Stan Arthur says “Yes I can!”

October 26th, 2010


Click on the image above to watch his title animation

Stan Arthur, is a full-time video producer for Stetson University College of Law. Initially Stan was hired as a Multimedia specialist. “It took me several years to convince the university I could produce their informational films in-house.” But once the opportunity was presented to him Stan took it and ran, and has since produced over 75 short films and two feature-length documentaries.

In his outside freelance life, he has also done music videos, commercials and was one of five finalists in a nationwide filmmaking contest in 2007. Stan tells us, “The contest was executive-produced by Spike Lee, and he even hosted the finals in New York City. I didn’t win, but man, what an experience that was.”

Stan began using Zaxwerks ProAnimator after having given up on another well-known 3D program. “After a few days I had had enough. I didn’t get the language and with my schedule I didn’t have the time to learn it.”

“Then I watched a promo video for ProAnimator and I was sold. I was pretty impressed that as soon as I typed out a text object it popped right into the 3D scene already with a bevel. I think it took me about 5 seconds to “TRY” camera moves, even before I applied styles or colors. It was too cool!”

ProAnimator gave a big boost to Stan’s production value and, after watching the tutorials on the Zaxwerks website, his work quality raised even further. “It’s easy to get started but anyone who’s interested in more than basic 3D title animations should watch the tutorials.”

Now Stan adds 3D effects no matter what the budget. “Its always fun when you get to do a 3D animation for a small company. There’s nothing like turning those jobs around in an hour with something that dazzles their socks off. ProAnimator makes that possible.”

“I recently did a job where I had to recreate a company logo from a business card. Their logo was a TV remote so it was unlike anything I’d ever done. I created a rectangle in Illustrator that had 12 holes in it, configured like the remote’s buttons. I opened it in ProAnimator and tweaked the bevel on the holes. Then I made a sphere, scaled it and positioned it under and poking up through the bottom left hole, to look like a remote button. Then I duplicated the button and filled up the holes. I really couldn’t believe how quickly it came together.”

“I also had to add the company name flying in. I decided to render the final movie in two passes, the remote and the company name, so I could adjust the timing in After Effects. The other pieces consisted of a starfield, a planet Earth and some radio waves. The final sequence made the remote look sort of like a spaceship flying slowly in from the bottom of the frame, heading for Earth. It looked amazing and the CEO flipped over it.


















“I think the really cool thing about it is that I was able to create it while sitting on my sofa, watching Sunday football, using a rather modest laptop. The combination of ProAnimator, After Effects and Illustrator has enabled me to say, ‘Yes, I can do that’ to any job request.”

“ProAnimator is unique because it bridges a gap between artists and techies. It makes it incredibly easy for a guy like me to get what’s in my head up on the screen. I don’t know any other application that can compare.”

“Currently I’m working on a 20 minute travelogue film that was shot in seven different cities. In the past I just did standard title slides. This year I took establishing shots of each city and inserted organic-looking 3D titles like you see on the show ‘Fringe’. It worked like a charm and took very little time to create.”

“I love doing the unexpected for clients. With ProAnimator it’s very easy to exceed expectations. (laughs) As you can tell I’ve become a Zaxwerks Evangelist.”

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Where’s The Danged CS5 Software?

September 21st, 2010

It’s no surprise that the question we get asked the most is “When are you going to release CS5-compatible versions of your software?” We’ve been working on it for a long time now and things are finally to the state that we can talk about them.

When I worked in production I used to talk to software companies and wonder how they could possibly work so slowly. As a production guy I could get a dozen projects done in the time it took them to come out with one measly bug fix. Now that I work in software I have a different perspective. If Zaxwerks plug-ins were simple it would be a different story. If only we’d stuck with filters and effects instead of workflow and interfaces we would have been done long ago. But as luck would have it we don’t write simple plug-ins and we feel that interface and workflow is King, so we ended up firmly laying in the bed of our own creation.

Recently some folks have remarked that there’s not much going on in the Zaxwerks camp. To the outside observer that’s probably true. But I wish you could see the amount of action that really has been going on at Zaxwerks over the past two years. Software development is horribly front-loaded. You can’t do a 2-week project and release it; or a 2-month project. Software projects are much bigger. In our case this version has been a 2-year project.

