Edward Wu
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Nick,
When working with 3D Reflector, it automatically sets up the project with the setting “Hide 2D Layers” enabled. However, since ProAnimator is applied to a 2D Layer, you will need to disable the “Hide 2D Layers” option in order for the reflections to show up.
Be sure to upgrade to the latest version of ProAnimator if you are running into exporting issues. If you are already using version 4.5.1, please specify what format you are trying to export and when After Effects crashes.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Joe,
Right, the rendering time is all relative to what is going on. The more processing it requires, such as blurs, shadows, lights, and reflections, the longer it takes to render each frame.
Thanks for all the suggestions! We’ll look into all the requests.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Steve,
To have 3D Invigorator objects interact with the After Effects comp lights, you have to have first go to the Effect Controls panel where you applied 3D Invigorator, and turn on the “Use Comp Lights” setting. Then, when you create the light in AFter Effects, be sure to check the “Casts Shadows” setting. Next, create the objects in 3D Invigorator to catch the shadow, and to catch the shadow. So for example, if you need to have text cast shadows onto a wall, position your text in the front, and place a Plane behind the text to catch the shadow. If you need to have a texture map on the wall, you can apply a Layer Map onto the wall. Or if you like just the shadow to show up, you can apply a “Shadow Catcher” material onto the wall.
Afterwards, set up the light in the right angle, and you’ll be able to see the shadows casted onto the wall surface.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Joe,
Your rendering time seems to be about ~48 seconds a frame, which isn’t terrible considering that you’re rendering in HD, Uncompressed, and with lights and shadows. ProAnimator doesn’t use the Multiprocessing, but it’s too bad that none of the compression settings are working for you. If you turn off the shadow diffusion on the last part, I think that will make quite a bit of difference in your rendering.
In regards to rendering with 3D Serpentine, there shouldn’t be too much of an issue. 3D Serpentine works relatively fast, but again, the size of the texture maps that you apply on the Serpent body will play a role in the rendering time. Render a frame at a position that 3D Serpentine is closest to the camera, and base your texture map quality off of that. Then, try to make the texture map as small as possible but still have it look good. This will help reduce the rendering time as much as possible.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Joe,
Sorry, I thought you were using 3D Invigorator Pro for a second. You are able to put all 16 characters into ProAnimator, and have the movie clips used as texture maps as well. If you are mapping 16 separate movies onto each of the letter, you can consider reducing the movie size of each of these movies, especially if none of the letters are going to be close up to the camera. If you are looking at the letters from far away, you may be able to get away with small movie clips, and this will help you with your rendering.
In addition, if you are using a high value of Shadow Diffusion for your After Effects lights, this will slow down the rendering time tremendously as well. You may want to try lowering the amount of Shadow Diffusion, or try rendering a movie with only ProAnimator, lights, and shadows, and re-import the movie back into After Effects. You could then render the rest of your project out and composite the two.
Best,
Edward -
Hi James,
Please e-mail me at ed@zaxwerks.com
I have a beta version of 3D Flag FX that I can send over to you. This new version should be able to fix the issue that you are running into.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Joe,
Since each 3D Invigorator layer allows you to use up to 8 sets, depending on your project, you may be able to split up your 16 letters into 2 or more words. This means you could possibly put 8 letters in one 3D Invigorator layer, while putting the rest of the 8 letters in another layer. This could help minimize the shadow issues that you are running into.
To avoid recreating everything from scratch, you can export and import the characters, and copy the keyframe animations.
In regards to your rendering issue, I’m not sure what you meant by not being able to render any compressed video when using a movie file as a texture. If you mean that you are getting a flickering issue, you may be running into an issue with Multiprocessing. If this is the case, you can try disabling the Multiprocessing setting to see if this helps with your rendering.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Barbara,
After the Live Trace, you will want to “Ungroup” and delete the “outer canvas outline” as I mentioned in the previous post. This is especially important if your logo is on a white background or transparent background.
If you tried those steps already, are you able to see your Illustrator logo open correctly in ProAnimator now?
I’m not certain what could be causing the Alpha and Floors to not be visible, but if your logo is not opening correctly (for example, you may see large spikes going all over the place), it can cause the views to not display correctly.
If you’re still having issues opening up the logo in ProAnimator, feel free to send the file over and I’ll take a look at it.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Barbara,
Sorry to say, but sometimes the “Live Trace” feature in Illustrator does not work very well. Depending on your logo, you may have a little to a lot of clean up from using the Live Trace.
In general, the first thing you have to do after you used the “Live Trace” feature is to “Ungroup” all the elements, then select the outer canvas outline that the “Live Trace” tool created, and delete it. What I mean by the “outer canvas outline” is the image canvas size. So, say you created a canvas in Photoshop that is 300×300 pixels big, and in the middle of the canvas, there is a 200×200 pixel logo. Illustrator not only traces your 200×200 logo, but also the 300×300 canvas as well. So be sure to delete the canvas outline after you use the Live Trace tool.
Usually, by deleting the “outer canvas outline”, you won’t get the letter punch out effect that you’re seeing. Your logo should then open up properly in ProAnimator. However, depending on how your logo looks, you may want to separate different elements to different layers.
If you’re still having any issues, you can send your Illustrator file to me at ed@zaxwerks.com
I’ll take a look at your file, and see what you’re running into.
Best,
Edward -
Hi Joe,
I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to do for your project, so forgive me if this won’t work for your project set up.
I’m guessing that you don’t want to use the plane in ProAnimator because you need the 3D Layers as elements in After Effects, but yet you want the shadows of the 3D Text to be on the 3D Layers.
If this is the case, the “Shadow Catcher” feature in ProAnimator will help you out. This will generate only the shadows, which can overlay on your 3D Layers in After Effects. In addition, you can continue using the After Effects cameras and lights to work with your 3D Text and the shadow catcher layers.
The key to this is to create 2 large planes in ProAnimator, and have them be positioned in the same place as your 3D Layers in After Effects. Then, create a Shadow Catcher material, and apply the Shadow Catcher material onto the two planes. When you use a Shadow Catcher material, the shadows show up, but not the object/plane itself. So in this case, we won’t see the 2 planes that were created in ProAnimator, but only their shadows.
Then, be sure the Lights you create in After Effects have the “Casts Shadows” enabled. Then, when you apply the setting to use “Comp Lights” and “Comp Camera” settings, you will see the shadows from the Shadow Catcher planes projected onto your 3D Layers in After Effects. You can then set up your camera movements, and the shadows will still update properly.
This way, you would not need to worry about the Luma Key.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Edward