[Ken Latman]

It is in the flyout of the layer palette.

[Ken Latman]

Are you using ProAnimator or InVigorator? I suspect it is InVigorator.
Personally I would make the text in Illustrator, Convert to Outlines, Ungroup, Release the layers to Sequence, reorder (which letter do you want in the sequence as 1, 2, 3, etc) and then import into Zaxwerks Product. You will have control over each letter that way and still be able to group them there.

[Ken Latman]

Umm,this will blow things up. Too much time is needed to calculate particles.
Just tried to do a little test.

Please ignore, unless you have a suggestion.

[Ken Latman]

Thanks again Dan! This definately set me down the right path. My expression works great!
Can’t thank you enough.

[Ken Latman]

Jon,

That is a really great idea! I had not thought of that. If I set up a repeat in AE and have that controlled by key frames and have that mapped, I might just get what I need. I will try it when I get back to work on Monday. Thanks so much for that great insite!

Ken

[Ken Latman]

This is sorta what I was thinking. I remember the tutorial being so that waves of dots undulated and you would see a side of the dots almost as if the dots were bending into 3D space. They may very well have been bending into 3D space.
I will check your other great tutorials Dan. Thanks for your help.

[Ken Latman]

Because AE CS3 is not a 64 bit application on the Mac yet, it will only address about 4GB of RAM. Get Nucleo Pro 2 and you can use it to multi-thread the output to muliple processors which can then address more RAM.

Standard AE: 1 processor; 3.5GB of RAM
Render final movie with Nucelo Pro 2: 8 processors address 3.5 GB each, with 28GB of RAM (if at all possible) you can get a faster output[8 x 3.5 = 28].
I now have 10GB and I am seeing some improvement.
That has been my experience so far.

[Ken Latman]

I had the same question a few years ago and wound up getting ProAnimator. It is a great product and solved many of my needs repeatedly. As time has gone on though I have found some limitations that are solved in InVigorator Pro. I purchased Serge’s excellent training DVD and discovered the difference in this nugget, in InVigorator you can have objects linked to each other where you can set the anchor point as the object. This can sorta set up some kinetics with your models.

ProAnimator on the other hand can be used as a self running app. So when you just want to work out the issue of the models your making you don’t have to have AE open. Both plug-ins can share models.
It really depends on what you are intending to do. You can’t go wrong with either one, but for the self running nature of ProAnimator, I still favor it.

[Ken Latman]

Thanks for the update Serge. I have somewhat of a quandry with my set up. I have one 3D object that I built in ProAnimator. I used the edge setting of bulb to get some nice light bulbs for my 3D sign I created. To get these to glow and cast light on some of the other elements, I had to duplicate the AE layer and change the instance of the 3D sign I made. So one AE layer has the back part o the sign visible while all the others are off, layer on top of that has a instance where only the housing for the lights that sits above the sign plan is visible, and the layer on top of that, the bulbs are only visible. I used Trapcode glow to make this AE layer glow. Will using the ProAnimator lights still cast shadows correctly in this mode even though some elemnents are not visible?

I think I see your point, with my AE lights being used, the shadows look really flat as they cast. I guess I’m only castin the sadow of the plane of the layer, not the shodw of the 3D object with all it’s nuances?

[Ken Latman]

I know there is a search button on the COW. My original point was that sometimes I go to multiple boards to find answers. While the COW is great, ToolFarm has a board, I think Digital Anarchy has a board, PhotoShopUser magazine has board, Layers Magazine has board, etc.
Sometimes the well in one board on the COW is not always active.

I can pick up a little knowledge here and there. It would be nice if the universe all lived in harmony but
it is what it is.

I can totally understand not wanting people to leave the COW for other sites. It was just a suggestion.