Hi Kimodo,
Welcome to trueSpace, 3D, and the forum!
I really want to honor my relative by using the gift I was given properly.
I understand. I'm like that too about gifts.
trueSpace is a 3D modeling and rendering program. It is focused on 3D. Not like with red/blue glasses but that the objects are defined and used in three dimensions.
What it does is allow you to create, alter, and arrange shapes in three dimensions and make pictures using them. Software like trueSpace (but more expensive) was used to make the computer animated movies we all like (Toy Story, Beowulf, Transformers). It is also used to make architectural images and product visualizations. A few forum members like Prodigy are professionals in this. They are "living the dream." Green with envy:
In a sense it is like a 2D paint program, Paint Shop or Photoshop, except instead of making a circle you make a sphere, instead of a square you make a cube, and so forth. Instead of arranging circles and rectangles and lines on a flat 2D surface you arrange and manipulate 3D shapes in a three dimensional space.
You can make pictures like the ones you see in this forum. They can be cartoon style, photo-realistic, or they can be like a frame from Toy Story. You can make animations similar to Toy Story except that trueSpace is not very good an animating characters. If you want to make a Toy-Story-like cartoon use something else. It is good for still pictures not good at animation of organic or bending shapes like a human.
The new version 7.X TS is really two programs. It is important to know that. The model side, or model space, is similar to the the old version you were given. The workspace is a partially unfinished new style of TS that has some interesting new abilities and features. I still use TS5 often.
There are mainly 4 parts to using a program like this:
Modeling: here you create the shapes and put them together. A baseball bat shape for example.
Texturing/Shading: here you give the surface its colors, reflectance, transparency, and possibly bumps. Here you might wrap a photo of wood around the baseball bat shape.
Lighting: here you set the lights in the scene.
Rendering: here the program takes all of this and creates an image.
Can it do 2d animation?
Sort of. With a "toon" shader cartoon like images can be made.
Do I need Photoshop, or GIMP? Where does the artwork come from?
By artwork do you mean the pictures seen in the forum? They are a synthesis of many things created in trueSpace and brought together in it. Programs like Paint Shop serve a supporting role with trueSpace. You can use them to make textures and for post production work. Animation editors like Video Studio are useful too.
Would it be possible to create an animated show with this software? I am developing a cartoon along the lines of King of the Hill, Simpsons... etc and I'm trying to determine if Truespace could be used in it's creation.
Some 2D looking TV cartoons are made with 3D software. Use 'toon' shaders and maybe you can. Several people use TS because they like to model shapes (objects, meshes, models, and other names) with it but then animate them in other software.
If it can't actually do the animation entirely with Truespace itself... what else could it be used for?
Most TS users are hobbyists who make still pictures or simple animations for fun. It is good for realistic still pictures. Steinie is a cartoonist, Splinters has illustrated his children's books. W!izard creates artwork and illustrates a story.
Finis
I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful servitude. -- Thomas Jefferson/Jean Jacques Rousseau
