[Edward Wu]

Hi Christian,

You are probably using a 3D Display Style that does not display texture maps. Right below the Preview Window, there is a 3D Display Style button. By default, the icon is set to the “Grayscale” (a gray sphere). This means the program only previews the bare model without any of the texture maps. This keeps the preview speed fast. To see the texture map applied onto your object, click the 3D DIsplay Style button until the button turns into a colored sphere. Then you’ll be able to see the texture map.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

Hi John,

You’re on the right track. You can create the curved screen by drawing the curved shape in Illustrator. Be sure to draw a thin curved shape, or the screen may end up looking really thick. Then increase the depth of the shape once you’ve extruded it in 3D Invigorator. You may need to manually type in the depth to get the right height you need for your object, and rotate it to the right position .

Another way to do this is with 3D Warps. 3D Warps allows you to bend, fold, or twist any layer within After Effects. In your situation, you can bend the movie layer with 3D Warps, and it will look like the curved movie screen that you’re looking for.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

No problem. Glad to hear that you were able to figure it out.

Thanks for the update.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the detailed information. If possible, try to find a sequence where the project consistently crashes, then see if it’s possible to simplify the issue. If you’re able to find a consistent method that crashes the program, you can send the process and the project file to us, and we’ll be able to look at the project and see if we can narrow down the issue.

If the program crashes randomly, you can try saving the crash logs so we can look into what may be causing the issue for you.

In the mean time, if it seems like you are struggling with the bigger projects, you can try separating your project into different compositions and pre-comps, and see if that helps.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

Hi John,

You don’t really need to use Layer Masks.

One way to get a transparent background is to load the image into Photoshop, then go into the Channels panel. Then, click on the “Alpha 1” layer, and click on the “Load Channel as a Selection” button. This will get a selection of your object. Once you have the selection, turn off the visibility of Alpha 1, and select the “RGB” channel again. Go back into the “Layers” panel again. Then, go to the “Select” menu and choose the option “Inverse”. This will create a selection for everything but your object. Then, with the selection, you can delete the background and get the transparency.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

Hi Glenn,

The positioning of the object and the floor/wall is really important. This is usually what keeps users from seeing the shadows. You can try sending me the project file and I’ll take a look at your setup to see what you’re running into.

My e-mail address is ed@zaxwerks.com

Best,
Edward

My e-mail address is ed@zaxwerks.com

[Edward Wu]

Hi Jon,

Sorry to hear about the issues you’re running into. You may be running into an issue where your 3D Invigorator Pro Preference files have been corrupted. To reset the Preference file, go to your “Users > Library > Preferences” folder, and delete the “Zaxwerks Invigorator Prefs” file. This should allow you to open up project files that have been corrupted. If you are not able to open up any of the project files, you are welcome to send them over to me and I can try opening them up for you. My e-mail address is ed@zaxwerks.com

Also, try not to use After Effects crash projects. These projects are very unstable and tend to crash and corrupt projects even further. If you work with these files, you are very likely to run into further crashes.

We are currently in the process of converting our plug-ins to be 64-bit compatible, so at this moment, they are not compatible with After Effects CS5. We are expecting the conversion process to be done by the end of summer.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

Hi Charles,

You’re welcome. Glad it helped with the Layer Mapping.

Right, using the masks is probably the best way to work with Particular and have the particles go around the shapes.

Best,
Charles

[Edward Wu]

Hi Charles,

Please view my e-mail. It’ll go over how to set the size for your layer map images.

Best,
Edward

[Edward Wu]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the tip about changing the file name. I didn’t know about that.

Sure, I’ll definitely take a look at the project file when you send it to me.

I think Serge already answered your question pretty well. The main gist of using a layer map is to make the image the same exact size as the vector shape. This means trimming the edges (all four sides) so that there are no margins. Once the layer map is the same exact size as your heart shape, it should fit perfectly.

Best,
Edward