[Jon Okerstrom]

That’s correct. Invigorator won’t deal with gradients or bit-mapped artwork in Illustrator files.

If you really want the gradients, you can apply them to 3D objects you create in Invigorator.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Keith.

Send me your Illustrator file and I’ll take a look. jokerstrom1 (at) mac.com.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Zack,

Here’s the process.

In Adobe Illustrator: Import your Photoshop logo. Lock it or put it in a locked layer. You’re going to use it as a template for creating your 3D objects.

Now, use Illustrator’s tools to create the basic shapes in the logo. You can create one shape for the whole thing or shapes for individual parts. It helps to create filled solids with no stroke, and to put them on individual named layers if you have a lot of parts. You can apply fill color the parts like your photoshop logo if you want – it will help later.

You can get remove the photoshop logo when you’re done and save the Illustrator file with use compression unchecked.

Now apply Invig to a comp-sized solid in After Effects. The plugin will ask you to choose and Illustrator file. Go ahead. Use open by layers if you have layers in Illustrator. Choose use Illustrator colors if you want that too.

Now you should have a bunch of 3d shapes in the Scene Preview window. Use the tools in the setup window to move some forward on the Z scale and some back. When you have your starting position the way you want, assign the objects to different sets and animate the sets.

This should get you started… have fun.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi guys,

Actually, you shouldn’t have to go through the export legacy stuff with ProAnimator and Illustrator CS. Simply uncheck the “use compression box” and you’ll be good to go.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Which version of Invigorator Pro are you using?

It sounds like you need to be creating text on the fly. What happens when you try the ‘create 3D text’ button?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi effects 1,

In Illustrator, select the text, then look for the type menu at the top of the screen and choose create outlines. This will convert text to objects.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Johnkokk,

It’s possible that some foreign fonts aren’t correctly interpreted. I remember a post about that a while back. The simple solution is to turn the text into outlines in Adobe Illustrator and import the characters as objects.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Keith,

I’m assuming you’re using Invigorator for AE 7. If so, you need to get your head around the difference between what happens in the scene preview area and the setup area and the key concept of sets. (Essentially sets are invisible containers into which one or more objects can be placed. Sets are then animated in a variety of ways:)

Look in the effects control panel below the scene preview window for the triangle or twirlie next to Sets. There you find a number of available sets and the attributes you can animate using keyframes. You’ll find the same thing if you explore layer>effects>3D Invigorator>Sets in the AE timeline. You can set keyframes for those attributes in a number of ways.

You’re not blind. The controls aren’t hidden. Once you learn the landscape, you’ll be creating some wonderful stuff.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Bill,

You can edit the curves by twirling down the keyframes in the AE timeline. You’re not actually editing the paths… you’re adjusting the velocity and smoothness of the transition between the keyframes.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Same to you, Serge.

Here’s to more great stuff in 2007.

Jon