Photo products
1. Download the software or open a previously downloaded version of the program.
2. Copy the activation code from the text message that you received after purchasing the software and paste it into the text field in the Help –> Activation window.
3. Click Activate.
Activation with a file:
1. Save the file with the activation code supplied with the message received when purchasing the product to a separate folder;
2. Download the software or open a previously downloaded version of the software;
3. In the Help –> Activation window, click Open and specify the path to the saved activation code (file);
4. Click Activate.
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If you buy an additional license to work on a second computer, you pay for the second program with a 20% discount. The discount percentage increases depending on the number of licenses you purchase. Ask your manager for a discount on additional licenses.
After the free upgrade period, you can buy 1-year updates in your profile.
The cost of a 1-year update is 25% of the software price.
Contact the manager if you have any questions or difficulties when ordering an update in your profile.
Triaxes Legend is intended to prepare stereo/flip images for printing on the lenticular material directly using special large-format UV-plotters: Mimaki, Arizona, Sun, etc.
Triaxes Legend has a range of additional functions that enable you to generate an image for printing on the lenticular lens.
The following peculiarities of Triaxes Legend compared to 3DMasterKit allow to prepare an image for printing on the lenticular material.
- Source image transparency support, output image transparency support;
- Mirroring of the encoded image;
- Positioning frame generation for more accurate lenticular lens positioning;
- Different image resolutions for X- and Y-axis.
In this case, the printer’s print head rather than the rollers is responsible for the distance between code stripes. The print head is a more accurate tool.
1. It is very important to make an accurate pitch test;
2. When choosing source images, do not choose images with high contrasting colors;
3. When encoding the image in the program, choose the horizontal encoding option;
4. Print quality:
– make sure the function enabling to print without margins is disabled in the printer’s settings,
– calibrate your printer because heads get loose,
– pay special attention to ink quality because when the ink of the CIS is too thin, it streaks to the neighboring stripes of the image, which decreases the image quality. One image starts peeping out of another one on the resulting print or the switch from one image to another one doesn’t seem to be synchronous.
– When printing a pitch test or encoded image, make sure the print head moves across the code stripes of the image.
5. Use special paper for inkjet printers, the best choice is – glossy paper with medium paper density (180-200);
6. Use the lenticular sheet with the maximum viewing angle;
7. Bond the printed image to the lenticular sheet accurately. You can start with using a special tuning frame that can be set in the software.
Switch to the Lenticular tab of the Navigator window and press Generate Pitch test. There will appear the Pitch test dialogue where you should specify the lenticular step in lpi (for example, 70 lpi) as well as the printer resolution in ppi.
You can leave all the other parameters as they are. The test step (lpi) must be 0.1.
The program will automatically determine the resolution of the printer connected to your computer in ppi (see the bottom part of the dialogue). Enter this value into the Resolution field. Then you need to press the Generate button and print the test on the paper that will be used for the final images. Let the test image dry.
Apply the test image to the lenticular material being tested, match the test image stripes with the lens and press tight. Then choose the code stripe that changes its color simultaneously along its full length. The number value of the stripe (for example, 70.1) – is the target value of the pitch-test. Use this value to generate encoded images. You can also watch this video on the topic.
You can make a follow-up pitch-test and find the second decimal number. To do that – change the following values in the dialogue:
1) Change the test step into 0.01
2) Change the step value (lpi) into the value found during the first pitch test (for example, 70.1).
As a result, all the numeric values of test stripes will have 2 digits after the decimal point (for example, 70.15).
In some cases, the precision is determined up to 4 decimal places. When determining the exact pitch value, it must be borne in mind that the lenticular sheet is an optical system. The best pitch value will be different for different viewing distances. Therefore, the pitch must be visually determined from the viewing distance from which the final lenticular painting is planned to be viewed.
StereoTracer enables you to generate a series of frames out of a source image and a depth map. You can save such a series and import it into 3DMasterKit to create a 3D image.
When you open a CMYK image, temporary internal copies are created in RGB color mode to display the original images on the screen (displays are RGB).
The original CMYK data is used for the interlacing. The color profile of the FIRST (source) image is used for the lenticular (interlaced) image.
An interlaced lenticular image in CMYK color mode is written directly to a file and not displayed on the screen.
Photographers generally use templates to quickly create colorful children and wedding design stereo photos.
3DMasterKit application provides ample opportunities to adjust the template. You can exchange places of layers, replace, scale and rotate elements of a template at any angle. The software allows any number of modifications that can be executed without any loss of quality. Besides, all modifications can be canceled or repeated thanks to the multi-stage feature Undo/Redo.
Perform this sequence of operations when working with templates:
1. Launch 3DMasterKit;
2. Open a file with a template;
3. Add any photo that you’d like to decorate with a stereo template;
4. After a template is adjusted the generation command can be executed. 3DMasterKit creates a sequence of frames for encoding.
5. Sequence of frames for the lenticular screen can be encoded or saved for further processing.
6. Adjusted template can be saved as a “project” for further use.
3DMasterKit enables you to combine templates with each other, create new templates using the existing ones. You can open a few templates in the application and compile a new theme, which can be used for further photo decoration. You can create new graphical elements in Photoshop, which can be easily added to existing templates or create new templates.
- Anaglyph mode. Special red-cyan glasses are needed to view anaglyph stereo images.
