These tips are from the Specular area of America Online. Some of the most dedicated and talented Infini-D users share their secrets on AOL, making Infini-D one of the most widely talked-about Macintosh 3D packages!
I’d like to thank in particular Trevor Powell, David Reim, Michael Colanero, Val Cohen and Steve Mockensturm, all who have generously shared their knowledge and abilities. And I would like to give a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to Chris Bernardi, who has poured his considerable energy and talent into the Absynthe Power Tool series. These concise, clever and well-written shareware Power Tips have been extremely valuable to Infini-D users around the world. Thank you, Chris.
I hope you enjoy this tips as much as I did!
Adam Lavine
President & CEO
Specular International
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Subj: Helpful software
From: Absynthe
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Here's a few ideas to get the ball rolling:
1. One of my favorite bump maps is a result of a Gallery Effects filter for Photoshop. The Craquelure Filter is designed to simulate a cracked texture in you image files. By applying this to a white file, (with the crack brightness and the crack depth down) you create a black and white file of where the depressions are, the perfect bump map! If you want softer cracks, just apply a little Gaussian Blur. These files can be made to tile easily with just a little touching up around the edges.
2. If you haven't tried Premiere, try it. The alpha channel compositing feature alone makes it worth the cost. You can save days of rendering by compositing elements that were rendered with different shaders, as well as placing animations over still images. If you want a moving background, use the push transition on a tileable background to have the same PICT file push itself over. Lots of great techniques with no rendering. The most useful to me is the ability to render my particle fire (see surface uploads) as ray traces and the rest of the scene in best. This lets the fire-object be transparent, without taking up the time to ray-trace the whole scene. It's also great if you have an object that is transparent but has an index of refraction of 1.00. You can render it in Phong with an alpha channel and add the transparency in Premiere.
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Subj: Chrome Stuff
From: Absynthe
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For those of you doing flying chrome logos (alas, still the majority of the work out there) here are some tips.
1. If you've got several colored chrome logos in a scene, use greyscale environmental maps. When you get on the side of a logo, however, the logo looks grey (instead of the color you gave it in the surface dialog). This is a big problem in shadows. You can up the ambient light but then the scene loses a lot of contrast. The best way I've found is to up the glow on the surface until you get enough of your original color back (spot check the object from the opposite side from the light source). There is balance somewhere where the colored chrome looks great.
2. After Dark's Satori makes great environmental maps for chrome. Just use the command-shift-3 combination when you get to one you like. System 7 will save a PICT file on the highest folder on the Startup Disk
3. Link all of your objects (including camera and lights) to one main dummy object (I use cubes) when all your other animation is done, add in some rotation (say 120 deg along z) and you get a nice moving environmental map without affecting your scene.
Absynthe
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Subj: Ripples
From: Absynthe
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All of the procedural surfaces in Infini-D are morphable. You can make the center of the ripples move across a plane with only 2 key events. If you want to make ripples run out from a starting point you need three surfaces. 1. a blank surface (actually just with no ripples) 2. Same surface with the wave function on but set the outer limit to zero (no waves). 3. Same surface with the outer limit set to a larger number (where you want the ripples to stop)
When you run these three in series, ID morphs the outer limit of the waves from 2 to three giving you spreading ripples.
Note that all of the procedural surfaces morph like this. This is how you get the swirling Julia sets and the Mandelbrot zooms.
Also note that once you move these into the compose surface section, you lose this morphing(e.g.: morphing 2 composed surfaces yields one surface cross-fading into the other, not a real morph).
Hope this helps
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: Smooth Camera Motion
From: Absynthe
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OK , so you have your nice chrome (soon to be beveled) type. But now every time you try to move the camera, you get some funky results. Here's some tips for smoother camera motion.
1) Try to constrain your camera motion to 2 key events. When you start adding more, you can run into some problems with jerky changes in angles. Much of this is because the splines used in the animation section only work on position, not rotation. This will all change in 2.5 but for now try to keep your key events to a minimum.
2) If you have to use more key events, make your start and end points for the camera first. Then try not to change the rotation values for any points in between. If you only change the position values, you can take advantage of the splines to smooth out your motion.
3) If you have to make changes in the angle values in the middle of a sequence, try to ease in and ease out around that point. This will prevent that sudden change in camera angles that can make animations look mechanical.
