- Improved Video Card Compatibility for both Mac and Windows.

- Updated file icons.

- New feature allows you to link and unlink 3D Text. By keeping your text linked, this keeps the text easy for editing. Unlink the text to tweak each letter individually.

- The program now saves the last Camera used so the interface will open with the previously used camera.

- The ProAnimator Standalone now saves the Maximize setting for the inner interface window (Windows Only).

- The Render Test button now works for all Cameras instead of just the Main Camera.

- Fixes an issue where After Effects may run out of memory and crash during rendering.

- Fixes an issue where editing the text from a version 4 project may cause the text to shift in position.

- Fixes an issue where Reflectivity Maps created from version 4 may appear differently than in version 5.

- Fixes an issue where black pixels may appear and flicker during a render when using Fresnel materials.

- Fixes an issue where you have to re-link the Text Substitution file after re-opening the project file.

- Fix for a crash that may occur if you are working in a separate program such as Illustrator or Photoshop, and using the Save command.

Visit our download page to get the version 5.0.8 update.

- Fixes an issue related to multi-threaded rendering. This fix may prevent an issue where the program crashes during the render.

- Fixes an issue where if you duplicate or copy and paste 3D Text, the text may shift in position after editing the text.

- Fixes an issue where using a Matte Material with the setting “Composite on Original” does not show the correct layer.

- Fixes an issue where you have to disable the User Account Controls (UAC) in order to enter the authorization code. In some cases, users using Windows 7 had to re-enter the authorization after every re-boot.

- Fixes an issue with editing text from older projects.

- Fixes an issue where you cannot cancel or hide while rendering in ProAnimator as a Standalone.

Visit our download page to get the version 5.0.6 update.

In ProAnimator version 5.0.6 we’ve also added the ability to organize Object and Camera Animation presets into categories.

This means, instead of one long list of choices, animation presets can now be organized by placing them into folders on your hard drive. Each folder becomes a submenu in the Object Animations and Camera Animations menus of the ProAnimator software.

The 5.0.6 version of ProAnimator comes with a new set of animation presets. If you are installing ProAnimator for the first time you’ll get the new presets automatically, but if you have ever run a version of ProAnimator prior to 5.0.6 you will need to reset the animation presets, otherwise you won’t get the new animations.

To Reset The Animation Presets

First install the new software. Then run the software and go into the ProAnimator > Preferences window. At the bottom of this window there will be a group of checkboxes called: “Restore Files to Factory Settings.” Uncheck all the checkboxes except for “Animation presets”. Then click the “Restore” button and close the Preferences window. Now the new Object and Camera animation presets will appear.

How To Prevent Some Presets From Being Deleted

If you have created your own personal Object or Camera animation presets and want to keep them, you must move them out of the presets folder before using the Restore function. After using the Restore function, move your own presets back into the folders they came from.

—- For the ProAnimator standalone:

Object Animations are kept in the: “Users > YourUserName > Documents (My Documents) > Zaxwerks > ProAnimator 5 > Animator Presets > Object Animations” folder.

Camera Animations are kept in the: “Users > YourUserName > Documents (My Documents) > Zaxwerks > ProAnimator 5 > Animator Presets > Camera Animations” folder.

—- For the ProAnimator AE plug-in:

Object Animations are kept in the: “Users > YourUserName > Documents (My Documents) > Zaxwerks > ProAnimator AE 5 > Animator Presets > Object Animations” folder.

Camera Animations are kept in the: “Users > YourUserName > Documents (My Documents) > Zaxwerks > ProAnimator AE 5 > Animator Presets > Camera Animations” folder.

It’s time to get very happy.

Zaxwerks is proud to announce that both ProAnimator and 3D Invigorator v5, for After Effects CS5, have just been released. If you are a Mac user this is news to write home about! If you are a Windows user the software has been updated and a new 5.0.5 version is ready to go.

New features and fixes include:

- Enhanced 3D Text engine. This fixes any issues with incompatible fonts.

- Improved multi-threaded rendering engine.

- Compatibility opening up older projects.

- Fixes issues with importing 3D Models.

- Fixes an issue with typing values into fields (Windows Only)

- Fixed an issue with editing text from older projects.