- Stereo pair for the direct view on the screen in 3DMasterKit. You do not need any special devices to watch the stereo pair on the screen in this mode. Just defocus your eyes in such a way that each eye looks at its own picture of a stereo pair.
- Animation mode helps to see the final result more vividly. The applications enable to save effects into animated .gif and .avi files (these are short videos that can be used to demonstrate the effect to a customer or put on your website).
- a number of LPI;
- lens thickness;
- viewing angle.
1. Lens per inch (LPI). The more LPI, the thinner the lenses, correspondingly, the more of them there are in one inch. Lenticular sheets with high LPI (60-100) are generally used for viewing images from short distances and for creating small formatted production (from the size of a small calendar to pictures of 50×70 cm). Lenticular sheets with low LPI (10-20) are used for viewing from a distance of more than 3 meters and are usually used for large-format works (advertising panels, light-boxes, sign plates). The higher index of LPI (the thinner lenses) you have, the more print quality you need (resolution, printing accuracy).
2. Lens thickness is connected with the LPI index. Generally, the more LPI the lenticular sheet has, the thinner it is. Lenticular screens of 60-100 LPI are the thinnest. They can be firm or flexible. Flexible lenses are used for souvenir production, labels, greeting cards, covers; firm ones are better for pictures, portraits, and so on.
Lenticular sheets of 10-40 LPI are thicker and firmer, and they are used to make large-format production.
3. Viewing angle. The smaller viewing angle the lenticular lens has, the more depth the stereo image printed on such a lens has. According to this characteristic lenticular lenses are divided into the following types:
- all-purpose lenses (viewing angle: 44-45 degrees) – are suited for stereo as well as flip images;
- 3D lenses (viewing angle smaller than 30 degrees) – are suited for stereo images;
- Flip lenses (viewing angle greater than 45 degrees) – are suited for all kinds of flip effects.
Every color has its angle. Focus on the dominant color and choose the rotation angle that enables to cut down the moiré effect to a minimum.
You can rotate the image by the calculated angle in the application with the help of the Rotate precise dialogue (menu item: Edit → Transform → Rotate precise). Hotkeys: Ctrl+Alt+R.
1. Encoding step is not accurate
You need to make a pitch-test and use the most accurate (probably, even to the fourth decimal place) encoding step when you encode the image (see the 3DMasterKit User Guide, Section 2.10.2 “Correcting the encoding pitch”, page 19.)
2. Inaccurate alignment of the image to the lenticular material. Ensure that you matched the lenses with the stripes of the encoded image accurately and only after that stick them together. For more accurate alignment you can use the Alignment marks that are printed around the image and enable to control the alignment: when you look at the image perpendicularly you should see the volume and depth of the 3D effect, especially in the central part of the image. Switching from one stereo zone to another one should occur when you change the observing position to the left and to the right by the same angle. Watch the image carefully at the intended viewing distance.
3. Inaccurate printing
Calibrate your printer to increase print accuracy.
4. Ink smearing.
Choose ink and CIS (continuous ink system) of good quality, because if your ink smears, print accuracy worsens. The stripes of such an encoded image will not match the stripe width of the lenses. Ink smearing may be also caused by defective paper.
5. Printer settings are wrong
Check the Borderless (print) checkbox in printer settings.
6. Parallax is too big
If you observed all the conditions above, your foreground objects are doubling because the parallax value is too big. Decrease the parallax value.
When you create a 3D lenticular image by generating layers, you can set the parallax value in % of the image width. In Triaxes 3DMasterKit (and Legend) you can set the background parallax, which regulates how objects will be pushed away from the viewer, and foreground parallax, which regulates object “protrusion” from the image.
Changing the background and foreground parallaxes proportionally influences all the layers and regulates the 3D effect of the resulting image.
The 3D effect depends on many conditions, as well as image design and composition, that is why there are no univocal recommendations on how to choose parallax values. Experience has shown that good results can be obtained with parallax values ranging from 3% to 7%. The software default parallax value is 5%.
Moreover, project layers are arranged by their distances (the layer closest to the viewer is situated at the top of the scale). The distances between layers are set in %.
You can control the 3D effect of your project in 2 ways:
1) change the background and/or foreground parallaxes;
2) change the distances to individual objects using the scale.
If the 3D effect on the resulting image seems too small, you can increase the parallax values up to 7% or even 10%. You can also draw closer the foreground objects and set back the background.
If the foreground objects look blurry on the resulting 3D image, you can reduce the foreground parallax up to 3% or reduce the protrusion of the foreground objects up to 60-70%.
We recommend working out your own scheme for your projects and materials.
See also the 3DMasterKit User Guide, section 4.2 The process of making a multilayer photo, page 60.
The minimal number of frames required for getting a satisfactory 3D image can be calculated with this formula:
Nmin=Res/Pitch,
where:
Nmin – minimal number of source frames;
Res – print resolution;
Pitch – lenticular lens step – lens per inch (lpi).
For example, if you encode the image with the 600 ppi resolution and the lenticular lens step is 60 lpi (pitch=60), then you need at least 10 frames. Practically, you can increase the value that you got by 2-3 times if the computational resources of your computer allow you to do that. It will help to get a higher quality of a 3D image.
If you lost the backup copy or activation code, our specialists will help you restore the software and the activation code from our database. In some cases, an update is required.
