Form·Z is a general-purpose

solid Solid is a state of matter where molecules are closely packed and can not slide past each other. Solids resist compression, expansion, or external forces that would alter its shape, with the degree to which they are resisted dependent upon the ...

and

surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...

modeling software. It offers 2D/ 3D form manipulating and sculpting capabilities. It can be used on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computers. It is available in English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, Korean and Japanese languages.

Modeling

Form·Z allows design in 3D or in 2D, using numeric or interactive graphic input through either line or smooth shaded drawings (

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

). Modeling features include Boolean solids to generate complex composite objects; the ability to create curved surfaces from splines, including

NURBS Non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is a mathematical model using basis splines (B-splines) that is commonly used in computer graphics for representing curves and surfaces. It offers great flexibility and precision for handling both analy ...

and Bézier/

Coons patch In mathematics, a Coons patch, is a type of surface patch or manifold Parametrization (geometry), parametrization used in computer graphics to smoothly join other Surface (topology), surfaces together, and in computational mechanics applications, ...

es; mechanical and organic forms using the previous as well as metaforms, patches, subdivisions, displacements, or skinning, plus tools such as Terrain models,

Platonic solid In geometry, a Platonic solid is a Convex polytope, convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional space, three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the face (geometry), faces are congruence (geometry), congruent (id ...

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...

spheres, double line/wall objects,

staircases Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

helix A helix (; ) is a shape like a cylindrical coil spring or the thread of a machine screw. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is for ...

es,

screw A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...

s, and bolts. In addition, Form·Z supports 3D transforming and morphing, and animated shape capture. Technical output oriented modeling allows to refine the design with double precision

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

accuracy to full structural detail for 3D visualization for the production of 2D construction drawings,

3D printing 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design ( CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing ...

, and CNC milling. It has information management of bills of materials and

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

support for construction documents.

Version history

Animation

Form·Z offers an animation environment where objects, lights, cameras, and surface styles (colors) can be animated and transformed. Animation features are object-centric and are applied as modeling operations that support animated visualizations, dynamic modeling and form creation.

Rendering

RenderZone Plus provides photorealistic rendering with

global illumination Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aest ...

based on final gather ( raytrace),

ambient occlusion In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occlude ...

, and radiosity, for advanced simulation of lighting effects and rendering techniques. Scene illumination considers the accurate distribution of light in the environment. Key rendering features include multiple light types (distant (sun), cone, point, projector, area, custom, line, environment, and atmospheric) whereas the environment and atmospheric lights are optimized for global illumination. Both procedural and pre-captured textures are offered and can be mapped onto object surfaces using six different mapping methods: flat, cubic, cylindrical, spherical, parametric, or UV coordinates. Decals can be attached on top of other surface styles to produce a variety of rendering effects, such as labels on objects, graffiti on walls, partially reflective surfaces, masked transparencies, and more. State of the art shaders are used to render surfaces and other effects. A surface style is defined by up to four layers of shaders, which produce color, reflections, transparency, and bump effects. They can be applied independently or can be correlated. Libraries with many predefined materials are included and can be extended/customized. A sketch rendering mode produces non photorealistic images that appear as if they were drawn by manual rendering techniques, such as oil painting, water color, or pencil hatches.

Third-party rendering plugins

Maxwell Maxwell 5 is a rendering engine developed by NextLimit based on light physics. The Maxwell plugin allows for the assignment of Maxwell materials to form·Z objects with fast visual rendered feedback using Maxwell FIRE. Once the materials are established, the plugin transfers the scene including objects, lights and the viewing parameters to Maxwell for rendering. Maxwell 5 uses CPU and or GPU* hardware and has access to cloud-based rendering internally. V-Ray V-Ray is a rendering engine developed by Chaos Labs & austodessys using CPU and/or GPU (PC hardware with Nvidia

CUDA In computing, CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a proprietary parallel computing platform and application programming interface (API) that allows software to use certain types of graphics processing units (GPUs) for accelerated gene ...

-based GPU cards.). The V-Ray plugin allows for the assignment of V-Ray materials to form·Z objects. Once the materials are established, the plugin transfers the scene including objects, lights interactive or progressive rendering.

Popular culture

Form•Z and RenderZone Plus claim to be used in Hollywood productions, in and behind the scenes (set design pre-production and construction, miniature model design, pre-vis animation, CG special effects, post-production etc.). Productions include: ''Ocean's Eleven'', ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', ''Planet of the Apes'', ''Reign of Fire'', S''pace Cowboys'', ''Solaris'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', ''Terminator 3'' and ''Transformers''. Form-Z was used by ILM's visual effects supervisor

John Knoll John Knoll (born October 6, 1962) is an American visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer (CCO) at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). One of the original creators of Adobe Photoshop (along with his brother, Thomas Knoll), he has ...

to create the shot of the Enterprise-D going to warp in '' Star Trek: Generations'', the first time CGI rather than a model had been used to create starship shots in a Star Trek movie.

Literature

Pierluigi Serraino: History of form Z, Birkhäuser, 2002,

External links

AutoDesSys, the publishers of form•Z

Notes

{{reflist 3D graphics software Global illumination software MacOS computer-aided design software