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ProAnimator – speed/quality comparision?
Hi,
I was after getting ProAni to backup our 3D designer, or use as a substitute when he’s away (I haven’t got time to learn Softimage or Lightwave) but he tells me Zaxwerks stuff is a pile of ****!?! VERY, very slow apparently.
I am dubious, as I’ve heard some good stuff about it. Could anybody who uses it let me know if this is true? Is it upto the job, speed and quality wise if I’m just making simple logos & 3D text?
– Assuming I am using it in conjuction with AFX 7.0 on a similar speed machine to one that is running XSI & Lightwave.
I guess what I am asking is, to do a similar job (eg: build, animate & render some 3D text) in Lightwave for instance, what are the speed/quality comparisons in ProAnimator?
Thanks.
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6 Replies
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Jimmy,
ProAnimator is the single best choice for animating text and logos when you want complex motion, quality rendering and ease of use. It works as a stand alone application as well as a plug-in for After Effects. You don’t have to believe me over what your designer says. Take a look at the demo reel on the Zaxwerks site. It’s that good.
It does help to have a fast machine/graphics card and lots of RAM. The same can be said of Lightwave. If you’re working on a mactel machine, you will see slower speeds for After Effects and all of its plug-ins. That’s until AE and the plug-ins go native. With a G5 Quad, it’s entirely possible to get rendering speeds near a second a frame.
I would encourage you to download the demo and give it a try. You’ll be cranking out animations in no time. Complete disclosure: I don’t work for the company and I do have Lightwave 9.
Jon
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Thanks for the info Jon.
Yeah, I’d seen the demos on the site – looks pretty capable to me. So how much can lightwave do that ProAni can’t?
I think our 3D guy just doesn’t want me stepping on his toes, so is trying to put me off 😉
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Jimmy,
ProAnimataor is best suited for flying text and logos. You can do a lot more than that with it, once you understand how it relates to Adobe Illustrator and begin do think of compex objects as a series of simple shapes. If you’re doing a lot of title work, it’s perfect.
ProAnimator cannot model organic shapes, such as cartoon characters. It can’t create joints or moving links between objects and doesn’t have physics-based IK. It can import objects created in Lightwave and other 3D aps, but texturing imported objects is limited, compared to Lightwave.
Does this help?
Jon
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Yeah, that helps alot Jon thanks.
I’ll wait until next month and then DEMAND it!! 😉
Am I right in thinking Pro Animator can do EVERYTHING the Invigorator, Modeler, etc. can do? Does ProAni contains 3D flag?
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Hi Jimmy,
3D Flag is a separate plug-in for After Effects. It’s also available for some other hosts.
ProAnimator and Invigorator Pro share the same modeling and texturing abilities.They both create 3D text on the fly and handle Illustrator files in the same way. They can both apply movies or other layers/precomps in the AE timeline to object surfaces and can both animate the position of those layer maps.
How these plug-ins handle animation is where the biggest differences exist. Invigorator uses AE keyframes and has a limit to the number of sets (invisible “containers” for one or more objects) ProAnimator uses powerful behavior-based controls in a timeline that exists inside the plug-in. It’s far more capable than Invigorator when it comes to generating incredibly smooth and complex motion paths with minimal effort. It can easily control a huge number of objects that move in relation to eachother and does not have the limitation on the number of sets.
The other key difference is ProAnimator works as a stand-alone application AND a plug-in. When you don’t need AE, you can generate movies with alpha channels without it, for use in your NLE of choice.
I have them both because Invigorator came first and because there may be some instances where its motion controls work best. But if I had to choose one over the other, I would choose ProAnimator, no question about it.
Jon
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Much thanks Jon.
I will nag the powers that be and convince the powers that discourage! 😉
*AE 5.5 Pro – *PS CS1 – *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / BMD DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation
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