Need someone to make my intro

[poisondeathray]

PDR, what software did you use for the animation??

Cinema4D

[jagabo]

Doesn't it need a little more punch?

[poisondeathray]

Yes , it looks better with more contrast , and goes better with the cartoony look.

One of the things people typically do in CG is to render flat, and add beauty passes later (color, saturation, shadows, reflections, illumination, ambient occlusions). It's easier to render more neutral and make adjustments with multiple layers (more flexible in compositing software) than the other way around with a look "baked" in

I'll have a look at this tomorrow, but introducing more letters will need an alteration in the timing of the animation, probably need to curve it less as well, or you won't see the ends

Maybe someone can compose some audio for him too

[racer-x]

That is a very nice animation! But $3500 s/w for 3-D is waaaay too steep for me.....

Actually that looks similar to the boot-up animation on my Roku, I wonder if that's what they used also.

[Brainiac]

I am in the process of learning Cinema 4D now. Did you do this from scratch, if you don't mind me asking?

Brainiac

[poisondeathray]

Thanks guys

Yes I did it from "scratch." The actual animation part is actually quite easy to do in C4D, because of the "mograph" (motion graphics) module. It's a very user friendly, powerful way to animating elements. It's all done with "effectors", and just a few keyframes, basically for start and end. There is a signature "bouncy" look to it, that's all the "delay effector". You see this type of effect all over various motion graphics pieces in commercials, TV, internet ads etc...But in reality, it's not very original - it's way overused. IMO, the only thing that makes this semi-original is the "N" logo (but even that is way overused, at least superman thinks so)

@racer - C4D "Lite" comes with After Effects CC , when you pay the "Adobe Tax". For this type of simple animation, all you need is the Lite version

[Super_Nerd]

Hey poisondeathray have you made one with hq in it yet?


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[racer-x]

Well this one isn't as fancy as your C4D example, but it was done with 100% free tools.

I also improved my gear animation with a group rotation. I just need to figure out how to make a Ring Gear to make a full planetary rotation out of it.

[poisondeathray]

Here you go

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

Cheers

[poisondeathray]

Looks nice racer . Was that Aviutl ?

uhhhh what is a Ring Gear ? (I'm not mechanically inclined)

Is it the external ring , like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECljAo1q1RQ

[racer-x]

Looks nice racer . Was that Aviutl ?

uhhhh what is a Ring Gear ? (I'm not mechanically inclined)

Is it the external ring , like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECljAo1q1RQ

Yes I made the 3-D letters (hard part) in Paint.net using 3 separate effects plugins. if I new how to render a shinny surface, it would be better. I did all the animation (easy part) in Aviutl.

Yes that external ring is a Ring Gear. They are used in automatic transmissions.

[poisondeathray]

For free apps, nothing will probably top blender. You can do all the 3D text, animation, compositing, final tweaking all within blender. But the interface sucks , and it's tough to learn . Daz3D is another great free 3D program , but it's more geared for characters/models, and it's actually weak for 3D text, but you can import text meshes from other programs, free websites. An oldie is debugmode wax and it can do basic 3D text animations as well . I'm not too familiar with Google Sketchup, but 3D text should be possible to do there as well

[Brainiac]

PDR, did you recreate the logo and import it into C4D? I tried to recreate the logo in Illustrator CS6 but could not get it to look right. Not a lot of experience using Illustrator though.
I suspected that effectors were used. I've done an animation (a mosaic photo that I divided into segments and animated the segments to come together to form the final image) that used random and delay effectors.

Brainiac

[racer-x]

@ PDR, You did a great job on that animation, but i have a feeling the knuckle-head OP won't even thank you. Pity indeed....

Anyway if anyone is interested in how I animated the letters in Aviutl, here are the project files. It's pretty easy actually.

[poisondeathray]

PDR, did you recreate the logo and import it into C4D? I tried to recreate the logo in Illustrator CS6 but could not get it to look right. Not a lot of experience using Illustrator though.

