Sunday, November 22, 2009

Elefont

Elefont - Simplistic 3d text



Elefont is a small little app that does what it does quite easily, however, most people will find it's usage somewhat limited. The nice thing about it is it takes up very little space, and works quick. The downside to it is you really need to use it in conjunction with another program to view the text as 3d with shading, color, etc.-best used with Bryce or POVRay, it can also be used with Sketchup, however the triangulation of most fonts will leave you clicking a bunch of faces in order to get the coloring you want.
I made the example to the left in a matter of minutes. The top portion of the image shows the dashboard of Elefont-very basic. You type your text in (another downside to this app...no allowance for multiple line entries), choose the font you wish to use, then adjust it using any or all of the buttons (font, curve quality, extrusion length, bevel type and bevel scale) then save it as a DXF or Moray/POV (UNO/INC) to be used in another program. I took the text into Bryce, un-grouped it and put different materials to each letter (recognizes each letter as an individual element). If you need titling in your Bryce renderings, this is a nice little utility but most people will probably have the same capabilities in another 3d modeling program.