The biggest problem with our CS5 conversion has been that it caught us while we were already in the middle of adding features. In order to add the new features and take Invigorator/ProAnimator to the next level we also had to rewrite the entire user interface. 4-view windows, movable panels, built-in vector drawing, better text handling, how the whole program flows and works as a unit, none of these could have been done with the old way the program was written, so we had to rewrite.

We were well into the middle of this project when Adobe let us know there would be no support for 32 bit plug-ins in CS5. That was a bombshell. We had to convert to 64 bit, but you can’t rewrite your code, add new features and do a conversion all at the same time. There wasn’t anything we could do except to finish the new features before we could start the conversion. This means we’ve been sitting on new software with new features for months, but couldn’t release it because it’s not compatible with CS5. Talk about frustrating!

To fill the void caused by the conversion delay we started the newsletter. I figured that a new tutorial and user story every month would at least help you learn new things and perhaps inspire you with examples of work others have done. While writing the newsletter we have uncovered lots of interesting projects and have discovered some real treats in the production world. If you’ve missed any newsletter all the back issues are available on our website. Sorry, however, if that made it seem like we weren’t working on the software. If it makes any difference please know that the newsletter hasn’t detracted one bit from the forward progress of the programming.

Do I wish we had all the CS5 versions done right now? Hell yes. Is CS5 compatibility our top priority? We have been working on nothing else for months. Have we been making progress? Absolutely, and the end is in sight. I hesitate to share formal release dates because in software you can get blindsided pretty easily and we’ve been blindsided on this conversion several times now.

So is there any good news? Fortunately there is. The Windows conversion has gone very well. There are actually two parts to the conversion, one is converting to 64 bit and the other is converting old Carbon calls on the Mac to the new Cocoa calls. Windows doesn’t have the Carbon/Cocoa issue so its conversion is nearing completion. The Mac conversion however involves thousands of changes which will still take a few more months to finish. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start releasing CS5 compatible plug-ins as they are completed.

So here’s the projected release sequence. As usual I need to give you a disclaimer that plans can change and no matter how likely it seems that things are on track schedules can shift in dramatic ways, but with that in mind here’s what we project as our likely release schedule.

First to be released will be 3D Reflector for both Mac and Windows. This plug-in has no interface other than what you see in the After Effects, Effect Controls Window. So its conversion has gone the smoothest. 3D Serpentine will be next for similar reasons, followed by 3D Warps. We have to do a bit more work on Warps but it’s not too bad. The good news is that both the Mac and Windows versions can be released at the same time, so the CS5 version of 3D Reflector is expected to go public two weeks from today. The others will follow shortly.

After that we’ll release 3D Flag, Layer Tools and Werks1… but only for Windows. The Mac versions require the big switchover to Cocoa because of all the custom interfaces we built for those plug-ins. So the Mac versions will be delayed for a month or two but at least you Windows guys will be up and running. In my mind it’s not ideal to release for one platform before the other but if we can make half of you happy that’s better than none of you. Also, releasing the Windows versions first doesn’t slow down the Mac programming so you Mac users can rest assured that you’ll get your updates as soon as is humanly possible.

Next we’ll release the standalone versions of ProModeler and ProAnimator. Since the standalones are not restricted by the 64 bit or the Cocoa issues, these programs will stay 32 bit for the time being. The upside to this is that we’ll be able to release both the Mac and Windows versions at the same time. This will be the debut of all the new features we’ve been working on. It should be exciting.

Following this will be the Windows-only releases of 3D Invigorator Classic, Pro and Photoshop, and possibly the ProAnimator plug-in. More excitement, with champagne popping around the office.

At this point all of our Windows software will be released and compatible with CS5. Next it’ll seem like we’ve gone dark for a month or two as we feverishly work on the Cocoa updates for the Mac. If you are a Mac user you’re probably cursing under your breath right now, and I apologize for that, but these are the cards Apple and Adobe have dealt us. Once we’ve rewritten our windowing system we’ll knock out each plug-in in order of complexity. First 3D Flag, Werks and Layer Tools for Mac, followed by 3D Invigorator Classic/Pro/Photoshop, and finally ProAnimator. Then some serious champagne popping and maybe a day or two off. Whew.

