#Handwriting
31 messages in this thread
I've been having a problem trying to do handwriting and would
appreciate any help: Here's the lowdown: Created the handwriting in
the shaper – moved it to the lofter as a path. Did a get path from
lofter in the keyframer and linked it to a small sphere over 300
frames. Ok – I've got a small point that follows the handwriting
path. Easy enough to link a pencil point to the sphere. Next – I
rendered the animation of just the sphere tracing out the path. In
Animator Pro I get the 300 frame .FLC and trace the dot to get the
effect of laying down lead/ink. (There's got to be an easier way of
doing this with POCO or something) anyway – once I get the .FLC to
use as an animated map I go back to 3DS and make my handwriting
material with my .FLC. My problem is getting the map to then match
the original path. I figure it has to be possible as the map was
created from the path and has to be the same scale. I just am having
trouble getting it to align to the path. This is why i think being
able to see the bitmap in the mapping icon (and apply in keyframer so
I can see the path also) would be great. Any ideas on this. I am
getting it close but it's so tedious having to go to the Editor
adjust the mapping coordinates go back to keyframer and render to see
if pencil point is lined up with writing. Any suggestions would be
most appreciated…
Thanks Dave Mennenoh
David,
I wrote and exercise using almost the exact same steps for the book "Inside
3D Studio". The only thing that you seem to be missing is providing the
proper reference for mapping the FLC to an object. I assume that you are
applying the map to a block of paper, canvas, blackboard, or some other
writing surface.
You need to render the sphere moving against this surface with no
background behind the surface. After painting the writing in Ani Pro
you just clip a cel over time to the rectangular surface. This gives
you a rectangular map that exactly matches the size of the writing
surface and the paths should match up as well. Use Region Fit or
Alt+Scale to apply the planar map icon to the writing surface and
you're ready to go.
Of course if you're writing on a curved surface it is A LOT HARDER <G>. I
haven't given that one much thought.
Steven
Steve,
You've hit the nail on the head. What I did not do was render the dot
moving against my piece of paper. That would have made things much
easier. But I was able to align the .FLC map by just tweaking it. It
looks perfect. Pencil tip follows the writing exactly the whole way.
Now to just complete the "lead" animation in Apro – very time
consuming. I wish there was an easy way to have that little dot lay
down ink over time as it moved along the writing path. I think I am
going to play with a POCO program for this one. I don't think it
would be difficult and it would provide a very easy way to do
handwriting etc.
David,
Regarding laying down the ink in Ani Pro. Did you try using the Next Blue
command under the Trace menu? This command copies the changes on your current
frame to the next frame using the blueing color. The process becomes a kind
of connect the dots game…
. connect the dots/fill with ink/next blue/advance one frame.
. connect the dots/fill with ink/next blue/advance one frame.
. connect the dots/fill with ink/next blue/advance one frame.
It actually goes pretty fast.
The lofted ink object with an opacity map also works quite well with
objects that move at a constant velocity. Matching up a variable
speed opacity map with a variable speed path can be tricky. I like
the Ani Pro painting technique because of its flexibility and the
elegance of using the model of the writing tool to help you create
the animated ink.
Of course the proper technique is always, whatever works best for you.
Steven
Steve, I'll try the technique using the blueing color. Actually matching up
variable speed ink to a variable speed path is easy. If you have your path and
assign an object to it using Path/Get lofter in the Keyframer you can assign
the path without using the adjust for constant speed option and you will have
your variable speed path. Then just make an animation with your object (I used
a small sphere – ambient light only) tracing the path. You can then use APro to
trace the path of your object. You end up with a flic that matches exactly the
speed of the object traveling along the path. Don't know if you really wanted
to know all of that but just in case. <G>
Dave Mennenoh
David,
You are exactly right. What I was refering to was the animated opacity
technique that almost everyone describes as a simple horizontal wipe. That
technique works well only for constant speed. A variable speed map almost
requires the manual paint approach that we've been talking about.
Steven
Steven,
there is a way to vary the speed of the wipe. You could do it in 3d Studio with
a pure white object (simple rectangle, for example) keyframed to move
horizontally accross a black background. You could use ease-to's and
ease-from's with this method. Even animator pro has optics moves that can
employ ease-to's and from's.
