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User Guide The Zaxwerks 3D Flag™

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1. folder When the project opens it should look like this image The red background is pretty boring Let s make it more dramatic by turning it into cloth 2 Select the Red Background layer and add the 3D Flag effect to it Effect gt Zaxwerks gt 3D Flag The background will become a flag and the Effect Controls window will be displayed Zaxwerks User Guide 54 Since the Red Background layer is already the color and size that we want for our background we don t have to select any thing special in the Color From Layer menu Note that this tech nique only works if the background layer is the same size as the Comp 3 In the Effect Controls window locate the Lock Edges menu and select All Sides Then find the Lock Points menu and select All Edge Points The flag edges are now locked to the edges of the Comp win dow because the Red Background layer is the same size as the Comp 4 Open the Options window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo at the top of the Effect Controls window It looks ok but let s see if we can make it look even more dramatic Adding Drama One way to make the scene more dramatic is to make the flag look large and silky so the wind creates grand billows across the surface 1 With the Options window still open pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 2 Set Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear each to 5 This will make the flag loose 3 Set Horizontal Mesh a
2. Overview By default a 3D Flag is locked in three places the top left corner the bottom left corner and the left center point The rest of the flag is free to react to the forces in the scene that is flap You may change which points on the flag are locked by changing the Lock Edges and Lock Points parameters Making a Hanging Banner In this section we ll demonstrate how to change which points on a flag are locked Starting with our Quick Start file let s make a hanging banner with a just a few clicks 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 Our flag is currently locked on the left side Since we want this banner to hang vertically we ll want to lock the top edge In the Effect Controls window find the Lock Edges parameter and select Top Notice how the wind blows the flag differently when the flag is locked at its top points 3 We d like to imagine this banner held just by the corners so locate the Lock Points menu and select Corners Only 4 At this point the flag held in the right places but the default wind speed is too fast To settle things down lower the Wind Speed vlaue until the flag doesn t look like it s being affected too much by the wind A Wind Speed of 1 should do the trick We ll discuss wind in more detail in the next chapter We let the wind blow very softly and let gravity do most of the work By hanging the banner from just the two top corners we get a nice droopi
3. degrees is away from the camera down the global positive Z axis e 90 degrees is to the right down the global positive X axis e 180 degrees is towards the camera down the global negative Z axis e 270 degrees is to the left down the global negative X axis You can learn more about this parameter in How To Animate Wind Direction Zaxwerks User Guide 59 Wind Dir Elevation This angle in degrees represents how high or how low the wind is blowing e 90 degrees is completely vertical up e degrees has no elevation e 90 degrees is completely vertical down You can learn more about this parameter in How To Animate Wind Direction Gravity This parameter determines how quickly points on the flag will be pulled down due to an accelerated gravitational force You can learn more about this parameter in Earth Or Moon Grav ity And Slow Motion Pre Roll This parameter in seconds determines how many animation frames are calculated before the first frame of the flag is available for display At 0 0 seconds the flag is in its default position Self Intersection prevention does not occur during the pre roll period You can learn more about this parameter in Using Pre Roll To Find The Perfect Wave Prevent Self Intersection When set to Off your flags may intersect themselves When set to On 3D Flag tries to prevent the flag from intersect ing itself at each frame Self Intersectio
4. e Flag Weight e Flag Stretch e Flag Bend e Flag Shear e Conform e Air Friction You can learn more about Flag Presets in Making a Rubbery Flag With Presets Flag Weight This parameter determines the weight of each point in the flag mesh Flags with a large weight won t react to wind as strongly as points with a small weight You can find more information about this parameter in Changing A Flag s Weight Flag Stretch This parameter specifies the percentage of length a Stretch spring may expand or compress during the calculation of an animation frame You can learn more about this parameter in Understanding Stretch Bend And Shear Zaxwerks User Guide 62 Flag Bend This parameter specifies the percentage of length a Bend spring may expand or compress during the calculation of an animation frame You can learn more about this parameter in Understanding Stretch Bend And Shear Flag Shear This parameter specifies the percentage of length a Shear spring may expand or compress during the calculation of an animation frame You can learn more about this parameter in Understanding Stretch Bend And Shear Conform This parameter specifies the number of iterations that are done during the spring calculations in the flag simulator The overall result of making this parameter having a higher value is that the flag will conform to its desired shape better You can learn more about this parameter in Gettin
5. s mimicking the stormy conditions 2 Select the Weather Text tga layer and add the 3D Flag ef fect to it Effect gt Zaxwerks gt 3D Flag The layer will become a flag and the Effect Controls window will be displayed Since Weather Text tga is the same size as our Comp and since the contents of the layer is what we want on the flag we can apply the 3D Flag effect directly to it This saves us an extra step of having to create an additional Solid that we would apply the effect to Note that since Weather Text tga has an alpha channel that is it has transparent areas we have set the Quality setting for this layer to Best This tells the 3D Flag plug in that the flag won t have a rectangular shape 3 In the Effect Controls window find the Lock Edges menu and select All Sides The locate the Lock Points menu and select Corners amp Two Centers This will bind the flag at several points around the edges but still allow some looseness 4 Open the Options window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window The wind moves the text but not very much We d like to make the text undulate more Zaxwerks User Guide 53 Making The Text Undulate More The key to making the text undulate more is to increase the mesh density This will allow more folds in the flag as the wind blows ee through it TEG 1 With the Options window still open pause the animation by pressing the space
6. A 3D Scene Zaxwerks User Guide My First Flag Effect Controls fay First Flag 1 Quick Start My First Flag fis Color From Cat k Civ Cer Palar ee r 38 The Flagpole Menu The Fast amp Easy method uses the Flagpole menu Find the Flag pole control and turn down the twirly arrow to reveal all of the Flagpole controls At first glance there are a LOT of controls You need all of these controls to move and wave a flag in 3D space However you almost never use them all at once and if you take a look at them youll find they all make sense We said this was going to be fast and easy flagpoles didn t we OK then let s skip all of these controls for now and get right to the good stuff Creating The Flagpole 1 Find the Pole Image menu 2 Click on the menu and choose the Vertical Pole Medium White option This will create a pole from the Flag Poles folder that comes with the program If your Pole Image menu says there are no Flag Pole images then you didn t install the program correctly Go back to the Installation Instructions and follow them exactly Auto Positioning The Flag And Pole At this point the Flagpole isn t positioned at the side of the flag and there s black around the edges No problem 1 Find the Quick Start menu which is located below the Pole Image menu 2 Drag to the Large Flag option and let up on your mouse butto
7. Edges All Edge Corners amp Points Corners Only One Center Bottom Corners amp Two Centers aoa Lock Points paar pid LO CH a Blue 4 Alpha 1 866 penal pid LO CH de de a HS Making The Pennant Creating a non rectangular flag is as simple as choosing a layer that has black in the alpha channel 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 Set the background color of the Comp to medium gray Select Composition gt Background Color and then use the color picker to select a medium gray color 3 Import the image called Pennant psd found in the Tutorial Images folder within the Flag Tutorials folder This is the same image you looked at in Photoshop 4 Add the image to the Comp and turn off the visibility 5 In the Effect Controls window find the Color From Layer menu and select Pennant psd Your flag will change into a pennant Choosing The Right Quality Setting 1 When the Layer Quality switch is on the Draft setting the alpha channel affects the color of the flag but not the shape 2 Set the layer Quality switch for the My First Flag layer to Best quality 3 The black parts will disappear and you will have a perfect pennant The next chapter on Wind and Gravity will discuss how to use forces to make your flag wave in different directions Wind and Gravity Use the Force The motion of a flag is what gives it character This chapter d
