Zaxwerks Proanimator and 3D Invigorator for After Effects: A Comparison
When Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator was released in 1999 it quickly became the industry standard for quick and beautiful 3D title and logo creation inside After Effects. In 2001 a Pro version was released that included such features as custom bevels and 3D model import. The more recently released Pro version 4 added an integrated text engine which meant you no longer had to create your text in Illustrator, 3D primitives, various material styles such as wireframe and cartoon color, motion blur and a range of other features that made this a must have upgrade. Then in 2003 Zaxwerks released ProAnimator, standalone 3D software that dramatically changed the way 3D titles are made. ProAnimator's behavioural-based animations enabled users to create complex 3D titles and logo animation that would take days of tedious keyframing to create manually. For After Effects users however, one of the drawbacks with ProAnimator was the necessity to leave After Effects to create 3D elements then import the rendered files back into After Effects. This seemed like a step backwards when youre used to creating 3D elements directly in After Effects using 3D Invigorator. On top of that there was no way to match the ProAnimator camera accurately which made it hard to integrate the ProAnimator animation with After Effects' 3D layers. With the imminent release of ProAnimator 4 this is no longer an issue. Now you can create those amazing 3D title and logo animations directly inside After Effects, as well as in the bundled standalone. Not only that, you can use the included Importer plug-in to import ProAnimator camera and object data and create coordinated, ProAnimator-style animations for your regular After Effects layers, which would normally take a lot of time and testing to make look right. So just what is the difference between 3D Invigorator Pro and ProAnimator for After Effects? Which one should you buy? Do you need both? Hopefully this comparison will help answer those questions. Version 4 of 3D Invigorator Pro and ProAnimator for After Effects share basically the same tool set, with features previously only available in 3D Invigorator Pro such as the various material settings like wireframe and absolute color now available in ProAnimator. The set-up windows are largely identical and if you already know how to model and texture in 3D Invigorator then you know how to do it ProAnimator.
The 3D Invigorator Pro and Proanimator Set-Up windows
The key difference is in the way you animate. As an example, if you took the word "Tonight" and wanted to animate it as a single word in 3D Invigorator you would use After Effects' Composition and Timeline panels to create a single animation path and keyframes for the individual XYZ position and XYZ rotation properties. This means working with 6 sets of keyframes and managing multiple data graphs to get proper ease in and out.
Copyright Motionworks 2006 | www.motionworks.com.au
This is as simple as it gets with a keyframe-based system and can be frustrating if you want the objects to move in smooth curves rather than just straight lines. Then what if you decided to animate the same word one letter at a time? In this case you would end up with 42 sets of keyframes! Not only that, you would have to create seven animation paths in 3D space that all resemble each other but start and end at different positions and coordinate the ease in and out of each letter. This quickly becomes complicated and time consuming.
The Effect controls panel for 3D Invigorator Pro is pretty overwhelming when compared with even the advanced ProAnimator Controls (below)
ProAnimator has it's own timeline and would handle this same case on a single track. Whether you animate by letter or by word, it's still a single track. Behaviors are substituted for keyframes and there are no graphs to figure out. Adding ease in and out is a single slider and affects all objects on the track. There are behaviors for twist, arch and overshooting paths, and other behaviors that affect timing to create cascading motions, all easily controlled using sliders.
The Proanimator timeline and Advanced controls
Animation in 3D Invigorator Pro is done using what are called Sets. You can have as many 3D objects in a Set as you like but you are limited to 8 sets. Problems arise when you have more than 8 separate objects you need to animate. Again using the word "Tonight" as an example, let's say you'd set up your animation for each individual letter and got it looking just right and the client added the words "at 7.30". Not only do you have to adjust all of the letter's positions and value graphs manually to incorporate the new letters, but because you've reached the Set limit you would also need to create another effect to add the extra letters. This makes the composition more complicated and far more difficult to update later. This is where ProAnimator really excels. It isn't limited by sets and its behavioral-based

