3D present with bow. Any help?

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi reins,

Make the box and the bow in Invigorator. They’ll both be in the same 3d space. Making a simple bow is fairly easy – draw a side view of the bow with a stroke, no fill. Then outline the stroke in Illustrator to create a solid bow shape. Then, use Invigorator to extrude the shape to the width of the ribbon. You can make more complicated bows by replicating the shape and offsetting them or by creating other shapes.

Does this help?

Jon

[Serge Hamad]

Hi Reins,

I would follow Jon’s advise and do the whole thing in Invigorator.

I would add though a transparency map to the bow so it doesn’t always have the same width. Have a look at the example I did for you here:
https://www.nyc-visual.com/Bow.jpg

If you like the look I will send you the aep after cleaning it a bit.

Salut.
Serge

“InvigoMany” is back in stock! https://www.nyc-visual.com
Invigorator/Proanimator Training: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/hamad_serge/invig_training.php

[Kevin Reiner]

Serge and Jon,

perfect. thank you. just needed to think a little different on that one.

I would love that ae file, Serge. Although I like doing things myself, it would be beneficial to study your settings. I’m still new to Invigorator.

Thanks guys,
Reins

[Serge Hamad]

[Reins] “Although I like doing things myself, it would be beneficial to study your settings.”

Sure! That’s why I create those aeps whenever I can.
https://www.nyc-visual.com/Bow.zip

Check first the ai file then the transparency map and do play with the mask shape.

The main bow object was created as Jon said and also similar to the film strip tutorial, a path was first drown simulating the profile of the object then outlining the stroke simply closed it.

Notice that I unchecked the front and back faces of this object in Invigorator as they are not needed.

let us know if you still have questions.

Salut.
Serge

“InvigoMany” is back in stock! https://www.nyc-visual.com
Invigorator/Proanimator Training: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/hamad_serge/invig_training.php

[Kevin Reiner]

Hello Serge and Jon and all,

I have that present working perfectly – almost. The present will be opening up. Actually it will be flying apart. So I made the cube out of 6 planes. I want to control the whole present by having a Master Controller that is the parent to 6 other layers. My thinking was that the Master Controller would move the entire object, and then its children 3D solids would control the sides flying apart. To make it even more complex, I need the tag and ring that are hanging off the side to flip on their x axes. I thought I had it all set up correctly, but when I start moving the controller 3D layers, everything starts shifting incorrectly.

Basically I am trying to achieve 3 things:
1. A 3D present that can fly around in 3D space.
2. An attached ring and tag that rotates on their x axes.
3. The ability to make all 6 sides fly away from each other. (with the ribbon, ring, and tag being part of the top set.)

I’ve uploaded my project since I am having difficulty explaining myself.

https://www.sendspace.com/pro/nqudbk

On another note, I ordered your book the other day, but I don’t think it will get here in time to help me with this problem. I look forward to using it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me,
Reins

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Zaxwerks

[Serge Hamad]

Hey,

Please have a look at the pivot point part of lesson one.

In order to animate the way you describe you need to create a common pivot point for all your objects/sets.

So I would first start with creating the pivot points for each set, make them invisible and add the sides, ribbons, etc…

I also noticed that you tried to alter the position of some objects in the scene preview window. Don’t do that. Arrange all your objects to form the box inside of the Set-Up window and try to keep them at the center of the world origin. If you need to have a different view for instance, use the camera tools don’t select your objects and move them around etc…

I am working on Volume 2 that emphasis on Animation your example is perfect.

let me know if you get stuck again.

Salut.
Serge

[Kevin Reiner]

Hey Serge,

I got my project to a pretty good rough stage. Take a look:

https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/w0g3b8

The things I am now having trouble with are the lights and shadows. As you advised, I used the zaxwerks camera to animate most of the movement of the present. However, since I wanted the present to rotate, the lights and shadows rotated with the present’s spinning and did not look real. I thought switching to “use AE lights” would stop this, but it did not. How do I animate the zaxwerks camera, yet keeping the lights appearing as if they are steady.

-Reins

PS Love the DVD. The trick with the pivot spheres is great.

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Reins,

I had to look… your project is coming along nicely.

You’re right about the lights being distracting. You might be able to lessen the problem by using ambient or less directional parallel lights.

As an alternative, why not rotate the lights around a common center at the same rate as you rotate the package? That way they would essentially track the rotation of the package.

Jon

[Serge Hamad]

Hey, I agree with Jon the project starts to really look good.

[Reins] “As you advised, I used the zaxwerks camera to animate most of the movement of the present.”

What I meant was not to animate the camera but to use the camera in your set-up window to change to different views during your modeling process.

Did you manage to get your box behave correctly when you use your 3D trackers?

Just in case you didn’t shoot me an e-mail so I can send you a new project. (My server is down for the moment so I can’t upload anything)

Now the anim is great but I would still work on a nice texture map for the box;-)

Salut,
Serge

[Jon Okerstrom]

Agreed, Serge.

If it were me, I would very slightly and softly darken the edges of each side to give the impression of very slightly rounded corners. No box has perfectly sharp edges. A little imperfection adds to the realism, just as the right texture map would.

Jon