-
Shatter Text jaggy
I’ve just learned and used shatter to create a 3D title that flies in and stays in frame. (I used Chadd and Todd’s podcast – I’m sure there are others – and probably here on the cow.)
The problem I’m having is that the text’s rounded edges are actually blunt planes. (Imagine you couldn’t draw a curve and instead you did a series of short lines at progressive angles in order to simulate a curve. That’s what I mean by blunt planes.)
Is this a problem of Shatter or something else. Possibly my font (futura bold), or that I’m using a text layer rather than text created in Illustrator and imported into the project? (I don’t have Illustrator unfortunately.)
Any help is appreciated.
-
2 Replies
-
>Is this a problem of Shatter or something else. < Sorry, not at my AE machine at the moment so I may not have this correct. Yes, that's a bit of a problem with Shatter's engine. Shatter can be used to approximate 3D extruded objects as they might come form a dedicated 3D modeler but Shatter has limitations. You can get around it by starting with a much larger layer than you need and zooming back from it with the camera controls. This essentially makes the jaggies less noticeable. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
-
Bogiesan, thanks for the advice. I tried it without much luck. It pretty much just made the letters look fuzzy.
I also tried importing the words as eps files but that didn’t make a difference.
Adding a bevel to the pre-comped text seemed to help a little but there’s no control for bevel smoothness like in photoshop.
My solution: I’m using a different font which is slightly better (Arial Black).
Oh well, maybe when I get CS3 and I learn how to do that neat new vector stuff in photoshop and import it into after effects this will be a solution to creating 3D text.
Until then… an imperfect shatter it is. It’s still a neat trick.
By the way to anyone interested — I had some success at making the text a little glass-like by adding the bevel, using the luminosity composite mode, then doubling up the pre-comped text layer on top, lowering the opacity to a very small amount and put that layer as a classic difference composite mode.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up