animation makes it easy to change text once the animation is set up. Timing is automatically recalculated for new objects even if the number of objects changes. So you can turn the "Tonight" animation into a "Tonight at 7.30" animation without needing to add new keyframes for the additional letters. All you do is type in the new letters and hit Preview! This makes the ProAnimator exceptionally responsive to client changes and additions. For highly customized animations it is possible to create keyframe-based 3D Invigoratorstyle animation with ProAnimator. When you choose this option you lose the behavioral ability to set object positions, however you still get to use the behavioral timing controls and some choose to animate in this way because it's still faster than having to set keyframes in a regular keyframe-based program. Both 3D Invigorator and ProAnimator have their own cameras and both can use the After Effects Comp camera. ProAnimator however, ships with dozens of camera move presets which take the hassle out of setting up moves manually. It's not just camera move presets either, theres also a bunch of object animation presets which make creating a complex animation as simple as pressing one button. Once you've chosen an animation preset you can customize it then save this as a new animation preset and reapply it to any other set of objects, letters or logo elements for instant animation.You can build a library of custom moves for each individual client so that for future projects you can literally have the 3D component of your graphics complete in minutes. ProAnimator previews in real time and you can continue to change the animation while the preview is playing, which is a real time saver. Previews in 3D Invigorator are done using After Effects' less than perfect RAM preview feature which is a major roadblock in comparison. The key features of 3D Invigorator Pro that are not available in ProAnimator are direct manipulation of objects in the Composition and Effect Controls panels and 3D Object Tracking. Zaxwerks can't put these features into the ProAnimator plug-in or else the Final Cut Pro, Motion and Premiere versions would no longer be compatible.

The 3D Invigorator and ProAnimator Effect Controls panels. Notice how Proanimator has no Scene Preview window.
Not being able to directly manipulate objects means that each time you want to adjust your 3D elements you need to go into ProAnimator to make the adjustments. The upside is that fine-tuning is less necessary when using ProAnimator and when you need to fine tune ProAnimator lets you choose any After Effects layer as a background image so it's pretty easy to get the 3D objects in the right place. With 3D object tracking anything you can do to an After Effects 3D layer, including such things as applying keyframe assistants and expressions, you can do to an Invigorator 3D object. This gives you more control over how your 3D objects integrate with After Effects 3D layers. Take a look at the video tutorials here on Creative Cow (go to the After Effects
or Zaxwerks forums and click on my photo) for more on this very cool feature. As I mentioned earlier ProAnimator ships as a set of 2 plug-ins plus the original standalone software. This means you can use the standalone to generate 3D elements for editing, skipping After Effects altogether, or you can use the standalone to generate elements which will be brought into After Effects, then ,make further adjustments using the ProAnimator for After Effects plug-in. ProAnimator project files can also be swapped between the standalone and the plug-in.

Final word

If you use Classic then you can't go wrong upgrading to 3D Invigorator Pro or ProAnimator. Both of these applications have more than enough useful features to make the upgrade a no-brainer. If you use 3D Invigorator Pro then I see ProAnimator as the next step. With the similarities between the two you'll quickly realize that your investment of time learning 3D Invigorator wasnt wasted. And once you get used to ProAnimator's timeline you'll be creating graphics in record time which would be near impossible using 3D Invigorator Pro. You'll probably only go back to 3D Invigorator Pro for it's 3D tracking feature. Being able to import ProAnimator camera and object data and apply it to your After Effects 3D layers is also something that can't be overlooked. The good thing from a user's perspective is that Zaxwerks offers special pricing if you have both and you can still use them both. You're not required to disable or throw away 3D Invigorator for After Effects if youve upgraded to the ProAnimator. If you don't yet use any of these products I recommend you go straight for ProAnimator, it's power, versatility and sheer ease of use is hard to beat. There really is nothing else like it.

Fill in all fields then click the OK button.

Demo Mode

If you dont have either a Temporary or a Permanent Authorization Code you can run the program in Demo Mode by clicking the DEMO button at the bottom of the authorization window. Demo mode adds a watermark to the renderings and also limits the program in some ways, but other than that most everything works. Demo mode lets you get an idea of how the program runs so you can see how fast and easy it is.
Entering A Permanent Authorization Code
(If this is the first time you have run the software see the previous section titled: Entering An Authorization Code For The First Time.) If you have been running the software using a Temporary Authorization Code, double click on the program icon to launch it. You will see a message window saying how many days you have left to run the program. At the bottom of this message window will be a Register button. Click the Register button then enter your Permanent Authorization Code. A Permanent Code looks like this: IPAS30-A1234-B1234-C1234
How To Get A Permanent Authorization Code
A Permanent Authorization code is sent to you directly from Zaxwerks. Contact Zaxwerks in one of the following ways: Register by email: register@zaxwerks.com Register online: www.zaxwerks.com/Register_English.html Register by phone: 1-800-549-0250 You will be asked for your Temporary Authorization Code and your contact information so you can receive notices about bug fixes and updates.
Click this link on the Zaxwerks Home page to get to the registration page.
If you bought the program directly from Zaxwerks you will have received a green Invoice/Receipt with the Permanent codes printed on stickers at the bottom.