8. Flag Changing The Wind Direction Overview So far we ve only seen the wind blow to the right This section will discuss how to change the wind direction by using the Direc tion Presets menu Using Wind Direction Presets The 3D Flag plug in comes with several wind Direction Presets You can use the presets to quickly choose different wind direc tions NOTE The direction presets do not cause the wind to blow in absolute directions That is a Right blowing wind also blows a little to the back and a little up This allows the wind to act more naturally within the scene Absolute angles don t always provide the best looking wind In this example you ll learn how to change the wind direction from the default of Right wind blowing toward the right to Back wind blowing toward the back 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window find the Direction Presets menu and select Back This will change the Wind Dir Angle and Wind Dir Elevation pa rameters making the wind blow towards the back of the scene 3 To see how the wind direction now affects the flag open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo 4 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window While you can manually set the Wind Dir Angle and Wind Dir Elevation parameters as you ll see in the next section How To Animate Wind Direction the Direction Presets menu
9. Flagpole Zaxwerks User Guide 57 Attach To Layer This parameter shows a list of every layer in your Comp You can attach a flag s locked points to a 3D layer by choosing an item in this menu Where the attachment layer goes the flag s locked points go The rest of the flag will follow You can learn more about this parameter in How To Place Your Flag In A 3D Scene Offset X Initially the center of the flag is attached to the center of the At tach To Layer parameter You can set this parameter to shift the flag left and right on the attachment layer This value is in pixels You can learn more about this parameter in Handling Alignment Issues With Offsets Offset Y Initially the center of the flag is attached to the center of the At tach To Layer parameter You can set this parameter to shift the flag up and down on the attachment layer This value is in pixels You can learn more about this parameter in Handling Alignment Issues With Offsets Offset Z Initially the center of the flag is attached to the center of the At tach To Layer parameter You can set this parameter to shift the flag towards or away from the attachment layer This value is in pixels You can learn more about this parameter in Handling Alignment Issues With Offsets Speed Presets By default wind blows at a constant rate You can choose an option from this menu to automatically create a set of keyframes that animat
10. Guide 27 Showing The Flag in Wireframe Changing your flag s mesh size is done by setting the Horizontal Mesh and Vertical Mesh values in the 3D Flag Options window Changing these values do not change the size of the flag 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In order to better see the flag s mesh you ll want to view the My First Flag Effect Controls flag in its default position In the Effect Controls window find the Pre Roll parameter and set it to 0 3 Next open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window Ep My First Flag 1 Quick Start My First Flag 4 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 5 Change the view mode to Wireframe by clicking on the Wire frame icon Lowering The Mesh Density Now that we can see our flag in wireframe mode let s change our mesh density to be much smaller than it is by default 1 Change the Horizontal Mesh value to 7 Notice how the animation pops back to time 0 00 showing the flag in its default position When flag attributes are changed the flag must be rebuilt so that the effect of wind and gravity can be recalculated This is why you set Pre Roll to 0 When changing your mesh density you can get a good look at how your flag is being constructed 2 Change the Vertical Mesh value to 5 Notice how the flag s size didn t change The mesh density only affects how many rows and columns there are in the fla
11. Presets e Changing A Flag s Weight e Understanding Stretch Bend And Shear e Get The Wrinkles Out With Conform e Using Air Friction To Slow Things Down e How To Make Flags Look Large My First Flag Effect Controls Opening The 3D Flag Options Window Overview The 3D Flag Options window serves two purposes 1 It displays the flag animation in real time allowing you to control the playback and view the flag from any angle 2 It contains controls for specific attributes of the flag that you can change to shape how the flag reacts to wind and gravity Opening The Options Window To open the Options window click the 3D Flag logo at the top of the Effect Controls window a eee Flag Shear a cam F tesnig Style Rie a TOT fT E e e e z dh oo P H The Options window will be displayed Bhr Stes f H Read the next section Changing Your View Of The Flag for tanan anamen Cancel On instructions on how to rotate the flag and show the flag in wire frame mode Changing Your View Of The Flag Overview The 3D Flag Options window initially displays the flag centered on the screen Depending on the wind and gravity settings this may not hold true over the course of the animation This section shows how to change the view in the 3D preview window It also shows how to display the flag in wireframe mode Zaxwerks User Guide This section refers to the 3D preview window of the 3
12. Real Time playback mode and Frame By Frame playback mode Playback Is Always 30 0 FPS The 3D Flag Options window always strives to play the animation back at 30 0 frames per second regardless of the frame rate of the After Effects Comp Therefore previewing an animation from a 10 FPS Comp will look the same as previewing an animation from a 30 FPS Comp If you d like a more accurate playback of your Comp you can al ways do a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview or render your project to a movie file Zaxwerks User Guide 25 Switching Playback Modes A My First Flag Effect Controls The 3D Flag Options window can play the animation using one of My First Flag two modes Quick Start My First Flag e Real Time Playback Mode e Frame By Frame Playback Mode Let s switch an animation playback from Real Time mode to Frame By Frame mode 1 Open the Quick Start aep project LAE 2 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the eS Effect Controls window eae 3 Watch the Time field change By default it is running in real time so one second of animation is played in one second of real time 4 Now find the playback menu in the upper left corner of the Options window Select Frame By Frame The animation will restart Once again watch the Time field It B l 3D Fle is no longer updating in real time Depending on your computer Meee H and graphi
13. The Wrinkles Out With Conform will discuss this useful parameter Get The Wrinkles Out With Conform Overview In the last section we mentioned that Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear percentage values were only goals for the spring system Due to the way the flag simulation works the springs may push and pull each other outside of the desired ranges The Conform parameter can be used to better enforce the goal of the spring parameters That is it can further constrain the springs to create a more accurate system A side effect of this constraint is that it will make the flag appear more stiff keeping the flag more upright This can make the flag have less folds while flapping in the wind Life Without Conform The default flag has a Conform value of 7 This mean the spring system tries 7 times as hard to make the flag mesh conform to the goals of Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear than if Conform were set to 1 Let s see what happens when we remove the Conform calcula tion 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 1 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 Set Conform to 1 This tells the spring system to not care about how out of range the springs are Notice how the flag no longer holds its shape in the wind Zaxwerks User Guide faMy First Flag I My First Flag Effect Controls Quick
14. a slide show of your trip to Greece and you want to use 3D Flag to transition between two pictures 1 Open the Transition aep project in the Flag Tutorials folder When the project opens it should look like this 2 Select the Greecel jpg layer and add the 3D Flag effect to it Effect gt Zaxwerks gt 3D Flag The layer will become a flag and the Effect Controls window will be displayed Since Greecel jpg is the same size as our Comp and since the contents of the layer is what we want on the flag we can apply the 3D Flag effect directly to it This saves us an extra step of hav ing to create an additional Solid that we would apply the effect to 3 In the Effect Controls window set Pre Roll to 0 This will put the flag in its default position flat against the screen Since the flag layer is the same size as the Comp it completely covers the layer behind it In fact we can t even tell it s a flag 4 Find the Lock Edges menu and select None Then locate the Lock Points menu and select None You just freed the flag so that it can be blown across the screen Creating A Transition By doing the steps above you ve created a flag that will fall off the screen revealing the Flagpole Double layer behind it Let s turn the fall into a peel to make the effect more interesting as a transition 1 Preview the animation by opening the Options window Notice that the flag just falls to
