Creating a 3D Font for CGI Studio

The scope of this section is providing step-by-step instructions for creating a 3D font which can be used within the CGI Studio tool chain.

Overview

Any TrueType font can easily be adapted for use within the CGI tool chain. All needed is an FBX file containing a set of meshes which represent the 3D letters of the font. The name of each character mesh within the set must end with a four-digit code, the so called “code point”, which identifies a character in Unicode space. 
All character meshes within the set must be aligned at the same baseline and at their left ends, resulting in a 3D scene with all character meshes being stacked on top of each other.
A single helper object, a “dummy” in 3ds max, is placed at the left end and baseline of the meshes. It not only serves as the root object within the scene hierarchy but will also become the anchor point, a kind of “physical” pivot, for character manipulation (moving, rotating, resizing) within CGI font widgets at a later step.