Basic Concepts

Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 11

BASIC CONCEPTS

The Invigorator creates its own models and images. It does not process existing footage to give it a 3D effect. You create models that have depth and size, arrange them in space, and then take pictures of them. The Invigorator is a true 3D program, but it has differences that make it unique from any other 3D program. There is a tremendous amount of technology and workflow design packed into this program, in order to make it easier to learn and faster to use. If you are new to creating 3D graphics here is a short overview of the steps involved:

DEFINITIONS Modeling

The creation of the objects and adjustment of their shape.

Surface Set-Up

The paint job that is applied to the surface of the objects. Often called Surfacing.

Scene Set-Up

The positioning of the objects and lights within the 3D scene and the positioning of the camera which views the scene and takes the picture.

The gray Play button only plays the area between the green and red markers. 20
Changing The Speed Of An Animation
Changing the speed of an animation makes it run faster or slower. As a general rule the faster an animation, the more punch it has. While the slower an animation, the more grand it appears.
PREPARATION: Look at the blue bars in the Time Line. If there is only one light blue bar then you can go to the next step. If not, click the TRY button again and see if this new animation has only one light blue bar. If not, click the TRY button again and again until the program picks an animation with only one light blue bar. Note that there will be three blue bars total. One light bar between two dark blue bars. To make an animation move faster all you need to do is shorten the length of the Transition segment. A shorter segment means less time, a longer segment means more time. 1- Position the mouse cursor over the right end of the Transition segment (the light blue bar). When you do this you will see the cursor turn into a left-right slider. Click down and drag the end of the Transition to the left, making it shorter. Release the mouse button when the Transition segment is half the length it was. Play back the animation and youll see your objects are now moving faster.
Start with an animation having two dark blue bars and a light one in the middle.
Drag the end of the Transition segment to the left to speed things up. 21
2- Next, drag the right end of the segment to make it shorter by half and youll see the objects moving even faster. You can also drag the right end of the segment all the way to the right and you will see the objects moving slower. See how easy it is to adjust the timing of an animation? The 3D window will give you real time feedback so you can adjust the timing while watching the animation play. And notice that you are doing this for eleven letters without touching a single keyframe!
Drag the end of the Transition segment to the right to slow things down.
Changing The Cameras View Of The Animation
The motion of the objects and the viewpoint of the camera are independent from each other. Once an animation is created you can move the camera to any position and view the animation from that new position. 1- Keep the animation playing. Click on the SetUp window, the window at the top, to bring it to the front. Find the row of tools below the 3D preview window. These are the tools that let you change the position of the camera, lights and objects.

Work Area Start Marker

Play Work Area Button

Loop Button

Work Area End Marker
Drag the end marker to set the end of the loop.
Shortening The Length Of An Entire Animation
You can shorten an entire animation the same way that you made it longer. 1- Shift-click to select all segments. (Click on the beginning pose, hold down the shift key then click on the end pose.) You will see dotted lines surrounding all of the segments indicating that the whole animation is selected. 2- Next, hold down the Option (Alt) key on your keyboard. Position the mouse cursor over the end of the last segment. When the mouse is in the correct position you will see the cursor change from an arrow to the splice point editor. 3- Click and hold down on your mouse button, then drag to the left. You will see all of the segments grow shorter as you drag. Drag until the right end of the last segment is under the 2 second mark. Release the mouse button and the Option (Alt) key. Click the Play Work Area button. You will now see the objects moving much more quickly. You will also see that after the objects stop moving, the animation sits still for quite a while. This is because the the time marker must reach the red end marker before it can loop back to the beginning. To remove the pause, drag the red end marker to the 2 second mark. Now the animation will loop the first two seconds over and over.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials With all segments selected, hold down the Option (Alt) key and drag the end to the left.
Drag the end marker to the 2 second mark to play back only the first two seconds. 37
Selecting Segments That Are Difficult To Click On
When segments are made very short it is sometimes difficult to click on them. The ProAnimator has a way to select segments without clicking on them. 1- Dont hold down any other key. Click on the last segment to the right. This segment is large so it will be easy to click on. With one segment selected you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the selection to the right or left. 3 2- On your keyboard, click the left arrow key once. You will see the red selection dots move to the transition. Click the left arrow key again and you will see the dots surrounding the thin segment that is the first pose. If you hold down the Shift key while arrowing left and right you can extend the selection. For instance, now that the start segment is selected, hold down the Shift key and click the right arrow two times. You should now see the dotted selection lines surrounding the entire animation.