15. and lights although there is the option to use them if you want If you are in any other host you won t have 3D support any way so there won t be a need to concern yourself The plug in effect is applied to a Solid Color Matte or Video Layer that is the same size and with the same pixel aspect ratio as the Comp or main Monitor Window The plug in will turn the layer it is applied to into a flag or it can use another layer s image to set the color and size of the flag Setting Up The Comp To create a basic 3D Flag composition do the following 1 Create a 640x480 Comp use Preset NTSC 640x480 Set the duration to 10 seconds Name the Comp Flag 2 Import the image called Red Cross jpg found in the Tuto rial Images folder within the Flag Tutorials folder This image will be used to determine the color and size of the flag 3 Drag the image into the Comp and then turn OFF the visibil ity switch 4 Create a 3D camera using the menu option Layer gt New gt Camera Click OK to accept the default settings Zaxwerks User Guide BEF ios D See iaa red_cross ipg ATTENTION AE 6 0 USERS The 3D camera should have the following attributes Zoom 900 Film Size 113 39 Angle of View 39 15 Focal Length 159 4 Additionally the Position of the camera should be 320 240 900 5 Create a 3D light using the menu option Layer gt New gt Light Make the Light Type Parallel and cl
16. answers in one of these three sections Read below for more information regarding each section Getting Started If this is the first time you are installing the 3D Flag plug in these chapters will provide step by step instructions on how to prop erly install the plug in Learning 3D Flag You can read the chapters in this section to learn how to use the 3D Flag plug in The Quick Start chapter will teach you the minimum steps needed to create a flag animation You ll then learn the details of coloring and sizing your flag in Creating A Flag You ll then learn how to use Wind And Gravity to make your flag move In Chang ing Flag Attributes you ll learn how to modify flag parameters to achieve the customized flag that fits your needs A flag wouldn t be very useful if you couldn t place it in your After Effects scene The Flagpoles chapter will show you how to attach your flag to an After Effects 3D layer and animate it The chapter on Self Intersection will demonstrate how you can improve the realism of the flag Once you ve mastered the basics the Working With Multiple Flags chapter will teach you how to put multiple flags in a single scene It will also demonstrate how to quickly and easily reuse a single flag animation with multiple flag images Finally Other Creative Uses For Flags will show you how to create more than just flags with the 3D Flag cloth engine References As you learn to use the 3D Flag plug in you wil
17. from For instance you can apply the flag to a static layer such as a Solid or a Color Matte and then take the color from a separate source layer When it is time to change the color of the flag just pick the new layer from the Color From Layer menu Selecting A Flag Image Layer The parameter called Color From Layer is used to set the color of the flag In the Quick Start chapter we created a project with the Red Cross flag When we first applied the 3D Flag effect we had a flag with a solid color It wasn t until we used the Color From Layer parameter that the flag started to have some character By coloring the flag with an image you ll have more control over how the flag looks In the next section Automatically Resizing A Flag we ll learn how choosing a different color layer can change the flag color and size Getting Effects To Appear In The Flag Image There will be occasions when you ll want to select a color layer that includes effects or masks You ll probably find that the ef fects and masks do not appear on the flag To get around this limitation pre compose the layer transferring all settings to the new Comp Here is an example project demonstrating the need for pre com posing Show The Color Layer 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 Turn off the visibility of the My First Flag layer and turn on the visibility of the Red Cross jpg layer The visibility settings of the two lay
18. in and several support files and folders The 3D Flag AE folder will be used in the next step 2 Find and open the Plug ins folder inside the Adobe After Ef fects folder Drag or copy the 3D Flag AE folder from its current location into the Plug ins folder WARNING Do not move these folders individually Only drag the 3D Flag AE folder This will copy all the required files into the appropriate location on your hard drive If you drag only the plug in into the Plug ins folder you will be missing a few important support files You are now ready to launch After Effects and create your first flag Authorization In After Effects The first time you choose 3D Flag from the Effect menu it will ask you to enter your Authorization code Enter the Name and Organization and type the code exactly as it was given to you Then press the OK button If you click the Demo or Cancel buttons you will have to re launch After Effects before it will give you the Authorization window again Zaxwerks User Guide Windows Minimum System Requirements e Intel Pentium II III or 4 processor e Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP e The OpenGL system dll file e High Res Color Monitor set to True Color OpenGL accelerator card recommended e 128 MB RAM 256 MB recommended e 30 MB unused hard disk space e CD ROM drive e Adobe After Effects 5 5 6 0 or 6 5 Software specifications subject to change without notice Soft w
19. launch After Effects and create your first flag Authorization In After Effects The first time you choose 3D Flag from the Effect menu it will ask you to enter your Authorization code Enter the Name and Organization and type the code exactly as it was given to you Then press the OK button Zaxwerks User Guide If you click the Demo or Cancel buttons you will have to re launch After Effects before it will give you the Authorization window again TROUBLESHOOTING TIP On some systems running Windows XP you will not be able to type any more than 2 or 3 characters per field If this happens to you type the information into Note Pad and then copy each line and paste it into the appropriate field Quick Start Creating Your First Flag Quick Start Overview This chapter describes the steps needed to create a basic 3D Flag animation Each chapter in Learning 3D Flag relies on your ability to create the basic animation described below so learn this section first A working knowledge of your host program is required to use this plug in so familiarize yourself with After Effects Comps layers cameras and lights before continuing An understanding of the 3D animation system in After Effects will help you fully access the capabilities of this plug in although it is not required Whats Needed The 3D Flag plug in creates its own 3D space If you are work ing inside of After Effects there is no need to create cameras
20. ll be using it in the next section Handling Alignment Issues Overview In the previous section you attached a flag to a flagpole one that had been positioned and rotated to fit into a scene You saw that the default attachment location wasn t quite right In this section you ll learn how to align your flag with the layer youre attaching it to This section uses the results of the previous section If you don t have that scene available you may start with House With Flag aep in the Flag Tutorials folder By default a flag attached to a 3D layer will be centered on that layer Note that factors such as which edges are locked and which direction the wind is blowing will affect how this may look Offsetting The Flag Pole 3D Flag has three controls that will allow you to offset the flag on the flagpole You may move the flag in the X Y or Z direction NOTE When offsetting a flag X always means shifting the flag left or right along the flagpole regardless of the orientation of the flagpole Y always means up or down Z always means in or out The image below demonstrates this Flay Zaxwerks User Guide Aligning The Flag To The Pole Let s offset the flag so that the locked points on the left edge line up with middle of the flagpole We ll do this by shifting the flag to the right 1 Select the Holiday Flag layer in the Timeline window 2 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt E
21. proper position If you see that your flag is not in sync with your flagpole click the Click To Update Tracking button As you ve been working with 3D Flag you may have noticed that the flag can sometimes intersect itself creating a flag that doesn t look very real The next chapter Self Collision Adding Realism will discuss a way to make your flag scenes more realistic Overview Without any special constraints a flag is free to intersect itself as it flaps around This section will demonstrate how you can use the Prevent Self Intersection parameter to add realism to your flag s animation Zaxwerks User Guide 4A A Demonstration Of Self Intersection Let s say you have a flag flapping in the wind and the wind dies down but then it picks up again The flag will droop as the wind subsides but it will begin undulating again once the wind speed increases We ll see that such a scenario can cause self intersec tion 1 Open the Intersection aep project This scene has a Swed ish flag with an animated Wind Speed parameter The wind dies down and then picks up As this happens we ll see that the flag intersects itself 2 Set the time marker to time 0 20 the 20th frame less than 1 second Notice the self intersection As the wind dies down the flag droops causing the flag to overlap itself 3 To see the animation in action open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls
22. the number of sub frames that are rendered for each frame Higher values will produce a better blurred result but will also take longer to render Restart Simulation Press this button to restart the animation at timecode 0 00 If the animation is paused when the button is pushed the time code will be reset to 0 00 and the animation will be started Help Press this button to display the 3D Flag Help in a web browser Cancel Press this button to close the Options window without saving the values of the flag parameters OK Press this button to close the Options window and accept the changes to the parameters A new flag will be created based on the new values in the Options window The following parameters are used to build the flag e Flag Weight e Flag Stretch e Flag Bend e Flag Shear e Conform e Air Friction e Meshing Style e Horizontal Mesh e Vertical Mesh e Motion Blur Steps used when motion blur is active Zaxwerks User Guide 64 Troubleshooting When I make a change it takes a long time for the flag to update The 3D Flag software is creating a physics based simulation of a real world event When a flag flaps the parts of the flag all interact with each other This means that something that happens at the beginning of the animation will affect the flapping that occurs at the end of the animation When you change a parameter it causes the whole animation to change so the whole animation has to be
