Comments

kkolbo wrote on 4/2/2002, 9:26 AM
I can do amazing things with the text capabilities within VV3. It takes practice but it can do some nice stuff using the key frames and all of the other settings. The only thing I can't do with it is extrude a 2D title into a 3D one. For that I use Cool 3D from Ulead. It is basically a 3D titler software.

I would make sure that you have explotied all of the possibilities with VV3 before buying another package. An outside package just complicates things. Maybe some day I should post some tutorials. I think most people don't see what all they can do with VV3. They forget to use their imagination and move to software that they think will create for them.

DR wrote on 4/2/2002, 9:51 AM
Thank you for your ideas.
I would be interested in tutorials as well.
I think my main prob is fonts.
Also being able to have say a 2d or 3d shiny look like chrome or other coloring techniques.
This is what I am really interested in.
I don't believe I have ever seen this in Vegas. A choice of colors other than the standard.
kkolbo wrote on 4/2/2002, 10:28 AM
Here are a couple of samples of simple stuff in VV3
http://personal.mco.bellsouth.net/~kkolbo/titlesample.wmv
http://personal.mco.bellsouth.net/~kkolbo/HLEpromoWeb.wmv

VV will use any fonts that you have installed on you computer. In my case, over 100.
You are right, it does not do shiny metalic titles or 3D. These require something like Uleads Cool 3D program. VV will do any color but it will not texture. These are graphics issues as opposed to titling issues.

You can also do your titles in any graphics program to get the textures and metalic look. Then simply composite them into VV and animate them there. I have done this many times too. It is simpler than using Cool 3D. Create the look you want on a transparent background. Save it as a .png file. Slap it on the time line and use, track motion, and deform VFX on it to make it do what you want. In the HLEpromoWeb.wmv sample, the titles are done with VV, but the logo near the end that flips up was done as a .png file in Paintshop Pro and then I used deform in VV to make it flip up.

Keith

jpresley wrote on 4/2/2002, 11:04 AM
Great videos Keith. Are these for web or television production?

You both may be interested in a neat little program that does
what you are asking as a graphic app:

http://xara.com/products/xara3d/

I haven't used it with Vegas but it should transfer with ease.
There is a trail download. I have no connection to this company.

jpresley
DR wrote on 4/2/2002, 11:16 AM
I love this forum!!
Summersond wrote on 4/2/2002, 12:35 PM
JPresley, I just went to the site and checked it out. Totally blown away with what it can do! I ordered it already by just playing with it for 15 minutes. Only $39 US with no shipping. I think I found the steal of the day. Thanks!

Dave
kkolbo wrote on 4/2/2002, 1:08 PM
The HLE one was for web and for use on the ITEC Network which is an onboard Bus and transportation information system. The other is the just the title slide for a CD-ROM that we keep updated of various rides and stuff for use in theme parks.

Thanks for the kudos.

BobMoyer wrote on 4/2/2002, 1:20 PM
Keith,

Always curious and eager to learn, I tried the above files and after the Windows Media player opened, I got an error msg. "Please verify that the pathe and filename are correct..." On the advanced tab I got "The specified stream type is not recognized..." Is that playable on 6.4 Windows Media Player?

Thanks,
Bob
kkolbo wrote on 4/2/2002, 1:26 PM
Jpresley,

I would take a quick look at the demo of Ulead Cool 3D. www.Ulead.com
It's text is not as quick and simple as Xara, which is amazingly easy, but it offers a couple of tools for animations that are nice to have at the same price. If I needed just text and logos, Xara looks GREAT.

Wish I could afford a REAL 3D package :(

Keith
kkolbo wrote on 4/2/2002, 1:36 PM
The titlesample file is windows media V8 which you may not have. The other is V7 which you should have. You may want to check MS for current codecs. Also try going to http://personal.mco.bellsouth.net/~kkolbo and then right click the file and select Save Target As.... That way it will run from your hard drive. Don't know what else to tell you on that. 6.4 works here but I have all the current Codecs etc.

Keith
jpresley wrote on 4/2/2002, 1:58 PM
Sure glad I could help out.
Another good thing about the XARA products
are the user forums like Vegas. The XARA 3D
forum is at:
http://talkgraphics.infopop.net/1/OpenTopic?a=frm&s=98519178&f=40819488
You can ask a question and get several quality answers.

Xara's main program is XARA X which is a vector graphic
package with the attending forum.

I will look at the ulead products. I haven't had much success with
their programs being stable.

jpresley
Chienworks wrote on 4/2/2002, 2:40 PM
I've been using Simply3D from Micrografx. It's simple, cheap, powerful enough for most titling purposes, and much fun. It's terribly unstable though. Save often!!!!!

www.chienworks.com/media/askocorp-title.wmv (627KB) is a quick flashy 3D title i did for a company video. It took about 15 minutes to set up and about 40 minutes to render to an AVI file. The lighting is a bit touchy until you get used to it, but you can even have the lights move around during the animation.

ps. No, we're not ASKO from Finland. We're askocorp.com and we don't make or service washers and dryers. ;)
tserface wrote on 4/2/2002, 3:55 PM
Very cool Kelley. BTW, I have a problem with my dryer. Can you get me a good deal on repair?