So I hope this talk has helped you understand what’s going on inside Zaxwerks. I understand and share your frustration at not being able to use our software inside of CS5 yet, and even if you aren’t happy with us perhaps you can at least appreciate the road we’ve been on for the last two years and how it’ll finally see fruition in these next few months.

Stay tuned. There’s going to be a lot of software coming out of Zaxwerks in the near future. Those of you who have purchased recently will qualify for free upgrades to the new software. Drop us an email at zaxwerks@zaxwerks.com to see if you qualify.

Thanks for listening.

Zax Dow
President
Zaxwerks Inc.

Posted in General | 31 Comments »

Brian Maffitt Reflects on CS5

September 17th, 2010


Click on the image above to watch the animation

This month we get to talk with Brian Maffitt of Total Training. Brian created a fantastic animated opening for his Adobe CS5 training DVDs using the Zaxwerks 3D Reflector plug-in. In this interview he talks about the decisions he made when working out the design and why he did it all in After Effects and not a 3D program.

ZW – What was this animation done for?

BM – This is the opening animation for our Total Training for Photoshop CS5 Essentials series. It was designed as a template… so far we’ve made fifteen of these openings all with the same look and feel as this one, but each covers a different Adobe product like Flash, After Effects, Dreamweaver, etc. The color tone and text changes but the geometry and camera moves remain the same.

ZW – What gave you the idea to build your intros for CS5 training to look like a stack of blocks?

BM – The animation had to solve two basic conditions. First it had to have a visual connection which would be evocative of the Adobe package design without being a direct copy of it. If you look at the packages they are basically white with 3D planes, some blurring and reflections. I started with a couple of cubes, but then needed more surface area so I could get more words on the screen. As I added cubes it grew into its final form.

The second condition was that we weren’t doing just one graphic. We had to make an opening animation for each CS5 series that we release, plus a dozen or so animations for the chapter titles–again, for each series. That’s over 150 animations so far. So the design of the template had to be able to handle lots of different titles yet all keep the same look and feel.

ZW – So you decided to do this project in After Effects?

BM – Right, the entire thing was done in After Effects using 3D layers, a few blur filters and the Zaxwerks 3D Reflector plug-in.

ZW – Why not a regular 3D program?

BM – This project would have been a real challenge to set up in a 3D program. It may look simple at first, but notice how the titles slide over the surfaces and wrap around the corners. Sometimes a piece of text slides down a vertical column of blocks but ends up on the same surface as a piece of text that slides in from the side. If you looked at the project from overhead you would see that elements move at right angles to each other in ways that would be extremely difficult to map out using traditional 3D textures. Doing it just once would have required some serious planning and a deep knowledge of texture mapping… but more importantly, I don’t know of a 3D program out there that is capable of handling the changes needed to quickly implement 150 additional versions, at least not with any degree of efficiency and speed. Because my texture map is a live AE composition, changes are very quick to make and don’t require any pre-rendering. Basically I change the text on one layer, and everything else propagates throughout the nested comps that make up the project.

ZW – How fast can you make a new version?

BM – Honestly? It took a couple days to set up and tweak the first project, but now that I have it, it takes about half an hour to set up all the graphics for a new series. That’s an opening title animation and on average about twelve chapter title animations per series, each one with unique text. And really the only reason it takes that much time is because some of the titles have long words that don’t fit nicely on the side of a cube so I have to tweak it, change the size, squish the font, things like that to get it to fit and still look right.

Doing these small tweaks and changes in a 3D program would have been very painstaking… tweaking, remapping, rendering, remapping again, rerendering again, over and over, but having everything inside of After Effects makes it very simple and the feedback is immediate.

ZW – And the 3D Reflector helps with that?

