The icon toolbar has a familiar feel, although the controls are unique.
This software offers one of the best and most comprehensive selections of help we've ever seen, beginning with a classic tutorial on creating an hourglass but also showing up in thoughtful touches, such as the way the What's This? contextual help shows detailed explanations and the full Help menu index when you hover the cursor over an item, instead just a word or two. File menus entitled Scene, Object, and Animation access a variety of controls for each main function for instance, clicking most entries on the Object menu calls up a variety of properties dialogs for setting everything from surface texture to the angle, intensity, and color of the light illuminating the object. The default layout consists of four view windows displaying selectable front, back, and side views as well as a camera perspective a sidebar containing the Objects List and Objects Property Panel and a set of tool icons that you use to create, render, manipulate, and refine objects, lines, surfaces, and shading. Art of Illusion, a free, Java-based, open-source 3D graphics suite from Peter Eastman, is powerful and flexible enough for pro users, but its ample explanations, tutorials, wizards, and other assistance actually make it possible for beginners to learn the basics of 3D modeling just by using it.Īrt of Illusion's user interface is based on Java Swing, so it's almost completely customizable.