P3D Re: 3D Text for a stereo pair

[Robert Thorpe <thorpe@xxxxxxxx>]

"Nusbaum, Kurt (Kurt)" wrote:
> 
> I would like to create 3D Text that will jump
> off of the page.
> What have you learned by trial and error that
> will save me the time of making the same mistakes?

Kurt,

Practically any word processing program will work for 
what you want to do, but a program such as Corel Draw
or Adobe Illustrator allows you to manipulate the type
more precisely.

Let's start at the beginning. These are just rules of
thumb and are stated simply.

To get a line of type in both frames that appears to be 
at the same level as the stereo window, space the type 
so that it is same distance apart as the film chips.
For instance, the left edge of the left frame to the 
left edge of the right frame. This is your starting
point.

To make the type appear closer to  you, decrease 
the distance between the two lines of type relative to
the starting point of equal spacing.

To make the type appear farther away from you, increase 
the distance between the two lines of type relative to
the starting point of equal spacing.

This is where the fun begins.

To make the type be close to you on the left side and
far away on the right side, increase the letter spacing
or stretch the right text. Increasing the letter spacing
should make the text "step" backwards with all the faces 
of the letters being parallel with the surface of the card. 
Stretching the text should make the receding be continuous 
with the surface of the letters all being in the plane
that slopes away from you. You can do the same thing by 
decreasing the left side instead. Obviously, you can get the
reverse by manipulating the other side.

You can achieve other effects by decreasing the spacing
for the first part of a line of type and increasing the
spacing at the end. Varying the amount of spacing you
adjust something by will bring it closer or farther
away. At this point you are on your own with the trial
and error method. 

Here is a little example that shows what varying the spacing 
will do. The text will either appear to come towards you 
or go away depending upon whether you freeview or parallel 
view this type. The above directions were for parallel
viewing or viewing with a viewer. You should view this with
fixed width type such as courier.

     X  Y  Q  H  T  E     X  Y  Q  H  T  E     
     U  T  L  U  X  P     U   T L  U  X  P     
     W  V  E  K  A  I     W  V   E K  A  I     
     J  Q  P  S  E  C     J  Q  P   S E  C     
     O  M  S  X  T  W     O  M  S  X   T W     
     D  Y  A  Z  N  L     D  Y  A  Z  N  L     

One other thing that happens that you may not be prepared
for. When you print out your type on a laser printer at
300 dpi, for instance, the printer may have to shift some
letters left or right by a portion of a pixel in order to 
get the most pleasing representation of the letterform. 
This will make the plane the letters are in look uneven.
Even a half pixel shift is noticable to our eyes.

======================
Robert Thorpe
Cedar Rapids, IA
thorpe@xxxxxxxx
http://www.skep.com


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