If you're talking about the "N" logo crest, it was from scratch, from a vector. The lossy jpeg he provided probably isn't even good enough to autotrace in a vector program like illustrator (or Inkscape is a great free alternative), so you'd probably have to get the paths manually anyways

But I always look for "shortcuts", ways of making life easier, to do things faster, to reduce the workload. I downloaded freely a available logo vector from superman (search google , there are dozens) , and took the outlines from there. From there you extrude , and I'm assuming you know how to do those things

For the center "N" , I googled what free fonts or similar fonts were used for "superman" and it came up with "Baskervald ADF" . It was close enough. I literally shoved the N into the outlines and eyeballed it. There are better ways of modelling and it's probably not even or symmetrical , but I wanted to do it quickly

If you can't find the right vector, or font let me know and I'll upload it

Importing vectors into C4D can be tricky. The most compatible is .AI, saved under "Illustrator 8" parameters. From Illustrator , do not export with the current profile, make sure you check the extended options and save as the old illustrator format. If you have a C4D cineversity membership, there is a tool called "ArtSmart" which simplifies importing various types of vectors, and has other options to simplify workflow

[Brainiac]

Thanks PDR for the information. I was able to create a similar logo based on the info you kindly shared. It took a lot of trial and error, but I learned some things in the process.

Brainiac

[poisondeathray]

Thanks PDR for the information. I was able to create a similar logo based on the info you kindly shared. It took a lot of trial and error, but I learned some things in the process.

Brainiac

Cheers

I probably missed out some steps or assumed a few too many things. Maybe you even ended up doing it slightly differently to get the same result. There are tons of tutorials out there for making & animating text/ logos and similar topics - but I find it's one of those things that you actually have to go through to actually learn it. You can only abosorb a tiny fraction by watching a tutorial or reading a book

I'm guessing you'll rarely go back to "normal" keyframe animation in other programs, right ? I find the effectors and mograph make animation so much more powerful and easier to do. Even if you only need 2D animation, I find it's sometimes easier to use mograph than a normal 2D program

[Brainiac]

PDR, I am certain that we did some things differently. As much as I LOVE C4D, it is tough for me to remember some of the procedures. I find myself easily forgetting how to do some of the things I learned from tutorials. For that reason, I download the tutorials so that I can easily refer to them on an as needed basis.

I have a pretty good grasp on how to animate text/graphics and such. I agree that MoGraph is POWERFUL and indeed saves a ton of time. I don't touch keyframes nearly as much unless it's After Effects and I am using certain plugins like Element 3D. I also find myself becoming a fan of static images. If it's well done then it can get the point across.

Brainiac

[poisondeathray]

Did you mean for the logo generation ? How did you do it differently ?

As usual there are more than 1 way to do things...and I'm always keen on learning if there is a faster or better way

[Brainiac]

I downloaded a jpg Superman logo perimeter which consisted of just the diamond inside another diamond, loaded image into Illustrator and did an image trace and deleted paths I did not need. Then I added the letter N and converted it to outlines, did a PATHFINDER - UNITE. Merged into C4D, did necessary connect and delete, extruded and added ambient occlusion and global illumination.

Here is what I came up with. Not as precise at it could be, but a good start.

[poisondeathray]

Looks good Brainiac. Using Illustrator is the "proper" way to do it . You can get precise paths if you put the time into it.

I did it the "lazy" way. I didn't use illustrator or trace anything. I imported the 2 outer rings directly from the vector logo to extrude . I used motext for the letter "N" using the font mentioned earlier and just shoved it in , joining it as a mesh.

[racer-x]

I would think a $3500 3-D program would give you a nifty tool to convert any 2-D image into a 3-D model without the need for 3rd party s/w like illustrator, but what do I know....

I'm happy I finally figured out how to make shinny metallic objects in Paint.net. Here I made a shinny gold Video Help logo.

[Super_Nerd]

That's really cool racer x could you make a Super Nerd HQ version logo too?

[racer-x]

Make it yourself....
http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/20201-gold-metal/