Replacing the writing on a rotating licence plate – am I on the right lines?

[Bruce Breidbart]

Thanks for the quick response Gareth & Simon. I’ll try tonight to work on it again. It seems so easy when others do it.
I would normally create the artwork myself in Photoshop, but Simon you created my name on the license
plate with just a texture, maybe an emboss or extrude and a light, i think ?
Made my day.

thanks again

BB

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Bruce Breidbart] “Simon you created my name on the license
plate with just a texture, maybe an emboss or extrude and a light, i think ? “

Yes, kind of –

I used a rectangle shape and rounded the edges, added some circles for the rivets, a text layer, then I used the rectangle to mask a texture from my image library and adjusted the blend mode and opacity to give just a hint of it (a bit corny and not the right texture, but you get the idea!).

I made a group of all that and applied the incredibly useful Indent filter to it and adjusted the lighting angle to get the faux 3D bevelled effect. The key thing with Indent is to adjust the relative brightness of your separate components to tell the filter which was is out and which way is in …

I added a light source for a bit more realism and I also added a feathered dark solid to top the of the numberplate which I masked using the original rectangle just to give a bit of shading to the top, as Gareth did very nicely.

Good luck with your version – I look forward to seeing it 😉

Simon Ubsdell
hawaiki.co

[Bruce Breidbart]

Simon I’m getting closer thanks to you.
Hopefully I was able to insert my screen cast.

Still some questions if I may.
1) I’ve created my rectangle and added a outline so I could create rounded edges. Did you just edit the points of the rectangle/ smooth and round the edges that way ?
2) You mentioned that you added a feathered dark solid to give the top a bit of shading. I ended up using the rectangle tool and feathered it out. When I first tried the color solid I didn’t see controls to feather it out unless I did a little mask, but then when I added the layer mask it didn’t work correctly. Yours looks great, mine not so great.
If that was my only problems I would be happy as clams. Obviously my camera alignment/camera view is nowhere close. This pains me, so much time spent, it seems so close, but yet so far.
Thanks

BB

[Simon Ubsdell]

Looking very good, nice work!

[Bruce Breidbart] “1) I’ve created my rectangle and added a outline so I could create rounded edges. Did you just edit the points of the rectangle/ smooth and round the edges that way ?”

You don’t need to ad an outline to achieve the corner roundness – simply go into the Geometry tab for the shape and use the roundness control that you’ll find there.

[Bruce Breidbart] “You mentioned that you added a feathered dark solid to give the top a bit of shading. I ended up using the rectangle tool and feathered it out. When I first tried the color solid I didn’t see controls to feather it out unless I did a little mask, but then when I added the layer mask it didn’t work correctly. Yours looks great, mine not so great.”

What I did – and it’s by no means the only way to do it – was to create a new 3D group in which I created a new black filled rectangle which I feathered quite heavily (about 300), and then I used the original licence plate rectangle to mask this. I then slid the rectangle up and down on the Y axis till I got the degree of shading that I wanted.

Does that make sense?

[Bruce Breidbart] “Obviously my camera alignment/camera view is nowhere close.”

If it helps, I’m using these values for the camera position and rotation:

… but I really did just eyeball it very quickly as in the demo video. As I mentioned above, I used a value of 35 degrees for the camera’s angle of view.

To be honest, I think your version looks pretty darn good – I like the way you’ve done the screw heads, very nice detail 🙂

Simon Ubsdell
hawaiki.co

[Bruce Breidbart]

” Does that make sense”
So simple I wish I thought of it, go to Geometry.
Even the feathered mask makes sense NOW.

But even after I followed you co-ordinace for the camera it just doesn’t work for me. It looks fine
as a still but when I go back to the group and rotate, it’s very clear there is something I’m missing.
Very frustrating.

Thanks for all you help

BB

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Bruce Breidbart] “But even after I followed you co-ordinace for the camera it just doesn’t work for me. It looks fine
as a still but when I go back to the group and rotate, it’s very clear there is something I’m missing.”

Two things:

You need to mask off the right hand side of the licence plate so it disappears into the cavity.

And you need a much darker solid behind so it looks more like a dark hole.

If you’d like to upload your project I could take a look at your camera but I think you’ve got it more or less right.

But you could always have a good look at Gareth’s project (above) – he seems to have done a great job with the camera and animation.

Simon Ubsdell
hawaiki.co

[Bruce Breidbart]

Still working on it, thanks to Gareth & Simon.
I tried to include my video this time.

Re: Replacing the writing on a rotating licence plate – am I on the right lines?

I needed to focus at this stage more on the movement and key framing of the mask then the final look, I left off the feathered solid & the light just to name a few. If I hadn’t seem Gareth’s final version I would think I was closer to completion than I really am.
There is an element ( I’ll call a clip ) that separates the front plate and the back plate. It’s so subtle yet is driving me crazy to create. Is it a separate layer ? how was it created and tracked?
When you created your version I see 2 separate plate with this (clip) holding them together, brilliant.
With mine I don’t see my second plate until it rotates past a certain point. Maybe your using different lights on each plate ?
I feel that I’m getting much closer, and with some more help I might even get there.
Thanks again for all the help.
BB

[Gareth Randall]

Hi Bruce,

This might help you – the project for the “missiles to flamethrower” rotation, including the media. You should be able to see how everything works now, including how shoddily I positioned the replacement plates over the originals… 😉

7331_rotatewithmedia.zip

As far as I can tell, the only difference between my version and yours is that I moved the anchor point of the plates back in Z space. That’s how you achieve the effect of one plate rotating away into the depths of the car while a new plate moves up to take its place.

Rotating the plate on its X axis *without* moving the anchor point back gives you the effect you’ve got, which is of the plate flipping over from its front to its back.

[Simon Ubsdell]

One of the main differences is that Gareth was rotating the licence plate only through 60 degrees not the full 180 that you are attempting – that’s one of the reasons it looks more interesting cos you’re seeing more geometry in the background. With a full 180 you don’t get to see anything interesting behind the plate.

Simon Ubsdell
hawaiki.co

[Bruce Breidbart]

That really helped, thanks.
My first mistake was I decided to start this project from a capture screen instead of your video. What was I thinking.I’ve inserted my latest attempt below. When I looked at your time line I only saw your animated mask and 3 key frames for X rotation on the flamethrower. When I made my attempt not only was I key framing X rotation I also needed to keyframe position X and Y for each new plate along with a mask. Yours seems so fluid in motion, while mine jerks as it follows the plate below. I tried to reduce the opacity of the plate while doing my adjustments in X rotation, but I was still was just eyeballing it, and not so great at that. At least I solved the mystery of the ( clip ) that held the 2 plates together, ( it was on the original video). If I could solve the mystery about the fluid motion I’d be very happy. Any tips ?

latest

thank again
BB