MODELING, SURFACING, & LIGHTING Basic Tutorials. 59
Creating And Working With 3D Text. 59 Applying Object Styles. 61 Changing The Depth Of An Object. 65 Coloring Objects. 66 Coloring Objects: Method 1. 67 Coloring Objects: Method 2. 68 Coloring Objects: Method 3. 69 Editing 3D Text. 71 How To Set The Lighting. 73 Using Lighting Styles. 74 How To Set The Camera. 75 Saving A View. 77 Think Like A Photographer. 79 How To Render An Image. 80 How To Get The Background To Drop Out. 81
Installation Instructions
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 5

System Requirements

System Requirements - MACINTOSH
- G3 Power Mac (G4 recommended) - Mac OS 9.1, 10.1 or 10.2.6. - Apples OpenGL system extension - QuickTime 5 or 6.1 - Color monitor capable of displaying at least 1024 x 768 in Millions of colors - 128 MB RAM, (256 MB recommended) - 100MB unused hard-disk space - CD ROM drive
System Requirements - WINDOWS
- Intel Pentium III or 4 processor - Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro or Home Edition - OpenGL system.dll file - QuickTime 5 or 6.1 - Color monitor capable of displaying at least 1024 x 768 in True color - 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended) - 100MB unused hard-disk space - CD ROM drive
Software specifications subject to change without notice. Software used under license. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Refer to the Zaxwerks End User License for more information.

Installing the Software

The Invigorator does not use an automatic installer. You only need to do one step to install the software. If you are installing from a CD. 1- Find the ProAnimator (or ProModeler) folder on the CD and drag it into the Applications folder on your main hard drive. If you are installing from a downloaded file. 1- Unstuff or Unzip the download, then drag the ProAnimator (or ProModeler) folder into the Applications folder on your main hard drive. TROUBLESHOOTING TIP! The ProAnimator/ProModeler folder contains many files and folders. DO NOT touch the contents of the main folder. Drag ONLY the ProAnimator/ProModeler folder to the Applications folder and all these other files and folders will be moved to the Applications folder too.

Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 25 Click the Render Frame button to render a final quality image at the current time.

Rendering The Movie

To render the final movie click the Render button. This will render the movie based on the options set on the camera tab. After clicking the Render button you will see a file dialogue where you can name the movie and choose where to save it. After clicking the Save button you will then see the QuickTime Compression Settings window. Choose the compressor that gives you the best results for the editing or compositing system you will be taking the movie to. In most cases you will want to save your ProAnimator movie with as little compression as possible. That way you will be able to mix it with other footage in your editor or compositor. You will probably also want to keep the alpha channel so the background of the movie will be removed without you having to key it out. There are two compressors you can use that fullfill both of these requirements. One is the Animation compressor, the other is the TGA compressor. Both of these compressors are standard QuickTime options. There may be others that will work with your specific editing hardware. Once you have selected either one of these compressors you should put the Quality slider at Best, and set the color depth menu to Millions of Colors +. The + sign means you get the Alpha channel as part of the movie file.
26 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials
Click the Render button to render the whole movie or part of the move, depending on how the render options are set.

Rendering Options

The rendering options are seen on the camera tab. These options tell the program what part of the animation you are going to render, what size you will be rendering it at and what the quality of the rendering should be. (See the section on Rendering Options later in this User Guide for explanations of these options.)
Render with or without an Alpha Channel.
Render the whole movie or part of the movie.
Choose the size for the final rendering.
The camera tab contains the rendering options.
Chapter 3 Changing The Timing And Speed Of Parts Of An Animation
Oftentimes the preset animations will get close to what you want but you may still need to make some adjustments to the timing in order for it to be perfect. Next we will look at how to change the timing of an animation to better fit the requirements of a project.
What Is A Pose? What Is A Transition?
The first step in knowing how to change an animation is to understand a little about how an animation is put together. Animation is the movement of objects over time. To show time the ProAnimator has a Time Line. When you look at the Time Line you can see that time runs from left to right. It starts at Time = 0 and goes to Time = 10 seconds. An animation is shown on the Time Line as a series of light blue and dark blue rectangles. The dark blue rectangles are called Pose segments and the light blue rectangles are called Transition segments.

Pose Segments

The Time Line

Transition Segments

A Pose is a snapshot of the position of your objects in space. A pose is very similar to a keyframe, but a single pose cound contain hundreds of keyframes. A Transition is the movement of objects from one Pose to the next. A Transition segment must always have a Pose segment on either side of it. The simplest animation would be three segments: Pose-Transition-Pose. There is no limit to how long an animation can be. You can add segment after segment for a very long and elaborate series of movements. The length of each segment shows you how long it lasts. The length of a Pose shows you how long the objects will sit at that one position. The length of a Transition shows you how long it will take for the objects to move between two Poses. If you did the first tutorial you were introduced to changing the length of a Transition segment. There is more than one way to do it so lets look at this in more detail.