4) Many people are having trouble keeping the camera on their object of interest when they move the camera around (e.g. a logo flies by the camera and you want the camera to stay on the object. There are two good techniques to avoid this without making your animations look jerky.
a. One obvious method is to link the camera to the object. A more flexible approach is to link the camera to a dummy object and reproduce the main object's animation with the dummy (don't worry about the rotation just the position). Now use the dummy object to rotate the camera and use the camera controls only to move in and out. With a little work this technique can produce some smooth animations. (note the same results can be achieved by altering the cameras origin but it's not as flexible to work with)
b. The other is to use the point at command to line your camera up at the start of your animation, use the point at to do the same at the end of your animation. Now pick a point in between where your object seems the farthest away from the center of your camera view and use the camera navigation control to center the object. Use ONLY the position controls. DO NOT USE THE ROTATIONAL CONTROLS. Go to the sequencer and select all of the camera's key events and make them splines.
5) Many times it is necessary to change several of the rotational or position elements independently. This often happens when ID choice of paths to take between two angles is not the one you want. When this happens you can easily create a hierarchy of dummy objects to control x, y, or z axis rotation or translation independent of each other. A real handy use for this is for doing any type of natural motion involving gravity. You can make an objects forward motion be constant while it's up and down motion is easing in and out. This should simulate natural ballistic motion (assuming that ID's ease in/out functions are based on squares).
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: Logos I
From: Absynthe
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More Logo Stuff:
OK let's face it. The majority of the 3D work out there is still in flying logos. Until the industry gets hip to the other possibilities of 3D designers, you better get your logo chops up to snuff. Here's a few pointers to get you started:
1) If you don't own a good illustration program such as Freehand or Illustrator (or Canvas though I haven't tried it) buy it now. It's an investment that pays for itself. I think it's great that ID 2.5 supports Type 1 fonts but there is no substitute for software that is built to handle type. The EPS subscription features of Infini-D provide a great interactive link between your 2D and 3D work. If you can make a strong design statement in 2 dimensions, it can be awesome in 4 (I count the normal three, plus time as the 4th).
2) Learn everything you can about type and design. Do whatever you can to get better. Buy books (check your local art supply store for the annuals), take classes, ask advice of other designers. If all of this fails, associate yourself with a freelance designer who does lots of logo work. It's better to have a great 2D design that cost a bit, than a free one that no one gets excited about. You can usually work out some sort of trade with them by offering to do some 3D work for them in exchange. I think a lot of 3D designers come to stress surfaces and motion, without giving the time to the strength and legibility of the type and design. Make sure you can offer your clients substance as well as flash.
3) Don't be afraid to ask your clients if their logo is available in line art format (preferably Macintosh EPS but the conversions can be made). Most of the larger have their logo work done on a Mac. At worst, you might have to scan their logo in and trace it in Freehand or use Adobe Streamline.
4) Just in case you skipped #1. GET YOUR HANDS ON A GOOD ILLUSTRATION PACKAGE. The quality of your entire projects goes way up. Plus you get to work with Bezier curves (I just could never get a good curve out of the WorkShop editors in ID) You'll gain control over the kerning of your type, as well as having a central location to visualize your entire logo without the need to render.
Next time I'll have some help on how to get your designs out of 2D and into Infini-D.
Keep that E-mail coming, I appreciate the feedback and comments.
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: Flying Logos II
From: Absynthe
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Here we go. Going from 2D to 3D
This One's pretty long so if you're not interested, hit Command-Period Now!
So you've got your ultimate logo in your 2D design package. Maybe you made it yourself, or maybe it was provided by another designer. How do you get it into Infini-D. I'm going to make a few references to Aldus Freehand here so Canvas and Illustrator users may want to help out here. I'm really comfortable in Freehand and don't work in the other two, so someone may want to post some modifications for users of those packages.
1) First, examine the logo. Most of the time, the designer was trying to imply a certain amount of dimension and depth. There may be elements stacked on top of each other the designer may have used drop shadows. Just get a feel for how the different elements layer on top of each other.
2) Determine which elements can be grouped together for export. Many time a logo can be exported as a single EPS file. More layered logos, however, have to be broken up into different layers to get them into ID properly. If you have a hunk of type on top of an irregular shaped element, you're probably going to want to split them into different layers. The cool thing in Freehand is that only the active layers will be exported. This way you can break a logo up into several layers and activate the layers one at a time for export.
