Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/3/2003, 8:10 AM
If you are referring to the fact that the 3D controls for X, Y, & Z in Satish’s 3D PluginPac are from the media’s perspective and not the users (i.e,, camera’s) perspective, I agree 100%. I have corresponded with Satish on this and I have never seen any 3D graphics application that works the way PluginPac does. It makes it very difficult to use for me.

What you have to get use to is that when you turn a frame on the Y-axis and then the Z-axis, instead of Z moving it back in space, it moves it across the screen because the frame’s Z has rotated. What Satish suggested was that I add two 3D LE FX in a chain and only use the second one for Z motion since it will move forward and back in space at that point. This makes it really difficult to keyframe though as you have twice the work.

I don’t remember why Satish has it the way he does but he did not want to change it to match other 3D applications. I still use Hollywood FX Po for a lot of my 3D work because of this. Perhaps if more people request this feature he can make it an option to control 3D movement from the camera perspective or the media perspective.

~jr
satish wrote on 10/3/2003, 10:55 AM
The graphic swings only if the pivot is set to the left side of the center point. If the pivot is set at 0,0,0 which is the default, a 3d turn will not move the frame to the left.

jr, i'm sorry i could not find your mail. If you can please send me again with details regd what you think can be changed in the plugin, i can try to add it in the upcoming release. Thanks
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/3/2003, 6:35 PM
> jr, i'm sorry i could not find your mail

Satish, That’s because I said we corresponded but it actually took place on your forum in is post. (sorry) Let me expand on the problem.

If I want a frame to spin in the Y-axis and move in the Y-axis, or spin in the X-axis and move in the X-axis, there is no problem. It’s only when you want to rotate on one axis while moving in another. I was trying to make a frame tumble back in space and it was impossible. Try this:

Step 1: Add PluinPac 3D LE to an event.
Step 2: Open the FX dialog and set the X and Y scale to 0.5 to make the frame smaller
Step 3: Now create a second keyframe sometime after the beginning and set Rotate Y to –1 rotations
Step 4: Play from the beginning and observe that the frame makes one revolution as expected.
Step 5: Highlight your second keyframe and set Position Y to 0.7
Step 6: Play from the beginning and observe the frame makes one revolution as it ascends straight up to the top of the screen.

This all works as expected because you are Rotating and Positioning the same axis. Now go back to Step 5 and set the Position Y of the second keyframe back to 0.0 and set Position X to 0.7. Don’t play yet! One might expect the rotating frame to simply spin straight to the right of the screen. Now play it. Notice the frame makes a spiral spin from right to left to right about an imaginary axis in the center of the screen. Not at all what I would have expected. This makes a simple effect like spin right, or tumble back impossible to create without adding two plugins and only touching rotate on the first and only touching position on the second.

What is needed is for the three (3) Position settings (X, Y, Z) to position based on the cameras view (i.e., the user view). I would have expected the frame to spin on its own Y-axis as is moved to the right. Not spin wildly in a spiral about the center of the screen.

I don’t know how hard this is to do but Hollywood FX, Cool 3D, (and I think Boris FX) all work this way. It would be nice if PluginPac 3D LE did too.

~jr
satish wrote on 10/3/2003, 7:52 PM
The next release of the 3D plugin which will be released soon has the same interface as other FX programs.

The reason it was done like this for 3D LE was because the person who was beta testing for me (you know who) when i developed the plugin said this was easier for users. The motivation was that this way it is very easy to do star wars type credit rolls. The user can set the rotation pivot to the bottom edge, rotate the frame about X axis, and make it move along the Y axis so that it will move towards the upper edge of the screen and away from the user very easily (like the credit roll). At that time since i was not very familiar with vegas users i took the suggestion and designed it like this. Anyway, it is irrelavent now since the new version already has the standard style interface.

Thanks
Satish
FadeToBlack wrote on 10/3/2003, 8:16 PM
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/3/2003, 10:34 PM
> Anyway, it is irrelavent now since the new version already has the standard style interface.

Satish, That’s great news. I’ll be looking forward to it. I have to admit that it still did an awesome job with the 3D floating pages that I created. This will make it even better. Thanks for all your hard work.

> I am not a big fan of spinning the frame because Vegas can do that in Track Motion. So, we agreed to make it as you see it now.

Gary, I’m also a software developer so you don’t have to remind me about design trade-offs. I make ‘em all the time and some are good, and are not so good in hindsight, but all are made with the best intentions given what you know at the time. ;-)

~jr