Creating A New Scene

If you are continuing from the last tutorial look under the File menu and pick the New Scene command. When it asks if youd like to save the current scene click No. If you are just starting, launch the program and click the New Scene button.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 29

Creating The 3D Text

Look under the Object menu and choose the Create 3D Text command. When you see the text window, type Moving along then click the OK button.
Adding An Animation Preset
1- Go to the Animation window and click on the Object Animations popup menu. Find the preset called Angle Slide. Choose it. You will see the animation start to play. During the next series of instructions do NOT stop the playback of the animation. The ProAnimator lets you keep the animation playing while you make changes. Look at the Time Line. You can see that a single animation track has been created. This track contains a starting pose, then a transition segment, then an ending pose. To the left of the segments are the words Object Track 1 this is a name to identify this track.

The Selection Order option lets you choose the exact order that objects will fly onto the screen. 44
5- Now lets decide which letters we want to fly on first. Say that you want the word to build on from the ends towards the middle. Select the T by clicking once on the letter. If you select it you will see a red wire box around the letter. If you dont see the wire box try clicking on the letter again. 6- Next hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click once on the s at the end of the word Transitions. If you selected it you will see a green wire box around the s. If there is a red wire box around the s then you forgot to hold the Shift key down. Go to the top of this page and start over. 7- Next select the r then the n and so on back and forth working toward the middle. Be sure to pay attention as you are selecting. You might not click on a letter. If you dont the wire box does not appear. Or you may accidentally click on a letter that was already selected. If you do this the wire box will disappear so you will have to select that letter again. 8- Once you have all of the letters selected go to the Animation window and choose Selection Order from the Cascade Order popup menu. This locks the selection order into the programs memory. Now play the animation. You will see the letters cascade onto the screen in the order that you selected them!
Hold down the Shift key then select the objects in the order you want them to move.
By the way you dont need to select every letter. Sometimes you just want a few main letters to come on first and the order really doesnt matter for the rest of the letters. If this is the case just select the main letters and leave the rest unselected. The letters that were selected will appear at the beginning and the letters that were unselected will follow in birth order.
Adding Start Ease And End Ease For A Professional Touch
Real life objects accelerate when they start to move and decelerate when they slow to a stop. Think of a car. When a car begins to move it speeds up over a few seconds until it gets to full speed. It doesnt just go from sitting still to full speed in an instant. It takes several seconds for it to get going. The same thing happens when you stop a car. If you are going 40 and you step on the brake the car does not stop instantly. It takes it a few seconds to slow down first and then it stops.

Font List Justification Buttons
2- When you see the window with four large buttons click the Create 3D Text button. 3- Type the words Coming Up Next. 4- Change the justification to Centered. 5- Use the Command+A (Control+A on Windows) keyboard shortcut to select all the letters, then change the font to Arial Plain. (If you dont have Arial on your computer then use Helvetica or some other font.)
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.

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 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

(continuing from the last tutorial) Sometimes you need to save a camera view. For instance if you had to move the camera to check positioning and then wanted to return to that previous view, a saved view will get you back with a single click. If you did the last tutorial, the camera should still be looking at the title from a low angle. To save a view do the following. 1 - Click on the Camera Mode button, (if it isnt already blue.) 2 - Find the Views. popup menu. 3 - Choose the Save View. command from the Views popup. 4 - You will see a window to name the view. Type in a name and click the Save button. The preset you just saved will now appear in the Views. menu. To return to this view at any time just select this preset.

Dragging down pulls the shield directly toward the camera. Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials 89
Click on the shield to select it.
4- Turn on the Drag Using Objects Axes checkbox, located directly above the Object List. Remember where this checkbox is. It is the key to keeping your objects in alignment. The Shield should still be selected. 5- Click and drag down in the 3D window. Notice that the Shield is now moving toward the left side of the screen instead of coming straight at you. Whats happening is that the Shield is moving forward and back along its own axis instead of the cameras axis. This means that it will stay aligned with all the other pieces. With the Drag Using Objects Axes checkbox turned on you are able to move objects forward and back directly along their Z axis. If you drag up you will see the object go behind the other objects and off into the distance. 6- Drag the Shield until it is just behind the other pieces. 7- Select the Face and drag down to pull it forward just a bit. 8- Select the Crown and drag down until it is just in front of the Face.
Dragging up and down will now make the shield move back and forth along its own Z axis. 90 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials
9- In the Object List select the Eyes, then drag in the 3D window to pull the eyes forward until they are even with the front of the Face. Getting objects to align can sometimes be hard to do. There is a technique for doing this that can be helpful. As you drag, look for the red wire box surrounding the eyes. Pull the eyes forward until you can easily see the red wires, then push the eyes back until the lowest of the red wires just disappears behind the yellow of the Face.
Pull the eyes forward until you see the red wire box,.
10- Select the Crown Insignia from the Object List and pull it forward until you can see it in front of the Crown. Now lets check how the logo looks from the front.
.then slowly push them back until the red wires just disappear.