23. what happens when we set the air friction to a high value 1 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 2 Change Air Friction to 50 This means that the flag will only respond to about 50 of what it s requested to do It would take a lot of wind to overcome that 3 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button The flag now undulates slowly as if it s struggling just to move 4 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window Depending on the size of your mesh a higher Air Friction can cre ate more folds in the flag as it undulates Usually Air Friction values in the range of 0 to75 are sufficient Now that you ve learned about the different parameters that af fect a flag s look How To Make Flags Look Large will show you how to use the different parameters to create flags that look big How To Make Flags Look Large Overview The default flag looks and acts like what we might consider a nor mal sized flag one that is a few feet wide and a few feet tall With a few tweaks to the flag parameters you can make your flag look large ready to be attached to a flagpole dozens of feet high Lookin Large The key to a flag looking large hinges on how it reacts to the environment e It cannot look too stiff Large flags require a lot of material and large sheets of material are loose e It cannot look too erratic Large things take a long time to change so a qui
24. window Watch the animation play Press the Restart Simulation button to start the animation over You can see several frames where the flag intersects itself 4 Once you ve finished viewing the animation press the OK button to close the Options window Removing Self Intersection To fix the self intersection problem we ll use the Prevent Self In tersection parameter 1 Select the Intersection Flag layer in the Timeline window 2 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls for that layer 3 Find the Prevent Self Intersection parameter at the bottom of the Effect Controls window and select On The scene will recalculate and then the Comp window will show that the flag no longer intersects itself 4 Open the Options window to view the new animation NOTE Since Prevent Self Intersection is on the Options window will display the animation in Frame By Frame mode It will also play slower than normal since it requires extra CPU power to do the self intersection calculations When youre done viewing the animation press the OK button to close the Options window Zaxwerks User Guide 45 The Prevent Self Intersection parameter can be used to fix situ ations where a flag intersects itself While using the parameter can solve many of your self intersecting problems it may not fix every situation as you ll see in the next section Advantages And Limitations Advantages And Limitations
25. you ve created have remained in the center of the screen In this section you ll attach a flag to a layer that looks like a flagpole Flagpoles can be used to position your flag in a scene as well as move your flag around the scene The next few sections will use a lot of what you ve learned so far Setting Up The Scene Let s say you have a picture of a house and you d like to decorate it with a flag to celebrate a holiday In this example you ll open ascene that has a 3D flagpole layer attached to a picture of a house You ll attach a flag to the flagpole and make the flag hang from the pole 1 Open the House aep project Your Comp window should look like this This scene has a picture of a house as a background There is a 3D flagpole in the pole holder next to the window as the red ar row shows Let s add a flag to this scene 2 As you may remember we always add the 3D Flag effect to a layer that is the same size as the Comp so let s create a new Solid Layer gt New gt Solid for the flag effect Name the Solid Holiday Flag Make sure the Solid is the same size as the Comp by clicking the Make Comp Size button Make the Solid white 3 Click the OK button to create the Solid and add it to the proj ect Your scene will now be covered by the new Solid 4 Add the 3D Flag effect to the new Solid by selecting Effect gt Zaxwerks gt 3D Flag The Solid will turn into a flag There is an image of
26. 1 6 of what it used to be Zaxwerks User Guide The flag doesn t change that much because the wind was already blowing pretty strong to the right 3 Since the moon doesn t really have wind but does have some small wind like force let s slow our Wind Speed way down making it blow just enough to Keep the flag upright In the Effect Controls window find the Wind Speed parameter and lower its value until just before the flag starts to droop A value of 2 should look about right 4 Watch the new animation by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window to open the Options window Notice how everything seems slower The wind is very slow but the gravity is low too so the flag stays up 5 Click the OK button to exit the Options window Slow Motion Let s go one step further and find out how to put a flag into slow motion We ll use the same principals discussed above We ll lower Wind Speed and Gravity making sure that the gravity is really low and that the wind speed is just fast enough for the flag to keep its shape 1 Locate the Gravity parameter and lower it way down setting it to around 0 2 This gravity will pull down on the flag just a little bit 2 Now lower the Wind Speed parameter way down We want the wind speed to be as slow as possible but to allow the flag to keeps its shape A value of 0 5 should work 3 Now play back the animation in the Options window again Notice how everything mov
27. 7 Creating A Scene With Two Flags This section will show you how to create a scene with two flags both on the same flagpole 1 Open the project called Flagpole Single aep found in the Flag Tutorials folder This project was created using techniques discussed in Attaching Your Flag To A Flagpole The Comp win dow should look like this image In this picture the flagpole was part of the background image This flag is attached to a flagpole layer but that layer is hidden 2 Turn on the visibility of the Flagpole Solid layer Now you can see the long skinny Solid that the flag is attached to Notice how the Flagpole Solid layer has been placed in the scene to cover up the flagpole in the background picture We use this fake flagpole as our guide and then turn off its visibility once everything has been oriented properly 3 Turn off the visibility of the Flagpole Solid layer Adding A Second Flag To The Flagpole 1 Duplicate the Top Flag layer by selecting the Top Flag layer in the Timeline window and then selecting Edit gt Duplicate 2 Rename the new layer Bottom Flag This layer is an exact duplicate of the Top Flag layer This means that the flags are in the same place and are attached to the same flagpole Let s make the second flag lower on the pole than the first flag 3 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls 4 Lower the Offset Y value until one fla
28. D Flag Op Se EENDE tions window The 3D Flag Options window uses OpenGL to display the flag in real time Depending on your computer s graphics card the play back may or may not be smooth T rsh Ha nfr This section also refers to the three display buttons at the top of the 3D Flag Options window Renan Simuaien P el i a ogi DS raa E EE a Changing The 3D View There are three ways to change the view of the flag in the 3D preview window 1 Rotate the flag Rotate 2 Move towards or away from the flag Zoom 3 Move the flag up down left or right in the view Pan You can do each of these operations by clicking and dragging the mouse within the 3D Preview window Depending on the opera tion you ll need to hold down a different key while dragging The following chart shows which Key controls which operation Dragging Dragging Hold Down Key Left Right Up Down Open the 3D Flag Options window and become familiar with the Rone Rotates flag view controls by clicking and dragging in the 3D preview os Left Right Up Down window while holding down different keys Changing The Flag Display Mode Command Mac Moves Moves By default the flag in the 3D preview window is colored by the Control Win Left Right Up Down image selected in the After Effects project This is but one of three ways to display the flag in the preview window Wireframe Display Mode To enable Wireframe display mode click on t
29. N T ee ee T ee T a a a A a T T ee ee he T T MA N A a A ee ee Mae A A a A N aA N A a A a d A a m e E a E a a E aa Aa En A Sm E aE an E E a E a a E E a a E A a E A a E A h a iN ee a liA a iA a MiA i a Ah A Maas aA a iA a fe aA aA hat lia A lat iA a liT D n iA aA A n hA a ae lanl DA a a Ah A n A a a a l ee ie a E a iA he ai e a n a fe fe i fy A a he i fe i a a l a l a E a i a lc Di l a i cD a a Ce a E ie n en E en E hed he e Ma Mel Se A a e E P E Mg m E ee Ma hee ee E a E Mi te hed a Teel a E D i a a Du Dh ee a iA aa iA T D ie ae ee a A an i ee A i i eB he De i a m E E s he yl yy ee ee ee i ee a h A A a T a A E a a a ha a Mac m n i a S a a A a a E MN hni h A hin A A i hee M al i E d a d a a A Fy F EEEE 4 re GE U Peg Ps Fy EEEE Fa a aa Fa Fa Fa a a REEVE EFL AAA H z a 7 Fa PEE PPP I Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Ya Fa Fa Fa Fa Pa Pa Py EE ee VV F Fa a Fa Peg Pa F YY Fa a Pag oa Pay Fa Z Right Meshing Left Meshing 29 What Bad Meshing Looks Like The Meshing parameter in the 3D Flag Options window deter mines in which direction the flag geometry is created Choos ing the right meshing direction is important as this section will demonstrate 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 1 In the Effect Controls window find the Color From Layer parameter and select None This action will remove the Red Cross jpg image from the flag and make the flag larger 640x480 the size of
