What's the best tool to make a "Saturn Ring" of media (e.g. photos) around a globe? What do I mean by "best"? Proper 3D modelling and ideally some "atmosphere" effect. Got so far with Boris but not sure if it's the right tool for the job...
As part of an intro sequence, I want to make a circle of photographs rotate in 3D around a globe. Kind of like a classic "Saturn", tilted towards the viewer. I have made a version of this in Boris FX 9.2, based on the Boris tutorial at http://www.borisfx.com/tutorials/around.php. I assume that because the tutorial is at their own website, it represents the typical or best way to achieve that kind of thing in Boris.
Although the tutorial worked, the process was clunky as follows:
a) It's implemented as a 2D "illusion" of 3D, with the front (and lower) part of the ring in front of the globe in front of the back (and upper) part of the ring. The planet is tilted with its top towards the viewer, hence upper/lower parts of ring.
b) It appears not to be the case that you define a surface (e.g. sphere) of fixed size then a bitmap gets fitted to it. Instead, if you swap one bitmap for another of different size then it folds that the sphere ends up being a different size also. Also for large bitmaps the scale has to be ridiculously small to get a sphere that is within-frame. I just blindly followed the tutorial and that's what it gives.
Can anyone recommend a better way of doing it in Boris (as a proper ring of fixed size in 3D space virtually surrounding a 3D sphere of fixed size within that same space)?
Or indeed is there a better tool for the kind of thing I am trying to achieve?
Ideally I'd like to go further, to put some thickness on the ring (so the photos look like glass tiles) and some atmosphere (3D particles/mist or glow effect?) around the globe. Would that be appropriate for Boris or should I be using some other app? I have tinkered in the past with with Combustion, Blender, Maya, Sketchup and Daz for example, but only a little, and time is short, so any pointers in the most promising direction would be most helpful.
As part of an intro sequence, I want to make a circle of photographs rotate in 3D around a globe. Kind of like a classic "Saturn", tilted towards the viewer. I have made a version of this in Boris FX 9.2, based on the Boris tutorial at http://www.borisfx.com/tutorials/around.php. I assume that because the tutorial is at their own website, it represents the typical or best way to achieve that kind of thing in Boris.
Although the tutorial worked, the process was clunky as follows:
a) It's implemented as a 2D "illusion" of 3D, with the front (and lower) part of the ring in front of the globe in front of the back (and upper) part of the ring. The planet is tilted with its top towards the viewer, hence upper/lower parts of ring.
b) It appears not to be the case that you define a surface (e.g. sphere) of fixed size then a bitmap gets fitted to it. Instead, if you swap one bitmap for another of different size then it folds that the sphere ends up being a different size also. Also for large bitmaps the scale has to be ridiculously small to get a sphere that is within-frame. I just blindly followed the tutorial and that's what it gives.
Can anyone recommend a better way of doing it in Boris (as a proper ring of fixed size in 3D space virtually surrounding a 3D sphere of fixed size within that same space)?
Or indeed is there a better tool for the kind of thing I am trying to achieve?
Ideally I'd like to go further, to put some thickness on the ring (so the photos look like glass tiles) and some atmosphere (3D particles/mist or glow effect?) around the globe. Would that be appropriate for Boris or should I be using some other app? I have tinkered in the past with with Combustion, Blender, Maya, Sketchup and Daz for example, but only a little, and time is short, so any pointers in the most promising direction would be most helpful.
