[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Greg,

Invigorator relies on UV mapping coordinates which are generated during creation of the model itself. Without UV coordinates, Invigorator won’t know how to map the layermap to the object. Invigorator does not yet support other kinds of mapping like spherical.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Jane,

You can see how any of the materials in the library are made by dragging that material ball to the editor. you’ll see how reflection maps, transparency, bump maps and specular highlights are adjusted to achieve each look.

From there you can change any of the materials to what you want. Experimentation is part of the fun.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Latisha,

I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve done it with AE, Psunami and Invigorator. You can accomplish something similar with AE without Psunami using a technique called displacement mapping.

ProAnimator will allow you to create the text easily enough, but I can’t say how to take the next step in FCS. You may wish to ask in the Final Cut forum. Or if we’re lucky, a Final Cut Studio expert will chime in here.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Joe,

I believe your answer will be found in the advanced options.

Choose one of the transition segments in the timeline. Next, look for the transition grouping pop-up menu. You can choose to group your text by word, by paragraph and by many other options. Alternately, you could select certain letters and make a hard group out of that.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Cory,

Which version of Invig are you using? Which version of Illustrator?

If the custom edge option is greyed out, the file may be in the wrong place or saved in the wrong format. Be sure you’re not saving it as an .eps file. Depending on the version of Invig you’re using, you may need to save the Illustrator file in a legacy format.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Greg,

Help me understand this… it sounds like you’re using one face of the cube as the flat surface on which you want to apply the precomp. Is this the case? If so, why not use a plane instead of a cube?

The other thing – if you want the precomp to be applied without distortion to the cube’s front or rear face, you need to have equal aspect ratios. If the face is 1 unit by 1 unit (a square), your precomp should also be 1 unit by 1 unit. If you’re applying the precomp to the sides of the square cube, you need to have a precomp that’s four units wide by one unit high, because of how Invig wraps materials on edges.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Greg,

What do you mean by “not stretching to fit.” If the aspect ratio of your precomp is the same as the face of the cube you’re surfacing, you’ll get no distortion. Remember that Invig considers the entire precomp to be the material – so if your elements do not go edge to edge, it will look like they’re not being stretched to the edges of the face.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Greg,

Be sure you’re looking at best quality mode rather than draft and be sure the smoothness slider under “best quality” is at the small end of the scale. You’ll get even smoother results if you type in a smaller number like .01.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Dave,

It can be done, but it takes some creative work in Illustrator to make it work. Essentially you need to have each piece include a frame element that’s shared by all pieces then create materials that make the frame element invisible. Assuming you get the pieces in perfect registration, it’ll work.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Dave,

Shatter does this, though you can’t really manipulate individual pieces.

You can also do this with Invigorator or ProAnimator, using an Illustrator puzzle. The trick is getting the mapping to look right, but it can be done.

Jon