30. Overview While the Prevent Self Intersections parameter can be used in many situations to prevent a flag from penetrating its own surface it has its limitations This section discusses when this parameter works best It also describes this parameter s short comings How Prevention Works At each frame the Prevention Algorithm puts a force field around the points in the flag If a flag point tries to enter the force field it is pushed away NOTE The Prevention Algorithm does not occur during the Pre Roll process Therefore if a flag is self intersecting at the first frame after pre rolling the Prevention Algorithm may not be able to undo the intersection for that frame It may also have trouble clearing up the intersections in subsequent frames Advantages There are several scenarios where the Prevent Self Intersections parameter works well These mostly involve times when the flag briefly overlaps itself in an animation Turning on this parameter can usually get rid of the self intersection without greatly chang ing the animation itself The Prevention Algorithm has many advantages e It s fast e It doesn t change the animation of the flag unless it needs to e It can clean up Self intersections in one area of a flag without modifying the other areas of a flag e It can prevent multiple intersections at once In many situations you won t have to use the Prevent Self Inter sections parameter A properly undula
31. Pole Pos Z 0 0 b amp Pole Pivot Off 0 0 gt amp Pole Rot 0 0 gt amp Pole Rot Y 0 0 J b Pole Rot Z 0 0 E b Attach To Lawer Al Lock Edges Left m Lock Points lt Flagpole b b b b b b b b b b l b Attach To Lawer Pole Image Fole Scale a a a a a a a a a Pole Mudge Pole Mudge Y Pole Mudge 2 Pole Pos Pole Pos Y Pole Pos Z Pole Pivot Off Pole Rot Pole Rot Y Pole Rot 2 Lock Edges Lock Points F Flagpole le v None Selected Banner Pole Medium Gray Banner Pole Medium White Banner Pole Thick Gray Banner Pole Thick White Banner Pole Thin Gray Banner Pole Thin White Vertical Pole Medium Gray Vertical Pole Medium White _ Vertical Pole Thick Gray Vertical Pole Thick White Vertical Pole Thin Gray Vertical Pole Thin White Left Comers amp One Center __ Vertical Pole adium White Y Quick Start Pole Mudge a Sie Fiag SEn Medium Flag Pole Nudge 2 Pole Pos Huge Flag Pole Pos Y es Pala Pc 7 nn 39 technique lets you use any image in After Effects as a flagpole It also lets you use the standard AE 3D controls to move the flag pole around This is very useful when you need to combine a flag with other AE 3D layers The next section Placing A Flag In A 3D Scene walks you through a project where you use the Attach To Layer features Attaching Your Flag To A Flagpole Overview So far the flags
32. Start My First Flag Flag Fresets Flag weight Flag Stretch Flag Bend Flag Shear Air Friction 34 4 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button Notice that the stretched areas continue to be pulled There isn t anything preventing this since Conform is 1 Setting A High Conform Value Let s say we want our flag to be rather stiff We want the wind to blow through the flag but we don t want it to be too springy We can set Conform to a high value to achieve this goal 1 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 2 Change Conform to 20 The system will now try 20 times as hard to keep the flag s shape 3 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button The flag now holds its shape much better allowing little stretch ing The real time playback may be more choppy than when Conform was Set to 1 This is because calculating each flag frame when Conform is 20 requires more effort 4 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window Usually Conform values in the range of 1 to 20 are sufficient There is one more flag parameter to discuss The next section Us ing Air Friction To Slow Things Down will show how to use Air Friction to gain more control over your flag s behavior Using Air Friction To Slow Things Down Overview We don t live in a vacuum Well I don t live in a vacuum And this means that in my world
33. The Zaxwerks 3D Flag for After Effects Premier and Motion User Guide Zaxwerks User Guide Zaxwerks Inc 5724 Camellia Ave Temple City CA 91780 626 309 9102 phone 626 309 9142 fax http www zaxwerks com Sales sales zaxwerks com Tech Support support zaxwerks com 1996 2005 Zaxwerks Inc All rights reserved This manual as well as the software described in it is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license The information in this manual is furnished for informa tional use only is subject to change without notice and does not represent product specifications or com mitment on the part of Zaxwerks Zaxwerks assumes no responsibility or liability for any error or inaccuracies that may appear in this document The Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator is a trademark of Zaxwerks Inc After Effects Illustrator and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc FreeHand is a trademark of Macromedia Inc Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc Windows Windows 2000 and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Inc OpenGL is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc All other product names or trademarks are the property of their respective owners Zaxwerks User Guide Using This Manual This User Manual is divided into three main sections Getting Started Learning 3D Flag and References Depending on what you need you ll find the
34. ag 49 Creating The First Animation The first step is to get together the pieces we will be using and taking a look at those pieces We ll use the flag we started with in the previous section to get us going 1 Open the Multiple Flags aep project which is located inside the Flag Tutorials folder When the project opens it should look like this image This project is very similar to the one we used in the last tutorial The main difference is that it contains five flags all sitting in the Timeline ready to go Notice that their visibility has been turned off We don t need to see them in the Comp window They just need to be in the Timeline so that we can use them to color the flags Since we ll be reusing this animation for five different flags we ll want to make sure that the flag size does not change when we re place one flag with another Some of the original flag pictures may be larger than others but we want all flags to be the same size in the final animation 2 Select the Flag Solid layer 3 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls 4 Find the Size From control and choose the Width and Height option This will fix the size of the flag to 400 by 210 which is the size of the US flag Once you fix the size of the flag using the Width and Height option you can substitute other images and the size of the flag will not change If the size of the flag changes it takes e
35. ags Creating A Balloon String With A Thin Flag Overview At its core 3D Flag simulates springs pushing and pulling points in space When you lay out a grid of these springy points you get cloth String can be simulated with springs as well This section demonstrates how you can create something that looks and acts like string with a very thin flag Setting Up The Scene 1 Open the Balloon aep project in the Flag Tutorials folder When the project opens it should look like this The project consists of a sky background an animated balloon and a layer that we ll use to specify the string color and size There is also a layer hidden for now that we ll use as our flag layer Our goal is to turn the string into a thin flag and then attach it to the balloon Creating The String We have our string in the scene already It s a thin Solid We want to use it to create a flag 1 Turn off the visibility of the String Solid layer Turn on the visibility of the Flag Solid layer Then apply the 3D Flag effect to the Flag Solid layer The white layer will turn into a flag 2 In the Effect Controls window find the Color From Layer menu and select String Solid The big white flag turns into a thin white flag We now want to make this thin flag look and act like a string 3 Locate the Lock Edges menu and elect Top Then find the Lock Points menu and select All Edge Points You ll see the w
36. an American flag in our project already Let s make the flag use that picture for its coloring and its size 5 In the Effect Controls window find the Color From Layer parameter and select USA jpg Your flag will now look like an American flag Zaxwerks User Guide Width Height Units Pixel Aspect Ratin _ Lock Aspect Ratio ba 44 pixels B Square Pixels ke Width 100 0 of comp Haight 100 0 of comp Frame Aspect Hate 4 3 Make Comp Size Color A attect This charga will affect 1 layer 40 Attaching The Flag To The Pole b Height Lock Edges Left Y We re now ready to start integrating the flag into the scene Lock Paints Comers amp One Center F 1 In the Effect Controls window open the Attach To Layer Gr To Layer twirly z Click To Update a q N ss Attach To Layer 2 Find the Attach To Layer menu and select Flagpole tga b gt amp Offset 0 0 This will put the flag in the same place as the flagpole It is even aaa iasi rotated the same way as the flagpole But it doesn t quite look right does it The edge of the flag isn t attached to the pole When a flag is attached to a flagpole the center of the flag is placed at the center of the flagpole In the next section Handling Alignment Issues With Offsets you ll learn how to use offsets to adjust the position of the flag on the flagpole You may wish to save this scene since we