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

Next, lets apply the Edge Profile called Power Groove Bevels, to the King Text object. 1- Select the King Text object. 2- Display the Material Set-Up window. 3- Click on the Edge Profile menu, find the Inset Face submenu and then find the Bevel, Power Grooves item. Select it.
The Rounded Tiers Edge Profile as it appears in the Material Set-Up window.
You can see that this Edge Profile has lots of angles on it. These angles catch highlights very nicely. 4- Switch back to the 3D Scene Preview window. Unfortunately the King Text object doesnt look much different than it did before because its colored black. When you open up Illustrator files with the Use Illustrator Colors option turned ON, any objects that are colored black in Illustrator will end up black in the Invigorator. Black looks fine on the printed page but 3D models that are painted black dont look very good at all. To help out the logo we need to choose a few new colors that will enhance the look.
The Power Grooves Edge Profile as it appears in the Material Set-Up window.
How To Apply A Single Material To An Object
(continuing from the last tutorial) Using the drag and drop method to Apply a material to an object, lets make the King Text object gold. 1- Click on the Materials Tab, located at the top right of the SetUp window. Here you will see a bin full of pre-created materials. Each of the colored balls is called a Material Swatch. We call it a Material Swatch instead of a color swatch because there is more to a material than just a color. For instance when making realisticlooking gold, the reflectivity of the gold is just as important as the base color. Below the bin is the editing area where you can change the colors and other details about a material. Look over this area and read the names of the different attributes that are used to create a material. 2- In the second row of the bin, find the gold material swatches. There are two of them. Double click on the one on the left. When you double click on a material it is loaded into the material editor located below the bin. You will now see the gold swatch in the single docking station in the editing area. Look for its name.
Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator - ProAnimator - Tutorials Material Editor

Material Bin

Double click on a material in the bin (TOP) to load it into the editor (BOTTOM). 101
You should see the words Punchy Gold in the field at the top of the editing area. You will also see a thick red line surrounding the swatch in both the editor and the bin. This red line indicates that these are both the same material and if you make changes to the swatch at the bottom you will see the changes affect the swatch at the top.
Busier reflections are good for flat surfaces. Smoother reflections are good for curved surfaces.

Drag from the Palette into the Set-Up window. Snap the green chips together before you release the mouse. 104
4- Click the Scene Preview button to switch back to the 3D view. This looks better but if you Tumble the Camera around the object youll see that the sides are still a bit blocky because they are completely black. The ideal scene would be for part of the edge to be black and part to be gold. Fortunately we have a way to do that.
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

Light Editor
2- In the editing area, turn on the Shadow Casting checkbox. This will enable shadows for the selected light. In a 3D program you have to tell the program which lights will cast shadows because rendering the shadows takes extra time and you dont always need them. When you turn the Cast Shadows option on you wont see a change in the Scene Preview window. This is because shadows arent rendered in the preview. In order to see shadows you need to do a final rendering. 3- Click the Render Frame button, (or the Render button in the ProModeler.) When the rendering finishes it will be displayed on screen in its own window. Notice that the shadows are too dark and they fall in the wrong direction. They are a little distracting. So lets make them not so dark and change their position. 4- Set the Shadow Darkness slider to 40. Render the frame and see that the shadows are now present but they dont overpower the image.

How To Move Lights

(continuing from the last tutorial) Find the Light Manipulator ball. You will see the top arrow has a red wire box around it, meaning it is selected. The name of this light, Light 1, is shown on the Lights List to the right of the ball. Look at the position of the selected arrow. The arrow represents the direction that Light 1 is pointing. To move the light drag the arrow to a new position.
The Light Manipulator ball.
1- Click down on the center of the Light Manipulator ball and drag left, right, up and down. As you drag right the arrow will be pulled to the side of the ball. If you continue dragging right the arrow will go around to the back of ball. If you drag up the arrow will stop at the top of the ball. If you drag down the arrow will stop at the bottom of the ball. 2- Undo the changes so the arrow is back to where it started.
If you drag too far the light may go behind the ball.
Since shadows are cast from a light, you need to change the direction the light is pointing in to change where the shadows will fall. If we want the shadows to fall to the left of the face we will need to move the light to the right side of the ball.
3- Click in the center of the ball and drag slowly to the right. Dont drag up or down, try to keep the arrow at the same level. Stop dragging when the arrow is on the right side of the ball, but not too much on the right. 4- Render the frame. You will now see the shadows falling to the left side of the Face object. If the arrow is too far around the side, the shadows will be very long. If the arrow is to much in front the shadows will be very short. Try moving the arrow and rendering a frame a few times until you start to see how the direction of the light is affecting the shadow. 5- When the final image is rendered make sure it is the foremost window by clicking on it, then use the Save Picture. command to save the image to disk. If you forget to save the image it will be deleted from memory when you quit the program.

ProAnimator 4.0 Addendum

Enhancements Made To ProAnimator 4 Workflow Enhancements

Track Segment Labels

You can label any track segment on the time line. To do this just double-click on the segment. This will open a text field on the track where you can type anything you want.

Easy selecting

To select all of the objects controlled by a track, hold down the Command key (Mac) or the Alt key (Win) and click anywhere on the track or the tracks name. NOTE: In past versions of ProAnimator double-clicking on a track segment was the shortcut for adding a new pose. This is no longer the case. Double-clicking now opens the label field. To add a pose Option-click on a segment or use the Make Object Pose command found at the top of the Object Animations menu.