David,
Here's a similar but slightly different approach that has worked for
me. Create a handwriting object by lofting a small triangle (or
appropriate shape) along the path with mapping co-ordinates on
(parameters: 1, 1 and Normalize length on). Give it the desired
colour and create an animated opacity map in animator pro. The
opacity flic needs to start as black and then fill with white left to
right (like a horizontal wipe transition) over 300 frames. You can
create this easily with the join features of ani pro. The opacity map
should follow the contours of your handwriting object, revealing it
over 300 frames – if it doesn't, go to the materials editor and in
the opacity map setup dialog ("S" button) change the rotate parameter
90 degrees or -90 degrees. You can lay your writing object on a piece
of paper and make it flat by scaling it's thickness. The same path
can be used for the pencil's motion, of course.
Let me know how it goes, please.
Martin,
Thanks much for the reply but I'm not sure I understand you fully. It seems to
me that this technique would only work (please correct me if I'm wrong here) if
your pencil was only moving left to right. My handwriting is fairly scripty
cursive and goes left-right-left etc. Maybe I didn't uderstand creating the
opactiy map part. Could you explain it further. I did get this to work
perfectly by the way but I would like to understand your method better. Thanks.
Dave Mennenoh
David,
it should still work for your application. I think you are missing the point
that the opacity map will follow the path wherever it goes, because you applied
mapping co-ordinates during the lofting process – the path could actually be
very convuluted and double back on itself etc.
I'm not sure if I can explain myself any better than that. I'll give it a try,
though. In my project I needed to have the handwritten word "cafe" written on a
block. I used the freehand tool in the 2d-shaper to simulate the handwritten
word "cafe". I then used this as a path in the 3d-lofter to loft a small,
simple shape along the path with mapping co-ordinates applied during the loft
process. This became my handwriting object. The opacity map, even though it is
left-to-right in animator pro, follows the convoluted direction of the path due
to the mapping done during the lofting – you don't do apply mapping again in
the 3d editor.
This is actually a tip passed onto me by the Yost Group, so it must be good 🙂
Martin – Sounds like a great way to reveal script. And EASY!
-JE
Martin, that technique is my _favorite_ way to reveal objects. You
can use the animated map as a shininess map as well, so the
highlights are revealed along with the color.
re: shininess mapping
Right on. I'm pretty sure it was you who put me on to that technique some time
ago. Now there's another refinement to the trick – thanks.
Hi Martin,
I came late to this thread and I missed your trick about handwriting. Can you
be so kind as to post it again?
I'd certainly appreciate it.
Thank you.
Alex K.
Alex,
I don't have the thread, but if you set your message date back a week you
should be able to get the original thread.
Ahhhh, yes, yes, yes. I get it now. Thanks much for elaborating. I was missing
the fact that the object had lofted mapping applied. Yeah, you know that is a
great tip. I think it may have made this much easier. I will give it a go. My
handwriting project is turning out perfect though. I'll upload a sample when
it's done rendering. Thanks again for the great tip. (and Yost Group)
Dave Mennenoh
David,
glad to hear that I made myself better understood. Upload the project when
you've finished – I'd like to see it.
David – I'd probably render a 1 frame flic of my final object, w/ anti-aliasing
off, take it into AAP and tweak it to be an animated opacity map and/or texture
map. Clip it (them) as an anim cel(s) and apply the results to the original
object in 3DS. Has worked for me.
David Taffet
<<Opacity-mapped handwriting>>
I too have found this very effective, but in an 'S', I've had the end
appear before the opacity map revealed that portion. I suspect R3
texture blur may have "smoothed" between the beginning and the end,
causing a few light pixels at the end of the map. Have you ever
encountered this? I was thinking that a higher-res map and/or the
hidden "texture-sharpen" parameter might clear up this glitch.
The resolution of the map and the texture blur setting will both affect how
soft the effect is.
– G
The problem I had run into wasn't so much the "softness" of the
opacity effect, but rather an apparent averaging/softening "wrapped
around" from the left edge to the right. (Say for example that this
represents frame 10 of an object with an animated opacity map that
moves from left to right, full black becoming full white. In this
case X= fully opaque and 0= fully transparent with 1-9 representing
10-90%. My object looks like this: XXXXXXXXX83000000000005X.) In the
case where I lofted a circle along an S or G with mapping coords, the
end of the S and G "appear" at the same time as the beginning.
I have already finished the animation, and disguised the problem thru careful
lighting and camera moves, but I did want to point it out to the originator of
this thread as a potential problem in his project.
In my case, I'd like the best solution for my own future reference. I love the
effect. I suspect that my anim opac map has too low a resolution. I think I
used 100 x 200 for a 100 frame effect. I have yet to send you my demo reel. It
shows the lettering that gave me the grief. I'll send you a copy as soon as I
append my latest work. Perhaps Bob Bennett still has the earlier copy I gave
him at Autodesk University.