Click the left arrow key on your keyboard to move the selection from Position 3 to 2 to 1.
Hold down the Shift key as you click the arrow keys to add to a selection.
Chapter 4 Changing Object Motion During Transitions
There are a great many ways you can change the motion of your objects during an animation. When a Transition segment is selected, and the animation is not playing, the paths that the objects move along are shown as red lines in the 3D window, and the controls for the selected transition are shown at the bottom of the animation window. IMPORTANT! Before you continue with this next section you should 1- Create a New Scene, 2- Create 3D text of the word Transitions, and then 3- Add the object animation called Angle Slide. If you dont know how to do these things please follow the instructions at the beginning of Chapter 2.
The motion paths of the Angle Slide animation.
When you select a transition in the Time Line the motion paths will be displayed in the 3D window. Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 39
Changing The Curve Of A Motion Path
1- When you play the Angle Slide animation you can see that the letters are moving along a straight path. Stop the playback and click on the transition segment to select it. When a transition is selected you can see the paths that objects move along as red lines with red dots on them. At the bottom right end of the animation window you will see a slider titled Arch. When this slider is set to 0 there is no arch or curve in the path. The objects move from their starting pose to their ending pose in a straight line. The Arch slider enables you to curve the path making it look more interesting. 2- Drag the Arch slider to 10 then release the mouse. The paths will now curve upward a little. Drag the Arch slider to 25. See how the paths are now curved quite a bit. Click the gray play arrow to start the animation playing and see how the letters now look like they are dropping into their final position instead of sliding up into position. 3- Drag the Arch slider to 50. Now the letters look like they are dropping into place from the top of the screen. Most likely you can see the letters lifting up before they fall down, but the lifting is happening offscreen. Only the light colored area in the middle of the preview window will be rendered in the final movie. Anything that is happening in the dark gray area wont be seen.
An Arch of 50 gives the paths an extreme curve. 40

The Arch Slider.

An Arch of 10 gives the paths a slight curve.
4- Set the Arch slider to 20, before you go to the next tutorial.
Changing The Direction Of The Arch In The Path
Up to this point the Arch of the path has been up and over, as if the letters are riding over the top of a hill. We can change this direction. Find the Arch Direction knob located to the right of the Arch slider. See how the arrow on the knob is pointing up. 1- Drag the Arch Direction knob so it is pointing down. Play the animation if it has stopped. See how the letters now swoop up from the bottom of the screen. This has quite a different look than the when the animation was dropping in from the top. 2- Drag the Arch Direction knob so it is pointing to the right, then increase the Arch slider to 50. Now the letters are moving off in the distance before turning and traveling right toward the camera. This is a very cool multi-overlapping look and is very difficult to get with any other software. 3- Often a little change can make a lot of difference. Instead of setting the Arch Direction arrow to the right, which would be the 3 oclock position on the face of a clock, try setting it to the 2 oclock or 4 oclock positions. Experiment with different positions and see the effect. 4- When you are done experimenting stop the animation and pick the Angle Slide preset from the Object Animations popup menu. This will reset the animation to its original form.

Making Objects Spin As They Move
You can also make objects spin as they move. There are two ways of doing this. One way is to set the rotations as part of the Poses. The second method is to use something called a Path Action which adds a rotation to the objects during the Transition. Well show you how to do the first method here. The second method is discussed in the section on Path Actions. 1- Stop the animation. Select the first Pose segment if its not already selected. 2- Drag the Move slider to 500 so you can see what you are doing. (By the way, you can also move the camera to see what you are doing, but then you have to worry about getting the camera back to the same position. Its much easier to drag the Move slider instead.) 3- Hold down the Shift key and drag the green oval on the Rotation control. Watch the letters and stop dragging when they have rotated once around. It may take you a couple of drags to get all the way around. You dont have to be perfect. 4- Set the Move slider back to 1000. 5- Play the animation. Now the letters both spin and spread as they fly into position.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials Watch the letters in the 3D window as you drag the green oval on the rotation tool.
Drag the green oval to rotate the letters around the Y axis.
Randomizing Object Positions

Select the 3rd Pose.

The Randomize slider gives you a quick way to jiggle object positions. The larger the value the more distance the objects are moved away from their original positions. Each time you click on the slider a new random direction is picked so you can click over and over until you get the pattern you want. For instance sometimes random positioning places two letters on top of each other. If this happens just click on the slider and a new set of random positions will be calculated. Lets randomize the positions of the letters in the final Pose. 1- Stop the animation. Select the last Pose segment. Pose number three. The Pose controls will update to show you the settings used by this Pose. 2- Drag the Move slider from its current value (should be 950) to a value of about 500. 3- Hold the Shift key down and slowly drag the Randomize slider. As you drag you will see the letters jumping further and further away from their original positions. Values around 10 leave the word still read-able, but just a little jumbled. As the values increase the letters get more and more jumbled until you cant read the word anymore. Set the Randomize slider to 40. 4- Set the Move slider back to 950.

Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 59
6- Double click on the word Next. to select the whole word, then change the font to Arial Black. (If you dont have Arial Black on your computer then use Helvetica Bold or some other font.) Once you have selected a font you can use your keyboards up and down arrow keys to step through all the fonts in the list. 7- Click the up or down arrows a few times to change the font on the word Next. Change the font several times so you can see how easy it is to experiment and find the right font for the job.
Change fonts by choosing them from the fonts list.
TROUBLESHOOTING TIP ! If clicking the keyboard arrow keys doesnt change the font, use your mouse to click on the font list, pick a font, then release the mouse. Dont click on anything else. If you click on something after picking a font, the up and down arrow keys wont work. Once you are done experimenting select Arial Black from the font list again. Leave the word Next. selected. 8- Make the word Next. larger by clicking the up/down arrow buttons next to the Size field. If you hold down the Shift key when you click, each click increases the size by 4 points per click. Stop when you get to 96.
Click the little arrows to step the values up or down. 60
9- Click the cursor between the t and the first dot. Increase the Kerning by picking the 100 option from the Kerning values popup. This will add a little space between the characters. 10- Drag the Block Size arrow to the left so there is a minimum of white space on either side of the letters. If you drag too far to the left you will see the word Up wrap down to the second line. Dont go this far. Up should stay on the first line. 11- Click the OK button. This will close the Text Window and create 3D models of the title you just made.

Applying Object Styles

(continuing from the last tutorial) When you OK out of the text window each character is turned into an independent 3D model. You can see in the Scene Preview window that each character has a red or green wire bounding box around it. 1- Move the cursor to where there are no characters and click once. This will deselect all of the objects and the wire boxes will disappear. The right half of the interface shows a bin full of little pictures. Each picture represents an Object Style. An Object Style is a group of settings for such things as the Depth, Bevel, and Colors.
Drag the Block Size arrow to remove excess white space.
Click where there are no objects to deselect everything. 61
2- Click down on the Object Style in the top right corner. It should be blue with a white bevel. Keep your mouse button down and drag toward the 3D window. You will see an outline of the picture following your cursor. Continue to drag until the point of your cursor is over the p. Once in position let up on your mouse button to drop the Object Style onto the 3D model. You will see it change to blue with a white edge. TROUBLESHOOTING TIP ! If you do not see any Object Styles in the right half of the window, then you do not have the program properly installed. Quit the program and install it properly, following the Installation Instructions at the beginning of this guide.

Drop Object Styles onto letters to make them look like the Object Styles.
3- Repeat the drag and drop sequence again. Drag the blue Object Style from the bin and drop it onto the U. Notice again that nothing is selected. When nothing is selected dropping Object Styles only affects the single object that is below the point of the cursor. 4- Click on the Selection Tool in the toolbar. Select all of the characters in the word Coming by holding down the Shift key and clicking on each letter one at a time. As each object is selected you will see a red or green bounding box appear around it.
Shift-click on each letter you want to add to the selection.
5- Now drag and drop the red and white object style. It should be the first picture in the second row. When you drop it onto one of the selected letters, all selected letters will receive the same Object Style. Click on an empty part of the Scene Preview window (where there are no 3D objects). This will deselect the 3D models. 6- With the Selection tool still active, position the cursor at the lower right corner of the 3D window and drag up and left. As you drag you will see a red box being drawn from the point of the cursor. Drag the box so that the red box touches a little bit of each letter of the word Next. Dont let the red box touch any of the letters on the top line. When the cursor is properly positioned let up on your mouse button. This will select all 3D models that the box either surrounded or touched. (NOTE: Some versions of OSX will not show the red box. However the selection process will still work. Just imagine there is a red box there. think different ;-) 7- Now double click on the first Object Style in the third row. Double clicking an Object Style is another way to apply it to the selected objects. The picture of the Object Style you just applied in step 7 looks very reflective but the objects in the 3D window dont look reflective at all. This is because reflections are turned off when you start the program.
Apply an Object Style to many objects by dragging it from the bin and dropping it onto one of the selected objects.
1. Click down at point 1 and drag to point 2 to select all objects the rectangle touches. 63
Click this button to change the display levels. Solid with Draft Textures and Reflections
There are two rendering levels: Draft quality and Best quality. Normally the 3D window shows you Draft quality which disables things such as textures, reflections, shadows, transparency and antialiasing. All of these add to the look of the final image, but they take extra rendering time and are not usually needed when creating objects and positioning the camera. 8- To see draft versions of the textures and reflections click on the sphere icon on the toolbar. This changes the display level from Wireframe, to Solid, to Solid with Draft Textures and Reflections. If you click too many times you will see the display level return to wireframe. Once on wireframe click two more times to get to Texture and Reflection mode, and see the reflections on the bottom word. 9- Click on the Camera button in the toolbar, (it may already be selected), then click on the Tumble Tool. 10- Now position the cursor over the center of the 3D window. Click and hold the mouse button down. Drag slowly, left, right, up and down. You will see that you are Tumbling the camera around the objects. You can tell that you are moving the camera because the floor grid is moving too. If you were rotating the objects, the floor would not move. As you drag you can see the reflections moving across the faces of the bottom word.