Offline Camera

The Offline Camera is a very useful new feature. It enables you to look at the 3D scene from any angle without ruining your camera animation. In previous versions of ProAnimator if you had a camera animation and you started to move the camera to get a better view of something, you would get an error message saying you couldnt move the camera except at poses. Now you will get a message offering to take the camera offline. When a camera is offline you can move it wherever you want without creating permanent changes to the Online Camera, which is the camera that will render the final movie. This lets you look at object motion separate from camera motion. For instance if you want to get a side view of how the objects are moving just take the camera offline and move to the side. You can then drag the Time Marker back and forth on the time line to see how objects are interacting. The great thing about this feature is that a tap of the space bar will play back the full animation from the online cameras view point. Stopping the play back will return you to the offline camera so you can make further adjustments. The offline camera responds to the camera Views menu just like the online camera. Use the Views menu to save favorite views so you can return to them with a click.

Zaxwerks - User Guide

To turn off the offline camera just uncheck the box in the top right corner of the 3D window.
Backgrounds Can Now Be Rendered into the final movie
In ProAnimator 4, background images and movies can be rendered into the final image. The way it works is very simple. If you see the background in the 3D window it will be rendered into the final image. 1- Add a background image like normal, by clicking on the background image thumbnail box and selecting either an image or a movie (QuickTime or AVI) from the file picker. Leave the background checkbox turned ON. 2- Render the ProAnimator movie or frame. If you see the background in the preview window you will also see it in the final rendering. 3- If you only want to use the background for setting up an animation and you dont want the background to be rendered into the final movie, turn OFF the background checkbox, located next to the background thumbnail.

AVI Format

In addition to QuickTime, the AVI format is now supported when movies are rendered or when texture maps are used.
Real time slider interactions
In ProAnimator 4, when you drag sliders their effect is seen in real-time. This gives you instant feedback about the motion, the shape of the path or the look of the object. This makes setting up scenes much faster, however sometimes real-time slider interaction gets in the way. For instance if you have lots of objects on a track and are making a change to the Timing or Path controls the thousands of calculations that are going on may slow things down too much. If this happens all you need to do is hold down the Shift key while you are dragging and real-time updating will be turned OFF. The scene will update only once you release the mouse button. NOTE: In previous versions of ProAnimator real-time slider interactions were OFF by default and you held down the Shift key to turn them ON. This was opposite to the way it works in version 4. If you want real-time slider interaction to be OFF by default there
is an option for this in the User Preferences window.
Range Dragging For Double Arrow Sliders
For the sliders and knobs that use two arrows there is a new ability to drag both arrows at the same time. This is very useful for the times when you set a range and then want to offset the range higher or lower. For instance say you wanted some objects to form half a circle. Youd do this by choosing a Circle distribution and then setting the range to 0 and 180. But 0 and 180 may not put the objects in the proper position around the circle. By clicking on the range dragger you can move both arrows at the same time which will roll the objects around the circle enabling you to put them where you want very easily. Range dragging is supported by the three circle distributions as well as the Arch Spread and Directions knobs.

Show/Hide Paths

Whenever you select a Transition segment the paths of objects are shown. This is done so you can see the movement that objects will take. Most of the time this works fine, but sometimes there are so many objects in your scene that showing the paths slows things down. Each little change you make to a slider seems to take forever. When this is the case you can hide the paths by clicking the Show/Hide paths button. NOTE: You can also speed up slider interaction by holding down the Shift key when dragging a slider. The Shift key turns off realtime slider interactions, which means the paths and objects are moved as you change the slider. When you release the mouse the paths and objects will jump to their new positions. If you want real-time slider interaction turned off permanently you can set this as a preference in the Preferences window.

Merge Scene

The Merge Scene feature enables you to combine two different ProAnimator scenes. Use the File > Merge Scene command and locate the ProAnimator project file that youd like to merge with the current project. When you click the OK button you are presented with the option of importing the Camera data, the Object data or both.
Central Files for Swatches
With version 4 the way swatches is handled has been changed. Now all swatches are saved into a central set of swatch folders called Zaxwerks Swatches. Each type of swatch has its own
folder. When you open up a project created with version 3 of the ProAnimator you will see a message that the project is being converted to the 4 format. If matching swatches are found to already exist, then no new swatches will be created. If there are swatches in the project that are unique, new swatches will be created and added to the central files. Having a central library for swatches insures that when you make a swatch in one project it is instantly available in all your other projects. You dont have to worry about making changes to a swatch in one project and having that change affect any other project. The swatch library is not linked to a project. If you change a swatch in one project and want the change to affect a different project you must save the changed swatch into the library, then open the other project and apply the library swatch to the objects.

Time Line Track Controls

Next to the track name you will find three buttons. These buttons are the Visibility, Solo/Ghost and Lock buttons.

Visibility

The Visibility button controls whether objects can be seen. Turning OFF this button turns off the visibility of all objects on that track. You cannot animate visibility with this button. To animate visiblity use the Visibility Action.

Solo / Ghost

This is a very useful button. It has three states. When the button is very dim its effect is turned OFF. If you click it once it will show a small sphere indicating that you have turned on the Solo feature. When you Solo a track all other objects in the scene disappear. The only objects left visible are the ones on the target track (the soloed track). This is useful for the times when you have many tracks and you want to quickly see which objects are on a certain track. By turning on the Solo feature only the target objects are visible and everything else disappears. If you click the Solo/Ghost button again the sphere icon becomes ghosted. Ghosting means that the objects on this track are fully visible, just like what happens with soloing. However, all other objects are shown partially visible. The other objects dont fully disappear, they only partially disappear. Thats why we call it the ghost state. The ghost state is useful because it lets you see the target objects
in relation to the other objects in the scene. In solo mode only the target objects are visible so you cant see how they interact with other objects in the animation. But in ghost mode you see all objects, but the target objects are fully visible while the other objects are ghosted. This makes the target objects stand out more making them easy to identify amidst the other objects in the animation.
The lock button prevents you from making any changes to anything on a locked track. You cant select objects, you cant change objects settings, you cant select or change poses and transitions.

