[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Vince,

While Invigorator does many things very, very well, its ability to deal with objects imported from other 3D aps is somewhat limited. For example, it does not support all of the texture mapping options you’ll find in Cinema, Lightwave, Maya, etc. Nor does Invigorator import IK, object parenting or deformations. For those reasons, I wouldn’t consider Invigorator a bridge between Cinema and After Effects. Invig does offer basic object import functions but in many cases, your better option would be to render movies from Cinema and composite them in After Effects.

Having said that, Invigorator does offer huge advantages over Cinema and the other aps I’ve mentioned, when it comes to creating certain kinds of animation very quickly and easily. I would much rather build flying logo and text animations in Invigorator Pro for After Effects or in ProAnimator, than I would in any other 3D application out there. No other apps can touch the speed, power and workflow advantages. In some cases, Invigorator’s ability to export models for use in other apps is also useful.

Hope this helps.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Roger,

I’d say this about layer mapping versus image mapping. These tools are very much alike in that you can use either to apply surface attributes to objects. If all you want to do is apply an image to an object, the end result can be identical.

However, the two techniques are definitely not the same. Layermapping opens up so very many doors, because the only limit to what you apply to an object is what you can put into an AE timeline. It’s definitely worth exploring the power and flexibility layermapping offers compared to image mapping.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Roger,

There are two methods because layermapping allows you to map anything you can put in the AE timeline onto objects… still images, animations, even video. Because you can map precomps as well as images and movies you gain a ton of flexibility, in terms of where certain parts of the image are placed.

Image maps are normally pict or tga format. If you want to apply an image to an object like a decal, you can apply the image in the top thumbnail box as it sounds like you did. If it has a properly prepared alpha channel, you can drop the same image in the transparency thumbnail. Keep in mind the black areas of the alpha channel will be transparent and the white areas will be opaque. Gray will be semi-opaque.

Otherwise, create a black and white image for the transparency channel to behave like a mask. Black is transparent. White is opaque, as before.

Does this help?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Michael,

I rendered your project file with the current version 3 with no issues. Are you using a Mac or PC? If you’re on the PC side, I’d recommend being sure your video card drivers are current.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Roger,

Your message title says you’re having issues with transparency. Are you applying your map (image or layer) to the transparency channel of the material you’re editing, or to one of the other options?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

What’s interesting about that image, Michael, is that the apparent lack of transparency in the motion-blurred areas. (Motion blur really isn’t a blur – it’s multiple copies of an image, slightly offset based on object motion with varying degrees of transparency.)

Rather than seeing white transitioning to yellow, I would expect to see a transition from white to darker and darker gray. In fact, that’s what I get when I render the project.

The solution may be in your output settings… or something else. If you render the scene without motion blur, do you get any yellow?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

The image helps.

You said you’ve eliminated lighting as a possible cause. Are you using a reflection map on the edge of that text?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

It’s not happening to me, Mike.

Which version of PA are you using?

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

HI Frank,

Welcome to our Invigorated world!

Here’s a short recipe to make it happen. Create a small primative cube which will eventually be your invisible hinge. (It could be any shape, but a smal cube will probably be easiest.)

Assign the cube to an empty set. The first object assigned to an empty set determines its pivot point.

Now assign your book cover to that set. As you’ll see, the set now pivots on the center of the cube, not the cover.

At this point, you can turn off visibility of the cube. If you later need to adjust the placement of the pivot point, you can turn visibility back on.

You can do the same thing for other pages and animate the separately, using some of the remaining availble sets. Either create new cubes or move the one you’re already using from set to set, after you’ve added the other elements to those sets.

Hope this helps.

Have fun.

Jon

[Jon Okerstrom]

Good challenge, Jay.

One way to do it would be to make a line in Illustrator representing the edge profile of the board. (Look at the board from the side.. imagine a straight line with curves at both ends.) Use the no bevel. Use the edge depth controls to determine the width of the top/bottom faces of the board. Then create a transparency map to cut away the corners and reveal the curves of the tip and tail. A limitiation of this solution would be that it won’t create the side edges for the board… you would be able to see between the top and bottom surfaces at certain angles.

Perhaps Serge has another idea, but if you can’t live with the limitations of the solution, you might consider finding a free snowboard model at 3dcafe.com, or modeling one in another app.

Hope this helps.

Jon