Have you used an isometric plugs?

[Lord Dubu]

This thread isn't intended to start yet another "why don't we have iso-renders in lw already" thread. I just wondered if anyone out there has used any of the existing isometric plugins or scripts.

I've been trying to figure out eki's plugin and pcviewmc as well. But neither one is really well documented. I've scoured the net and found nothing in the way of a tutorial either.

[SrE]

Have you tried "Special Projection Engine" by Juan Jose Gonzalez?

Seems easy to use:

http://www.arrakis.es/~juanj/

[Lord Dubu]

That's the first plug-in i downloaded. Maybe I'm just stupid, but there are a lot of settings and absolutely no explaination for any of them, and no readme file so I can RTFM...

Also, if I choose to render the background it puts an iso version of my object on top of my perspective object over the background image in the final render, very odd.

[Lynx3d]

Well the desctiption on the page says you have to make the objects unseen by camera to avoid rendering it twice...

[LFGabel]

Why not try this:

- add a null, call it CamTarget
- add a null, call it CamRotation
- parent camera to CamRotation
- target camera to CamTarget
- move camera to something like Z -1km
- increase zoom factor to 1000 to start
- rotate camera by adjusting the HPB of CamRotation

Works well for me.

[Lord Dubu]

I was trying something similar, minus all the parenting and targeting. Basically I made a 1000km linear polygon in modeler. I rotated it 30 by 30 from the origin... I figured this would give me a perfect 30degree trajectory from 0,0,0.

Then rotated the camera -30,30,0.

Then I zoomed.

It game me something that looked perspective-free, but it didn't line up with my backdrop (a 1024x768 30degree iso-grid).

Using your method, have you been able to get true isometrics? And is it acurate enough to line up with a grid?

I know I'm being anal, but we want to generate the tiles for our map editor through this method, so it's gotta be darn near perfect.

[LFGabel]

I use it for exploded view diagrams, so it doesn't need to be 100% perfect.

Maybe try moving out/zooming out even more?

By the way, what's the reason for a 1000km poly?

[Lord Dubu]

I never did well in geometry as a kid (so obviously I would choose a career so heavily centered on 3D - sigh). I needed to find the x,y,z value to position the camera at a 30 angle to the origin.

The 2 point poly then serves as a guide. I rotate it at the origin, and it makes a straight trajectory out into space. I then set my camera at the co-ordinates of the end opposite the origin.

There's probably a better way to do this. But for me it make sense visually.

[LFGabel]

Ah... I see. That's what the CamRotation null is for in my example.

You leave the CamRotation null at the origin, parent the camera to it, then move the camera -1km (or whatever) on Z.

Now you can rotate the camera simply by adjusting the CamRotation null's HPB values. Now that I think about it, the camera is always going to point at the origin in this example, so the CamTarget is not needed at all.

[wacom]

I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall. Download Pview...here I'll attach it. You have to make a seperate camera that has a paticular name for it to work, BUT IT DOES WORK.

I don't think it's the "super ZooM' camera thing, but even if it is it works well.

READ THE DIRECTIONS.

LW should have something like this intergrated...but till then...

[Lord Dubu]

I gave pview a try too. But again, the documentation isn't exactly newbie friendly...

But,

I've figure out how to do it with the super zoom, pretty accurately.

pull the camera back on the -z axis. parent the object to a null. instead of positioning the camera, rotate the null until it lines up...

looks pretty good.

[LFGabel]

Do I hear an echo...? :D ;)

I'm glad it's working for you.

[Lord Dubu]

sorry gabel didn't see your post :) maybe i got it by telepathic suggestion?

[Muad'dib]

I use PCVIEW a whole heap - front elevation / plan / iso - you name it this thing does it :) could not reccomend it highly enough

Install the script, run PVMCOpen GN, select your viewport that you want to render as in top / right / left / perspective ... zoom in out move around so the framing is right. Make sure render is selected in the PVMCOpen GN interface and click on the big gray square right next to that and presto. It creates a PVRC camera with a zoom level of 1000 - so it ain't your true ISO/Ortho. But so close you won't be able to tell. Hope that helps

http://paulatreides.homestead.com/files/PRX_Iso.jpg

http://paulatreides.homestead.com/files/Left.jpg

[wacom]

Forget the zoom camera thing and just read the PView directions. All you have to do is A: name your camera the right name (in the directions) B: run the script C: as said before, click on the grey square that represents the window you want to render.

With the zoom out camera trick you can't do that...you have to set it up with THE CAMERA.

READ!