BM – Oh definitely. Zaxwerks’ 3D Reflector plug-in makes the work look tremendous because the reflections reinforce the 3D effect. Actually, once I saw the Adobe packaging had reflections in it, the 3D Reflector plug-in is what made the project possible. There are other reflection plug-ins out there but I needed one that would handle 3D camera moves as well has handle real reflective surfaces. If you look at the movie again you’ll see that as the text wraps around the corners, intersects and overlaps, all of that motion is appearing in the reflections too. Only the Zaxwerks plug-in can do that.

3D Reflector makes it look great, and ongoing revisions are really easy. As you make changes to the comp you’ll see immediate changes in the reflective surfaces. If you need to make more changes you’re still in After Effects so you just work normally; nothing different. There’s no pre-rendering of maps or hoops to jump through, and when you’re done 3D Reflector makes it look like a high end 3D render. I’m very happy with it, and I think the results speak for themselves.

Posted in 3D Reflector, General | 10 Comments »

How To Build A Poor-Man’s Virtual Set by Joe Mason

September 17th, 2010

There are two kinds of virtual set work. One is where the set and camera are connected through motion control and requires all kinds of expensive equipment. The other is where you shoot the talent green screen with a locked down camera. Then you put the talent into a 3D set using compositing tricks. This second method can be done on a shoe string budget and looks every bit as good as the expensive method. Knowing this technique might be the key to your next job.

This is a three part tutorial lasting 50 minutes. Joe covers the steps to creating a beautiful virtual set, lighting it, inserting the green screen talent and doing the final camera moves. Consider this an Intermediate tutorial because Joe assumes you already know how to open the plug-in and make a Photoshop file.

Topics discussed:

• Creating, positioning and mapping the floor.

• Using 3D Primitives to create columns.

• Importing simple Illustrator files to make furniture.

• Duplicating and rearranging objects.

• Creatively using bevels to make set decorations.

• Setting up lights, light trusses and flares.

• Adding the talent and camera motion.


Download the Illustrator file for the Glass Block Wall: blocks4.ai

Click on the links below to watch all three parts of the video tutorial.

Creating a Virtual Set Part 1 (16 min)

Creating a Virtual Set Part 2 (21 min)

Creating a Virtual Set Part 3 (13 min)

Posted in 3D Invigorator Pro, Tutorials | 30 Comments »

Behind The Scenes With Mike Gulley and Friends

August 18th, 2010

We received so many comments about last month’s User Story we decided to bring Mike back again. This time he’s going to give us some insight into his working environment and where he fits into the production pipeline.

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.

Posted in General, ProAnimator | 2 Comments »

Video Tutorial: Prepping Illustrator Files for 3D

August 18th, 2010

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

Posted in 3D Invigorator Classic, 3D Invigorator for Photoshop, 3D Invigorator Pro, General, ProAnimator, ProAnimator FX, ProModeler, Tutorials | 7 Comments »

Mike Gulley Scores With The Cavaliers

July 15th, 2010

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.”

Posted in General, ProAnimator | 7 Comments »

Creating a fluttering 3D leaf with Zaxwerks 3D Warps Plug-In

July 15th, 2010

In this tutorial Jeff Carrion from Suite Take, shows you how to make a fluttering 3D leaf effect using the 3D Warps plug-in. He’ll show you several tips to speed up your workflow and quicken rendering and previews with the 3D Warps plug-in. Jeff uses particles and other built-in AE effects to create a realistic scene from a still image. Plus, he’ll also show how to look at refining motion paths with After Effects graph editor to create smooth organic motion. Watch this comprehensive tutorial to learn the entire 3D Warps workflow!

Topics discussed:

• Creating flies and nats with Particular

• Working with masks

• Drawing an organic and realistic 3D Path

• Using the After Effects graph editor

• Applying 3D Warps

• Setting up the shadows

• Optimizing the project for faster rendering


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

Click to watch Jeff Carrion’s tutorial!

Posted in 3D Warps, General | 6 Comments »

Cagan Yuksel Wins Four Telly Awards

July 14th, 2010

On June 2010, Cagan Yuksel was honored with two Silver and two Bronze Telly Awards. The Telly awards honor the very best in television, film and web creativity. There are more than 13,000 submissions each year with a Silver award being the highest honor. Cagan won Silver for Art Direction, in his work for comedian Russell Brand and for the New York Turkish Film Festival.