To find out more about ProAnimator and 3D Invigorator Version 5, please check the links below:

ProAnimator Blog Post:
http://zaxwerks.com/blog/2011/02/23/proanimator-5-available/

ProAnimator Product Page:
http://zaxwerks.com/proanimator/index.shtml

3D Invigorator Blog Post:
http://zaxwerks.com/blog/2010/12/03/3d-invigorator-version-5-0-available/

3D Invigorator Product Page:
http://zaxwerks.com/invigorator_pro/index.shtml

Andrew Devis has gone through the new ProAnimator version 5 interface, and taken the time to create four new comprehensive tutorials that will cover the basic controls of ProAnimator, and how to create your very first animation.

Andrew goes through the controls from a user’s point of view, and goes in depth about the whole process of creating an animation.

Topics discussed:

- Creating 3D Text.

- Creating and customizing 3D Primitives.

- Making Parametric Shapes and adjusting the settings.

- Applying materials, assigning materials to different sides of an object.

- Applying Object Animation presets.

- Editing Poses and Transitions.

- Setting up lighting with Lighting presets.

Click on the links below to watch the video tutorials.

Your First Animation in ProAnimator: Part 1 Modeling

Your First Animation in ProAnimator: Part 2 Materials

Your First Animation in ProAnimator: Part 3 Animation

Your First Animation in ProAnimator: Part 4 Lighting

Zaxwerks is proud to announce that ProAnimator 5 has just been released!

This is a MAJOR release. ProAnimator has been completely reinvented. You can now do things in ProAnimator that were never possible before. We have added hundreds of new features designed to make your work faster, easier and more productive; to save you time and help you make more money.

As always, ProAnimator works as both a Standalone and a Plug-in for After Effects.

Highlights include:

Multiprocessing

ProAnimator will now use every core on your system to render much faster than before.

Integrated Drawing Window

All 3D objects have to be modeled. 3D modeling is traditionally very difficult but Zaxwerks has made this easy as pie. As you draw, the 3D model is created for you, on the fly. Right before your eyes. As you edit the 2D paths the 3D objects are re-built in real time. Need to add holes? No problem. If you draw one path inside of another path the program knows what to do. Hate Bezier curves? Again no problem. Our exclusive Auto-Curve tool figures out the curves for you.

Watch the movie to find out more.

Live Text Editing

Most of your text and logo animations begin life as fonts. But what if you have to make changes to the shapes of the letters? Ordinarily this means converting the text to outlines, which prevents you from going back and making changes to the fonts. A perplexing quandary.

We solved that puzzle by giving you the best of both worlds. In ProAnimator 5 you can edit the Bezier curves of text characters without having to convert them to paths. This allows you to make texty-type changes (switch justification, change margins, etc) and any edits you’ve made to the curves will be preserved.

Watch the movie to find out more.

Warping

Flat text and logos have their place, but nothing makes a client’s logo pop off the screen quite like bending it. ProAnimator 5 can now do exactly that. Warping has been built directly into the time line so you can bend, twist, fold, bulge, taper, wave and ripple your 3D objects as you work on the rest of your project.

Workflow-Based Interface

A program with lots of features usually pays the price of complexity. Complicated programs take a long time to learn and most features are hidden under layers of user interface. In ProAnimator 5 Zaxwerks has gone out of its way to bring the features to the user. A simple set of workspace buttons presents the tools and controls you need, when you need them. Panels can be arranged to fit your personal monitor size and your working style. Additionally, hundreds of enhanced Tool Tips explain what every button and control does and how to use it, saving you valuable time and making you an expert, tip by tip.

Materials & Mapping

What good is a really cool model if it isn’t covered with a really cool texture? ProAnimator 5 has added a powerful texture creation system which has over 30 different procedural noises and the best gradient designer on the market to let you create surface treatments so luscious they’ll make your mouth water.

Of course if you don’t want or need all this power you can leave it hidden and never get your fingers dirty. The power is always a click away but Zaxwerks doesn’t force you to deal with it if you don’t want to. Remember, good workflow reduces the complexity.

Text Substitution

So you have 100 graphics to do and you’re on a budget? Time to let ProAnimator help you out. Version 5 adds Text Substitution an amazing new feature where you can set up an animation once, then by linking the animation to a spreadsheet of data, get it to render all the variations automatically. No more hand-editing every graphic. An easy way to become extraordinarily productive overnight.

Batch Rendering

Speaking of being productive overnight, ProAnimator 5 now features batch rendering. This lets you create many projects and render them all while you’re away from your desk, one after the other. You no longer have to wait until one rendering is done before you can start the next one. Just queue them up and when you leave for lunch hit the Render Projects button and they’ll all be waiting for you when you come back.