37. and Flag Shear The reason these parameters are discussed together is because they are parameters that control the springs in the flag mesh Zaxwerks User Guide My First Flag Effect Controls fay First Flag 1 Quick Start My First Flag zir OHELLE Reset About Animation Pres _None 4h kra i i Color From Cai Do k Cire Care Palar l e rr r Weight 1 Weight 2 32 Anatomy Of A Flag Mesh Flags react to the environment because of calculations made to the springs that connect mesh points There are three types of springs and each type of spring can be controlled separately The diagram below shows how each spring is constructed Stretch Springs These springs connect adjacent mesh points horizontally and vertically Bend Springs These springs connect every other mesh point horizontally and vertically Bend Springs overlap each other Shear Springs These springs connect mesh points on the diagonal Stretch Bend And Shear Parameter Values The Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear values range from 0 to 100 They represent how much each spring can extend as a percentage The allowed extension is only a goal it is not guaranteed As the springs push and pull against each other some springs may end up out of range This constant pushing and pulling gives the flag its shape causing undulation and ripples over the surface of the flag Small Values Are H
38. and streamers It can also create curved flags and even flags with holes and cut outs All of this magic is done by adding an alpha channel to your color layer In this section we ll show you how to create a pennant Preparing The Flag In order to make a non rectangular flag the flag image must be created with an alpha channel This is a fourth channel in addi tion to the red green and blue channels that specifies where the transparent areas exist There are many ways to create an image with an alpha channel even within After Effects but this example uses an image created in Adobe Photoshop To see what an alpha channel looks like do the following 1 Open the Pennant psd file in Photoshop This file can be found in the Tutorial Images folder located inside of the Flag Tutorials folder If you don t have Photoshop just read this sec tion You ll see what you need to see here 2 The image should look like the picture below 3 Where is the transparency At this point Photoshop is only showing you the RGB color To see the alpha channel open the Channels palette Window gt Channels 4 Click on the Alpha 1 channel The image changes to show the alpha channel for the image The white area represents where you will see the flag The flag will not be visible in the black areas By drawing on the alpha channel you can create a flag of any shape Zaxwerks User Guide Left Right Top Flag
39. are used under license ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Refer to the Zaxwerks End User Li cense for more information Installing the Software In After Effects The 3D Flag software consists of a plug in and support files All parts are required for the software to run correctly 1 Insert the application CD and open it or decompress the archive you downloaded The disk or download archive you received contains a main folder with the words 3D Flag in the title Double click on this folder to open it Inside the window that opens you will find a folder called 3D Flag AE Inside this folder is the 3D Flag AE plug in and several support files and folders The 3D Flag AE folder will be used in the next step 2 Find and open the Plug ins folder inside the Adobe After Ef fects folder Drag or copy the 3D Flag AE folder from its current location into the Plug ins folder WARNING Do not move these folders individually Only drag the 3D Flag AE folder This will copy all the required files into the appropriate location on your hard drive If you drag only the plug in into the Plug ins folder you will be missing a few important support files NOTE 3D Flag requires OpenGL to run OpenGL is a system extension opengl32 dll that comes with your Windows operating system If you try to run 3D Flag and get an error saying OpenGL is missing reinstall it from your System CD or download it from the Microsoft Downloads Center You are now ready to
40. ato ini et A a we a Pad al ted we pet ae ae wa ean oe 7 hae he Pa ee ete cans T eyan men ee ee ae wee ie a 1 3 3 Set both the Horizontal Mesh and Vertical Mesh to 41 This CO a STAT ASAT Atte oS ee a a S l a a a E aTa kt e a a En E E E A Eea l a gives the flag more complexity thereby allowing it to be affected a a ae a re aan A i BES eet more by the wind aS ATCT E Seer 4 Click OK This will accept the changes and close the Options window k e k k e Be 5 Do a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview The text now undulates on the screen Now that you ve seen how binding the edges of the flag can help create dynamic text the next section Generating Dramatic Back ground Elements will show you how a similar technique can be used to create flowing backgrounds Generating Dramatic Background Elements Overview By locking down all points along the edge of a flag you can make the flag completely cover the Comp window The interior of the flag will still react to wind and gravity giving you the opportunity to generate dramatic background elements Let s say you are creating the titles for an awards show and you want to generate a background that looks like a flowing drape or curtain We ll use a similar technique as we did in the previous section only we ll apply it to the background image Setting Up The Scene 1 Open the Awards Show aep project in the Flag Tutorials
41. ault posi tion 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window locate the Pre Roll parameter and set it to 0 Notice that the flag is now a flat rectangle with no forces yet ap plied to it 3 View the animated flag within the 3D Flag Options window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window Notice how the flag begins to drop due to gravity but then the wind forces it to the right After a few seconds the flag settles into a nice undulation 4 While still in the 3D Flag Options window click the Restart Simulation button This will restart the flag animation from the first frame after the pre rolling is done That is if Pre Roll were set to 4 seconds the first frame of the animation playback would be just after 4 pre rolled seconds In our current example Pre Roll is 0 seconds so restarting the animation puts the flag back in its default position You can watch the wind and gravity make the flag undulate again Adding More Magic When you preview the animation in real time you can see that the card turns into a flag pretty fast To make the transition more graceful you should lower the Gravity Like we learned in the pre vious section lowering the gravity keeps the flag from dropping so fast By setting Gravity to a low value such as 1 or even 2 the effects of gravity will be minimized and the transition from card to flag will be more magical By lowering the wind speed t
42. bar TO RARRERRRRNRREREEEESRERRERRRERER 2 Click the wireframe ball above the Preview window to view Aaa t aeaea a erT Le Pabia teeth as hh a Din Se a 7 i A gg TT T T AE LART KA A a a aT T AT A N a T a E kie k the flag in Wireframe mode T a io A E DEENEN EN A AT Aa aN LY Te 1 4 aT 7 4 7 Pit oe a he hel i ne le kipi kikit oe k ha 1 ae i a tel i m ee hn E E oo See a 7 e Arar a el te 4 ate we i a T K k a k oe il Sed Mitel a7 n f i ee ee E E FE a oan Pi he oa Pe i er ee eg Pa eE mt BIT sy ma Lika ot gt he ae oe E a k ai te k a b k an ya LT aT ia E i m a r E k at hel as i in erk rh he k kla kigin z i ot kiar M TaT aT T p a a c1 a an r g ze Na The edges are bound at the corners and at two places along each EI APA A ar gg E ET Y AA C GAIA OV va TT wT BAE AT A E ThT a al 1 kikinta ae So Pe ae a he oa k i 1 x a ee a ee E i E Ea ka k n i k km ed e Ma ee RS a ee 1 n a k k k hk k k ke m F z AS ee E m 1 LE Ty EPE TETE TETEE E aS km 2 AiE et SS ee s 2 s 9 s eT 1 ee a E E E E E eh Jupp F eto k ke bhe ke m m F mA TLT ke Se F 4 Since the flag is bound on all sides there s no chance of it flap On ETEA EA TASA EA IA E EA EA E er lo K A AS AET AT BAL ED AET bg E ETATER ao L h k eT tL k nai eT a T E i E a a a k 4 see E s J gl aol a us ee A es ol he ke oe as eae Pall tad oh k a ping too W ildly id eh i ae he el he ak a
43. before but they still look too much alike By changing the Pre Roll value we can offset how far along in the animation we are This will add some uniqueness to the Bottom Flag 5 Set the Pre Roll value to 3 0 This will differentiate how many frames are calculated for each flag This will make the flags look different for a few seconds but it may not help over longer periods of time when the flags get into their patterned undula tion 6 View the first few seconds of the animation by doing a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview Notice how the flags seem to act independent of one another You could probably stop here and have perfectly acceptable results but let s go a bit further and look at some other ways to make flags different Making Flags Even More Unique 1 Open the Options window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo at the top of the Effect Controls window 2 Press the spacebar to pause the animation Let s make the flag look like it s made of a slightly different material 3 Set Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear each to 5 0 4 This makes the flag a little more loose and stretchy More im portantly it will react to the wind differently than the Top Flag Click the OK button to close the Options window 5 View the first few seconds of the animation by doing a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview The flags look like they re reacting to the same wind but they are flap