Without seeing your file I can't tell you exactly what you did wrong. All I can
say is that I've used the effect here with no problems many times. Perhaps
Martin has some ideas for ya.
– G
Again, it's not urgent since I finished the project. I do plan to go back and
touch it up later (and the subject came up), which is why I asked. Thanks.
David,
why don't you e-mail me just the offending object and it's material bitmaps and
I'll have a quick look at it. It's hard to say what's wrong but I'd probably
try using the flic for opacity, shininess, and self-illumination mapping. Also,
once I'd figured out the correct direction of the opacity flic in animator pro
I'd make a higher resolution one. Let's assume it's a left to right wipe. To
save disk and ram space, I'd do a cel/get with Time active and just clip a 1
pixel high portion of it over the full screen width.
Thanks Martin. I will do that as soon as I finish my current project. I go to
post with it tomorrow, and should get a breather after that.
David,
>>animated opacity map with fuzzy end…
If I understand you correctly (and you were _very_ clear!), I've run into this
before and was confused for a while.
The solution is simple: use DECAL instead of TILE in the mapping parameters
dialog box. Either the lofted mapping coordinates are a tiny bit off at the
end of an object lofted with mapping coordinates, or perhaps there is some
texture blur "wrap-around." When the first white pixel of the animated opacity
map starts, there the wrap-around causes the far end of the object to become
slightly visible when the default TILE is used.
Another work-around is to delete some faces at the very end of your lofted
object.
One side effect of using DECAL instead of TILE: with TILE, a 30 frame animated
opacity map (black, increasing to white) will work as expected, increasing
opacity until the object is completely visible on frame 29. With DECAL,
however, on frame 28, the object is nearly fully opaque, then it suddenly
disappears on frame 29! I think this is just the way DECALs work, having their
upper-most left bit defining the transparent color. When the flic finally hits
the last frame and is totally white, the upper-left pixel is suddenly white and
the whole thing gets transparent! If this was important, it should be easy to
fix by editing the animated opacity flic in AniPro and coloring the guilty
pixel in the last frame. Otherwise, no big deal. <g>
BTW, I use a 640×480 opacity map increasing in whiteness from BOTTOM to TOP to
reveal an object along its length without having to rotate the map. A tall,
narrow map would work just as well (for objects with their length much greater
than their circumference) and take less memory.
JKJ (totally transparent)
Thanks John,
You understood me perfectly, and did in fact have the same problem. I'll try
your solution when the current project wraps up and I'll let you know the
results. Thanks again.
David,
I think GaryY has your answer. Experiments in those areas would possibly avoid
that problem.
>> I think GaryY has your answer. Experiments in those areas…
Thank you. Now if only I had another animator, 36 hour days, 9 day weeks, and
an unlimited budget… <g>. I don't ask for much.
David you're opening up an old thread issue that I asked over a year
ago and while I got many suggestions none worked very well. For a
good 2D look I use animator pro and generate the hand writting and
then erase more and more of the writing by hand with each frame. Then
I do the same with a white text on black background for an animated
opacity map. Now I have two flics. one with the color of the ink
for texture map and one black and white for opacity. Set both to 100
% in the medit. Map these to a simple rectangle box in the editor
and its the best looking handwriting I have yet.
I had an animation to do that involves a welder laying down a bead of metal to
form the company name. This requires morphing the writing as a 3d object. I
got limited results using bump mapping and the above technique but it still
didn't look real. We finally did the thing live with a skilled welder shooting
through a welding helmet. 3DS and my ability left me down on this one. <g>
Don, Thanks for the tips but I got exactly what I was looking for on my own.
Still don't really see the need for using an opacity map. An animated texture
map works just fine, (white on black as a decal map) then you can use the RGB
tint in the mapping dialog box and tint the ink any color you want. You can
even use a second texture map to get the lines in the paper and use an opacity
map for the holes in the side of the paper. Anyway, what I did was make a
handwriting shape in the shaper and then use that as the path for a small
sphere to travel along. Then I traced the spheres motion in APro to get the
"ink". It was fairly easy – just very time consuming. I am going to play with
Martin F.'s lofted handwriting object using opacity maps. It sounds like it
would be much easier to implement. Well, thanks again for the suggestions. I am
going to upload a .fli here for everyone to check out. It is coming out
perfect. I did decide to do this just an exercise to see if I could, but it has
turned out as more of an exercise in patience. <g>
Dave Mennenoh