Jon Okerstrom
Forum Replies Created
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Wow! That’s great news Zax.
I suspect a lot of people (me included) are sitting on the sidelines waiting for Adobe to release a universal version of AE before we feel the need to get a new machine. It’s nice to see you’re ahead of the curve with ProAnimator. I’d better start saving up for a new box!
Now that PA is universal, what can you tell us about rendering speed… say on the current G5 Quad versus current Mactel boxes?
Jon
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Jim,
The installation instructions should tell you what the folder hierarchy should be.. essentially the ProAnimator 4.0.3 Mac folder should include all of the subfolders where they were orriginally. Assuming you followed those instructions, that’s probably not it.
Tell us about your system configuration.
Jon
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Hi RC,
Thanks for the compliment. Glad you liked the tutorial. You can do the same thing with ProAnimator, but there are some differences and limitations.
The similarities:keep all of the animation happening at or above a certain point… 0 in the Y direction or whatever you determine the ground plane to be.
the differences:creating the mirror image in Invigorator is pretty straightforward… you can go beyond what I did by using expressions to tie the flipped version to the original version.
I haven’t yet figured out how to easily create the “flipped version” using ProAnimator’s behavioral approach to describing object movement and paths. You could try duplicating the original object track and adjusting the same parameters that were adjusted in the Invigorator version. You would also have to adjust the curves in the transition parts of the timeline.. that’s where it could get tricky.
The simplest solution would be to use AE to composite the original movie and a flipped copy of the original movie, applying the transparency mask and other effects. The problem with this solution is it would probably fall apart with some camera moves.
If anyone has some great ideas on this, we’d love to hear them!
Jon
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Jeff,
First, an answer to your other question about scripting. Take a look at the effect parameters under Invigorator for your layer. You’ll see the various keyframes that control the position of the sets over time. These keyframes can be affected by basic things like ease in and out… and any other keyframe manipulation tool.
Your question about positioning. Remember, this is done in the set-up window, rather than the scene preview window, before you start animating things. You can use the object stats box to make sure each side is sqauare to the rest and located in the appropriate position in 3D space.
Does this help?
Jon
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If I remember correctly, the DigiEffects snow plug-in works based on alpha channel information of the layer to which it’s applied. It may work with the Invigorator scene you describe, so long as you don’t see the depth of the top surface of the Invigorator letter. You would probably have to put the Invig layer into a precomp or pre-render the Invigorator movie with an alpha channel and apply the snow effect to that.
Jon Okerstrom
Zaxwerks Forum COW-leader -
Jeff,
You could most certainly use Invigorator for this job, but you should keep some things in mind:
I wouldn’t use comp lights and camera unless they give you something specific that using the Invigorator lights and camera cannot. If they do, go right ahead.
Since all of the edges would be visible, I’d make separate objects (with thickness) for each side of the shipping box. Put all of the sides except one in the same set to keep them locked together.
Create another set. Add a null object to designate where the hinge on the side would be. Add the shipping crate side to that set.
You could match move the side and the rest of the box to fall at the same rate, then have the side fall open. An easier option would be to move the camera vertically, rather than the box. That way, the box and its side stay together in a fixed position until the side falls open. The movement of the camera gives the illusion that the box has fallen. This gets around the fact that Invigorator doesn’t have a way to link objects and keep them separately animatable.
Does this help?
Jon
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Hi Francois,
Equally increasing the size of the comp and the size of the solid to which the Invigorator effect is applied, then rendering the frame is the way to go. You could use Photoshop to up-rez the image from your current comp, but it won’t be nearly as good as a full-sized render. Photoshop would be using interpolation to add pixels to the image, instead of Invigorator generating a much sharper image in the first place.
What do you mean that the coordinatest get mesed up? Are you using comp lights and comp camera?
Jon
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I’m glad you included the 🙂 with your comment, Matt.
My hope is that Julian 006 wasn’t trying to be nasty. I have a couple of what I assume he means by “real” 3D apps. I choose ProAnimator or Invigorator more often than not because their feature sets match what I do and I finish my work a lot more quickly.
As always, it’s a question of choosing the right tool for the job.
Jon
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Hi Clintwood.
Here’s my guess…
your largest object is blue. your other objects may be other colors, but they’re not visible because they’re all on the same Z plane. Try selecting your other objects and moving them forward in Z space. If you’ve checked the “use Illustrator colors” box, you should get those colors.
How’s my guess?
Jon
One other thought – the “use Illustrator colors” option does not mean you can use fancy blends or patterns. You need solid Illustrator colors.
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Jason,
You can’t get the maps you’re using on the front faces to essentially bend around the edges. You would need to map the edges separately… the edges start from the lowest, leftest point on the model and need to be like a ribbon that wraps around the object. Your map will be very long and very short. The aspect ratio is the same as the distance around the object (wide) by the depth or height of the edge. (tall).
Hope this helps.
Jon