Singing the shortcomings of Cool 3d Production Studio

watkino · Post by **watkino** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:11 am

I've spent the past 6 weeks doing an extensive animation project using Cool 3d Production Studio.

Honestly, for the $130 bucks, I expect more. Guess I'll have to spring for a REAL animation title.

To begin with, I layed out extra cash for the plug-in pack that I thought included "drop shadow". What I didn't realize that you could only add drop shadow to ALL objects or NO objects. That's ridiculous. I need to add drop shadow to SPECIFIC objects (like TEXT ONLY!). That goes for the rest of the plug-ins. Why should they be "group only" effects???

Secondly, even my 12 YEAR OLD $29 3Df/X program could do 60fps rendering for consecutive field handling by NLE editors. Without this, ALL Cool3d animations look jittery when used for full frame broadcast video.

nuf said

watkino · Post by **watkino** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:20 am

...oh and did I mention how sucky it is you can't independantly control the color and texture of text/object sides and bevel edges? ...again, something I could do on 3dF/X

rwernyei · Post by **rwernyei** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:18 pm

Watkino,
I agree. Shadows in COOL3D PS are one of my biggest gripes. Here's more to add just on shadows. They are applied globally, too 2D, cannot be slanted or distorted, take the shape of the camera facing angle, color-oriented and do not contain transparency. As you can see, there are many limitations within COOL3D PS and I haven't even left this one feature. There are TONS upon TONS more. But all in all, for simple modeling, titles, positioning, rotation, movement, lighting and particles, etc... COOL3D PS can do the job. If one needs just a certain area to contain shadowing, only workaround is to render a separate file and use as an overlay in his/her editor.

As for your other statements, COOL3D PS can do all of these. 60 fps rendering, allow one to change color, texture to any side of his/her object. And as for beveling, one needs to choose the appropriate object in the object manager to apply the effect.

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:51 am

Every program has its limitations, we can use some goods in this program and use other programs that can do what this program cannot do.

Read the manual and you will find the ways to apply color/texture/bevel to object sides in C3DPS.

If your version is purchased on-line and you did not choose the CD option, go to http://www.ulead.com/c3ds/esd.htm to download the extra components (including the user manual).

Best regards,
H.T.