[Jon Okerstrom]

This high view shows what’s happening. Instead of the depth happening at 90 degrees from the front face, it happens in an off-axis way. Of course, the lens choice can add to the apparent distortion.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Okay…

I proved my theory correct. I moved the object forward so the rear face was at 0, 0, 0 then rotated the object and used the animate Z depth to cause the effect below. It kind of looks like a fish-eye lens effect but it’s not. Pretty sweet.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Zax,

Happy New Year!

Well, I was half right. The other half, which you provided, makes perfect sense now that you’ve spelled it out like that. And it would be a lot easier than my work around.

To take it a step beyond what you’ve said, if you tilted the objects in the set in relation to the set’s anchor point and Z axis, then animated the depth, what would happen? Off-axis growth of the object? It could be kind of cool if it works.

I’ll have to give that a try.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Donovan,

You can always get the latest version here:

https://zaxwerks.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi

PA 4.3.3 looks like it’s up there.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Dan,

Anchor points relate to sets rather than objects in Invigorator. Being able to animate positive or negative Z depth without affecting the other isn’t in the current feature set.

My best advice would be to let the logo animate as it does and remove the part behind the card. Your best bet might be to render the movie first then create an animated mask to hide the part you don’t want to see.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Dan,

I think the best you can do is animate the camera to make it seem like the back remains in the same place and making it seem like the object is growing forward… or mask the object so you can’t see the growth in the rear.

Does this make sense?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

I suspect it has to do with how Vegas Video imported the file… the setting would need to be premultiplied with black, from what I found on the Vegas Video COW forum.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Urt,

If offset in ProAnimator won’t get you there, why not try modifying the text objects in Illustrator instead. It may give you more flexibility and control in some ways.

First, convert your text to outlines, then use the path>offset to create a new, narrower version of the font. The offset will reduce the scale equally around the object edges but may be easier to control how narrow the narrowest parts become. Then, import the illustrator file into ProAnimator and apply the bevel of your choice.

Hope this helps.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Urt,

Try using a medium-sized bevel and using a negative number for offset to make the front face get narrower.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Donovan,

Yes you can. It happens in the material editor. Instead of double clicking the thumbnail to choose an image, simply choose a movie, then apply the material to your object.

If you want to get more precise, you can use PA within After Effects. Doing so and using precomps allows more control of posioning, timing and other aspects of the process.

Does this help?

Jon