Modeling Enhancements

3D Primitives
Primitives are simple geometric shapes such as spheres, cubes, planes and cylinders. The Invigorator PRO can create these shapes all by itself. Images can be mapped onto primitives to create things like spinning globes, and video boxes. You can also create planes to be used for shadow catcher objects which help to merge 3D objects into live video footage. (See the section on The Shadow Catcher Material for more on this.)
Cubes, Spheres, Cylinders and Planes are all 3D Primitives.
Making A Primitive Object
Primitive objects are created by using the Create 3D Primitive button, or the Create 3D Primitive menu item. When you use this feature a sphere is created at the center of the scene. Materials can be drag and dropped onto Primitive objects, but Object Styles cannot be used as they are only for text objects and objects created from Illustrator files. The dimensions of the Primitive can be adjusted in the Object Tab. The dimension sliders will appear below the Primitive Type popup and change based on which Primitive is selected.

Creating a Primitive. Adjusting a Primitives dimensions.
Changing A Primitive Object
You can change from one Primitive to another by selecting a different type from the popup menu. You dont need to delete the old Primitive first, then add a new one. Materials and settings are transferred to the new Primitive, when appropriate.
Coloring A Primitive Object
Primitives are colored by dragging material swatches from the Material Bin or Material Editor and dropping them onto the Primitive. Because each Primitive object has a different number of faces, the number of docks in the palette will change depending on which Primitive is selected. For instance, planes and spheres are colored with only a single material. Cylinders are colored with three materials; one for each end, and one for the curved surface. Cubes are colored with six materials; one for each face.
Apply a Material to a Primitive by dragging a swatch and dropping it onto the Primitive.
Animating A Primitive Object Primitives are animated just like any other object. From inside the Set-Up window assign the Primitive to a Set, and then animate the Set using the controls in the Effect Controls Window. A Set can contain any mix of objects, whether they are Primitives, text objects or objects created from Illustrator files.
Making a Primitive Look Faceted
One of the cool things you can do to change the look of your objects is to make them look faceted rather than smooth. For instance, usually a sphere is smooth. By making a sphere faceted it will look like it was carved with a knife. To do this select the sphere and then press the Stats button on the Object Tab. In the Object Stats window you will see a field called Hard Shading Angle. Enter a small number such as 5 and hit the Apply button. You should see the sphere become faceted. Click the OK button to exit the Stats dialogue. Now you can play with the Draft Faceting slider to add or remove facets. Once you have it the way you like it, set the Best Faceting slider to match the Preview slider so that the final rendering looks the same as what you are seeing in preview window.

Click the Stats button. Enter a 5 in the Hard Shading Angle field.
The Zaxwerks Object Import/Export Format
Version 4.0 PRO adds a new file format for importing and exportZaxwerks - User Guide
ing 3D objects. The Zaxwerks Object.zxo format enables you to save model files containing 3D logos, live text and other 3D objects, complete with all colors, materials and object settings. These model files can be reused over and over in all your other Zaxwerks projects. This is a huge time saver for repetitive work.
How To Save A Zaxwerks 3D Object
To save Zaxwerks Object files: 1- Set up your 3D objects exactly the way you want them to be saved. Colors, textures, and positions will all be saved into the file. 2- Select the objects you want to save. 3- Choose the Export 3D Object command, and choose the.zxo file format in the Export window. 4- Name and save the file.
Adding Zaxwerks 3D Objects To Other Projects
Add a Zaxwerks 3D object to a project the same way that you would Import any other 3D object. 1- Open the project that you want to add the Zaxwerks Object to. 2- Choose the Import 3D Object command. 3- Select the file you want to import. Click the Import button. The 3D objects will come into the scene in the exact same position as they were when saved.
TIP: If maps are missing, the program will ask you to locate them. Thats why its important to keep your maps in a central folder, such as the Zaxwerks Maps folder, or a central project folder, such as Client Project Maps.
Making Imported Zaxwerks Objects Larger Or Smaller
When you combine objects from different scenes sometimes their sizes dont match. You have to scale one set of objects to match the size of the other objects. To do this. 1- Open the Invigorators Set-Up window. 2- Import the objects. When objects are imported they will all be selected. Leave them selected. (If they have become unselected you will need to select

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them before going to step 3.) 3- Switch to Object Mode, and select the Scale tool. 4- Click in the preview window and drag to scale the objects. Hold the Shift key and drag along a 45 degree angle to scale in the X and Y directions proportionally. Hold the Shift+Control keys and drag along a 45 degree angle to scale in the X, Y and Z directions proportionally. Dragging close to the horizontal or vertical directions will constrain the scaling to horizontal or vertical only.

