User manual ZAXWERKS 3D INVIGORATOR FOR AFTER EFFECTS

[. . . ] The Zaxwerks 3D InvigoratorTM for After Effects® User Guide Covering Classic and PRO v. 4 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for AE - User Guide 1 Zaxwerks Inc. Temple City, CA 91780 (626) 309-9102 phone (626) 309-9142 fax http://www. zaxwerks. com Sales: sales@zaxwerks. com Tech Support: support@zaxwerks. com © 1996 - 2005 Zaxwerks Inc. All rights reserved. This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license. The information in this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and does not represent product specifications or commitment on the part of Zaxwerks. [. . . ] The wrapping follows the curves and corners of an object. If there is any question about what the lowest point is, the Invigorator will select the left-most of all the equally low points. If we use the letter E for example, there are two points that are equally at the bottom of the E. In fact if you also include the distance between the ends of the leg there could be a great number of spots where you could start the texture map. Lowest point Multiple points equally low What the Invigorator does is to look at all of the points that are equally low and then picks the one that is furthest to the left. It applies the left edge of the texture map to this point, wraps the texture counter clock-wise around the edge of the object, and ends with the right side of the texture map meeting the left side back at the starting point. Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for AE - User Guide Wrapping starts at the lowest point farthest to the left. 209 Map Enable Checkbox There is a checkbox located next to each of the texture map thumbnail boxes. The map isn't removed from the object, it's just temporarily disabled so it isn't used during the final rendering. For instance, no matter how high you set the bump slider, a bump map is needed before you will see an effect. Likewise the reflectivity setting doesn't do anything unless it has an image to reflect. Turning OFF the checkbox for the color map will remove the picture from the object. It will appear in its base surface color. When the Map Enable checkbox is turned off, the texture map is not applied to the object. The Map Enable checkbox turned on. 210 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for AE - User Guide Layer Map Selector If you want to use a movie instead of just a still image as a texture map, you need to load it directly into After Effects and drag it into the Comp window so that the movie becomes a layer. Then you can assign the movie to a Layer Map in the Effect Controls window. (See the Layer Map Popup section earlier in this manual. ) The Layer Map Selector Popup menu, inside the Set-Up window, is the little mini popup menu next to each texture map thumbnail where you select which Layer Map will be used as the texture for this attribute. Still images are loaded by double clicking on the dark gray thumbnail box. Notice that there is a Layer Map Popup next to each of the texture map thumbnail boxes. Each of these popups can be set to use the same layer or a different layer. For instance you could use some moving clouds footage for the image map and the reflection map in a material. The same layer map can also be used on different materials and different objects. For instance, you could use the same layer map for the reflection in two different materials. You are not limited to using a Layer Map only once. The Layer Map Selector Popup. Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for AE - User Guide 211 Layer mapping becomes especially powerful when you have many variations on the same material and they all use the same layer map. By simply changing the footage being used as the layer map you can update all of the materials with one click. For instance, say you had to make a weather announcement and needed a snow advisory graphic where the titles use five different colors (light blue, medium blue, dark blue, white and yellow) and all of these materials used the same snow footage as the reflections that appeared in the titles. Each of these materials would have used Layer Map 1 for the reflection map. [. . . ] Version 2. 2 will open the scene. Q- The Invig crashes when I try to save the project. A- Upgrade to the latest version and send this project to Zaxwerks. Q- The Invigorator crashes when I use the Replace command. A- You have guides visible inside the Illustrator file you are picking during the Replace operation. Either delete the guides or place them on a different layer and turn off the visibility of that layer. 402 Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator for AE - User Guide Keyboard Shortcuts Mode Selector Shortcuts (Mac/Win) C = Activate Camera Mode L = Activate Lights Mode O = Activate Object Mode The following keyboard shortcuts operate only inside the AE Effect Controls window. Double-clicking the Zoom tool is a shortcut for the camera's Fit All command. [. . . ]