Converting snapshots to icons

Once you have created a 3D model and defined one or more snapshots, you can render the 3D model to image and convert it to icon.

Converting snapshots to images is easy. Simply click the Operation->Edit snapshot as raster image in main menu or in toolbar and a new window with a raster image opens. The Operation menu contains two additional commands for conversion to icons:

Create icon from snapshot

This command contains the following sequence of operations and transformations:

• Render snapshot to raster image - conversion to raster image.
• Remove border (interactive) - removing (or adding) of empty border space and positioning of the objects in the icon.
• Conversion to icon (interactive) - define image formats to generate, and effects to apply.
• Create pre-XP formats - create 8- and 4-bit image formats from the 32-bit ones.
• Open icon in new window.

Make layered icon

If multiple snapshots are defined, it is possible to convert them to a layered image and then user the remove border operation on all layers. Finally, layers can be merged or converted to icons individually and merged afterward. The snapshots are effectively layers.

Note that the slight shadow enhancing the edges of the final icon is present around the blue check-mark.

When using the Make layered icon function, shadows are applied to each layer(snapshot), separating them visually - use this to your advantage. The function for removing empty borders works with multiple layers as well. The icon above was created from a Rendered image document with two snapshots literally with one click.

Tips

• When creating Vista icons (icons with image sizes up to 256x256 pixels), make sure that the resolution of the rendered image is high enough (>1000x1000 pixels) for maximum quality. You can increase the resolution in the Image Properties panel.
• If your 3D model contains semitransparent parts, enable transparent background in the Image Properties panel. Otherwise, it is enough to pick a color that is not used in the 3D model for the background.

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