Pixar Typestry: definately a power tool



Author: Philip Crosby

Date: June, 1994

Keywords: 3D images fonts truetype font typeface typefaces program
application software review

Text:
As a favorite comedian of mine is fond of saying, ''What do we want?
MORE POWER!!'' Pixar Typestry 2 is just that, more power! I tested T2
on a Quadra 840av with 128MB RAM,  1GB hard drive, and a SuperMac
Thunderstorm Pro card. I did push this system to the edge a couple of
times. 
     I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me give you the rundown on
the basics.  I imagine the best place to start is to tell you what
Typestry 2 does. T2 creates fantastic 3D images from 2D fonts. You can
achieve these striking images using either Type 1, Adobe Illustrator or
TrueType fonts.  The program comes on 5 disks with a Registration Card
(in the disk envelope), a Quick Reference Card, Installation Guide, and
a 183 page User Guide. Typestry 2 is brought to us by PIXAR. They have
been around since 1986 and are most famous for RenderMan which was used
in the production of Jurassic Park. 
     System requirements are 8MB RAM (minimum), 12MB RAM (recommended).
System 7.0 or higher, 32 bit QuickDraw, a color display system and 10
MB of free hard disk space. As I alluded to before, this program can
really stretch the limits of your machine. I have mine set up to a
preferred size of  30,000K  because some of the really heavy rendering
I did, ran out of memory.
     Installation is pretty easy, although I did find the installation
guide to be somewhat misleading.  You have two choices, ''default'' and
''custom'' installation. This is where I got confused. I thought you
needed to run the custom install in order to have it install ''looks''
and ''reflection pictures.'' It turned out that ''default'' will
install everything in about 13 minutes. After that, the program is up
and running in about 15 seconds. I load a lot of different
INITs/extensions and found no conflicts with any of them. The opening
screen will give you a different hint or tip each time the program
loads. From the first time you look at Typestry, you know  you are
working with a program that had a lot of  thought given to the visual
interface. I thought the purple ''hand drawn'' circle to highlight the
selected tool was a neat effect. The program behaves much like any
other Mac program, it just looks better.
     Typestry, as I've said before, creates 3D type in a 2D world. This
may seem to be a fairly simple statement for a program that uses
technology from a company that is responsible of the most sophisticated
3D rendering software known today, but it really is just that. It is
what you can do to create these striking 3D effects that begins to
boggle the mind. Throughout the User's Guide, there are images to
inspire you. But, I would strongly suggest that you start small, then
work your way up. Even the simplest of renders will give you beautiful
results. Let me take you through the steps I took to create the ''HP''
you see here.
     Once Typestry loads you are presented with several windows. These
are the Tool pallet, Looks, Lights, Render status and the untitled
window. With a single click anywhere in the untitled window, the add
text dialog box opens. Here is where you type the letters you wish to
use. Next, select the font you wish to use. (Make sure you have
available the font you want to use before you start the program or else
you'll have to close and restart.) Once you have the correct font,
begin to type. There is no font size to deal with.  The size of the
image is adjusted using the sizing tool found in the Tool pallet. I
used Times and typed the letters HP. The next step is to choose your
style of building. I choose Extrude, which is your basic 3D look. There
is also the Rubber Sheet method which allows you to generate the image
as if it where written on a flag or banner. You can even specify how
windy it is. The 3rd method is Tubes. This methods does exactly what
the name implies. The type is written as if it was wrapped around a
tube. Within each of these methods there are various styles you can
use, such as the tube being square or even concave. The Extrude method
allows you to select the kind and depth of bevel used or you can create
your own bevel. I went with the basic bevel.  Once that is done you see
a wire frame model of your type in the untitled window. 
     Typestry creates shadows based on the position of lights. The
lights widow lets you control the direction, intensity and even the
type of light being used. By this I mean you can have the type appear
as if a spot light was shining directly on it from the front. Or say
light from a window was shining down from the upper left. I choose
standard light coming in from the lower left. Here again, your choices
are numerous. 
     At this point I had flat facing type. The 3rd tool down on the
tool pallet allows you to rotate the type in space. The depth is
generated from the depth of the bevel you use in the original build. By
simply placing the hand icon on the type and moving the mouse you can
spin the type to your heart's content. It rotates so naturally that
you'll feel you are really holding the type in your hand. I pushed the
top left corner away and to the left.
     Now for the final step, the render. Here is where the power comes
into play. Typestry uses the same rendering software made famous by
Pixar's Render Man. When you are ready to see what a beautiful image
you have created you are once again given several choices. This is the
beauty of this program, at every turn you are given a myriad of
choices. When rendering you have two main choices, render to screen or
to a file. When you render to screen you are given 4 choices. These are
Quick & Dirty, Reasonable, Excellent & Slow, and Custom. Here T2 shows
its straightforward approach to commands; simple and self definable. On
my render the Q&D took 29 seconds and gave me an image that was pretty
jagged. The Reasonable render took 49 seconds and was much smoother and
the shading was very even. E&S was just that, the jaggies were
completely gone and the shading was perfect. This render took 1 minute
56 seconds to produce. How did I get such accurate times? As soon as
you begin a render, a status window opens and you see a % complete
progress bar, a memory usage bar, and a message box. When finished the
message box will tell you just how long a render took. Another key
feature here is the ability to cancel a render in progress. Very handy
if you have picked E&S and once it began you find that it isn't going
to look the way you had imagined.
     This is not where TYPESTRY ends. You have a wide range of what are
called ''looks''. With these you can apply textures and patterns - 
some of which are photographic in quality. Your image can have walls
and floors added; all of which can have the same ''looks'' applied to
them. It is here, where the renders become more and more complex, that
the need for a lot of computing power is needed. Once I added these
features to my image, the rendering time lengthened. The Reasonable
render took almost 3 minutes. After I applied brick to the wall and
gave my image a concrete floor and light shining through a window onto
my matte-look type, the final render on the Excellent & Slow setting
took 11 minutes 13 seconds to complete.
     Typestry is an amazing program with so many options for creating
images you could spend months working with it and never repeat an
image. For those who wish to add a special look to their document or
even to a multimedia presentation, I cannot recommend this program
strongly enough. Keep in mind, all this amazing technology comes at a
price; MORE POWER. Even on my system you could be in for some long
rendering times, but the final result is certainly worth the wait.
     Typestry 2 sells for $299 (street price $179). If you already have
Typestry 1.1, you can upgrade for $99 from: 
     PIXAR
     1001 West Cutting Blvd.
     Richmond, CA  94804     510/236-4000,  (fax) 510/236-0388

Copyright © june, 1994 by Philip Crosby