How To Set The Lighting

(continuing from the last tutorial) Lighting is set from the Lighting tab. - Click on the Light mode button to reveal the lighting controls. The Invigorators lights have parallel rays, they are not cones like you would find on a spotlight. Parallel lighting is much easier to use. You cant accidentally put a light behind an object, or point it in the wrong direction. Adjusting the direction lights are pointing is very easy. Find the lighting manipulator below the 3D window. The arrow with the red box around it is the light that will be manipulated. - Click and drag on the lighting arrow. You will see it move as you drag. Once you stop dragging, the lighting in the 3D window will update to show you the effect. You can also manipulate the lights by dragging in the 3D window. - Select the Lighting Tumble tool if its not already selected, then drag in the 3D window. You will see the lighting change as you drag. Note that you dont see the light itself, you see the effect of the light on the objects in the scene. To move one of the other lights select it from the Lights list.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 73 Click and drag in this window to move the selected light. Select other lights from the Lights list. Click this button to reveal the lighting controls. The Light Tumble tool.

Turn on shadows here.

Set light color here.
This swatch previews what the light Set the brightness here. will look like.
When you do this you will see the red box switch to a different arrow. Then you can drag to move this other light. Each light can have its own color. Each light can also cast shadows. Turn on these features in the Lighting tab.

Using Lighting Styles

(continuing from the last tutorial) Just as objects can have Object Styles, lights can have Lighting Styles. Lighting Styles contain the settings for all the lights in a scene.

The Lighting Editor.

1 - Click on the Lighting Styles tab. Here you will see presets for many different lighting setups. You can apply a Lighting Style by either dragging and dropping the icon into the 3D window, or by simply double clicking on the icon. 2 - Start at the top icon and work your way down the list. Double click on each icon, then take a look at the effect it has on the objects in the 3D window. Especially look at the difference between the Lighting Styles called: Side Lights, High Key, and Footlights. Each of these has the main light coming from a different direction. See how changes in lighting can change the mood of the image.

The Lighting Styles Tab. 74
3 - Scroll down to the bottom of the list. These Lighting Styles have variations in color, not just in intensity. Apply each Lighting Style and see the effect. Notice how lights with strong colors tend to override the colors applied to the objects. For instance, with Melrose and Sunset you pretty much loose any sense that the front faces are pink.
The Melrose Style. The Red Light District Style.
4 - End by applying the Red Light District Lighting Style. This one doesnt affect the faces too much but it applies a nice red glow to some of the edges.

How To Set The Camera

(continuing from the last tutorial) Camera manipulation is just as easy as moving the lights. You click the Camera Mode button, to tell the program you want to move the camera, then you select one of the manipulator tools and drag in the 3D window. Say for instance that you want to look at the title from below instead of above. 1 - Select the Camera Mode button. 2 - Select the Tumble Tool.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 75
3 - Click in the 3D window and drag directly up. You will see the objects rotating to a different position. Actually it is the camera that is rotating around the objects. You can tell this because the Floor Grid is moving along with the objects. If the objects were rotating the floor would be still. 4 - Stop dragging when the bottom of the word Tuesday. is parallel to the bottom of the 3D window.
Viewing the scene from a low angle, with the Floor Grid turned ON.
At this point the Floor Grid is getting in the way. The Floor Grid doesnt render in the final images and we can turn it off any time we want. 5 - Find the Grids popup menu. Choose the Floor Grid menu item to toggle it OFF. Notice that there are other types of grids here too. A Title Safe grid, a Lower Third grid, even a special grid called 4:3 Inside 16:9. When you are using an HD resolution (16:9) format, this grid shows you what will appear within a standard TV (4:3) screen if you cropped off the sides. With the Floor Grid turned off you can see the image much better. You can also see the effect of the red lights much more strongly from this lower angle. Thats an important point to remember. The effect of the lighting will change as you view a scene from different directions.
The Floor Grid Turned OFF. 76 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials

