Description

• Intuitive, tactile animation with no keyframes
• Real-time motion feedback
• Create an entire animation with one click!
• Integrated text engine
• Dozens of object and camera motion presets
• Render to QT with alpha, import into your NLE

Features

• Customizable Workspaces The ProAnimator interface has been completely revamped. This lets you customize the workspaces in whatever ways you want, and allows you to jump from one workspace to another easily with the use of workspace buttons.
  
  With the new workspace setup, you can open or close as many, or as few panels as you need. This enables you to create complex workspaces where you have access to all the controls at once, or set up simple workspaces where you only need a few controls at a time.
  
  Resizable/Repositional panels lets you position every panel so that it's the right size and position. You can also preserve workspace by placing panels into tabs. To maximize a panel, hit the the ~ tilde key. This lets you quickly fine tune all those little details.


• Realtime Drawing Tools Use familiar tools such as the Pen, Pencil, Shape, Text, Selection to build and edit professional logos. New vector drawing tools such as the Auto-curve, Corner Rounding, and Parametric Shapes lets you build objects faster than ever. The Auto-curve tool is a Pen-tool that automatically smoothes out the curves that you draw. The Cornering tools allow you to drag on any corner, and transforms it into a rounded corner or curve. Customizable Parametric shapes enables you to create simple shapes quickly, and edit them by changing the parameters.
  
  You can now edit imported Adobe Illustrator files directly within 3D Invigorator PRO. This means, if there's a little curve that needs tweaking, you can adjust the bezier curves right inside the drawing window. There's no need to switch between programs.
  
  Many keyboard shortcut commands have been implemented so you can switch effortlessly between the most commonly used tools such as the pen tool, convert anchor point tools, or the point selection tools. Creating cutout is also an easy process. Put shapes into the same layer, and by overlapping one shape with another, the program is smart enough to know which shape to cut out.


• Object List The Object List allows you to quickly move objects from one Object Track to another by dragging. This lets you organize your objects quickly, and also set up parenting and grouping easily. The Object List Preview window also lets you preview your objects so you know exactly what you are editing.
  
  The Editor View Sets enable you to save up to eight separate View Sets. Each View Set lets you customize layer settings such as the Layer Visibility, Lock, Editor Visibility, and Object Solo. Switch between different view sets to avoid having to toggle all the settings on and off over and over.
  
  New Object Creation buttons allows you to create objects with just a single click. This also enables you to convert vector shapes to Lathe Objects, and vice versa, group and ungroup objects, and delete layers with ease.


• 3D Text Handling The 3D text engine can use Post Script Type 1, True Type, and Open Type fonts that reside on your computer system to directly create 3D models using any of the 100 edge bevels included with the program.
  
  The Font Preview list shows you what a font looks like, without having to first select the font. Using the up/down arrows, you can quickly preview your text with the selected font. To jump quickly to a font, type letters in the font list. Typing "t" will jump you to "Tahoma,"and adding an "r" will bring you to "Trebuchet".
  
  Each letter can have its own font, size, kerning, tracking, baseline shift, horizontal and vertical scale, color, bevel, position and depth. But the most astounding hallmark to this feature is the ability to change the text at any phase of the production process and retain the color, modeling and animation. Also, with the new feature to save a Font Favorite, you can save all the font information such as the Font Size, Kerning, and Spacing.
  
  This means that after the first version of a promo is created, 50 other versions can be created by simply changing the text. The new 3D text will retain the same coloring, text attributes, 3D beveling, texture map placement and even the animation data. This makes for an unbelievably fast production process when many changes or extra versions are needed.


• 3D Text Substitution If you are interested in making money, this is the feature for you. Text substitution lets you set up an animation once then create variations by simply changing the words in a text file. This means you can create a template animation and render, literally, hundreds of variations without having to rebuild every animation.
  