Surfacing Enhancements

New Material Types
For the visual designer, Version 4.0 PRO has many new ways to paint the final picture and broaden your options for being visually creative. The new types of materials include the ability to draw your objects out of lines or paint them like cartoons in addition to the traditional photo-real rendering styles. Other material options include features for advanced compositing effects such as making the shadows from 3D objects appear to fall onto the objects in another piece of footage, and the ability to create traveling mattes out of 3D objects in your scene.

The new material types.

Wireframe And Hidden Line Rendering
Wireframe rendering is that Techno-looking style where 3D objects are rendered only as the lines that define their shape. This has a unique appeal because objects look like 2D drawings rather than big clunky 3D objects. Hidden Line rendering is a special kind of wireframe where you only see the lines that define the visible parts of the objects. In standard Wireframe you see all of the lines no matter if they are on the front or the back of the objects. But with Hidden Line the back lines are hidden and you only see the lines that fall on the part of the object facing you. Something very exciting about the way Zaxwerks has implemented line rendering is that our lines respond to lighting! This means that the lines will get brighter or darker depending on the placement and intensity of the lights. This gives shading and highlights to the lines rather than having plain solid-colored lines. Another unique ability is that the lines can be texture mapped. This lets you do things like see reflections dance across your line-objects, or apply texture maps such as brushed metal to the lines. All of the standard maps (color, reflections, bump, etc.) can

Zaxwerks - User Guide

A Wireframe Sphere.

A Hidden Line Sphere.

Lines not affected by lights.
Lines affected by lights.
be used. Line weights can be controlled to the tenth of a pixel and are fully antialiased for professional results. You can even use the Meshing controls to create a grid of lines across your objects for a really cool look.
How To Give Objects A Wireframe or Hidden Line Look
To give an object a Wireframe look do the following: 1- Create a new Invigorator effect. Click the Create 3D text button and type the word Wireframe. Use Arial Black as the font or some other thick typeface. 2- In the Material Editor, use the New Material command. Then click the color box and use the color picker to pick a medium red. Close the color picker. 3- Still in the Material Editor, click the radio button in front of the word Wireframe. 4- Drag the material onto the objects. The object will still look solid. It will not appear Wireframe until you do a Best Quality rendering. 5- Hold down the Command (Control) key and click the Test button. This will do a Test rendering in Best quality while you are inside the Set-Up window. You will now see the objects drawn in Wireframe. Notice that Wireframe shows you all of the objects lines, even the ones on the back side of the object. This can sometimes clutter up the image making the object confusing to look at. To simplify the drawing, use the Hidden Line style of rendering. 6- In the Material Editor, click the radio button in front of the word Hidden Line. Then do a Test rendering. Now you will see only the lines on the front side of the object. The lines on the back are no longer there, so the drawing is easier to read.

Wireframe lettering is often difficult to read.
Changing the material to Hidden Line improves the legibility.
Making The Lines Thicker Or Thinner
The lines of a Wireframe or Hidden Line material can be drawn very thick or very thin. (continuing from the last step) 7- At the bottom of the Material Editor click the Options button. This will open the Hidden Line Options window. 8- Find the Line Width slider and drag it to a value of 0.5. Click OK. Then do another Test rendering.

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See that the lines are half the width as they used to be. This is how you make very delicate line work. 9- Reopen the Options window and set the Line Width value to 2.0. Click OK. Then do another Test rendering. See that the lines are now very thick. When the lines get too thick they will start to fill in the object and loose the drawn quality.
Setting The Color Between The Lines
By default you will see between the lines when you use Hidden Line materials. In other words the space between the lines is not filled-in so you will see the other layers behind the Invigorators layer. However, there is an option to fill in the space between the lines. 1- In the Material Editor click the Options button to open the Hidden Line Options window. 2- Put a check in the Fill With Color box. 3- Click on the color box to open the color picker and change the color to black. Then click OK to exit out of the color picker. 4- Click OK to close the Hidden Line Options window. 5- Do a Test rendering. See how the object is now rendered as colored lines with black between the lines.

Very thin lines

Thicker lines
Turn on the Fill With Color option to fill in the space between the lines.
Making The Lines React To Lights
In the Invigorator, lines can respond to lighting. This means that the lines facing a light will be lighter and the lines facing away from a light will be darker. 1- In the Material Editor click the Options button to open the Hidden Line Options window. 2- Put a check in the Respond To Lighting box. Then OK out of the Options window. 3- Do a Test rendering. See how the lines are no longer flat colored but have a very interesting 3-D look to them?
This material creates red lines with a black fill, in the Hidden Line style.
Turn on Respond To Lighting to make the lines brighter or darker based on the lighting.
Making Lines Shine With Reflections
Another unique aspect of the Invigorators line rendering is the

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ability to give the lines a reflective quality. This is done the same way regular materials are made reflective; with reflection maps. In fact you can turn a regular material into a wire rendering very very easily. 1- In the Material Bin, drag the Punchy Gold swatch into the editing area. 2- Click on the Hidden Line radio button. 3- Click the Options window and turn on the Fill With Color option, then make the fill color black. OK out of the Options window. 4- Select the objects and drag the Hidden Line Gold material onto the objects. 5- Do a Test rendering. See how the lines have bright and dark streaks in them? Those are the highlights. When you create an animation, those highlights will pass across the lines making them look really nice. To see the difference, do the following: 6- Turn off the reflection map enable switch, then do another Test rendering. See that the lines now look flat and less interesting.
Line rendering with reflections turned on. Drag Punchy Gold down to the Materials Editor.