44. ckly flapping flag just won t be convincing e It should have several folds in it Large sheets of cloth fold easily e It should not be too upright Big flags are heavy and easily pulled down by gravity e The wind should not blow through it too quickly Even a good paced wind will take longer to get through a large flag than a small flag Zaxwerks User Guide Flag Presets Flag weight Flag Stretch Flag Bend Flag Shear Conform dF Mi oy i fl no 36 A Big Layer Equals A Big Flag Right No it doesn t There are many reasons not to use a big After Ef fects layer as your flag color layer but the top two are 1 Memory usage If you use a 4 000x3 000 layer as your color layer the 3D Flag plug in will create a flag image of that size The memory required to hold an image that large in RAM is roughly 48 Megabytes Compare that to a 640x480 image that only requires about 1 2 Megabytes 2 It s not the size it s the parameters An enormous color layer would still generate a flag with the default Horizontal Mesh and Vertical Mesh values of 21x21 These two parameters are key when making a flag look large Changing The Environment We ll create a large looking flag from our Quick Start aep project That flag is only 400x266 but we can modify just a few parameters and make it seem much larger 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window turn down the Wind Speed pa
45. cs card it will either be updating slower or faster than real time Notice how the flag animation is running at a different speed as well 5 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window With Frame By Frame playback each frame of the 30 0 FPS ani mation is displayed no matter how long it takes to calculate and display that frame PSE time Real Time Real Time Playback Mode Frame By Frame k This mode the default playback mode will show the animation in real time That is one second of animation will be shown within one second of real time If your computer s CPU or your comput er s graphics card is unable to display the animation at 30 0 FPS frames will be dropped in order to keep the time correct Playback may be choppy using this mode but you ll be able to see how the flag reacts to the forces in the scene as they occur Frame By Frame Playback Mode The Frame By Frame playback mode does not worry about displaying the animation in real time It will show each frame at 30 0 FPS as quickly as it can This mode is useful to see how every frame of an animation will look so that you can notice subtle details that may be missed if frames are dropped in Real Time mode Zaxwerks User Guide 26 Controlling Playback There are 3 keys and one button that can be used to control the animation playback the spacebar the left arrow key the ri
46. e the Wind Speed parameter Each options has a base wind speed value and different periods of constant wind increas ing wind speed and decreasing wind speed Zaxwerks User Guide 58 When choosing one of these options any existing Wind Speed keyframes will be cleared and new ones will be created Random numbers are used to determine where the keyframes are created Your choices are e Lazy Variable e Lazy Steady e Breezy Variable e Breezy Steady e Windy Variable e Windy Steady e Gusty Variable e Gust Steady e Clear Keyframes This option will clear any existing Wind Speed keyframes and reset the Wind Speed to 11 0 You can learn more about this parameter in Using Wind Presets To Create Gusts Wind Speed This parameter determines how strongly the wind blows The direction of the wind is determined by Wind Dir Angle and Wind Dir Elevation You can learn more about this parameter in The Need For Wind Speed Direction Presets By default wind blows to the right actually slightly off right You may choose an option from this menu to change the Wind Dir Angle and Wind Dir Elevation values Your choices are e Left e Right e Forward e Back o Up e Down You can learn more about this parameter in Changing The Wind Direction Wind Dir Angle This angle in degrees around the global Y axis is the direction that the wind is blowing In respect to a default camera in a scene then e
47. ection Presets b Wind Dir Angle 85 0 b 5l Wind Dir Elevation 3 0 b amp Gravity 2 0 b Pre Roll sec 4 0 Prevent Self Intersection 56 Height If Size From is Width and Height the flag will have this height in pixels You can learn more about this parameter in Manually Resizing A Flag Lock Edges This parameter determines which edges of the flag have locked points The Lock Points parameter determines which points along the chosen edges are locked You have the following choices e None Left e Right e Top e Bottom e Left amp Right e Top amp Bottom e All Sides You can learn more about this parameter in Locking Points Ma king A Hanging Banner and the chapter Other Creative Uses For Flags Lock Points This parameter determines which points along the edges speci fied by Lock Edges are locked You have the following choices e None e All Edge Points e Corners Only e Corners amp One Center e Corners amp Two Centers You can learn more about this parameter in Locking Points Ma king A Hanging Banner and the chapter Other Creative Uses For Flags Click To Update Tracking When the flag is attached to a 3D layer and you are animating the 3D layer by setting keyframes the flag may not follow properly You can click this button to force the flag into its proper position if the flag and the attached layer are out of sync You can learn more about this parameter in In Sync Animating The
48. egrees Forward Continuing around you ll hit 270 degrees Left before getting back to 0 degrees which is also 360 degrees The next image shows how Wind Dir Elevation can raise the wind direction towards the sky or lower it towards the ground Imagine standing with your arm pointed at the horizon That s 0 degrees no elevation As you raise your arm you increase eleva tion in the positive direction You ll eventually point straight up 90 degrees Up As you lower your arm elevation get more and more negative You ll eventually point straight down 90 degrees Down Using these two values you can make your wind point in any direction Animating Wind Direction Let s make our flag rotate all the way around starting to the right and rotating clockwise 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window find the Wind Dir Angle pa rameter Turn on keyframing for that parameterby clicking on the stopwatch icon next to the parameter name This sets a keyframe at time 0 00 with a value of 85 NOTE Remember in the last section when we told you that the Direction Presets did not use absolute directions That s why the Wind Dir Angle is 85 and not 90 0 90 180 and 270 would be absolute directions 85 is just a little off 3 Now move the time marker to 4 seconds time 4 00 4 We want our flag to rotate once around Click on the Wind Dir Angle value and drag to the right As the angle inc
49. ers are grayed out This is because the Size From parameter is set to Color Layer Lets change that As always we ll start with our Quick Start project 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window locate the Size From param eter and select Width and Height from the menu t Lock Edges Left 7 The Width and Height parameters become dark Notice that the Width and Height parameters are already set to the color layer s size in this case 400x266 Let s make this flag half its current size 3 Since the current width is 400 we ll want to change it to 200 Find the Width parameter and change it to 200 4 Notice how the flag adjusts to a size of 200x266 almost mak ing a Square flag You have a lot of freedom when setting your flag size 5 Since the current height is 266 make it half the size by set ting Height to 133 This makes the flag 200x133 half its original size Ok it s really a quarter of its original size but you know what I mean The flag looks like it s farther away from the camera but it s really just smaller Now that you can set the color shape and size of your flag let s learn how to lock different corners and edges of the flag to achieve different looks The next section Locking Points Mak ing A Hanging Banner demonstrates how to change a waving flag into a hanging banner Zaxwerks User Guide 12 Locking Points Making A Hanging Banner
50. ers should look like the im age below 3 You should now see the Red Cross jpg image in the Comp window Zaxwerks User Guide s WS DAELAGY Color From Layer None Size From gt 3 My First Flag 4 red cross jog m Lock Edges Apply Effects 1 Apply an effect to this layer Select the Red Cross jpg layer and apply the effect Effect gt Stylize gt Brush Strokes 2 The Comp window should now show the image with the ef fect applied 3 Now turn off the visibility of the Red Cross jpg layer and turn on the visibility of the My First Flag layer again You would expect to see the Brush Strokes effect applied to our flag image but instead nothing has changed 0 00 00 00 29 97 fps EH M This is because effects and masks applied to the color layer are Source Name e n EMDE not available to the 3D Flag plug in To get around this limitation To HAA FEIF pre compose the layer b E2 Light 1 Fa b E 3 Camera 1 m ny t O 4 ij red_cross_jpg ma pP Pre Compose The Layer That Has Effects 1 Select the Red Cross jpg layer 2 Then from the Layer menu select the Pre compose command Layer gt Pre compose The Pre compose dialog will be displayed 3 Name the new Comp Red Cross Pre Comp and select the Move all attributes into the new composition option A new Comp called Red Cross Pre Comp will be created re placing the Red Cros
