Zaxwerks Blog

It’s 3-D Time in FCP.
The future has arrived.
Final Cut Pro can now
do 3-D!

The award-winning motion graphics software, ProAnimator, has been re-written to become a native FxPlug, so users of Final Cut Pro and Motion can now create real-time 3-D title and logo animations directly inside of their favorite program.

ProAnimator brings capabilities to your fingertips that will upgrade your projects and increase your value. Now in a single plug-in you can offer a completely new service to your clients.

Keep your clients.
Attract new clients.

Traditionally adding high quality 3D animation to a video project has been time consuming and expensive. It’s required extensive training and practice to use the complicated 3-D programs available.

ProAnimator FX breaks new ground by giving Final Cut Pro editors and Motion artists a way to easily create stylish 3-D animations in the editing suite, with familiar looking tools and methods.

• Breakthrough product!
• Create true 3-D titles and logos inside Final Cut Pro and Motion.
• Easy to use. Real-time rendering.
• Works like editing software not animation software.
• Dozens of object and camera motion templates.
• Create billable work right away.

If you own ProAnimator AE (Standalone and Plug-in for After Effects), you can side-grade your program for just $199. If you don’t already own ProAnimator, here’s your chance to get your hands on the new FX version!

Strap on your motion graphics black belt!

Making It Look Great 4 Design and Production Techniques for Adobe After Effects, Zaxwerks ProAnimator and Zaxwerks 3D Flag.

Work side-by-side with senior broadcast designer, After Effects expert and Zaxwerks demo artist John Dickinson, to create the powerful Northstar Martial Arts animation from start to finish.

Topics include:

• The key design decisions
• Background creation and modification
• Creating graphic elements in Adobe Illustrator and After Effects
• Logo preparation in Illustrator
• Logo modelling and texturing in ProAnimator
• Preparing JPEG files with Illustrator Live Trace
• Getting the most out of mini-dv footage
• Creating 3D banners with 3D Flag
• Tricks for isolating glows to logo bevels
• Simulating refraction and depth of field
• Finishing touches to add mood

This new training DVD is available for $59. In addition, we now offer bundle deals for the Making It Look Great series!

Great news. Harry Frank has just released a free video tutorial that teaches you how to use ProAnimator rather than 3D Invigorator in his fine Making It Look Great™ 3 video workshop. So those of you who use ProAnimator can take advantage of this great training.

Ever wondered how the pros get their work looking so sharp? The popular and proven Making It Look Great™ video workshop series has been designed to answer that question. Throughout these in-depth DVD workshops, professional motion graphics designers demonstrate techniques essential to their daily work and give the design decisions and rationale that support them. The featured projects are demonstrated step–by–step from start to finish, giving priceless insight into what it takes to design and produce professional broadcast motion graphics.

Presenting Making It Look Great™ 2 and Making It Look Great™ 3, two brand new, full length video workshops available soon on DVD and by download.

Making It Look Great™ 2: Design and Production Techniques for Adobe After Effects and Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro.
In this full–length video workshop, sit with freelance artist and After Effects pro Alan Shisko as he walks you through his favorite techniques, tips and tricks for creating a stunning broadcast news animation sequence.

Topics include:
• Learning how to think like a designer.
• Secrets of effective project workflow.
• Pro-level modeling and texturing with Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro.
• Advanced techniques for transforming and deforming 3D Invigorator objects.
• Building dynamic transitions using text.
• Beyond–the–ordinary background design.
• Creative color grading with Blend Modes.
• Quick and easy lower third design.
• Mastering the After Effects Graph Editor.
• Tips and tricks for taking control of masks.

Making It Look Great™ 3: Design and Production Techniques for Adobe After Effects, Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro, Trapcode Particular and Form
In this in–depth video workshop sit side–by–side with motion graphics designer and After Effects expert Harry Frank as he guides you step–by–step using real–world techniques, tips and tricks for creating a beautiful and organic broadcast promotion.

Topics include:
• Understanding and working with consistent color palettes using Adobe Kuler.
• Advanced animation and texturing with Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro.
• Generating realistic clouds with Trapcode Particular and light emitters.
• Creating life–like 3D grass with CC Hair.
• Animating with expressions to save time.
• Using gravity and turbulence to create realistic 3D falling leaves.
• Advanced type animation plus an in–depth study of After Effects’ type animation tools.
• Addressing critical details such as type weight, tracking and kerning.
• Creating organic, flowing design elements.
• Finishing touches to add color and mood.

Both titles will be available from early April for $49.95 each.

You may have been wondering what the ProAnimator Importer plug-in that ships with ProAnimator actually does. Take a look a this 8 minute video tutorial and see what you’ve been missing. And if you haven’t been wondering… well… take a look anyway, it’s pretty cool. Have fun.

The eyeball images is by Martin Walls and was downloaded from the StockXchang (http://www.sxc.hu).

Here’s the end title resolve for a quick and simple promo I’ve been working on. The text and diamond plate background are both ProAnimator layers. Doing the background in ProAnimator allowed shadows to be cast from the text onto the background. Check out the full article here.

