Dioramas 3 and Character Artist 3 suggestions
Highland_Piper
Surveyor
I'm not sure if these two products are going to be in the works or not but I thought I would go ahead and offer some suggestions.
Dioramas 3
I'm pretty dang good at making 3D terrain. Actually I would go so far as saying I was really good at it. I make a lot of my own terrain and texture it using Photoshop and Illustrator. Take a look at my paper models here at dungeon crawlers. If you don't feel like downloading then take a look at some of the pictures in the paper models forum. *note some are commercial and some are my free designs.
Here is a mech bay for Mechwarriors that I designed and textured using free textures from the net. Dioramas could make this.
Ok honking my own horn done now. It was CC2 Dioramas that first got me into designing my own paper models and I feel that with the effect of CC3 it can produce models just as nice (if not better) as many being sold at rpg now. I just installed my CC2 Dioramas and have started to play with it again but in CC3. I will use it for my current Tiled Battle Maps to demonstrate that it would still be a good product. So I certainly hope that Dioramas is still on the remake list!
Character Artist 3
I will be the first to say I have never purchased CA2. There was never enough blended shading in it to make me want to purchase it. I believe that with CC3 this would be possible and more natural poses other than the stiff ones used in CA2. I'm a HUGE fan of paper miniatures. In fact many commercial paper minis are 2.5D having glued on appendages such as wings and arms making them look really nice. You could almost do a combination of Dioramas and CA to make these kind of paper minis. I've seen dragons and Golems that are really cool and something that given the proper template CC3 could do. Using transparencies can also add new levels to paper miniatures. Granted my main need would of course be paper minis.
However Portraits would be so much better with the option of bringing in png backgrounds and the lighting effects that CC3 can do. If you offered each limb as a separate symbol you could do many poses using the rotate option.
Anyway those are just some ideas that I have. I did a search and I could not find any mention of these products in the works and I just thought I would express my opinion on the matter.
Dioramas 3
I'm pretty dang good at making 3D terrain. Actually I would go so far as saying I was really good at it. I make a lot of my own terrain and texture it using Photoshop and Illustrator. Take a look at my paper models here at dungeon crawlers. If you don't feel like downloading then take a look at some of the pictures in the paper models forum. *note some are commercial and some are my free designs.
Here is a mech bay for Mechwarriors that I designed and textured using free textures from the net. Dioramas could make this.
Ok honking my own horn done now. It was CC2 Dioramas that first got me into designing my own paper models and I feel that with the effect of CC3 it can produce models just as nice (if not better) as many being sold at rpg now. I just installed my CC2 Dioramas and have started to play with it again but in CC3. I will use it for my current Tiled Battle Maps to demonstrate that it would still be a good product. So I certainly hope that Dioramas is still on the remake list!
Character Artist 3
I will be the first to say I have never purchased CA2. There was never enough blended shading in it to make me want to purchase it. I believe that with CC3 this would be possible and more natural poses other than the stiff ones used in CA2. I'm a HUGE fan of paper miniatures. In fact many commercial paper minis are 2.5D having glued on appendages such as wings and arms making them look really nice. You could almost do a combination of Dioramas and CA to make these kind of paper minis. I've seen dragons and Golems that are really cool and something that given the proper template CC3 could do. Using transparencies can also add new levels to paper miniatures. Granted my main need would of course be paper minis.
However Portraits would be so much better with the option of bringing in png backgrounds and the lighting effects that CC3 can do. If you offered each limb as a separate symbol you could do many poses using the rotate option.
Anyway those are just some ideas that I have. I did a search and I could not find any mention of these products in the works and I just thought I would express my opinion on the matter.
Comments
I know that might be a pipe dream but that is what I would like Dioramas to be able to do.
However, given plenty of templates to go off of I don't think most people would not have too much problem visualizing the shapes in there head. Give a good pdf tutorial on EACH template including how to construct and I think you have a good basis.
I would be more than happy to lend a hand on templates. Paper models is something I'm pretty good at. If I could actually create my own commercial quality textures I'd do it for a living! I'm good at the geometry and can unwrap images in my head now. So from my experience Dioramas can do quite a lot.
Specific Features
Change some of the templates to produce stronger models. An example would be the pillars and most of the circular templates are more complex than they need to be and a simpler design is not only easier to build but structurally more sound.
Increase the number of templates. Add more Sci-Fi, and modern. Keep the dungeons, MECHS and robots would not be impossible
Interior and exterior so people could make full buildings.
Increase the type of basic shapes like cones, globes, etc. for people to texture themselves and use as they need. This would work really well for the stuff Ralf was doing with the space ships. Awesome stuff! Perfect tie in for Cosmographer. Could even make your own space game with Cosmographer, Character Artist and Dioramas.
Natural terrain like hills and cliffs. Easy to do. Box/brick style or free form (granted much harder to assemble), grass, rocks, flower beds, etc.
tutorials on how to make your own dioramas. Maybe like Ralf's map a session where once a week someone does another step on making a full gaming board with Dioramas.
I remember the first time I saw a picture of that tower for Dioramas and I was hooked but it was very complex for a beginner.
Character artist 3 as I mentioned more symbols, more monsters! You really need to go for a uniqueness.
Tutorials on making Historical/modern symbols for those historical gamers. Mounts, the 2.5D stuff would also just be awesome.
I honestly could go on and on but its really late and I need to get to bed so I will add a more organised list tomorrow.
oh yeah as for the Millenium Falcon there are two ways of doing it. For the most part the Millenium Falcon cockpit is just a dixie cup (paper cup) the strongest method is to have the main sides of the cockpit or the walls of the cup as one solid piece that will look like a large and thick curved line with the front of the cockpit (bottom of the cup) attached to one section of the wall.
The second way which is less structurely sound and the way Dioramas currently does this is have the front of the cockpit and then each section of the wall attached to the front forming a fan image. There is more glueing, more possibilities of warping, errors and as I stated before its not as solid.
Hope that made any sense at all. Like I said I'm pretty tired right now.
Figures should be poseable to some extent as well.
Tokens should be supported by offering a range of frames. Direct transparency pngs would be great to produce without having to go through PSP or some other program.
I'd like to see a feature where you can make coins with CA. That is, there is a filter to where you can bring in a graphic, edge-detect it and convert it to a b&w sketch to make an image suitable for the coin side. Then a filter would add relief to it for the 3d appearance.
Also, why not offer something that takes cd3 or perspectives pro and generates real 3d images out of them. There was a program that used to sell that did this for cc2 and cd2, but they went out of business. Those programs were actually quite good.
As an added benefit for people who want to re-project maps in CC3 (i.e. change the projection), the distort function could allow them to make those adjustments on a section-by-section basis.
Steve
I like being able to change the skin colors, I have a silly web site of 'Nessie at Marsport, Mars', which worked up to a point. But my Jovian and Pluto visitors to Mars look like humans with odd skin colors, not aliens.
If you are interested: Old Lock, Nessie of Marsport
Here is a small list of what I would like to see with a new Character Artist.
Fronts and Backs
That is all I have for the moment. Also take a look at RPGNow.com at the different variety of Paper Miniatures they sell. 2.5D Miniatures are becoming more popular.
More and more paper modellers are picking up cutting machines like the Silhouette. It would be nice if Dioramas 3 and/or CA3 could natively generate the GSD cutting files.
Aliens that are more configurable with more variety.
Steve
I also prefer Portraits and Paper Mini's/Stand Ups so I second the need to be able to easily create Front and Back.