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Absolute newbie question
I am learning Motion to do simple video and title animation for in house videos at work.
How do I take a 2d ai, eps or jpg file of an object (an anvil, in this case) and turn it into a 3d object I can bring into Motion?
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7 Replies
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You can’t. At least not with the onboard toolset. Otherwise you might want to look at something like mObject.
https://www.motionvfx.com/mplugs-33.html
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Unless by 3D object you mean a 2D object that moves in 3D space.
If it is something like text you can do this tutorial but it kills Motions processing power: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/wiggins_peter/3d_text.php
Which is what I did for the text in this commercial: https://reels.creativecow.net/film/moving-with-motion-commercial
But the easiest and best thing for a 3D object is mObject: https://www.motionvfx.com/mplugs-33.html#1 or Zaxwerks: https://zaxwerks.com/proanimatorfx/index.shtml
Stephen Smith
Check out my Vimeo page
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Except for text, I think, you can’t extrude 3-d objects in Motion. You’d have to use a helper application like the man says, or build the object in a real CGI program, render a movie of it, and bring that movie into Motion to finish the composite. Which people do all the time.
Having said that, what you “can” do, in Motion, that I know of, is manipulate 2-d objects in a 3-d space, and you can fake the 3-d-ness of a flat piece of art, in a limited way.
For an anvil, you can probably get away with this trick; 2 flat plane instances of the side view, arranged in z-space, connected at the edges with a “ribbon”, colored with a gradient derived from sampling the art. The ribbon is made by tracing the edge of the art using the path tool, and “extruding” it. If a ribbon isn’t working for you, you can draw many small rectangles from point to point along the edge, essentially building a box.
If you don’t need a “lot” of 3-d revealed, but want to make the thing look thick, fast, stack a dozen instances of it as a group, with each instance offset in z-space by just a few percent, this is often enough to sell the idea. Depends on the object’s shape, how well it comes off.
These are old and kind of rough, looking back at them now, I’m actually quite embarrassed by them though they were the first things I created in Motion 4, it was my first time using Motion to do anything like this, and I’m sure I could go back and do them much better now, because I understand grouping and key-framing better. I point to them just to give you some idea that Motion can do more than just sling type in 2-d.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZneJmnT24x8
The 3-d combination knob is just 2-D planes stacked in z-space, with copious use of drop shadow. Your anvil can work using such a technique, perhaps.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZocEriqABLs
The factory and robot pieces were made in photoshop, brought into Motion 4, and arranged in groups in 3-d space. The box is all from assets already in Motion.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5z-EJ84kgU
The hardest thing in this one was getting the blueprint to curl effectively. My recollection is that I couldn’t do it in Motion and had to cheat in Final Cut, then import it back into Motion.Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
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And while I was finding those old examples, Jedi Master Smith comes in and blows me away with a better answer. BTW, Stephen, when are you gonna make a DVD for Motion 5? Your Motion 4 tutorial was awesome and very accessible.
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[Mark]
BTW, Stephen, when are you gonna make a DVD for Motion 5?
I was planing on doing one but I disliked FCP X so much I walked away from Apple software and I’m doing everything except legacy projects in Adobe and DaVinci Resolve now. I still think Motion is a great program but Round Tripping from FCP is what got me to use it more then After Effects back when Motion 2 came out.
[Mark]
Your Motion 4 tutorial was awesome and very accessible.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it. I really enjoyed making it and enjoyed the positive reviews it received. Thanks for the kind words.
Stephen Smith
Check out my Vimeo page
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Even though the DVD is a little out of date, it still has plenty of solid, usable stuff on it. I found it to be a lifesaver, and wish I’d had it when I started those example projects.
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Zaxwerks hasn’t worked with FCP or Motion for a veeeeery long time. FCP 7 and M5 is where it ended. mObject is, as I noted, your only decent option. I haven’t checked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of their model packs didn’t in fact have an anvil in it. Otherwise, aside from being able to import vector files to extrude, you can import any given .obj you can find on the net, where there’s sure to be a plethora of anvil’s to choose from.
And I don’t know Stephen’s training, but I can’t imagine that there’s anything that Mark’s Motion 5 training over at Ripple Training doesn’t cover. The best and most comprehensive I know of in the english language.
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