multiple images can be fused together to form 3-D models
- Incremental modeling makes it possible to add geometry or detail at a later time
- "Fast" and "fancy" texturing modes allow users to adjust resolution of output textures
- Direct interface to image editing tools lets users directly open textures in MetaCreations Painter or Adobe PhotoShop, apply edits, save the file and simply switch back to Canoma, where the texture is immediately updated in a 3-D view
- Built-in animation tools let users generate fly-through animations and output to QuickTime movie files.
Canoma has the following minimum system requirements: Power Macintosh: Mac OS 8.0 or later, 32 MB Free RAM (48 MB recommended), 50 MB Free HD space for installation, CD-ROM drive, 24 bit video.
The product is expected to ship late in April and will retail for US$499. More information can be found on the Canoma web page.