[Rhett Robinson]

Yep – this ones amazing as well – I’d love to have a narrative of arriving at this solution!

[Rhett Robinson]

That is great – I opened the project and understand what’s going on, but would love to have at least a short narrative as to how you approached it. This type of effect can always be useful (thinking of packages being wrapped, letters folded for mailing, etc…).

Thanks for sharing!
Rhett

[Rhett Robinson]

That is great – I opened the project and understand what’s going on, but would love to have at least a short narrative as to how you approached it. This type of effect can always be useful (thinking of packages being wrapped, letters folded for mailing, etc…).

Thanks for sharing!
Rhett

[Rhett Robinson]

I use 6.5 still too… when I was using the tryout of 7, I had a bit of success copying/pasting from one to the other, but of course, that doesn’t mean everything, so you’re basically rebuilding the project. I had downloaded a few AEPs from links here that were for 7.0, and converted a few to 6.5. If I actually made money, instead of being a hobbyist, I’d probably upgrade… I like several of the new features, and the new interface, but it’s hard to justify in my case.

I haven’t spent much time, but you may want to create some simple projects in both version (that are identical), then open them in a text editor (a smart one, not “word pad” or “text edit”) that can point out the differences. I’ve made many older apps open new files after I Discovered the differences, so that might work (a copy, of the project, of course…).

I’m no top hacker, and my guess is that anything really complex is not going to work, regardless. This topic came up before, right when AE7 came out, so you might search.

I think it’s been said, but really, if you’re going to use it, “it’s time to update your application.”

[Rhett Robinson]

The vector is the same idea, but use the pathfinder, and then nibble away at parts (each on a new layer… I made a few actions that helped but haven’t had the success as I do with photoshop actions) when it’s done, the steps are basically to import the file as a comp, sequence the layers, etc. This way you can take advantage of the continuous rasterization, and utilize the output in 3D space a little better.

If someone knows JavaScript better than myself (which I believe would be necessary to create the actions I propose) , I’d love to have one that would

a) execute the pathfinder command “subtract from shape layer”
b) “expand” that
c) select and copy all the contents of the layer
d) lock the current layer
e) turn the visibility off for that layer
f) create a new layer
g) “paste in front” in the new layer

this is basically the steps I take, and it would knock down the time CONSIDERABLY, although it’s certainly doable without a “super-action”. My last setup had about 200 layers, then I stretched the duration in AE, and had it blend as it went.

[Rhett Robinson]

Agreed – I usually just use 2 machines in production, the superfast one to work on, and another (connected with GigaBit and VNC) to render. I do have 8 old boxes set up with the render engine, although I have to plan ahead on what I’m going to put on it, since a lot of plugins aren’t licensed for multiple machines (and… don’t work). All 10 (I use an old mac to be the server when I do that) will rip a hole in time when rendering together though, even though they are P3 and older AMD boxes. I got them (over time) from the state auction house for about 20 bucks each, and I’ve gutted 6 or 7 more for RAM and hard drives.

[Rhett Robinson]

There are several FREE apps that do a good job, I’m sure there are even better for pay. I listed these last week, but these are pretty good

Mac: MorphX
Windows: WinMorph

I’ve had luck using files with transparency in MorphX, but haven’t played with WinMorph in a while (it was just for fun, in my case…)

[Rhett Robinson]

Depending on what you need to do, there are a number of FREE applications out there that will do a nice job making a morph, and output either a movie, or still frames (which I prefer, because I can do whatever blending/effects I want) that you can drop into AE.

Mac:MorphX
Windows:WinMorph

They’re both available at versiontracker.com, or you may already have your own favorite shareware site.

Just like making mosaics, etc, I’ve found that a freeware/shareware application is often cheaper and easier than looking for a plugin for AE for my limited usage needs.

[Rhett Robinson]

I have the same problem with Adobe Acrobat, but haven’t had it with AE (yet). I believe it’s an OSX bug, myself. Workaround? I really have none (I usually OPTION-click the desktop to hide the current app, so I’ll try the keyboard shortcut in the future). With Acrobat, I frequently use Expose and just move around it…

[Rhett Robinson]

I’d suggest that you use “color”, or one of the other choices for the sides under the “texture” section of the plug. I’ve had pretty good luck using shatter, linking the shatter camera to the comp camera, and using the perspective “bevel”. With a little lighting, it looks pretty good.

There are a number of FREE 3D programs out there that are very capable for making 3D text as well…

nothing like the level of 3DS, Maya, or even what Zaxwerks offers, but you can certainly do a lot without spending a penny.

Now the question!

I recently ran in to a problem where I was trying to use the “number” effect, and using shatter, but had no luck… it seems to look at the custom shatter layer on the first frame, and that’s it. It’s only 40 numbers, so it won’t kill me to make them manually, but wondered if anyone knew something I didn’t (okay, so that’s not so unlikely!)