A thing to consider is that when you import these different files into ID, they will no longer line up like they did in your illustration program, so you may need to do some position tweaking. Basically, each of the EPS files has it's origin at the center of a box bounded by the elements involved only in that file. This misalignment can be minimized by exporting as much of the logo as possible at one time. I'll explain later how to split the element up in ID. The biggest consideration here is to make sure none of your elements overlap each other. A notable exception to this is when using reverse type. If you draw a black rectangle and place white type inside, ID will interpret this as a rectangle with the type cut out of it so you can see through. (Please note that the colors have absolutely no bearing on the import, they just reflect how to bring a 2D design element into ID).
3) Final Prep. There are a few things you may need to adjust to make sure your logo comes into ID correctly.
First check your logo in a keyline view. Basically you're looking to make sure that the look of the logo didn't come from thick lines. You may have to modify your logo to fix this. In design packages it is often easier to draw a straight thick line, than it is to draw a rectangle. ID does not look for line width so you'll have to rework the logo if this is the case.
Second, convert your text to paths or lines. In Freehand use the convert to paths, then use the split elements command twice. Essentially you must reduce your type to lines with control points to be able to get it in right. Don't worry if the holes in your "o"s look like they're filled, if you view it in a keyline view, it should look right.
4)Importing. Here's where you need to make some choices. If your file is destined for hi-res output, or if you are flying close to any of the elements, you may need to take some additional steps importing your model. Basically Infini-D converts your EPS curves into a series of points. How many points it takes to make the curve will depend on the scale of your original EPS file. If you find you need to make your model "tighter" (more points), try scaling the original logo up in size. Unfortunately, Freehand has a limit on the size your document can be (I think it's 40" by 40"). Sometimes you may find this is not big enough. For those who need even more points, try bringing your EPS files into Font Monger (or similar programs) and converting them into characters in a TrueType font. While this process is rather roundabout, it can give you very tight models. Keep in mind, more points on a curve = more polygons = more rendering time = more desire for YARC.
5) Clean up. Once you have all your elements in Infini-D, it's time to make it all work. You need to know how the elements of your logo will move before you go any further. If your logo flies as a single piece, you're ready to animate. If, however, you've got the parts flying together (or apart) you need to break up some of the objects. It's really simple. Just make a copy of the object you want to split (using the duplicate command). Now edit the copy in the workshop, hilight the points you want to eliminate and delete them. Go back to the original object, duplicate it and eliminate the points you want there too. Do this until your master object is broken down into as many pieces as you need for your animation. You can then set the position for these new objects to the same place (I usually set my logos to end at 00,00,00) and voila! They all line up just like your original EPS file. Keep in mind that their origins are now all in the same spot. You may need to tweak them (or I would link them to dummy objects) to get them to rotate the way you want.
Wow! this one got pretty long. I felt I tied to squash too much into too little space. Hope it all came out clear. I'm gonna have to break these up some more. There's still a lot more to say on this but I'll have to save it for another post.
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: Easy Alignment
From: Mock
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Draw a bounding box around your logo and export it along with each element. This will ensure perfect registration of the parts. After they are in Infini-D, delete the bounding box in the workshop.
sm
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Subj: Final Flying Logos
From: Absynthe
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Had enough yet! Well here's one last grab-bag of Flying logo and import stuff.
PICT Files and illustration programs:
If your illustration program supports PICT file output your in luck. Using this feature, you can design your surface maps while you're designing your EPS files. There are lots of times you may want a part of a 2D design to be mapped as a PICT file instead of being used as 3D text. Just assign that text it's own layer and export it as a PICT file. Bring it into Infini-D and map away. This allows you to design your whole logo from one spot, making sure the text will fit on the object you're mapping it to. You may want to tweak the image in Photoshop but it's usually not necessary.
Don't forget that the techniques I spoke of for smooth camera motion also apply to smooth logo motion.
Keep your type legible. All the cool chrome surfaces and motion are useless if no one can read your clients logo. Good clean 2D design and intelligent use of type are a must for good flying logo work.
When your logo flies into it's final resting place, it's helps to have a cue to show off the clients name. A couple a frames of the logo glowing can be just the trick. Just option drag the final event mark forward a frame, move the time marker up 5 frames, construct copy the surface you're using for the logo and add some glow (your own judgment) go forward a few more frames, and switch it back to it's original surface. Keep it subtle and it can really add a sense of closure to your animation.
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: Meteor Impact
From: Absynthe
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I'm gonna try to keep my posts smaller anyway. I think that if I just jot down ideas as I think of them that I can post a bit more (what else can I do while I wait for ID to render)?
Here's a technique I developed for an animation I did some months ago. I needed a meteor to impact with the ground. I wanted to accent the impact as much as I could so I used a variety of techniques.