Designed For You

ProAnimator 5 has so many new features we don’t have space to talk about them all. Lathe modeling; 16/32 bit rendering; Animatable Parenting; Animatable Grouping; User-Drawn Bevels and support for Open Type fonts are just a few of the huge set of new features. But at the heart of it all is a workflow design that is like no other. 

This program was designed by designers. Folks who want to get the job done as quickly and professionally as possible, and want tools that can help them advance to the next levels of their craft. This program is a masterpiece of workflow. It works quickly, efficiently, with a low learning curve and an amazing ability to let you re-use previous work and to respond to client changes without losing precious time.

Take a look. Download the demo. Start getting ahead today.

ProAnimator is compatible with After Effects:
Windows CS3 – CS5.5
Macintosh CS3 – CS5.5

To upgrade to ProAnimator version 5, please visit our Price List page below:
http://zaxwerks.com/price_list.shtml

Here’s an image from the new 3D Invigorator PRO/ProAnimator 5 interface showing some of the new material controls. If you’re not a 3D person this image can look overwhelming but usually everything isn’t open all at the same time. Once you get used to it you can open up the panels like you see in this image which lets you see lots of information very quickly. The panel configuration is saveable as workspaces so you can size them to your own monitor and recall them from the buttons across the bottom of the window.

Here are a few highlights:

- Unlimited stackable shaders for each texture channel.
- Blend modes for shader compositing.
- Alpha channels for each shader.
- A bin for storing material swatches.
- Live interactive mapping controls.
- Interactive splitting of objects into mapping regions.
- A very advanced gradient creator.
- 30 procedural noises for adding streaks, bumps, dots, squiggles and many other effects.
- Tool tips explaining what each control does.

ZW – So Mike, one of the things that intrigued our readers was that you work right at the arena.

MG – The QTV Productions offices are located on the Event Level of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The event level is basically the bottom level of the building and is the same level upon which you will find the playing court, ice, field or concert stage depending on the event of the day.

The QTV crew.

ZW – Do you take part in the play back of your graphics?

MG – I do not have game-night responsibilities that would confine me to the control room so I often observe the games from the press seating or even better from the SkyBox at the top of the arena. It is from there that our LED operator plays back my fascia board content, while the remainder of my full-screen content is played out from the control room on our video clip server.

ZW – What the heck is a fascia board?

MG – A Fascia Board is the ribbon-like LED video screen that goes around the interior of a sports arena. All sorts of graphics and animations are displayed on them from game stats to corporate signage to game prompts. 

Fascia Boards are 32 pixels tall and over 16,000 pixels wide.

ZW – What’s it like to design for a screen that is really really wide and not so tall?

MG – Designing for the format is certainly something special, most people have a square or rectangular working space to design for, but when I’m designing for the fascia boards I’m dealing with resolutions of 28 x 3552 pixels and 32 x 16,032 pixels! It took quite a bit of getting used to but I’m quite comfortable with it now.

ZW – Since your office is near the locker rooms do you get to rub elbows with the professional basketball and hockey players that play at your arena?

MG – We often bump into players but we’ve got to keep it cool. You know, we can’t really just freak out and jump them for autographs! But nonetheless it’s cool enough to just get to say ‘what’s up?’ to these players on a regular basis. 

ZW – Are the players available for new graphics whenever you want?

MG – We really only interact with players on media days, which is where we get each player for 15-20 minutes and we try to shoot everything we can think of that we might need for the upcoming season: voice-overs, shout-outs, promotional reads, psych-ups, etc. We also get a second media day when the Playoffs roll around.

ZW – Once the season starts are you pretty much done for the year?

MG – Oh no we’re handling changes and doing special event graphics all season long. The most work however, is done for the opening of the regular season and the playoffs. That is serious crunch time and an amazing amount of work from the whole team is produced in just over a week. We keep on tweaking the product as long as possible until it’s time to do the pregame run-through. 

ZW – Can you give us an idea what it’s like to work at your production facility?

MG – You bet! Here’s a video giving you a behind the scenes look at QTV.

Behind the scenes at Quicken Arena.

ZW – What’s the best part of your job?

MG – Without a doubt it has to be the beginning of the first game of the season when you finally get to see all the effort unfold out in the arena. Nothing will ever top the feeling of the first time when your Video Open plays out, along with the accompanying LED fascia board animations, in front of 20,000 people. It gives you chills and a rush of emotions because we put our hearts and souls into these projects and once it starts it’s just a very overwhelming emotional experience for us all. I absolutely love our work here.

The Quicken Arena, where Mike Gulley goes to work.