Serge Hamad, one of the leaders of the Zaxwerks User Forum, has released a new training DVD. The DVD goes into great depth on modeling 3-D objects using the 3D Invigorator plug-in. In his colorful style, Serge walks you step by step through the process of building objects that are *not* the standard titles and logos that you usually see in Invigorator.

The DVD is called “Zaxwerks Invigorator Training” and is part of the Creative COW Master Series. For more information click HERE

I often get asked how one goes about creating that “glass rings floating around with lots of blues and golds” network news look. THIS tutorial presents the fundamentals that one might use to get that ‘look’ using Zaxwerks “Invigorator” and “ProAnimator” plugins. Consider this a starting point, then add your own salt ‘n pepper!

-Alan

In this video tutorial (8 minutes) you’ll learn how to add flare to your graphics by creating the effect of “light” moving across your Zaxwerks ProAnimator or 3D Invigorator objects. In fact it’s not light at all but an animated reflection map… anyway, watch the movie and all will be revealed. Have fun.

Making it Look Great 1: Design and Production Techniques for Adobe After Effects and Zaxwerks ProAnimator is Available now. You can pick it up immediately by download from Toolfarm, or order a DVD here at Zaxwerks.

Throughout the lessons you’ll learn the techniques John Dickinson uses every day as a broadcast designer, and get insight into many of the design decisions behind the techniques. By the end of this training you’ll have a solid understanding of Zaxwerks ProAnimator and how it integrates with Adobe After Effects and 3rd party plug-ins such as Knoll Light Factory, Trapcode Starglow and Trapcode Shine.

Over 2 hours of training including:

* Making backgrounds with ProAnimator, Fractal Noise and other effects.
* Using ProAnimator primitives and textures to create the planet Mars.
* Using After Effects’ versus ProAnimator cameras and lights.
* Enhancing your work’s mood and “watch-ability factor”.
* Secrets to getting faster workflow.
* Preparing Adobe Illustrator files for the smoothest workflow.
* Modeling, texturing and animating logos in ProAnimator.
* Using ProAnimator for beyond-the-ordinary text animations.
* Workflow tips for creating multiple versions.
* Design and production tricks for integrating logos and text using effects such as Trapcode Shine & Starglow and Knoll Light Factory.

以前予告致しました”Making it Look Great 1: Boom”が本日発売となりました。DVDのご購入はZaxwerksから、ダウンロードはToolfarmから既に取り扱い開始となっております。ぜひご覧ください。

Making it Look Great, a 2 hour in-depth workshop on using ProAnimator and After Effects to create a finished broadcast motion graphics spot is only days away. Check out the promo here.

For those of you hungry for my ProAnimator training DVD, coming real soon now I promise, here’s a quick video tip on how to select all segments on a layer and reverse an object animation in ProAnimator. Have fun.

A little while back we hosted an eSeminar. If you haven’t heard, an eSeminar is a live class taught by an instructor, which you watch in the web browser of your computer. It’s a great way to link people together from all over the world, without ever having to leave home. John Dickinson was the instructor and did an outstanding job of showing how he created a promotional spot for the television network he works at.

John took us right from the beginning, showing how every element was built and why he made the decisions he did. As he was building the layers he showed alternate ideas and effects. Many of these alternates happened due to a slight change in one of the parameters. It was really interesting to see how many variations could be done to make the work your own.

John worked in both After Effects and the ProAnimator, showing how to use them together and how to get the best work flow. He showed how to build backgrounds, how to make Mars, how to do the main title and the accompanying text. He showed how to alter the mood and color of a piece. He showed how to set up a logo in Illustrator and how to reuse elements with ProAnimator’s text engine. Of course none of this was done in the usual ways you might think. Everything had a Master’s flair for design and attention to detail, with useful tips flying off John’s silver tounge.

The whole class, which was originally scheduled for 1.5 hours ended up being over 3. At the end the floor was opened to a Q & A session where Zax joined in too, answering questions and revealing secrets about upcoming products. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot.

John promises that he’ll be having another class soon. He’s also promised to create a DVD version of the class so that anyone who wasn’t able to attend would still be able to learn his valuable information. We’ll be looking forward to that DVD.

Thanks John for a great class!

With the holidays right around the corner, here are a set of streamer presets to use with the 3D Grid Warp plug-in. These streamers can all be customized and animated in a variety of ways. You can change how tight or loose the ribbon is wrapped; the length and width of the ribbon; how twisty it is; and of course the colors and transparencies in the ribbon.

Most of these streamers use a single warp. One of them uses two warps so you can see how to take a fairly simple streamer and make it deliciously irregular. Also notice how these streamers make use of the Highlight feature which gives the ribbons beautiful shiny highlights when the curves of the ribbon catch the light.

This download contains a set of preset files for 3D Grid Warp. (Click here to download) Once you download and unzip, place the preset files into the Grid Warp Presets folder and restart After Effects. Then in any AE project, add a layer, apply the Grid Warp effect to it, and choose one of the Streamer presets from the Effect Presets menu.

This project was created in After Effects (AE) by combining various AE effects with Zaxwerks 3D Warps, Zaxwerks ProAnimator and Knoll Light Factory. For a movie and breakdown click here.