The Map Enable Button.

Applying Grid Lines Across Object Faces
You may have noticed that lines are drawn around the front faces but no lines appear on the front faces themselves. It does not have to be this way. To create a grid of lines that appear on the front faces, use the Meshing controls. 1- Select the objects and click the Stats button on the Object tab. 2- Turn ON the meshing option, then set Meshing for Best to 5 for all three directions. OK out of the Stats window. 3- Make a blue, hidden line Material and apply it to the objects. 4- Do a Test rendering. See that there is now a grid pattern of lines across the faces of all the objects. However, since the lines of the faces are the same color as the lines of the sides it is a bit hard to read. We can fix that by giving the faces a different color. 5- Make a red, hidden line Material and apply it only to the faces of the objects. Do this the standard way, by clicking on the Material Set-Up button, loading the red material into dock 2 and then dragging the red swatch up to the color chip next to the front face. 6- Do a Test rendering. Now the grid lines across the faces are red and the bevels and sides are blue. This makes it much easier to read the words.
Line rendering with reflections turned off.
When all wires are one color it can be difficult to read.

mands that their exact corporate colors be used. The colors cant get lighter as the objects turn toward the lights and they cant get darker when the objects turn away from the lights. They cant have highlights, shadows or reflections on them. The colors are absolutely, 100%, the exact color specified. Got it?
How To Give Objects Absolute Coloring
Creating an Absolute Color material is very easy. 1- In the Material Editor, use the New Material command. Then click the color box and use the color picker to pick a medium green. Close the color picker. 2- Click the radio button in front of the words Absolute Color. 3- Drag the material onto the objects. Notice that when you apply Absolute Coloring to 3D objects, they will look flat, as though you cut colored paper in the shape of the silhouette of the 3D objects. For instance a sphere will stop looking like a sphere and just look like a circle of color. By itself, Absolute Color is pretty boring. The real treat comes in how you use it.
Make a material render with Absolute Coloring by turning on the proper option.
2D Graphics In A 3D World
The first creative use for Absolute Coloring is for making 2D graphics out of your 3D elements. 1- Select the objects, then give them an Absolute Color material. 2- Set the Depth for all objects to zero, (0). Setting the depth to zero removes the sides and bevels from your objects. This creates flat 2D cutouts. The difference however, is that text done in the Invigorator can interact with other 3D elements in the same Invigorator scene. This lets you mix 2D text and 3D elements. The 2D text can appear in front, in back, or go right through the middle of any other 3D element. The design implications for this ability are huge.
Set the Depth to 0 to get flat, 2D text in a 3D world.
Absolute Coloring For Pop Art Looks
You can use Absolute Color materials to create cool Pop Art looks. 1- Create a new project. 2- Create a text object and type the word Pop Art. Use Arial Bold Italic as the font. If you dont have Arial, any San Serif font will work. Click OK. 3- Create bright yellow and medium orange materials and set

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them to Absolute Color. 4- Apply the yellow to the faces of the letters and the orange to the sides. Examine what youve created. The bevels no longer look like bevels. they make the letters get fatter and thinner in some places but they loose some of their effect. 5- Set the bevel for all objects to Bevels> Basic, Flat Sides. Now you have the traditional Pop Art 3D look. Orbit the camera around the objects to get a feel for this very graphic look. Notice that although there is no shading you really get a sense of the 3D nature because of the perspective. Use a wide angle camera lens to really push the perspective.

Use a wide angle lens to push the perspective.
The Pop Art look without bevels. The Pop Art look with bevels.

The Stroked Pop Art Look

Continuing from the last project. Do the following. 6- Set the bevel for all objects to Inset Face> Outline. Now you have Pop Art text with a block background. By using the Edge Scale and Depth sliders you can control the size of the block background outline around the letters. The next step is to create a stroke around the letters. 7- Duplicate the orange material swatch and slightly brighten the color of the duplicate. 8- Go to the Material Set-Up window and drop a split point on the front corner of the Outline bevel. Then drag the new brighter orange material into dock 3 and apply this material to the sides of the bevel. Going back to the Scene Preview you will see that you now have a medium orange stroke around yellow letters with bright orange sides. Again by adjusting the Edge Scale slider you can make this stroke very thin or very thick. Once you get your pop art look just right, save it as an Object Style so you can use it again.
The Pop Art look with a darker stroke. The Pop Art look with a parallel outline.
Split the Outline bevel at the front corner so a different material can be applied to the sides.
The Modified Pop Art Look
The Modified Pop Art look combines absolute coloring and regular photo-real shading. Continuing from the last project. 9- In the Material Set-Up window, double click on the darker of the two orange materials to load it into the Material Editor. 10- Click the Standard Color button.
This will make the darker orange respond to the lighting. 11- Change the bevel to Bevels> Medium Front. Then adjust the Edge Scale so you can easily see the bevel. 12- Do a Test rendering. What you have now is a combination effect. The front and sides are absolute colored, but the bevels are shaded with highlights and shadows. This can be a very interesting alternative to the standard Pop Art look.
The Modified Pop Art look has Absolute Colored front and sides, but Standard Colored bevels.

