[Matt Rhodes]

Hi Markus.

By default, the Invigorator has a few directional lights pointed at your scene.
If you want full-on brightness for all objects in your scene, do the following:
– Open the Invigorator Set-Up window
– Change to Light Mode (click on the little light icon below the 3D preview)
– Select “Ambient” from the Light menu
– Make sure “Turn On This Light” is checked
– On the right side of the window, make the Light Color pure white and make the Light Intensity 100

This will make everything in your scene bright, ignoring the other lights in the scene.

Note: If you upgrade to Invigorator PRO, you can make an “Absolute Color” material for your video screen.
This way, you can use regular materials and lights for the outside of the video wall and an Absolute
material for the video itself.
Look at the the TV example here: https://zaxwerks.com/invigorator_pro/details.shtml#absolute
Notice that the outside of the TV has shading but the video itself is fully bright. It’s great for video walls.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi Egon.

Could you send me your project and detailed instructions
on how to duplicate what you’re doing?

You can send files to: matt@zaxwerks.com

Thanks.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi Jim.

Can you please send me a sample project. Just send the .aep file (no media files necessary).
Give me instructions on how to duplicate (no pun intended) the error.

Send files to: matt@zaxwerks.com

Thanks.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi John.

Please send me your email address (send an email to matt@zaxwerks.com).
I’ll send you a pre-release version of 4.0.7 which may solve your problem.

You’re running on Windows, correct?
Which version of AE are you using?

Thanks.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi John.

Can you send me a screenshot?

Send it to: matt@zaxwerks.com

Thanks.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi John.

Try deleting your preferences and try again.

To delete your preferences:
1. Locate the folder where the Invigorator is stored (in the AE plug-ins folder)
2. Find the file called “Zaxwerks Invigorator Prefs”
3. Delete it.

Let us know if this works for you.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hello A.b.

We have an update to 3D Flag (it will officially be released soon) that may help your problem.

Please email me at matt@zaxwerks.com with the following information:
– Are you using Mac or Windows?
– Which host are you using? (After Effects? Motion? Premiere?)

Thanks.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi ljCharlie.

You can import .3ds geometry into the Invigorator (and ProAnimator).
You’ll have to create and apply your own materials once
the model is inside of the Invigorator.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

m

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi Mike.

When you import an image or movie into After Effects, it guesses the pixel aspect ratio from the frame size.

It looks like AE is interpreting your footage as regular PAL DV, not Widescreen.
To change the interpretation, select the footage in After Effects Project window
and type Cmd+F (or Ctrl+F on Windows, I think) to bring up the Main Interpret Footage window.
At the bottom of the window is the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu. Select DV PAL Widescreen.

Let me know if that solves your problem.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxerks, Inc.

[Matt Rhodes]

Hi Jon.

Yes, a high Conform number helps a lot. The higher the Conform, the more times it tries to “be a perfect piece of cloth” per frame. It slows things down a little bit, but the end result is that the cloth looks tighter.

A judicious choice of Mesh values helps a lot too.

As for the wind, I found that if blew it right at the banner, it stayed more taught.

The 3 banners were 3 layers. I copied my first layer 2 times and then changed some keyframes.

Note: A trick I used was that most of the movement on screen was through the camera.
If I moved the flagpoles too much, the cloth would bounce around too much.

This is a good plug-in to experiment with.

Matt Rhodes
Zaxwerks, Inc.