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large “spike” or stalactite appearing off one of the ‘O’ characters in my 3d text
I’m quite inexperienced with Zaxwerks Pro Animator 4.5.1 but had tried it a few times when I first purchased the product. I read the manual and followed the video examples but ran into some really basic issues, one of which I have just experienced again after trying the product again after a few months have passed. It seems on the surface this product is very simple and powerful yet once it stops doing what I like I find it nearly impossible to get it back to the way I wanted it, and all the controls don’t really show what their impact is unless you just go ahead and render it all out.
So here’s the first problem I had today. I put a very basic 3d text into the product and tried a couple of very basic object animations, including Circle On-Off (hard to figure out which I used since it isn’t displayed on the dialog after I selected it, nor is it shown as “checked” on the list – it’s like I have to have a photographic memory to remember which one I used).
Anyway, the second word I am using, “PRODUCTIONS”, has two ‘O’ characters in it. After replaying the animation a couple times and maybe looking at a few other options, now the first ‘O’ character has a huge “spike” hanging down from it. All the rest of the characters including the other ‘O’ character look fine. I can’t find a way to get rid of this spike or stalactite, nor do I understand how it got there or what it means.
Please help.
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4 Replies
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By the way, I realize I made a mistake when suggesting you can’t see which animation is in use – I realize I forgot that it is displayed within the list at the top above all the choices. In any case, I am finding again and again that I get the spike below the letter, most of the time it’s on the O, and also it seems that trying different object animations causes this to happen, or even going to other programs in windows and then returning to this one (Pro Animator) at which time the spike can be seen. Sometimes the whole letter disappears, leaving the rest of the word without the O (even though going into edit text still shows the whole word with all the letters).
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Hi Dave,
When you have a spike in your letter, it means that the outline for the character is not filled completely. If the text is from a Illustrator file that you created, then double check the Illustrator file to make sure that the path is closed properly. If the 3D Text is from a system font, then you can use the “SpikeBuster” tool inside the “Object” tab to reduce the spikes in your letters. By increasing the SpikeBuster, it will take off the spikes.
If you need more information about ProAnimator, you can take a look at the ProAnimator manual. It goes over all the controls of the program, and it will provide tips and techniques for using the program.
To download the user manual, click the link below:
https://zaxwerks.com/docs.shtml
Best,
Edward -
hello
I really appreciate your help. This was not an imported graphic, just fonts I chose after I typed directly into the 3-d text of ProAnimator. Toying with the settings for that spike buster did help eliminate the spikes although as I moved the setting up and down it sometimes created more spikes. But I did find a setting that seemed to work for the fonts I was using. Now I just need to make them a bit sharper – some of the round letters look pretty jagged / bitmappy, e.g. the O.
-Dave
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Hi Dave,
Good to hear that the SpikeBuster setting was able to help you out. Keep in mind that you are only previewing your text within ProAnimator, which is why your 3D Text might appear “jagged / bitmappy”. However, if you hold down the “ctrl / cmd” key, your “Render Movie / OK” button will turn into a “Test” button that allows you to get a preview of what your text looks like when you are rendering your objects.
One way to get a better preview within ProAnimator is to adjust the “Preview Object Faceting” (located in the Object Tab) to a low value such as “0.1”. This setting will allow you to see render quality models while you are working in ProAnimator. However, keep in mind that as you create more and more objects, you may encounter slowdown.
Best,
Edward
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