  For instance if you have to build a title graphic for the head of every department, just set the animation up once, then create a text file including every department head's name, department name, office location or anything else you wanted to include. During rendering the data is substituted, automatically turned into 3D text objects and animated just like the original. This is truly a high-productivity workhorse feature.


• Lathe Objects Create lathe objects such as wine bottles, glasses, bowls and more by just drawing the profile of the object. The lathe object automatically updates with every edit of the bezier curve. In the Profile Editor, you can edit the shape of the lathe so you have oval containers, or any other shape that you draw.


• Import/Export Objects ProAnimator enables you to set up 3D logos, titles and 3D text, color them, apply the materials, maps and object settings, and then save them into files which you can reuse over and over in all your other ProAnimator projects, or even other 3D applications. This is a huge time saver for repetitive work. Not to mention, the import feature is a great resource for users who like to take advantage of all the free 3D models that are available for download.


• Motion Blur ProAnimator supports 3D Motion Blur. Anything that can be created or imported into the ProAnimator can be motion blurred. This includes models made in other programs such as Maya, 3D Studio and LightWave.


• Object Parenting Another great new feature is the ability to parent your ProAnimator objects to other objects. This feature opens the doors to incredible new abilities.
  
  By parenting one object to another, you can now create effects that were hard or impossible to set up before. For instance you could set up a sliding animation and parent it to a spinning animation to get a sliding-spinning mix of complex moving coolness. You can even switch parents in the middle of an animation. Incredible!


• Gradient & Noise Editor In ProAnimator version 5.0, resolution independent shaders can now be used for Color, Highlight, Bump, Transparency, and Reflectivity maps. Use blend modes such as Screen, Multiply and Overlay to overlapping shaders to create complex materials. Independent masking for every map or shader gives you custom, pixel-level control over how each map or shader is used. In addition, with our new Gradient and Noise Editor, you can create amazing gradients and noise shaders all without leaving the program.


• Object Deformation & Warping Bend, fold, twist your 3D objects with all the exciting features of 3D Warps. With over a dozen different deformations that are all fully customizable, you have endless possibilities.
  
  Animate the warps to create shape-changing effects. This means, you will be able to create smooth bends for page flip effects, or even a springing effect. You can stack multiple warps for customizable creativity.


• Mapping Techniques Use UV, Spherical, Planar, Cylindrical, Cubic, or Camera View mapping to create different looks for your 3D Objects. This enables you to create smooth gradients across your letters and logos, and still keep all the pieces separate.
  
  Change the Position, Rotation, or Scale of the material. Enable Tiling to repeat or mirror in both X and Y direction. Being able to edit the position, rotation, or tiling means no more going back and forth into Photoshop to adjust the texture maps.


• Highlight Mapping Highlight Mapping, or Specular Mapping as it is sometimes called, is a type of texture mapping that only affects the highlights on an object.
  
  Much of the textural feel of a surface is contained in the highlights. The base paint job on an object may be fine, but over the top of the paint job the surface may be worn or dirty, and this type of surface detail isn't seen until you line your eye up with the glare from a light.
  
  Creative uses of highlight mapping include hidden messages like writing on a mirror, streaks, hand prints, scratches, dents and smudges.


• Batch Project Rendering & Multiprocessing ProAnimator 5 now features batch rendering. This lets you create many projects and render them all while you're away from your desk, one after the other.
  
  You no longer have to wait until one rendering is done before you can start the next one. Just queue them up and when you leave for lunch hit the Render Projects button and they'll all be waiting for you when you come back.
  
  ProAnimator now features Multiprocessing. This means, the program will now use every core on your system to render much faster than before.


• Fresnel Rendering Fresnel Coloring use two sets of values to create a material which does not behave the same way in all directions.
  
  Fresnel materials are used to create watery textures and metallic materials, which look different depending on your viewing angle.
  
  One material is seen when looking straight at the surface and the second material is seen when looking at the surface at a glancing angle.


