Invigorator Pro AE Plug-In maximum camera range?

[Edward Wu]

Hi Dan,

If you are using the 3D Invigorator camera, here are some steps that you can work with to get the draw distance to be 30,000 units instead of 10,000 units.

Go into the 3D Invigorator Setup window (by clicking the little red ball) and save your scene. To save your scene, use the “Cmd + s (Mac) / Ctrl + s (Win)” command, and name the scene. If the scene doesn’t save with an extension, then add “.zxp” to the end of the project file.

Next, open the saved scene with a text editor tool. In the text editor, use the find tool, and search for “clip”. You should be able to find the following information below:
_____________________________

begin CameraX

name “dflt_cam”

…………. (I omitted the other data in here)

clip 0.100000 10000.000000 <--- change this value to 30000 _____________________________ After you make the change to the "clip" value, save the .zxp project file again, and go back into After Effects project. Go into the 3D Invigorator setup window and use the "Cmd + o (Mac) / Ctrl + o (Win)" command to open the scene. Select the Zaxwerks project you saved and open up the scene. After opening the scene, press OK to go into the After Effects Interface, and you should be able to adjust the Camera Distance value to 30000 before the Invigorator objects are clipped. You may need to use the "Update Camera" button to have this updated. I know this solution seems rather complicated, but it does override the max render distance. Best, Edward

[Dan Austin]

Thanks I follow what you’re saying, though I’m using the After Effects Camera instead of the Invigorator one (I Have use Comp Camera checked) though from what I gather it should still work, hopefully lol.

I’m gonna try it now and see, I’ll come back to say whther it does or doesnt work w/ the AE camera for other people who may stumble upon this thread.

Thanks again! BRB! lol

[Dan Austin]

Ctrl+S won’t work, Ctrl+O will bring up the open scene window, but I can’t seem to save, how strange…

[Dan Austin]

Ok, I can’t get the scene to save with Ctrl+S, though Ctrl+O will bring up the open window.

I’ve checked the user preference file and it states SaveMode 0, I’ve tried changing this to SaveMode 1 and still nothing.

This is really bugging me, lol, any ideas?

[Serge Hamad]

Hi,

I will try to reproduce the issue and check on the hack question ASAP as it sounds very interesting. (Thanks Edward for the tip!)

I think there is a misunderstanding here, I believe Edward was thinking of ProAnimator when he suggested you to save a scene. Invigorator pro doesn’t have this feature AFAIK.

I think the best for now would be that you use the AE-Camera.

I would gladly have a look at your AE project if you want. Don’t send any media files, just the AEP. (serge at nyc-visual dot com)

Salut,
Serge

Invigorator/Proanimator Training: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/hamad_serge/invig_training.php

[Dan Austin]

Ah makes sense! Not to worry I’ll just scale everything down to 30% of its size, itll all look the same and the camera won’t clip out the Invigorator model.

Thanks for the quick responses guys, much appreciated!

With regards to the camera clip hack though, it might be a good idea to introduce an editable value for it in future versions, I’m sure it would help reduce rendering times for users if they have a complex fly-through scene, where objects wouldn’t be seen until a certain point, cutting out unessecary rendering. I’m a newbie to zaxwerks though so I could be completely wrong lol. I do make levels for Half-Life 2 though, and prop models that are used can have their draw distances set manually to improve frame-rates in game, so that could be an alternative to the camera draw distance instead having the models with individual draw distances would allow more control over the render. These are just ideas though lol

Thanks again! Back to work for me! lol

[Edward Wu]

It almost feels like working with trap doors and hidden levers, but it’s possible to save the scene inside of 3D Invigorator! Sorry, it seems like I missed a little step, which is why you weren’t able to save your scene. To save the scene, go into the 3D Invigorator interface by clicking the little red ball. Next, click the interface once so that it becomes “active”, then press “Cmd + s” to save.

Once you are able to save your scene, you will be able to manipulate the draw distance of the 3D Invigorator camera.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Edward

[Serge Hamad]

[Edward Wu] “It almost feels like working with trap doors and hidden levers”

LOL!!!

Thanks for the tip Edward!

Salut,
Serge

Invigorator/Proanimator Training: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/hamad_serge/invig_training.php

[Edward Wu]

Haha, no problem!

I didn’t know about this “feature” prior to this either. I’m learning something new everyday 😀