Re: -= 3D Animated open for Football =-

The way to build these things quickly is to import 2-d art, probably
vector-based like Illustrator files, then simply extrude it and apply a
procedureal material to it. For example, just draw a picture of the
truss in black and white, save as .ai file, import into the 3-d program
to create the geometry automatically, then extrude it and maybe apply a
bevel to it. import one side of a triangular truss section, copy it
three times, join it together, you get triangular trusses. Some
programs will let you do all this using bitmaps. There is a really
cheap but very easy 3-d program in the 50-dollar range called Crystal
3d Impact Pro, free trial download, works GREAT for this kind of thing,
even though it is commonly just used to make 3-d type. I am pretty
handy with that program, let me know if you need help using it, though
the supplied quickstart is usually all anybody needs.

Another cheat is to map a photo or drawing of suitable resolution onto
a geometric primitive that's other wise transparent. It's like sticking
a decal onto a plastic model from your youth.

The stadium can be made this way from geometic primitives: ovals,
extruded and beveled or just copied and re-sized in different
proportions.

The scoreboard is just an extruded rectangle, you can then map
photoshopped images onto it to make it realistic.

There's also sources avaialble for free and cheap models, pre-made.

look over www.turbosquid.com

Good luck!

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