Creating a power cell icon May 15th 2008

This tutorial teaches you how to create a simple 3D models of a power cell and how to ceonvert it to a Windows Vista-compatible icon. The icon is created entirely in RealWorld Icon Editor 2008.1.

People watching this tutorial should already know what is a 3D model and an icon. Understanding the basic computer graphics terms such as pixel, raster image, rendering, NURBS curve, etc. is a big advantage.

3D -> image -> icon

The video tutorial covers the whole process from designing a 3D model, defining a snapshot, rendering, conversion to icon, and retouching the icon.

Notes

• The tutorial does not show it, but it is a good practice to give names to the components of the 3D model.
• This tutorial also applies to previous versions of RW Icon Editor. The latest version is needed for the icon retouching section only.

Resources

• RealWorld Icon Editor 2008.1 home page.
• 3D model: power-cell.u3d
• Rendered image: power-cell.r3i
• The resulting icon: power-cell.ico

Summary

Making icons using 3D models is one of the possible ways, and moust likely the fastest way to make realistic and usable icons without needing to be an artist. This tutorial is a proof ;-).

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