1) Animate a sphere with your favorite meteor texture (you gotta have some of these). Make it land halfway imbedded in an infinite plane.
2) Design the surface of the plane to animate a wave to form right when the meteor hits. Don't use the rippling animation ("in" or "out") but morph the outer limit function to move out. This gives the plane a deformed look where the meteor hits. Make sure the wave is centered where the meteor strikes the plane.
3) Place a Halogen spotlight right above the meteors resting place. Have it point straight down. Now morph it from black to full brightness (color of your choosing) and off again right when the meteor hits. This should only take a few frames. It looks best if the light turns on real fast (one frame) and turns off slower.
4) Now the hard part. Place an directly under the meteor. this will be the master object. Now take a very simple object (cone, cube whatever)and place it right where the meteor intersects the plane. Make it pretty small, say 1/10 the size of the meteor. Link it to the master cube. Now animate the simple object so it flies up and away from the meteor and land on the ground. Use all kinds of ease in and out, rotations etc. to make it look like the meteor forced this out of the ground.
5) Now select the master cube, duplicate it, re-center it with the original master cube and rotate it 45 degrees on the z axis. Link it to the original master. Now select the new master cube and "Duplicate as Child" (command-F) six times. This command will copy the child object and rotate it again for you. What you wind up with is the simple object flying away from the meteor in 8 directions. You can repeat steps 4 and 5 with another simple object to get very complex object. It helps if you make the simple object glow as it appears to get thrown out of the ground.
I realize steps 4 and 5 may seem a little confusing. I feel kind of limited with the space on these posts. The techniques involved in these steps, however, can be very useful for many projects beyond falling meteors. If I was unclear, or if you're having trouble, just post a message on this board and I'll upload the file (if I can find it) or the animation (if I can scale it down enough).
I guess writing a short post was just wishful thinking.
Thanx for all the mail and encouragement. It challenges me to push ID even more.
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: Fractals
From: Absynthe
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Fractals
Yes fractals. I don't see many animations that use them but there are some really cool applications for them.
If you intend to use morphing fractals (or morph any of the procedural surfaces) don't use the "Compose Surface" function. All you'll get is one surface fading into the other. Keep all your morphs in the procedural shaders.
Julia Swirls
This is a beautiful function. Create a Julia surface. Copy the surface at a later point on the sequencer and edit it. In the Julia Set Navigator, move the little circle in the left view (the one showing the full Mandelbrot set) to a new position. Now render. Pretty cool huh? You'll find the more interesting morphs come by moving the circle around the perimeter of the Mandelbrot set. It's one of those little fractal rules, "the most complex things happen at boundaries."
Mandelbrot Zooms
For the classic fractal zoom look. Start with the full set (zoomed out) and make your next surface zoomed in on some boundary area of the set. My favorite is the Kelp Sea, down in that little crevice between the "head" and the "body". If you zoom in the right spot, you'll see a miniature Mandelbrot set offset at an angle. This works on Julia Sets as well.
It helps to make a test file to check your morphs. I have a file I use for this. Make a square, make the top view a square window with no perspective and zoom in till the square just fills the camera. When testing your morphs, remove all diffuse shading and specular high-lights and give them 100% glow. Turn your light off. This seems to render rather fast (if you keep the window size down.
ID fractals are not totally resolution independent. I guess to save on calculation time, the fractal sets do not have increasing iterations as you zoom. What this means is that you can zoom to a point where you get pixelization. I doubt if Specular wants to change this. It's not exactly high on my list of changes but it would be cool to keep zooming forever.
Think about these morphs in terms of the terrains as well. I haven't tried them myself but I'm assuming you can morph fractal terrains. I really want to have a swirling Julia mountain range. Now if I can just get a client to pay for it.
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: General Work Ideas
From: Absynthe
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General Work Ideas
Here's some ideas to help you get the most done with your time in ID. I don't claim this to be the best way to work, but it helps me.
1) Try and get an idea of what your working on before you get too deep. While I often tend to sit down at ID and just create. For complex animations it helps to have a storyboard. Clients will usually present you with a storyboard of what they want, so you might as well get used to using one. Storyboards can help organize your project and give you something to refer back to if your confused.
2) Link your hierarchies early. This can save you lots of work down the road. If you just start animating, and then decide you need to do some linking, you're in for a jolt. When you link two objects with animation, the parent object maintains its animation but the child object loses its animation (even though it's EventMarks still show up in the sequencer. Don't be afraid to over-link. It doesn't hurt to have too many invisible dummy objects.