• Cartoon Coloring This one is really fun. It renders the 3D objects as though they were drawn by a poster artist or an animator painting animation cells. Standard 3D rendering paints the objects in continuous tones creating a photo-real look, but Cartoon Color rendering paints the objects in bands of color . The bands block in the color of the highlights, shadows and base, giving you a big bold look with lots of punch!
• Absolute Coloring This kind of rendering is useful when you want a color to be absolutely the same after rendering as it was before. For instance if you are doing a job for a corporate client who demands that their corporate colors be used and that the colors cannot be affected by the lighting or shadows in the 3D scene. This rendering option is also useful to put colored strokes around objects, for doing extremely graphic Pop Art looks, or to make 3D TV screens where the images in the TVs look as though they are lit from within.
  
  Best of all, these new material styles can be mixed and matched within the same 3D scene. For instance you can have a wireframe sphere, casting wireframe shadows, revolving around a cartoon logo with a shadow catcher floor making the 3D scene merge into your 2D background footage! Wow!
  
  There are also two other material styles which are useful when compositing the 3D imagery with other video or background footage.


• Matte Coloring This is a special material option that makes a 3D object act like a mask. When an object with this material is visible it creates a traveling matte. (Prints black in the alpha channel.) This is used to block out objects that you don't want to appear in the final rendering. For instance you can use a placeholder cylinder to create a "3D Mask" that to enable 3D stars to circle around an picture of a bottle.
  
  It is also useful for creating transition effects out of 3D objects. For instance, start with a 3D star. Color the star gold. Then apply the Matte Color material to the back face of the star. Now create an animation where the star flies to the center of the screen, flips over and then flies straight at the camera. When the star flips over it reveals the back side that has been given the Matte Color material. This will create a "hole" in the 3D image which will reveal a background layer behind the 3D layer. As the star flies toward the camera the hole gets bigger and bigger revealing more and more of the background image. Once the star has covered the camera the transition is complete.


• Shadow Catcher Rendering You are going to love this one! This enables the shadows from your 3D objects to fall onto the objects in a piece of background video. The way you do this is to build 3D objects that mimic the shape of the objects in the background footage then give those objects the Shadow Catcher material.
  
  For instance say you have a video of a package sitting on a table, and you want to animate a title that flies in and lands on the table next to the package. To make it look more realistic you want the shadow of the title to fall onto the package and the table top. Normally this is an impossible problem. The shadow will have to bend to take into account the height of the package and how it is positioned on the table, but the ProAnimator makes it possible.
  
  To create this effect, all you have to do is to use the new primitives modeler to create a box and a plane that will act as place holders. Adjust the box and plane to match the size of the package and the table top, and then position them in register with the background image of the real package and table. The last step is to give these placeholder objects the Shadow Catcher material. Now when you render the animation, the shadows from the title will fall onto the placeholder objects which will "catch" their shadows. The place holders themselves won't be seen. Only the shadows that fall onto them will be seen. When composited with the background video, the shadows of the 3D objects will look as though they are falling onto the package and table in the video, merging the two images into one very realistic image!

What's New in Version 5

• Enhanced 3D Text engine. This fixes any issues with incompatible fonts.
• Improved multi-threaded rendering engine.
• Compatibility opening up older projects.
• Fixes issues with importing 3D Models.
• Fixes an issue with typing values into fields (Windows Only)
• Fixed an issue with editing text from older projects.

System Requirements

• Host: Adobe After Effects CS3, CS4 & CS5
• Intel Mac Only
• Mac OS X 10.5.8, 10.6 or higher.
• Quicktime 7.4 or higher.
• 512 MB RAM

• Host: Adobe After Effects CS3, CS4 & CS5
• Pentium 4 or better
• Windows XP service pack 2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
• 512 MB RAM

Learn More About Zaxwerks Pro Animator

2010RPAAERegular price: $599.00Toolfarm price: $569.00
Platform: MacWindows
Delivery: BoxDownload