Having trouble turning your Illustrator logos into 3D models? Watch this comprehensive tutorial and learn how to turn your vector logos into professional, billable 3D works of art.

Topics discussed:

• Determining which Illustrator vector paths you need to keep in order to create a well made 3D object.

• Organizing paths into layers, and how to move vector paths between layers.

• Why you would leave some paths grouped and some paths ungrouped.

• Cleaning up Clipping Masks, and cropping the shapes correctly with the Pathfinder tools.

• Saving the Illustrator file and importing it into ProAnimator.

• Creating and assigning Materials, and applying multiple materials to a single object in ProAnimator.

Click on the image above, or the link below to watch the video tutorial.

Click to watch the Illustrator Tutorial

Mike Gulley is the Motion Graphics Coordinator for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. “This is my third season working with the Cavaliers and my role has expanded as time has gone on. I initially started here as the in-house LED Fascia Board designer. At that point most projects were out-sourced but over the years more and more projects became an in-house affair, and therefore became my responsibility. We produce content for the in-game Jumbotron, also for the in-arena video screens, outdoor video screens and broadcast promos. The workload has become such that more members of our production team began contributing to the motion graphics as well. Having other artists on-board also helps to mix up the content we create. Each individual brings their own style and ideas to the table.”

Mike works at the arena. His office is on the same level as the game floor, near the locker rooms so he often bumps into basketball or hockey players the halls. “Our QTV group is a full-fledged production department from pre-production to post. We do it all around here. We are dedicated, passionate, efficient and effective. The QTV team really knows how to engage the crowd.”

Mike first heard about Zaxwerks software in college. “What really brought me to Invigorator and then ProAnimator was the fact that I could branch out into 3D without leaving the familiar Adobe environment. Learning any new program is usually daunting and quite time consuming, so the ability to use a Zaxwerks plug-in to do 3D within the same pipeline I was used to, was reason ‘numero uno’ and still is. Plus, 3D just looks cooler!”

Now in his work with the Cavaliers, Zaxwerks products have become part of Mike’s everyday workflow especially ProAnimator. “I’ve read the manual at least 6 times, no Joke. I’ve got sticky notes everywhere with all the cool things in ProAnimator I have yet to try. ProAnimator is quite a robust piece of software in which I can pretty much make anything I desire. I learn something new in ProAnimator every day. I’m at the point where if I have an idea I can make it happen in almost any case, and now with the imminent release of ProAnimator 5 I’m absolutely psyched up beyond comprehension, and my team is ridiculously excited, especially after my colleagues saw it in action at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference.”

“We often combine ProAnimator and 3D Flag. 3D Flag is easy to learn and it yields some truly beautiful results. I wanted to make an animation for SHAQ with a SUPER-SHAQ cape blowing in the wind and voila! 3D Flag took care of that wonderfully!”

“ProAnimator’s interface is brilliant. It takes complex tasks and brings them down to earth in a way where a single artist can create a brilliant piece of content. Other 3D programs are so complex that you need a team of 4 or 5 individuals working on the project to get anything of substance done that and a huge render farm! ProAnimator inside After Effects equals one happy artist when it comes to speed of rendering and quality of the graphics.”

Not too long ago Mike’s team needed to create an animation for Zydrunas Ilgauskas a beloved player for the Cavaliers. “Everyone likes Z. I had to make something really cool, so I busted out ProAnimator and made a snazzy Z-Nation animation.”

“ProAnimator is really excellent at keeping our workflow fast. Whenever the season is about to get underway we have to redo all the NBA team logos. That’s a lot of 3D graphics, but it goes pretty quick thanks to ProAnimator. Zaxwerks products have seriously sped up the motion graphics pipeline as far as going from concept to content. And in the ridiculously fast-paced world of the NBA basketball we need a program that is speedy but yields high quality results.”

You have been CHALLENGED! AEtuts+ and Zaxwerks wanna give you the opportunity to both learn and create. For the whole month of May you will be able to use ProAnimator free of charge and teach yourself how to use it. Additionally, you can take what you learn and show off your skills by entering our animation contest. See the details below about specifications and prizes!

First Place will have proved they can use it so will be given the complete ProAnimator Bundle (OSX or Windows) retail value: $1,669.00

Second Place will be given a full license for ProAnimator (OSX or Windows) retail value: $695

Third Place will be given a full license for 3D Serpentine (OSX or Windows) retail value: $199

Here’s your chance to really show off your skills and really incorporate some cool 3D work into your After Effects projects!

Visit the AEtuts+ site link below to see all the contest rules:

AEtuts+ Challenge