Saving A View

A Best Quality rendering is shown in a display window when the rendering is completed. However, it has not yet been saved to disk.
If you are using the ProAnimator, there are two Render buttons. Render Frame will render a single image. If you like the image you must save it to keep it. The other Render button will render a movie. (See the section called Rendering the Movie in the Animation Tutorials section.)
To save a rendering to disk use the Save Picture. command. 80 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials
How To Get The Background To Drop Out
(continuing from the last tutorial) Usually when you get done creating a picture the next step is to take it into some other program to combine (composite) it with other images. Having a good alpha channel is key to the compositing process. To create an alpha channel do the following:
The RGB Channels. The Alpha Channel.
1 - Turn on the Alpha channel checkbox. This checkbox is turned on by default so it may already have a checkmark in the box. The main problem comes when you save the image or the movie. If you dont save the image in a format that supports alpha channels, the alpha channel wont be there when you take it into Photoshop or your compositing or editing program. Fortunately the ProModeler only saves renderings to PICT or TARGA file formats and both of these support alpha channels. However if you have the ProAnimator, you have to make sure that you choose a file format that has Millions+ in the Compressor Options. The + sign means alpha channel. So saving a movie in Millions+ means you will have the RGB image as well as the Alpha channel in the same movie file.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 81
The alpha channel makes the background drop out so all you see are the 3D objects. The Invigorator creates perfect alpha channels so there is no need to render the objects over a green or blue background, then try to key out the background. All you need to do is turn on the creation of the alpha channel then save to the correct format when the rendering is done.
The Advanced Tutorials assume that you know all of the skills covered in the Beginning Tutorials. If you find yourself lost, or things are moving too quickly, stop and do the Beginning Tutorials first. Then do the Advanced Tutorials. Lets create a 3D logo and work through some of the problems you may run across. Logos are oftentimes more difficult than straight text because they usually have overlapping elements and there is a need to preserve the integrity of the original design. The look of the logo is often the point about which a client gets the most picky. So the great challenge with doing 3D work is how to give the logo a 3D look while still preserving the look of the logo. Sounds like a paradox, but its not too hard to overcome. Lets start with creating the logo as a 3D model and well discuss the design challenges as we go. TROUBLESHOOTING TIP ! You must have installed the program properly for the factory presets to be present. Be sure to read and follow the Installation Instructions at the beginning of this User Guide.

Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials The shortcut for Camera Track.
Tracking the Camera acts like the grabber hand in Photoshop. 93

Camera Shortcut Exercise

(continuing from the last tutorial) 1- Select the Front view from the Views. menu. 2- Using only the shortcut keys, Dolly-in close on the Eyes. 3- Track so the K is centered.

1&7 2

4- Tumble so you are looking at the objects from the left. 5- Dolly out until you can see all objects. 6- Tumble so you are looking from the front. 7- Track so the objects are centered and you are back where you started.
Got it? Great. Then lets move on.
6 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials
Adjusting the Thickness of Objects
(continuing from the last tutorial) When objects are first created each object is made the same thickness. The next step toward completing our logo is to make each object the proper thickness. 1- Tumble the Camera so you are looking at the objects from the right. You can see from this view how far apart the objects are spaced. You can also see that parts of objects are too thick and stick out where they shouldnt. Usually the thicker an object is the more solid it appears. The thinner it is the more delicate it feels. The thickness of an object is controlled by the Depth slider. Find the Depth slider at the bottom right corner of the Object Tab. 2- Select the Shield. Drag the Depth slider to 0. Release your mouse button. As soon as you release the mouse the Shield gets completely thin. A Depth of 0 creates a plane. However, notice that the Shield didnt change shape until you released the mouse button. If you hold down on your keyboards Shift key while you are dragging the slider, you will see the object change depth as you drag. 3- Hold down the Shift key and drag the Depth slider to 30.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 95 A Depth of 0 creates a plane. Look at the logo from the right.
While you are dragging notice that the front face of the Shield is staying in the same place. As the Depth gets larger the object grows toward the back. It does not get bigger around its center. Thats because Depth doesnt scale the object, it rebuilds the object with new dimensions. If you use the Scale tool the object will expand or contract about its center. 4- Tumble the Camera to a 3/4 view. (Use the Shortcut keys!)
Use the Select Invisible command to select the invisible objects.
5- Select the Face object, and set its Depth to 12. 6- Select the Eyes object, and set its Depth to 2. 7- Switch to Object Mode and use the Object List to select the Crown Insignia object. Then set its Depth to 4. 8- Pick the Select Invisible command from the Object List. This will select the invisible text objects. Next uncheck the Make Invisible checkbox. This will make the text objects reappear. 9- Give the King Text object a Depth of 12, and the Entertainment Text object a Depth of 4. Well leave the Crown the same Depth that it already is. That leaves us with the White Holes object. If you Tumble the camera to the side you will see that this object sticks out behind the Face object. All it is supposed to be is a background color to prevent