Making TV Screens

The Absolute Color material type is also useful when making TV screens. Since the color of the pixels are exactly the same after rendering as they were before, texture maps end up looking like they are creating their own light. For example: build the TV cabinet and screen then apply a QuickTime or AVI movie to the screen and give it the absolute color option. The TV cabinet will be shaded realistically by the lights in the scene but the screen will render the movie at full brightness.

Making 3D Environments

The really cool moody lighting seen in video games isnt done with lights at all. Rather, it is painted into the texture maps used on the walls, and then absolute color rendering is used to render the scene. To do the same thing in the Invigorator PRO, start with a picture you want to use as your wall, take it into Photoshop and put lighting effects onto the image. Darken up the corners and part near the floor. Paint shadows around the edges of doors and wall hangings. Then in the Invigorator create a plane and create a new material. Use the wall image as the color map for the material and turn on the Absolute Color option. Then apply the material to the wall. What youll get is the exact colors of the wall image in the final rendering. Moody lighting and all!

The pre-lit texture map.

Paint lighting right into the texture maps, then use Absolute Coloring to render them exactly as you made them.

The Matte Color Material

The Matte Color material option makes a 3D object act like a mask. When an object with this material is visible it blocks out other 3D objects that you dont want to see. It can also be used to create transition effects, such as creating a hole in the movie that lets other background video show through.
Masking Out Unwanted Objects
On more of a problem solving level, an object colored by the Matte Material can be used to cover up objects that you dont want to see. For instance say you have some bars that you are using to cast shadows onto other objects in the scene. You want the shadows to be seen but you dont want the bars to be seen. Unfortunately, at one point in the animation, the camera moves and you end up seeing the bars. Rather than moving the bars and goofing up the shadows, you can simply create a plane using the Primitives feature, color the plane with a Matte Color material, and then position the plane so it will block the bars from view. When the movie is rendered the shadows from the bars will be seen but the bars themselves have been masked out.
Visible bars Place a Matte plane in front of the bars.
The final movie masks out the bars.
Making 3D Objects Circle Around 2D Elements
Another use for 3D masking is when you want a 3D element to interact with a 2D element. For instance, say you have a picture of a wooden mask and you want to make some 3D stars tumble onto the screen and circle around it. Since the wooden mask is a 2D element, and the stars are on a separate layer, there is no 2D compositing trick to make the 3D stars appear to circle around the mask. To do this effect, just make a 3D cylinder and place it in register with the wooden mask. Then give the cylinder the Matte Color material. Finally animate the stars to circle around the cylinder. When the movie is rendered the stars will disappear as they go behind the cylinder, and reappear when they come out the other side. This technique enables you to put 3D elements both in front of and behind another layer at the same time.
A wooden mask plus a background image.

A flat shadow doesnt take the package into consideration and looks pasted-on.
Position placeholder objects in register with the objects in the picture.
Setting Up The Camera For A Shadow-Catching Project
When doing a shadow-catching project the position, angle and lens of the camera are very important. The first placeholder object you put into position should match to the largest rectangular object in the background. Position the rectangle so it is close to matching the background image, then adjust the camera angle and position until the placeholder object registers with the rectangular object in the background. Sometimes the largest rectangular object in the background image isnt going to catch shadows. This is fine. Create a placeholder to use for the registration phase, then delete it once the camera has been positioned. Oftentimes the perspective of the camera needs to be changed to match with the background image. A wider angle lens (shorter focal length) increases the perspective and a telephoto lens (longer focal length) reduces the perspective. Examples of large rectangular things in the background image would include: table tops, picture frames, books, doors, windows, rugs and even whole walls. Once the camera has been positioned and the lens set correctly, all the other objects you add to the scene will fall perfectly into place.
Zaxwerks - User Guide The final shadow flows over the package making the two elements look like they are part of the same scene.
These two edges are aligned.
.but these edges dont match.
This image is close but the perspective of the camera needs to be changed so the edges will match better.
Here, the placeholder and image are perfectly registered. 20
Using Movies As Textures Using Movies As Backgrounds

Highlight Mapping

Highlight Mapping, or Specular Mapping as it is known to the 3D savvy, is a type of texture mapping that only affects the highlights on an object. Much of the textural feel of a surface is contained in the highlights. The base paint job on an object may be fine, but over the top of the paint job the surface may be worn or dirty, and this type of surface detail isnt seen until you line your eye up with the glare from a light. Adding a highlight map gives your work a subtle touch that can make it look much more professional.
Without a Highlight Map With a Highlight Map
How To Make A Highlight Map
Highlight Maps are made like any other texture map. They are pixel-based images made in Photoshop or some other paint program. The image should be grayscale. A color Highlight Map can be used but only the luminance of the colors will be used. If the map is four-channel, the RGB channels will be ignored and only the alpha channel will be used for the highlights. In a Highlight Map the dark pixels reduce the highlight and the white pixels keep the highlight. The Highlight Brightness slider sets the maximum brightness of the highlight, and the map only reduces it. The map does not increase the brightness of the highlight.