[Nate Whited]

I am using the stand-alone version of ProAnimator.

[Nate Whited]

Okay, I see the box you’re talking about, I lifted my text up off the “floor’, adjusted the lights to be directly overhead, turned the intensity of the light up, increased the darkness of the shadow….still no shadow. I’m just playing around here trying to see what it will and will not do and so far it will not do a shadow.

[Nate Whited]

When I alt+drag the effect onto a title, I don’t need to click the “apply matte to title” box. However this also discolors my background layer–in this case the generic jumpback I placed in for testing purposes. At first I just backed out of it because of the discoloration, but I played with a couple things then rendered. Once rendered the background looked fine.

I also see that you cannot set parameters by clicking on the keyframes from within the composer window, they must be done in the effect editor window. If you click on a keyframe in the composer window then change a parameter, it makes the change globally. I’m not sure if that’s a Boris quirk or just a characteristic of the new XP. If it’s a Boris “thing” once again, it would have been nice if that had been explained in either the “tutorial” DVD and/or the instruction. Having known that juicy bit of knowledge would have saved me days of frustration and a lot of not-safe-for-work expletives.

[Nate Whited]

Well now that does seem to have some effect. alt+drag. Never have I ever need to use alt+drag. Just drag. The DVD and the accompanying pdf instructional file all just say “drag”.

This might be the bit of info that gets me over the hump!

I’ll play some more and see what happens….

[Nate Whited]

I’d be happy to create any effect. Okay, let’s do this. Let’s say I want to create a simple light sweep over a title which is above a motion background. I create the generic title in the AVX title tool, save it, and place it in my timeline over a Jumpback track. I then drag the desired effect onto the text on the timeline and open up my effect editor and (perhaps the ONLY thing I learned from the DVD) check the “Apply to Title Matte” box.

Now I go into my effect editor. I place a keyframe at the start and end of my effect, and click on the first keyframe because this is where I want to start. Now, I play with every slider and button I can find and NOTHING HAPPENS. I can load a preset, and it simply changes the look style of the matte. I’m having this similar problem in any effect I try to work with. Adjust sliders like crazy with absolutely no change.

Obviously, I am missing a very basic and simplistic function. I have been through the DVD, the attached PDF file and everything else I can find and nowhere can I find any explaining of what this basic missing function might be.

I have also tried to replicate the EXACT functions as shown on ther DVD, however the instruction are on an older version of BCC than what I have and I often have to go hunting for what the host is talking about. I tried working on the Displacement Map fx as shown on the DVD, but the functions are either very different, or again, they managed to leave out some very simplistic basic command under the assumption that I should know something already. I don’t, and despite playing with a mutltitude of buttons, sliders, settings and parameters, nothing happens….