DOGA
DoGA ([do:ga] means 'Animation' or 'moving picture' in Japanese)
DOGA is a popular program among NationStates players for creating 3D artwork. It is akin to virtual LEGO in that you use pre-made 'parts' to build a model. Just as with LEGO you are only limited by your creativity in how you put those parts together. Unlike LEGO you always have enough pieces and they come in whatever color you want.
The simplest version of DOGA (L1) is still free, but you will need to pay for the more advanced versions if you wish to render images.
DOGA Hints and Tricks
Bump Mapping: Edit the desired Part Attribute and click the Texture sub-tab. Click the 'Bump' box then select the texture you want to use as the bumpmap from either Sample Textures or User Textures. Setting the Emphasis higher or lower will increase or decrease the apparent depth of the bumpmap when the model is rendered. Note that bumpmapping doesn't show up until you render the model.
Shadows: While the basic rendering engine has some very basic shadow functions you can enable full shadows by going to the Materials tab when editting the Part Attributes and check one or both of the boxes 'Drop' and 'Recieve' shadows. If you are placing something like a flag on a model you might want to just 'Recieve' shadows so that the flag appears to be painted directly on the surface instead of hovering over it.
Grid Fitting: Normally when you move an object it will snap to the default grid. You can turn this off under Settings and Grid Fitting -or- you can do it by holding 'Ctrl' as you move the part. 'Ctrl' also turns off the grid for rotation, scaling, and stretching parts.
Scaling: By holding down 'Shift' while dragging one of the scaling boxes this will force the object to scale with the same ratio along all axis. Holding down 'Ctrl' will stop this scaling from using the grid and instead allow the object to exceed the minimum size restrictions.
Selecting Parts: You can select two parts or more by clicking one, holding shift, then clicking another in any other window. You can also select using a drag pane by holding shift and then clicking and dragging in any one window. You can drag outside of the normal boundaries of the window as well so if the center point of a part is only slightly outside of the current window size you can drag the pane until it is over that center-point.
Selecting multiple parts requires you to know where the center point of each object is (red box). When you are shift-clicking or shift-dragging to select multiple parts you can't see the red box so you should first memorize then visualize their location as you do either method.
More Scaling: You can scale multiple parts after you have selected them via one of the two previous methods. However they will not scale along a single axis but will automatically and only scale along all three axis (XYZ). There is a work-around for this but once done you cannot assign individual textures to these parts and is thus not recommended.
Once you have the parts selected go to File and Save As and select Part File. Give it a memorable name and then go to Part and Add Part from File. Open your created part file and you can then manipulate it along all three dimensions. These parts must be assigned the same texture or they will use whatever texture they were saved with.
Save As Part: If you have a ship, tank, plane, or similar object and you want to use it multiple times in a scene there is an easy way to do this. Go to File, Save As, and Part File and give it a memorable name. Then you can just go to any model and go to Part, Add Part from File, and add this ship, plane, etc.
Preview Window: Holding down 'Shift' while the mouse is in the preview window will allow you to zoom in and out by moving the mouse up and down. 'Ctrl' will change the rotation point from the center of the grid to the current camera location. By combining these two you can 'walk' around an object.
Centering a Texture: If you are scaling a texture here is the formula to keep it centered on the part. If the new density is under 100 set the 'H' and 'V' to Negative (-) 100 - Density / 2. Example: Density of 40 would give you 100 - 40 / 2 = 30 so -30 on both 'H' and 'V'. If the density is greater than 100 the formula is Positive (+) Density - 100 / 2. Example: 140 - 100 / 2 = 20 so +20 on both 'H' and 'V' for an exact centering. You can adjust the 'V' option and the texture will stay symetrical but it will not be centered.
