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3D Flag Problem – Random bug/glitch?
Hello, I’ve been using 3D Flag to add a couple flags (obviously) to a simple scene in After Effects – it’s a static scene apart from a simple camera move forward through Z-space at the end.
I can get the flags to look and behave exactly how I want them to, and all seems fine – but then they suddenly go wrong in unexpected ways, either scaling up, moving somewhere else in the frame, or becoming cropped off, and it seems impossible to get them back to how they were, either by undoing anything, rebuilding the flag from scratch or re-starting After Effects. The only way to fix things is to re-start After Effects and THEN rebuild the flag, but soon enough the same problem happens again.
Any ideas on how this can be corrected?
Thanks
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6 Replies
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Hi Mike,
When cropping is occurring it’s a sign that you have applied the Flag plug-in to a solid that is not comp sized. Always, always apply Flag (or any other Zaxwerks plug-in) to a comp-sized Solid. Besides cropping, using a non-comp sized solid will also throw off the camera which is probably why the object is suddenly flying offscreen in some unknown direction.
My suggestion is to create a Comp-sized solid (leave it 2D, you’re not making the Solid 3D are you?),
Then apply the flag plug-in to the solid.
Then add the image you want on the flag as a separate layer to your AE project, but turn off its visibility.
Then inside the plug-in choose the layer as the color for the flagThis is all covered in the Flag on-line documentation under Quick Start.
If it’s still acting goofy please send the project to support@zaxwerks.com
Best
Zax -
Hi Zax, thanks for the response. I am pretty much following the documentation to the letter so the solid I am applying AE flag to is indeed a comp-sized 2D flag (although once I have the flag set up I am moving the solid’s position property to put the flag where I want it – would this cause a problem?)
Everything is behaving exactly as it should until the flag suddenly goes mental and suddenly becomes huge and moves somewhere else on the screen. Scrubbing through the timeline, the flag starts randomly jumping around. I’ve tried going through every property and can’t find the source of the problem!
The only way around at the moment is for me to re-start After Effects, rebuild the flag in the exact same way and try to export it before it starts playing up again.
Shame because apart from that the plug-in is doing exactly what I need.
Mike
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Hey Mike,
Please send a project with the misbehaving Flag to support (at) zaxwerks.com and I’ll take a look!
-Z
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I have exactly the same problem, its a really serious bug making the program almost useless. I have been using 3D Flag a lot of years at work and its to bad that its so unstable, even more than before.
I have tried using the After Effects camera, of course using a solid with the right size, pre-comping the texture and more…
The only thing you can do its by chance getting it right and then dont touch a thing… maybe you are lucky that the project is stable and that the full flag can be rendered correctly.
Sometime it works to set some value like “gravity” to 0 then set it to the correct value again, just to recalculate the simulation, maybe its the same as using the “simulation on” check-box.
Please try to fix this problem, its not really ok when you have bought this product but hardly can use it.
using Win 7
3D Flag 2.0
PAL 25f/s -
Good to know I’m not the only one… weirdly we’ve found that setting the flag layer to 3D (even though it specifically says not to) has helped, although that may just be coincidence.
Z, I will send over project file when a convenient moment arises, thanks
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Kalle, Mike, you HAVE to send a project file when things go wacky. Don’t sit and stew about it. We have excellent support and want to fix it.
Usually there is some setting that got tweaked and that’s causing the problem. For instance if you go into the Flag’s SetUp window and start fiddling with the cloth settings (stretch, bend, shear) you can make the cloth go crazy. Choose the Stiff Cloth Preset to get things back in line.
-Zax
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