The Bronzes were for use of Graphics and Visual Effects. Cagan happily related to us that major elements in his work were the 3D graphics created with his Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro.

Click to watch Cagan Yuksel’s award winning animations.

Posted in 3D Invigorator Pro, General | No Comments »

Steve Holmes Helps USA Cycling on Tour De France

June 16th, 2010

Steve Holmes is the creative director of the award-winning Energi Design. Originally founded in London, the company now resides in San Francisco. Steve’s work is highly regarded in the design industry both in Europe and the US. Energi Design’s clients include Virgin Atlantic, Nike, Adobe, Apple, Cadbury’s, Artbeats and Sotheby’s Real Estate among others.

Back in 2000 Steve had the chance to meet Zax at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. “I had been using Zaxwerks for several years by then so it was fun to meet the man behind the software.”

“Zaxwerks products give us perfect results, while not having to leave AE or learn a serious 3D program. We own Modo and Cinema 4D but never use them for motion graphics. 3D Invigorator has helped us achieve visual effects and motion work in After Effects, which would have been impossible due to the limitations of After Effects itself. The 3D Invigorator being tied into the AE camera is one of the best things in the world!”

Just last year Steve took on a new challenge, an HD challenge. “We jumped at the chance to do an HD commercial,” says Homes. “The client, USA Cycling, was in need of 3D animation for their end title. Both speed and quality were of the utmost importance. The logo includes a flag which we needed to animate in a realistic fashion. There’s also a 3D build-on of their wheel logo.”

USA Cycling has a program which places elite cyclists in Europe to develop them for a career in professional cycling. The organization also funds amateur racing in the US. “The commercials were a call for donations and support to the organization,” said Holmes. “Cycling is not government-funded like it is in many European countries where it’s the national sport. I’m from Europe and can appreciate this wonderful thing!”

The commercials were aired daily on Versus HD during the live broadcast of the Tour de France.

Steve has become a huge fan of some of the features in Zaxwerks Products.

“The beveling on the 3D Invigorator, as well as the reflection mapping for the metallic effects, those features alone are worth every penny! In terms of speed the construction and animation of the 3D elements is straight forward, and the live previews of the flag animation within the software helped tremendously. 3D Flag was incredibly handy.”

Holmes sums up his experiences this way. “The products just work. They are fast, fluid, and easy to use and not cluttered or complicated like other programs. The fact they slot right into our After Effects workflow is a huge deciding factor. We get complicated projects completed on time, on budget, and to the highest HD quality. What more of an effect could we wish for? We rely on Zaxwerks!”

To see more of Steve’s work go to www.clickenergi.com

Posted in 3D Invigorator Pro, General | 4 Comments »

Creating Unique Structures with the 3D Invigorator

June 16th, 2010

In this tutorial, Joe Mason shows you how to create the unique structural look you often see in high impact broadcast graphics. Joe shows you from start to finish just how easy it is to make everything look great. He works in 3D Invigorator but the techniques apply to ProAnimator too. You won’t believe how simple it is to make high quality production graphics.

Topics discussed:

• Illustrator shape setup

• Customizing depth, bevel and edge offset settings in 3D Invigorator.

• Creating materials with different wireframe and reflectivity maps.

• Setting up splits in the Edge Profile editor.

• Alternating materials for each profile split.


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

Click to watch Joe Mason’s tutorial!

Posted in 3D Invigorator Pro, General, Tips, Training, Tutorials | 5 Comments »

Mayan Discovers ProModeler

May 14th, 2010

Matt Silverman, Creative Director at Bonfire Labs, has a secret weapon. “Nobody seems to know about ProModeler,” he says. “Every time we bring in a new hire they’ve never heard about it and they’re always amazed at what it does.”

