Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for Photoshop

Title:               Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for Photoshop

Company:      Zaxwerks 

Reviewer:      Bill Spence 

Rating:           5 of 5 Stars 

Have you ever been designing in Photoshop and wished that there was a really simple way to make stunning 3D text that would POP out in your work?  Well now you can!  Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator is a full 3D plug-in that allows you to create 3D text and vector objects just as you would in far more expensive 3D packages layed out in a very intuitive plug-in for Photoshop.

If you are interested in 3D design or 3D animation, you are limited to spending a small fortune around $3K on very complicated software packages such as 3ds Max, Maya, or Cinema 4D that would take you months to learn.  But what if all you really needed was a simple title or vector object that you could extrude and make look photorealistic?  That is exactly what 3D Invigorator does, and does very well.

First, let me start out by saying that 3D Invigorator is not an intimidating product.  It has a small learning curve that I will address at the end of this review, but it is layed out in a very intuitive way and you will be making stunning text in Photoshop in a matter of minutes.  Before you begin, it is always best to make a new layer in Photoshop and convert it to a smart object.  Then you select this layer, and under Filters, you select Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator.  By doing this, you will be able to go back into the plugin as many times as needed to tweak the materials or lighting or camera angle without having to start over from scratch.  As soon as the plug-in opens, you are first presented with a text editor that allows you to choose your font, weight, kerning, leading, and to type in your text and the magic begins.  The text is converted into vectors, extruded, and placed into a 3D environment and ready to edit by manipulating the object parameters, the materials, the material splits, the lighting, and the camera.  Let's take a look at each of these.

Once you have entered your text, you are presented with a 3D environment so that you can see your text in 3D.  The first thing that you will want to do is to edit the object parameters.  This includes adjusting the extrusion depth to set the thickness of your text.  You may also select from a wide variety of over 100 bevels from categories such as Bevels, Inset Face, Pipes and Half Pipes, Sharp, Stacks, Woodwork, Special Purpose, and Chiseled.  Once selected, you can alter the bevel scale, the edge offset, and even remove faces from the text.  You can edit the text as a whole, or you can select individual letters and manipulate them separately to your heart's content.

Now that general look for the text has been finalized, you will want to apply a material to it.  The material editor is worthy of a review of its own, so I will keep it short.  The materials editor allows you to select how reflective the surface is, what color you want it to be, allows you to add bump maps to give your text texture, change the specular properties of your material, and change its transparency.  If you don't want to create your own materials, 3D invigorator provides over 100 of its own as well as well as about 80 preset style swatches that includes both an object design and a material.  Once your material is designed or you have selected one of Zaxwerks, you can add it to the entire text or to any letter of the text.

To take the materials editor even further, Zaxwerks has created a panel called the material splits view.  This allows you to add a different material to any face of your text or a single letter.  In fact, if you so desire, you can add more than one material to a single face of the letter.  So if you want to create silver text that has a gold bevel and a black outline, no problem, the material splits view makes this a piece of cake.

Next, you will want to create an ambience with your text by altering the lighting.  3D Invigorator has a very simple lighting interface that allows you to change the angle that the light hits your text, the intensity of the light, the color of the light, and the amount of shadow that the text casts.  The lighting combines with the specular properties of your material to create stunning looking images.

Finally, you will want to change the point of view that the final text will be seen from.  You do this by adjusting one of the several cameras that 3D Invigorator provides for you.  This is a simple interface that allows you to adjust the roll and pitch and zoom features of a camera to look at the text at the perfect angle needed by your design in Photoshop.

There is so much more that 3D Invigorator is capable of.  But more importantly, 3D Invigorator is layed out so that you can quickly and easily add stunning 3D text or vector shapes to your Photoshop Images in a matter of minutes, and if you need to tweak it in a more detailed way, 3D Invigorator allows you to make many changes at an advanced level for more complicated projects.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a small learning curve if you want to create 3D text.  So f you are considering buying 3D Invigorator, which I would highly recommend, I would also like to take a moment to let you know that it is sold exclusively through digitalanarchy.com so go over there quickly to check it out.  Not only do they provide a great price and service for 3D Invigorator, but they also offer a variety of video tutorials to get you up and running very quickly with all of their software packages which I found to be a real bonus.  If you need 3D text in Photoshop, and you need it quickly and cheaply, then look no further than Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for Photoshop at digitalanarchy.com!  You won't regret it.

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