3) Check your motion as you work. Don't be afraid to stop for a few minutes and render out a wireframe QT movie. It's better to spot jerky motion early. I usually render off wireframes at 320 x 240 using Apple's Compact Video compressor (part of QuickTime 1.5).
4) I'm close I render out two tests before I commit to a final render. First I render the entire animation in Best mode at 160 x 120 and 15 fps using the Video Compressor on highest quality. This is to check for objects that pass through each other, any weird surface anomalies and generally just to make sure it looks right. If it passes this, I render the entire animation into PICT files at in Best mode at full screen size but at only 1 fps. This lets me check that the surfaces look right, and that the resolution on the models and the surfaces is high enough for final output.
I know this seems like a lot of rendering before you actually do the final render but it is well worth the time. There is nothing worse than waiting days for a render, only to find out that the camera passes through another object.
Chris Bernardi
Absynthe
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Subj: "Splash in the Pond" wave animation.
From: Dennis Chen
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There are two different effects that users often wish to create using the Wave effect in Infini-D. Often the two effects are combined into a single animation. Be forewarned: this effect is a bit complicated!
Effect A: The water starts being completely still, and then waves start to generate from the splashdown point. At the end, there are waves everywhere inside a certain radius from the splashdown point.
Effect B: The water starts with a specific number of waves starting from the splashdown point. These waves travel toward infinity, leaving still water in the middle.
The key to both effects is to animate between two different wave surfaces.
Effect A:
1. Create a wave surface with the following parameters:
Wave length -> some number, let's call it "length", e.g. 0.2.
Offset -> 0
Peak -> any number
Wave decay -> 0
Phase Shift -> 0, but you can try something else
Outer Limit -> 0, This number tells Infini-D that we want still water anywhere outside the circle with radius 0 (i.e. everywhere.)
Animation Rate -> some number, let's call it "rate", e.g. 1.
Animation Direction -> out
2. Decide when you want the animation to start and end. Take the difference in between these two times in seconds, and call it "diff_time", e.g. 2.
3. Now, copy the surface you made in step 1, and edit the copy. We want to change only one number:
What we are doing here is to expand the outer limit of the wave at the same rate as the speed of the wave.
4. Apply the first surface to your object at the first point in time, and apply the edited copy at the second point in time. Now let Infini-D crank out the frames!
Effect B:
(This is slightly more complicated).
1. First decide on the number of waves you want your ripple to begin with. Call it "number_of_waves", e.g. 2
2. Create a wave surface with the following parameters:
Wave length -> some number, let's call it "length", e.g. 0.2
3. Decide when you want the animation to start and end. Take the difference in between these two times in seconds, and call it "diff_time", e.g. 3.
4. Now, copy the surface you made in step 2, and edit the copy. Change the following parameters:
Offset -> diff_time * length, e.g. 3 * 0.2 = 0.6
Outer Limit -> new offset + old outer limit, e.g. 0.6 + 0.4 = 1.0
The offset pushes the waves outward, creating the wave effect.
5. Apply the first surface to your object at the first point in time, and apply the edited copy at the second point in time.
If you want the effect to be still water -> splash -> still water, you will need to combine the two effects.
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Subj: Pseudo Path Extrude
From: Mock
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Here's a groovy little technique that's fun and has some powerful potential.
1. Make a squiggly open path in Illustrator or Freehand. You can mess with scale later, but for know make it fit in about a 3" x 3" bounding box. Make efficient use of points and beziers
2. Clone it (copy and paste in front) and join the endpoints. Now you have a closed path that looks like an open one. Save as an EPS.
3. Import the EPS into Infini-D as an extrusion. Right here you can see the potential for paper-thin extrusions.
4. Make the Z dimension .075 and the overall scale about 10.000
5. Give it a bevel. For circular tubes make it "convex". Make the bevel size 0.750 and the bevel depth 1.000. Back bevels should be checked.
That's the basic technique, but variations of scale, depth and bevel can produce a wide range of shapes.
The ends will look funky, but with a little tweaking that can be overcome. I've had success by adding points in the workshop and flaring the ends a very little bit. Finding your path in the workshop may be a challenge, though, since it's really two identical paths one over the other.
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Subj: Spinning
From: Absynthe
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>> How do I keep an object spinning more than 360 degrees? <<
For rotating objects....spin it in 120 degree increments (e.g.: 0,120,-120,0) and option-drag the last 3 EventMarks to get them to repeat.