Tom
kkolbo wrote on 4/2/2002, 5:52 PM
Very nice title for Asko. Isn't that a bit fancy for selling dryers?
bjornkn wrote on 4/3/2002, 12:33 AM
>www.chienworks.com/media/askocorp-title.wmv (627KB) is a quick flashy 3D title i >did for a company video. It took about 15 minutes to set up and about 40 minutes to >render to an AVI file. The lighting is a bit touchy until you get used to it, but >you can even have the lights move around during the animation.

I tried to look at that wmv file twice, but both times it just froze my Media Player and everything else (on Win98SE). The only way out was a hard reset.
I have seen such behaviour before with wmv on my PC, but most of the time it works just fine.
What is it with wmv (and/or other soft/hard-ware) that causes it to crash my PC sometimes?
Chienworks wrote on 4/3/2002, 6:01 AM
bjornkn, i'm sorry about that! It certainly wasn't my intention to crash your computer :(

But, honestly, all i did was import the rendered .avi file (uncompressed, full frame) into Vegas and render it to the default WMV 3Mbps template. Maybe it's just too high a bitrate (3,164Kbps or something like that) for your computer? I'll do other versions at 1Mbps and 256Kbps and upload them later today.
Chienworks wrote on 4/3/2002, 8:23 AM
http://www.chienworks.com/media/
I've added askocorp-title-1000.wmv and askocorp-title-256.wmv at 1Mbps and 256Kbps respectively. Hopefully these will load a little better for you.
Summersond wrote on 4/3/2002, 10:30 AM
I downloaded the trial version of Ulead Cool 3D 3.5, and I was much more impressed with the ease of use on the Xara 3D4 software. No learning curve on Xara, but there was some on Ulead. For my purposes of Titling on videos, I think that Xara is the way to go for me. My 2 cents worth.
dave
david-ruby wrote on 4/3/2002, 2:00 PM
Xara had odd behavior at times such as picking a green color for logo and sending out to vegas as either a gif or png and getting a very roughed edge logo with the wrong color!!!???They suggest for transparent background to use a white background when rendering out.No good. Tried black and it was better.Hmmm....
Weird eh??
Ulead seems ok but still got nothing usable for video.Very rough edges to the logos.
Any clues on this or am I just out there from the sixties man." Dude, the colors did change man, I tell ya!!"
Weird.
Clues???
kkolbo wrote on 4/3/2002, 2:57 PM
With Ulead, check to see what output quality you are using and check the Object quality setting. The preview will be ragged but with the quality turned up on the other two it looks OK. Not MAYA though obviously.

The nice thing about Ulead is that you can render to 32 bit uncompressed AVI's with an ALPHA channel so that you do not have keying or background problems. I have taken to doing the 3d in Ulead then putting it in VV to do highlights and flares and such and then rendering in VV to Uncompressed with Alpha so that I can use it over and over again over any background.

K


barleycorn wrote on 4/3/2002, 4:05 PM
> VV will use any fonts that you have installed on you computer

That's not actually correct. Vegas can't use PostScript or OpenType fonts (a serious and even embarrassing failing to my perception).
Chienworks wrote on 4/3/2002, 4:21 PM
I've got 909 TrueType fonts installed on my computer. I have a darned near impossible time even dreaming up a font that is noticeably different from anything i've got now. If i need something really ultra fancy, i'll just draw it myself.
bjornkn wrote on 4/4/2002, 12:00 AM
>http://www.chienworks.com/media/
>I've added askocorp-title-1000.wmv and askocorp-title-256.wmv at 1Mbps and 256Kbps >respectively. Hopefully these will load a little better for you.

I'm afraid not. I don't think it is your fault BTW. That 256K version crashed wmp with a message saying there was a page fault with Kernel32. The 1M version crashed wmp with no messages at all, it just disappeared. While your original version froze the entire system.
Thus they do behave differently.
Very strange...
I have no problems viewing my own wmv files on my own HDDs.
Neither did I have any problems viewing your wmv's if I downloaded them first and then viewed them from my HDD. (Nice logos BTW :)
This seems to be something net related - and as I can view wmv files from some servers, but not from others, there has to be something external, possibly in combination with something on my side, that causes the problems.
I was hoping that someone on this highly knowledgeable forum could give me a clue :)
I have had the problem "forever", even after changing PC, video card, net connection (ISDN to ADSL) and OS (Win98 to Win98SE).
bjornkn wrote on 4/4/2002, 12:15 AM
>Wish I could afford a REAL 3D package :(

I don't know how much you could afford, but it doesn't have to be that expensive, unless you want some of the bigger names like Maya, Max or Lightwave.
I have been using trueSpace from http://www.caligari.com professionally ever since version 1 (it's now at 5.2) and I think it is a great program with very few limitations. It's not expensive, and I believe they are selling older version at very reasonable prices.