[Scott G]

well, it doesn’t really help, because i don’t want the layers to move in 3d space. i could have z-rotated, but because of the x+y rotation, the z roation made the layer move all over the place, where all i wanted was to have the camera pivot over my static map (static map with depth of field from x+y roation). z-rotate only works as a pivot if x and y are zero.

auto-orient for the camera i always turn off as well. geez that’s annoying, it should be off by default.

came up with a workaround by adding extra orientation keyframes to make it turn the way i wanted – by doing some maths and spacing the keyframes evenly it was seamless.

thanks anyway!

[Scott G]

yep, i made a text layer first! end of this thread i think, i rebooted afx and then it worked. i think my computer was just overworked and everything needed a 5min break. 🙂

thanks scott! hehe…

[Scott G]

Actually, no, collapse/continuous raster isn’t on. I think I’ve figured out the problem though. A little sheepish, but this turns out to be just as annoying. When preview quality is at FULL, the stroke appears exactly as it should. As soon as you move the preview quality to half or anything below full, the line jumps off the mask. VERY annoying, because I can work much faster in 1/4 res than i can in full res – but now I have to preview in full res when, for example, adding arrow-heads to my strokes etc, because in 1/4 res the stroke isn’t actually where you think it is. Grrr!!!

[Scott G]

I just tried vegas for the heck of it, and I think path text gives me a better result. There are too many controls in vegas, path text achieves the same effect and is much more quick and simple. All I have to do is type ……… or lllllllllll and then animate the margin. Type more than you need and you won’t have to adjust both margins, just one.

Plus, with path text I can change the shape of the dots – originally I wanted round dots, but then tried a few other things – arrows and shapes from dingbat fonts – finally settled on a blocky shape that gives me long dashes rather than balls. Mask it with a 3d stroke layer or other similar layer to remove the rest of the unwanted shape (it was a large block!), and viola, perfect running dashes.

Seeing vegas is a render effect, wouldn’t it also take longer to render? Usually all those effects in th ‘Render’ category slow things down quite a bit.

[Scott G]

All the settings match, and I’ve tried ever other permutation of unmatching settings I could think of. I’m outputting a Quicktime from AFX, have tried using multiple codecs including the Blackmagic 10bit uncompressed we’re editing in (format of the existing project). Have also tried uncompressed, DV, motion jpeg, Sorenson, Mpeg4, you name it. Codec doesn’t seem to have any real effect.

I’ve tried matching the AFX settings in FCP, and also creating sequences with different settings in FCP and THEN going back to AFX to match these… and despite the settings matching, I still can’t get correct display in FCP. I shall take a screenshot from FCP tomorrow morning and post so you guys can see what I’m dealing with.

Thanks,
Scott.

[Scott G]

Hey Roland,

Well, that makes sense, unfortuneately I don’t know if not collapsing is a viable option. I have a very large comp (approx 7000 x 5000px) of a world map that I need to zoom in and out of, while arrows and water currents animate.
Collapsing gives me a render time of 8 hours, enough for me to go home and sleep and come back.
Uncollapsing, the thing just about refuses to render. Unpredictable. Sometimes it gets a certain amount of the way through and then chokes, other times it chugs along but could conntinue to do so for days. Network rendering is not an option due to the lack of other computer and a network in this office.

I’ve compromised by removing the blur entirely, which means that the arrows / water currents are a little too crisp to look like they’re part of a “living” 1950’s war map, but what else can I do?

Thanks for the advice. If you have anything further to add, I would welcome suggestions…

Regards,
Scott.

[Scott G]

amazing. probably would have taken me forever to figure that one out. and if you don’t know what the feature is called you can’t search for it in the help… 🙂
thanks!

[Scott G]

yes, i’d be interested in seeing it too. can you email it? scott.geersen (at) digitalpictures.com.au

[Scott G]

that’s sort of it. i want to be able to control the flames so that they blow in a specific direction – like there was a very strong breeze, or even a gale – rather than have them emitting in all directions. do you have that level of control with your project?

i’ll post an example of where i am now (using trapcode particular) tomorrow. looks like i’ll need to build up emitters in layers though, to get wisps of flame of various sizes/lengths, and have them interact (ie, give the illusion of depth using overlapping opacities where the wisps cross).

[Scott G]

so as far as i can figure out, i can’t do it with particular. no, the particles don’t have to be 3d, but i’ve tried ae’s built-in particle playground and that was a disaster )the particles don’t fill complicated shapes very well at all) and also the cc particle thingy, i forget what it’s called now. i even tried foam, and that actually worked the best out of all, but even that was awful. we’ve passed it to our 3d dept now. the reason i said inititally “no 3d” was because i wanted to do it myself in 3d. 🙂 that’s it. i suppose some things just can’t be done though…