[Erik Waluska]

Haha! No problem Than. Glad to help.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

Are you using any proxies in your comps, like the Form and Shine layers for example? If so, they will disappear when you render unless you change the Render Settings in the Render Queue to “Use All Proxies”.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

No problem. Just keep in mind that the Z Clip is based on the distance from the camera, so if you move the camera farther away then you’ll have to keyframe the Z Clip value. Or it might be easier to just skip all of that and just use masks with a track matte on the top 3D stroke layer to get rid of the parts that are overlapping the text.

If you open the project file that I posted you’ll see that it does work if you orbit around, but as soon as you dolly or change the distance of the camera it no longer works. Just turn off the bottom 3D stroke layer and dolly the camera back and forth and you can see how the clip parameter works.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

OK, This is kind of tricky but I played around with it a bit and I think I’ve got it figured out. You need to put one copy of 3D stroke behind the text and one copy in front of it and then adjust the top strokes Camera “Z Clip Back” value until you can orbit around it and you don’t see any more problems with text showing through. 431 is the value that worked for me. If set the clip value too high it won’t work right either. Basically the clip values will cut off the stroke at a certain distance from the camera so that you can fake the 3D layer interaction. If you turn off the bottom 3D stroke layer you’ll see exactly what the clip parameter does.

Here’s my layer stack and I’ve uploaded my test project as well.

Project file:
580_3dstroketextbubble.aep.zip

That’s a pretty cool effect by the way, I’ll be stealing that one! haha

-E

[Erik Waluska]

Try moving the “Austin Texas” text layer below all of the other 3D layers. 3D stroke and Particular are 3D effects but their 3D worlds don’t mingle with other 3D layers in your comp. Basically, they behave as if they are a flat 2D layer as far as the layer stack and 3D space are concerned.

HTH

-E

[Erik Waluska]

One thing to keep in mind is that you can’t mask a layer that the shatter effect is applied to because it will change the initial shape of the shatter to that of the mask and it won’t work for what you are trying to accomplish. You have to pre-compose the layer with the effect (move all attributes option). Then you can mask out what you want to keep on the pre-comp.

The size of the layers and the settings in the shatter effect have to be identical for this to work because any variation will cause them to shatter in a different way and not match up.

The way I see this working is to have two pre-comps inside of your main comp:the pre-comp containing the original layer you are shattering; and the pre-comp of the pre-comp of the image you want to blend in.

At the point you want the image to blend in draw a mask around that piece and animate it to track the piece as needed. Then select the original shatter pre-comp layer and give it a full-screen mask (double-click the square mask tool button). Then go back to the image pre-comp and copy the mask and its animation and paste it on to original shatter pre-comp layer and set this second mask to “subtract” mode. From there it’s just a matter of keyframing the mask opacities of both layers to blend the layers at the right time in your animation.

I’ve tried this and it does work but I used large chunks and masked out a piece that didn’t have any other pieces next to it so it was fairly easy. Yours may be more difficult if you have lots of pieces flying around, but it is possible.

[Erik Waluska]

You will need to move ALL of your 2D layers to either the top or bottom of the layer stack, including nulls, adjustment layers, etc. If any 2D layers are mixed in with the 3D layers they can break the 3D layer stack and split it into two separate 3D worlds that cannot interact with each other.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

You could try to duplicate the shatter layer and replace the footage for that layer with a pre-comp of the image you want to appear in the glass piece. Then mask or fade on the layer with the image at the appropriate time.

Replace footage by alt + drag from the project window onto the layer you want to replace in the timeline. This maintains all effects and adjustments to the layer and only replaces the source.

HTH

-E

[Erik Waluska]

There is no fluid effect in Proanimator but you may be able to fake the effect by texturing the syringe with an animated layer map that you could create in after effects. You could also create a primitive cylinder to represent the fluid inside of the syringe and position it in the syringe and group the objects (parent the cylinder to the syringe).

If you need to have the fluid coming out of the needle as well then I would use a particle effect in After Effects to do that.

If I’ve misunderstood what you are trying to do then please provide some more details.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

Search “PC and MAC” in the forums and in Google. There are already plenty of discussions out there on this subject.