Jon Okerstrom
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Jay,
In Illustrator, be sure your shape is a closed, filled shape. When you bring the basic shape into Invigorator, you’ll get a 3D version of that shape with a default bevel. Adjust the depth and change the bevel to taste.
To apply the logo image to the front face, you can do it either as a standard image map or as a layermap.
The simplest way: Open your team logo document in Photoshop. Make the resolution high enough so the logo doesn’t look pixelated when you’re as close to it as you need to be. Be sure to crop the image so there’s no border. The document should run edge to edge, because Invig will stretch the image to fit and any border is considered part of the image. Save the image as a tga file.
Back in Invigorator you’ll want to create a new material in the material editor. Click the top texture map thumbnail and locate the logo image. You’ll see that it’s now applied to the sphere.
Now drag that material sphere onto the front face of your logo shape.
That should do it.
Jon
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Hi Fred,
Most likely, the tutorials you’re talking about include AE project files which open with After Effects and Illustrator files, which are part of the start of many Invigorator projects. Even if you don’t have Illustrator, you should be able to open those files and convert them into 3D with Invigorator. The application ships with Illustrator example files you can try. If you have the pro version, you can create 3D Text without Illustrator.
Beyond the tutorials, you may be able to get by for a while by exporting Illustrator paths from Adobe Photshop. However, this is a short-term solution. To make the most of Invigorator, you really should have Illustrator.
Jon
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Hi Robbie,
I haven’t seen the issue you describe. I don’t normally use the stats window to move objects, only to scale them.
Here’s what I find after trying to repeat your situation:
Open the stats window for a selected object. Put a number in Z posiiton, hit apply. The object moves as expected in both positive and negative directdions. Hit OK, the object stays in its expected position.
Now, if you hit reset, all the numbers go back to 0,0,0, but the object does not move. If you hit okay without apply, the object goes back to 0,0,0 when the stats box closes. If you hit apply, the object moves to 0,0,0 and the stats box remains open.
(in some cases, the number ends up being a very, very small number rather than zero.)
Do you get the same thing? For what it’s worth, I’m doing this exercise in ProAnimator, which shares the same modeling core with Invigorator.
Having said that, if you’re using the most current version of either app and find a repeatable bug, please send it to Zaxwerks along with the steps you took. You might also send the project file, but if this issue happens all the time, that may not be needed.
Jon
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Hi AK,
Invigorator lights, with shadows enabled, allow shadows to be cast from one Invigorator object to another, so long as they’re in the same scene. As you’ve discovered, those shadows do not extend to other AE layers.
As you know, AE lights can create shadows for 3d layers, if those the lights and layers are shadow-enabled.
In your situation, you could turn the Invigorator layer into a 3d layer and enable cast and receive shadows. You would then would then be able to generate the shadows you want. However, you have to be careful to keep the Invig layer oriented toward the camera at the correct distance, or the 3d illusion will be broken.
Does this help?
Jon
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I’d also like to thank John for his many valuable contributions to the forum.
If you’ve seen his tutorials and his reel, you know he’s a very talented artist.
If you know John, as I do, you also know he’s a great guy.
It may not happen in the COW’s pasture, but I’m confident John will find many ways to share his creativity and inspire others to grow their own skills.
We intend to do the same, right here.
Jon
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Hi Mathieu,
I see that too. Perhaps full support for Motion is closer than I thought. Let us know how sending the test file to Matt goes.
I’m sure lots of people using Motion will be glad to know the PA plug-in is very, very close.
Jon
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Hi Mat,
ProAnimator 4 works as an After Effects plug-in and as a stand alone. It’s not yet designed to work inside of Motion – and that’s probably why it’s crashing. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for a ProAnimator Motion plug-in.
At this point, Zaxwerks does offer 3D Flag and Stackworks, which do work natively in Motion.
Jon
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Hi jlane,
This isn’t really a Zaxwerks question. I can think of a couple of ways to accomplish what you want. One would be to put the full-sized move in a precomp the size of one screen. The smaller precomp essentially crops the movie to reveal only one small part of it. Replicate that precomp by the number of screens you need and change the position of the movie in each one. If you would like other ideas, you might try posting in the After Effects forum.
Jon
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Hi Dave,
Please be sure you’re using the latest version of ProAnimator. (Visit the downloads page to check.) Many fonts were tested during the build process, but occasional issues are still possible.
To help resolve the issue with your font, I would suggest sending the font file, along with basic details about what happens and the version number of your software in an email to Matt or Zax. My hunch is they’ll be able to figure out why you can’t use it and make the solution part of a software update. They want every font to work, just as much as you do.
Jon
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Hi Kenn,
It’s really not hard once you grasp some of the basic concepts. In fact, it’s a lot easier than keyframing in many cases. There are some moves ProAnimator does that I would not even attempt to keyframe.
Here’s a very short how to:
When you imported your object, you created an object track with a pose at the beginning of the timeline.
Select the first pose (dark blue bar in the timeline), hold down the option key and drag it down the timeline. You have just created a duplicate pose (the second dark blue bar) and a transition (the light blue bar). The transition is where the main motion happens. Don’t worry about timing at this point. You can adjust the length of the poses and transitions later.
Now, select the second blue pose bar. Notice the controls beneath the timeline. (I’m looking at it in easy mode.). See the move controls? Choose a direction and use the slider bar to move the object where you want it.
Now hit the play button to see the move. Or, simply scrub the yellow time marker to see the move. You have many more options for movement, at this point, but this should get you going.
Think of poses as “uber keyframes.” In some ways they’re like keyframes, but they’re sooooo much more.
My advice is to read the documentation and ask us if you get stuck. We’ll be glad to help.
Jon