Matt typically uses Maya for his 3D work but uses ProModeler to create the title and logo models that go into Maya. “Anything fancy in Maya that’s a cool bevel becomes a hard modeling job. Anytime we hire a Maya modeling pro to do something custom it just never works out and we always end up going back to ProModeler. Holes in the geometry, kinks in the polys, stuff like that is typical when Maya tries to bevel things.”

Matt discovered Zaxwerks’ first product, the EPS Invigorator, when he was working with a different 3D program. “We got our first copy in a hand-made gift box and quickly began to rely on it for most of our motion graphics projects. After moving to Maya I was happy to see Zax turn Invigorator into the standalone app, ProModeler, so we could continue using it with Maya.”

Matt has used ProModeler in thousands of projects since then. Adobe, Apple, Symantec, Electronic Arts, and HBO are all clients who have hired Matt for his creative wizardry.

“We’re not the sort of 3D guys who want to spend oodles of time grinding through a modeling problem. We want to figure out how to get stuff done as absolutely fast as possible. There are a hundred other things I can find to waste my time on besides 3D modeling,” he laughs.

“So Matt,” we asked, “what’s the one thing that really keeps you using ProModeler?”

“The control,” Matt replies. “Pro Modeler’s feature set is streamlined and powerful, allowing us to focus on the details of our models without having to think about the technicalities of how to build them. The ability to control where the bevel is occurring is crucial. Most 3D applications bevel outside the profile, which tends to tighten the letter spacing. Of course this is not a good thing when you have a client’s logo in your hands. ProModeler allows us to quickly control where the bevel is formed, giving us the ability to maintain accurate letter spacing in logos and typography. We also love the tons of preset bevels and the ability to quickly try them out in a procedural, non-destructive UI.”

“The quality of the geometry and the control we get over everything from bevels to pair-kerning are unprecedented in any other app. It’s so fast and the quality’s so good why would you do it any other way?”

Check out Matt’s reel that showcases models created from ProModeler!

Posted in General, ProModeler | 5 Comments »

Take The AEtuts+ Zaxwerks Challenge!

May 14th, 2010

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

Posted in General, ProAnimator | 1 Comment »

Workflow In Zaxwerks ProAnimator By Rob Birnholz

May 13th, 2010

In this tutorial, Rob Birnholz shows you the entire workflow for ProAnimator! He starts from the Illustrator File, all the way through to the animation process. This comprehensive two-part tutorial provides all the details so you can comfortably set up a logo, apply all the materials, and add all the final touches of a professional looking logo.

Topics discussed:

Part 1:

• Illustrator logo setup.

• Customizing depth, bevel and edge offset settings in ProAnimator.

• Adding a sense of depth to the look of the skyline.

• Creating Splits in the Profile Editor and assigning different materials.

• Setting up lights and shadows.

• Applying a camera animation.

Part 2:

• Integrating the ProAnimator project into After Effects.

• Adding a background in After Effects.

• Setting up Layer Maps for Reflections and Bump surfaces.

• Using the Composition Camera and Lights.

• Applying other filters and effects for the finishing touches.


Click on the links below to watch the video tutorials:

Click to watch Part 1 of Rob Birnholz’s tutorial

Click to watch Part 2 of Rob Birnholz’s tutorial


Posted in General, ProAnimator, Tips, Training, Tutorials | No Comments »

Working with Shadows Tutorial

April 9th, 2010

In this tutorial, we’re going to go over all the details of working with shadows. If you ever wondered about how to get shadows to work with your 3D objects, what settings to use, or how to speed up your projects, you’ll want to watch this video tutorial and find out!

Topics discussed:

• Creating a floor to set up the shadows in 3D Serpentine, 3D Warps, and 3D Invigorator.

• Creating a Light, and positioning it correctly.

• Working with Light Intensity, Shadow Darkness, and Shadow Diffusion.

• Setting up the Shadow Quality and Shadow Catcher.

• Optimizing the setup in After Effects for faster previews.

• Setting up lights in 3D Invigorator and working with Shadow Catcher materials.


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

Click to watch the Working with Shadows Tutorial

Posted in 3D Flag, 3D Invigorator Pro, 3D Serpentine, 3D Warps, General, ProAnimator, Tips, Tutorials | No Comments »

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