[Jon Okerstrom]

Ryan,

The plug-in and associated folders go into AE’s plug-in folder, as you said. Normally, the plug-in and associated folders are contained in a folder called 3D Invig-AfterEffects.

It’s important that the stuff in that main folder not be moved around. The plug-in will look for certain libraries in certain places. There should be some sort of read me first documentation on the installation process.

You should quit AE, then install Invig, then relaunch, then you should see it.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Zeke,

Are you anticipating moving the text into position around the radar sphere, either individually or as words? The answer will drive how you handle the sets. You will have to position the sets manually, in any case.

One way that may be able to help you save time is to use text on path in Illustrator to position the letters around a an Illustrator circle, then rotate the letters 90 degrees in Invigorator.

For what it’s worth, the project would be a lot easier in ProAnimator 4…. but if you don’t have that available, it’s doable in Invigorator. Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Pascal,

ProAnimator and Invigorator Pro share modeling and texturing features. Both can work as plug-ins to After Effects. ProAnimator also works as a stand-alone application which can make movies you may then import into any video editing applicationn.

The key difference is how ProAnimator and Invigorator deal with animation. Invigorator uses After Effects keyframes and is limited in the number of elements which can be independently animated — these elements are called sets, which amount to invisible containers into which one or more objects may be placed. Being able to use after effects keyframes and animation controls to which those can be applied, in some circumstances, be very useful .. and something you can’t do with ProAnimator’s animation controls.

ProAnimator can animated an unlimited number of objects… either as related groups of objects in a single object track, or as individual objects in their own object tracks. (RAM is the only limiting factor) It can also create very complex motions very quickly and without keyframes. ProAnimator’s behavior-based animation system is very, very powerful and allows you to create motions that would be difficult, if not impossible, in Invigorator.

Personally, I’d choose ProAnimator, if I had to choose one or the other. The motion controls are just that good. I have both and use both, but find myself turning to ProAnimator more often than not.

Hope this helps.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Matt,

You need to explore the material set-up area.

There, you can assign different materials to the front, sides and rear faces of your cube. You’ll see a cross section of your object and bins into which you drag different materials.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi,

I haven’t, but you might want to contact Matt at Zaxwerks directly.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hello T,

The key is understanding the aspect ratio of your picture must match the aspect ratio of your letter. Invi will stretch/squeeze images or movies to fit the front face of the object.

As for the other question – applying a picture or a movie to a series of letters – I gave one solution a few posts ago.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Julian

You can do it at least two ways that I can think of. One would be to put create a material for each letter. Put copies of the movie in smaller precomps, one per letter. The aspect ratio of the precomp needs to be the same as the aspect ratio for the letter to which the movie is applied. Position the movie in the precomp so you get the correct part of it in your letter. Then create a material for each letter and apply.

You could do this using some Illustrator tricks as well, but give this a go.

jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Serge is right, but the drawback to the technique is that the text group would move as a single element. There are ways around that too… if you need the options, let us know.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Curtis,

You can move objects from Invigorator to ProAnimator and visa versa. In PA, you can use the object pop-up menu or object pull down menu>export 3D objects>choose all, selected or visible>use zxo format.

In invigorator, you can do the same using the object pop-up menu.

Then, in the other ap, use the object pop-up to import 3d object.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi AK,

When you choose make movie, take a look at the render settings. You want RGB plus alpha. Normally, I use the Animation+ codec for intermediate movies, because there’s no compression artifacting.

Does this help?

Jon