How To Split A Profile To Fine Tune Material Placement
(continuing from the last tutorial) The King Text object should still be selected. 1- Switch back to the Material Set-Up window. We need to split the edge into two parts, then we can apply black to one part and gold to the other. 2- Find the Split tool and select it. Click once on the edge, near green chip #2. (Dont double click, just click once.) This will create a red arrow on the line, and you will now see two #2 chips. TIP! To delete a split arrow drag it off the line and release the mouse when the arrow turns light pink.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials The Split Tool is selected when it is blue.
Click once on the line to split the edge into two parts. 105
3- Drag the gold Material Swatch from the Palette and drop it onto the top #2 chip. This will be the chip closest to the back of the object. Notice that when the chips snap together only half of the edge highlights in red. This shows you that only part of the edge will receive the new material. When complete this chip will have a #1 on it. Switch to Scene Preview and tumble the Camera around the objects. This is looking better but there is still too much black. Lets make the black area smaller. Switch back to the Material Set-Up window. Split arrows are not locked in position. They can be dragged along the line.
Drag the arrow to reposition the split point.
Drag the gold material in the palette and drop it onto the top chip.
4- Click on the red Split arrow and drag it down to the lower left corner. When it gets close, the arrow will snap onto the corner and turn white in the center. When the arrow looks like this it is to let you know that it has snapped onto a corner point. Switch back to the Scene Preview window, and Tumble the Camera to look at the logo from the front. Perfect! Now you have an edge of black surrounding the gold face and there is more gold on the sides to add extra sparkle.
How To Create An Object Style
(continuing from the last tutorial) Once the colors, materials, depth and Edge Profile used on an object are done you can save this batch of settings as an Object Style. You used Object Styles in the Beginning Tutorials to set up your models with a single drag/drop. Here is how to create your own. 1- The King Text object should still be selected. If it isnt selected, do it now. 2- Click on the Object Styles tab and find the Swatch/Library. menu. 3- From the Swatch/Library menu choose the Save Object Style command. A window will appear asking you to name the Object Style. By default it will say King Text-style. 4- Click the Save button. The Object Style is saved to the bin. 5- Scroll down to the bottom of the Object Style bin. You will see a number 2 that has been built with the same settings and materials as the King Text object. This Object Style can now be used like any other Object Style. By dropping it onto other objects those objects will receive the same settings and materials as the original King Text object.

Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 107 Saving the Object Style.
Go to the Object Styles tab.
Coloring the Other Objects
(continuing from the last tutorial) Most of the colors on the other objects are fine so lets quickly apply colors to the two that still need changing. 1- Switch back to the Materials Tab, and deselect all objects. Tumble the Camera and Dolly-in so you can see the front and side of the Crown. The crown already has two materials applied to it, yellow on the face and black on the sides. The crown in the original Illustrator file had two colors applied to it too, a fill color and a stoke color. When you open an Illustrator file with the Use Illustrator Colors option turned ON, the fill color is applied to the face of the object and the stroke color is applied to the sides of the object. HOT TIP! Once an object has been split into two parts you can drop materials onto the individual parts in the Scene Preview. This keeps you from having to go to the Material Set-Up window every time you want to change the material. 2- Drag the Punchy Gold material from the bin and drop it onto the front face of the Crown in the 3D window.
Drag and drop Punchy Gold onto the front of the Crown. 108 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials
Move the Camera so you can see the front and side of the Crown at the same time.
3- Drag the Red material from the bin and drop it onto the side of the Crown. Make sure that the point of the arrow cursor is over the black side of the Crown object before you release the mouse button. If you accidentally drop the red on the Crowns front or onto the Shield, just Undo the mistake and try again. Now lets give the K on the Crown a white front and a black side.
Drag and drop the red material onto the side of the Crown.
4- Select the K Insignia object. Switch to the Material Set-Up window. Here you can see that a black material is applied to the Front, Back and Sides of the object. The black is already being used on the sides so we can leave it as it is. All we need to do is put a white material onto the Front face. 5- Drag the White Material swatch from the bin and drop it into dock #2 of the Palette. 6- Drag the White Swatch from the palette and drop it onto the green chip next to the word Front. 7- Switch back to the Scene Preview and choose the Front view from the Camera Views. menu. Dolly in a bit and take a look at your work.