[Frederick Guthrie]

Dave, I downloaded 3d Bender last night. This program looks complex. Any suggestions for a beginner?

[Frederick Guthrie]

Dave,

Once the rotation was applied to the craft, in this way, how would I turn off the sphere layer’s visibility? If I understand correctly, you’re saying, its possible for the cc sphere effect to be applied, but its sphere property to be set as not to be seen, but the rotation aspect ‘can’ be seen?

[Frederick Guthrie]

I’ll try that. Thanks alot, Erik. I really appreciate the input.

[Frederick Guthrie]

I’m just seeking for the craft to rotate, in the same way as the planet rotates, when a rotation value is added via key frames, via the cc sphere effect. It seems, the cc sphere effect has a ‘special’ rotation that can only be accomplished when converting the desired object into a sphere. I’m just wanting the craft to maintain its original form, but appear as if its rotating.

[Frederick Guthrie]

Honestly, I wasn’t certain. Here is a brief synopsis of what I’m wanting to accomplish. My layers: 1. A Planet and 2. An Alien space craft. I constructed the planet from nothing but a background solid layer, with the applied cc sphere effect, which includes its own Rotation values of x,y and z. I’ve key framed the Rotation value for the planet to make 1 full rotation via out the length of the composition.

Now, I’m wanting to apply a ‘similar’ rotation value to the alien space craft. I’m wanting it to spin in the same way, giving it a 3d-like animated rotation.

The way I was trying to achieve this was to apply the cc sphere effect to the alien craft, but when I did this, it converted the craft object to a sphere, which is not what I wanted. I just wanted to use the rotation value of the cc sphere effect to ‘spin’ the object.

I’m going to attempt to write an expression for rotation here in a few minutes for the alien craft object. Sorry for being so wordy. I really appreciate your help on this.

[Frederick Guthrie]

Just got the post. I’ll try not say this too complicated, but are you saying once I create this rotation expression, a Pickwick will then appear and then to parent with the other layer? I opened the file but didn’t see any pickwicked layers?

[Frederick Guthrie]

I just tried. I attempted to pickwhip from the layer I’m wanting the effect to possess the rotation property, to the layer that has the property, but the pickwhip wouldn’t permit the parent-child relationship.

I wonder if there is a specific effect, such as, cc sphere, that can be applied to a layer, for rotation, but wouldn’t turn the object to a sphere?