Ulead COOL 3D has a plug-in extensible architecture which expands the limits of possibility beyond what was previously available in 3D text generating programs. One plug-in, included with the program, is the Fire plug-in, which lets you create fiery halos around your text.

Create your text in a new document window. Add a texture to the surface that will compliment the fire effect once it's added. (You can, of course, add the texture later instead of first, but if you have an idea of what you want before hand it might easier to set up the fire effect.) In the Libraries list on the Easy Palette, select the Global Effects: Fire library. The Easy Palette changes accordingly. From the selection of presets, choose one that closely matches what you had in mind and double click it. The Fire effect is applied to the text in the document window. On the Attribute toolbar, you can change any of the settings for the selected preset to customize it to meet your tastes. Adjust the Strength values to increase or decrease the intensity of the fire effect. The Amplitude value controls how 'wavy' the flames appear. Change the Direction value to adjust the direction the flames move in. Direction in Ulead COOL 3D is measured in degrees from 0 to 359. The Soft Edge value dictates how much the flames overlap the text object. A value of 0 creates a pure halo around the edges of the text, while a value of 5, for example, makes the flames appear as if they are on the surface of the object (due to a lot of edge blending). The Length value defines the size of the individual tongues of fire. Opacity dictates how transparent or not the flames appear. The Flame Color attribute lets you create a comprehensive gradient color the fire. The colors from left to right are the close, middle, and distant color ranges for the tongues of fire. Finally, select the Burn Inside attribute to invert the fire and have it burn inward toward the center of the text. If you like the results of your customization, click the Add button on the Attribute toolbar to add it to the preset library. Later, if you want to remove it, simply right click over it and click the Delete menu command.

Text before the fire effect is applied Text after the fire effect preset is applied Text after customizing the fire effect