Strata 3D
| Operating system | Linux, OS X, Microsoft Windows[1] |
|---|---|
| Type | 3D modeling and animation |
| License | proprietary software |
| Website |
www |
Strata 3D is a commercial 3D modeling and animation program developed in St. George, Utah by Corastar, Inc. It is the current incarnation of a program that was previously called Strata Studio Pro and StrataVision 3D. It is best known as an all-purpose 3D modeling application with photo-real rendering ability and ease of use.
Strata 3D is targeted at the illustration/multimedia market rather that at the movie/games market, and lately it has been positioned as a companion program for Adobe applications.
Versions
The current version of Strata 3D is Strata Design 3D CX 7.5. New features include UV editing tools such as Conform (unwrap), seam marking in poly meshes, and new UV edit tools. Modeling enhancements include a Decimate command, new poly editing selection methods and tools, STL (.stl) file import and export for 3D printing, and support for bump/normal maps in Collada import/export.
- The Design 3D CX 7.0 release includes numerous texture enhancements such as anisotropy and normal map support, blurry transparency and subsets for applying different textures to different groups of polygons in the same object. Also included in v7 is a full UV editor, new polygon selection and editing tools, render and speed improvements. Rendering enhancements include support blurry reflections and blurry transparency, and adaptive surface sampling.
- Design 3D CX version 6 added HDRI lighting, new grid and guide functionality, multiple polygon editing tools, edit tools for lathe, bezier, extrude, and path extruded objects, new texture channels and controls including Fresnel interpolation, new photon rendering, and numerous rendering quality and speed improvements.
- The 5.x releases include subdivision surfaces (Catmull–Clark algorithm–based polygon smoothing), scripting via the Lua programming language, and rendering to Photoshop layers.
- The Strata 3D CX v4.x releases included Polygon modeling tools and Subdivision Surface modeling (SDS).
- Releases 3 added functionality such as toon rendering and photon mapping.
- Releases 2.x were problematic concerning stability and features. The program was then called Strata Studio Pro.
- Releases 1.x were successful and very advanced at the time.
Release history
| Name/Version | Build Number | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Strata Studio Pro | 1 | |
| Strata Studio Pro | 2 | |
| Strata 3D | 3 | |
| Strata 3D | CX 4 | |
| Strata 3D | CX 5 | |
| Strata Design 3D | CX 6 | 2009 |
| Strata Design 3D | CX 7 | 2011 |
| Strata Design 3D | CX 7.5 | 2013 |
| Strata Design 3D | CX 8.0 | 2015 |
Notes
Some people found early releases lacking features in comparison to other 3D animation software, such as being able to undo more than one action in sequence,[2] which can make working very difficult if you forget to save.
Newer releases have improved this situation, and support user configurable levels of multiple undo along with an action history palette. This and other changes have made Strata 3D CX a more easily accessible companion to Adobe Photoshop users.
References
- ↑ http://www.strata.com/products/strata_3d_cx_suite/strata_live_3d_cx/features/
- ↑ Strata 3D CX: Familiar Application in Changing Times at the Wayback Machine (archived June 16, 2006), CreativePro.com, November 30, 2004