51. es very slowly The lower the wind speed and gravity the slower the motion You can combine Wind Speed and Gravity to simulate some inter esting environments There is one remaining Forces parameter that we have not dis cussed In the next section Using Pre Roll To Find The Perfect Wave we ll see how the Pre Roll parameter can help us start our animation at the right moment Making A Flat Card Turn Into A Flag Overview Here s an interesting effect You can start with the image looking like a flat card and then turn it into a flag as the user watches How can you create such magic It is all a matter of creatively using the Pre Roll feature A 3D Flag simulation always starts with the flag in a neutral flat state That is before wind gravity or anything else can change the look of the flag it begins upright and flat as shown here The reason your never see this state is because the Pre Roll value is set to 4 seconds This means that the flag simulation runs for 4 seconds before you ever see the first frame By setting the Pre Roll value to 0 the flag will look like a flat card Zaxwerks User Guide My First Flag Effect Controls Color From k Civ Cee Ep My First Flag 1w Quick Start My First Flag Mn Lee l mii nru 21 Creating The Card Let s see what happens to our flag if there is no pre roll That is let s see how wind and gravity affect the flag from its def
52. ffect Controls 3 Find the Offset X parameter Click on the default value of 0 0 and drag to the right that is scrub the value to the right Notice that as the Offset X value increases the flag shifts to the right 4 Continue offsetting the flag to the right until the left edge of the flag lines up with the flagpole Your Offset X value should be around 200 which is half the width of the flag image This makes sense To shift the left edge of the flag to the center of the flagpole we moved it over by half its width 5 We d like the flag to sit a little higher on the pole Locate the Offset Y parameter and scrub that value making the Offset Y value larger Notice that increasing the Offset Y value moves the flag up the flagpole Continue increasing the value until the top of the flag sits just below the top of the flagpole A value of 20 should be about right At this point the flag is properly aligned to the pole 6 As a final step we ll remove the wind from the scene so that the flag hangs from the pole Locate the Wind Speed parameter and set it to 0 Since we aligned the locked points on the flag to the flagpole turning off the wind allowed the flag to hang while the locked points remained attached to the pole Your scene is now complete You have just learned how to offset your flag so that the locked points of the flag are aligned with the flagpole Once aligned the locked points on the flag remained fixed to the f
53. g It doesn t affect the size of the flag Your mesh should now look like the image below NN N N N N This mesh is a lot less dense than the default 21x21 mesh There fore wind and gravity will move it differently than the default mesh 3 Change back to Textured mode 4 Now play the animation by either clicking the Restart Simu lation button or pressing the spacebar Notice how wind and gravity still move the flag but the resulting movement is less dramatic This is because there are far fewer points to be affected by wind and gravity This flag looks like it s made out of a very stiff material such as paper Zaxwerks User Guide 28 Increasing The Mesh Density Now let s make the mesh much more dense 1 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 2 Turn on Wireframe mode 3 Change Horizontal Mesh to 31 4 Change Vertical Mesh to 31 Your mesh should now look like the image below Dense indeed 5 Now switch back to Textured mode 6 Play the animation by pressing the spacebar Depending on your computer speed and your graphics card the animation may play back slowly You may wish to switch to Frame By Frame mode Notice how this flag contains a lot more detail than the 7x5 mesh It has more folds and looks more grand as if were made of a very loose material like silk 7 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window You may have noticed that the flag
54. g The Wrinkles Out With Conform Air Friction This parameter specifies as a percentage how much the anima tion of a flag slows down during each frame calculation A larger value will make the flag look more sluggish or it may make the flag look like it s moving in slow motion You can learn more about this parameter in Using Air Friction To Slow Things Down Meshing Style Flags are constructed from a grid of triangles The triangles may be built with the diagonal to the right or to the left Your rendered flag may look smoother when choosing one mesh ing style over the other You can learn more about this parameter in Choosing Between Right And Left Meshing Horizontal Mesh Flags are at their core a rectangular mesh of points This param eter specifies how many points are in each row Larger values will make more complicated flags that can create more folds You can learn more about this parameter in How To Determine The Best Mesh Size Zaxwerks User Guide 63 Vertical Mesh Flags are at their core a rectangular mesh of points This param eter specifies how many points are in each column Larger values will make more complicated flags that can create more folds You can learn more about this parameter in How To Determine The Best Mesh Size Motion Blur Steps When a Comp is rendered with motion blur and the layer that has 3D Flag applied to it has motion blur enabled this parameter specifies
55. g is below the other A value of 225 0 should do the trick 5 In the Effect Controls window select Red Crescent jpg from the Color From Layer menu You now have two flags on the same pole 6 View the first few seconds of the animation by doing a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview 7 Notice how the flags move in exactly the same way Let s fix this Making Flags Unique While you can probably imagine that changing just about any parameter on one of the flags will make the two flags look dif ferent you ll still want them to look like they re part of the same scene That is you ll want them to look like they re receiving the same wind and other forces You may also want them to look like they re made out of the same material Choosing the right param eters to change is important Let s make the Red Crescent jpg flag similar but different 1 Select the Bottom Flag layer 2 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls Since these two flags are so close to each other we can t change the wind direction but we can change the wind speed by a small amount This won t change the overall look but will help break up the synchronization of the two flags 3 Set Wind Speed to 10 5 Zaxwerks User Guide 48 4 View the first few seconds of the animation by doing a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview The flags aren t as synchronized as they were
56. ght ar row key and the Restart Simulation button Spacebar You may press the spacebar to stop and start the animation at any time Left Arrow Key When the animation is paused pressing the left arrow key will step back one frame in time approximately 0 033 seconds If you hold the Shift key while pressing the left arrow key the ani mation will step back 10 frames Right Arrow Key 30 Flag Openers When the animation is paused pressing the right arrow key will step forward one frame in time approximately 0 033 seconds If you hold the Shift key while pressing the left arrow key the animation will step forward 10 frames Restart Simulation Button At any time you may press the Restart Simulation button to start the animation at time 0 00 This start time is the first frame after pre rolling In the next section we ll begin changing flag attributes starting with the flag mesh in How To Determine The Best Mesh Size f Fi AYA AV Changing The Mesh Density Overview A flag is a grid or mesh of points connected together to create a set of triangles You can specify how many points are in the mesh by using the Horizontal Mesh and Vertical Mesh controls in the 3D Flag Op tions window This section shows you how to change the flag mesh density AYA AVY LYE AAA AVY AYA AVY PUVA AYA AVA AVY LYE LV AAV EVVA VVAV V AVA AVA AEE PY LAV AVE AYA AEE V PV AAA AV MVEA Zaxwerks User
57. gives you easy access to common wind directions How To Animate Wind Direction Overview The 3D Flag plug in uses two parameters to determine the wind direction Wind Dir Angle and Wind Dir Elevation We ll show how these two values specify a direction We ll also discuss ways to animate a changing wind direction Zaxwerks User Guide F Forces gt Speed Presets bo vind Speed 11 0 Direction Presets qf Presets ingle Left b 5 wind Dir Elev Right gt i Gravity Forward b Pre Roll seg Self Collision A My First Flag Effect Controls faMy First Flag 1 Quick Start My First Flag Color Fron Cat Tet eros po k T m E mr Pe Le l Yas r How Wind Direction Is Calculated Wind Dir Angle and Wind Dir Elevation are two angle values that 3D Flag uses to calculate the wind direction You can imagine Wind Dir Angle representing a rotation from the left to right Wind Dir Elevation represents a rotation up and down Both angles are in degrees The image below shows how the Wind Dir Angle parameter goes from 0 degrees to 360 degrees This parameter determines whether the wind blows to the left to the right towards the back of the scene or towards the front of the scene Imagine standing with your arm pointed straight ahead That s 0 degrees Back As you rotate your arm and body to the right youll get to 90 degrees Right Keep going and you ll have turned around 180 d
58. hat picture for its coloring and its size 3 In the Effect Controls window find the Color From Layer parameter and select United Kingdom jpg Your flag will now look like a British flag Let s attach the flag to the flagpole 4 In the Effect Controls window locate the Attach To Layer parameter and select Long Flagpole tga The flag is now attached to the flagpole but it needs to be aligned 1 In the Effect Controls window find the Offset X parameter and increase the value until the left edge of the flag is aligned with the center of the pole We want the locked points on the flag to line up with the pole The value should be around 200 2 Now find the Offset Y parameter and increase the value until the flag sits just below the top of the pole The value should be around 600 Do a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview to see the flag animate with the pole Majestic isn t it Notice how the locked points stay attached to the animated pole while the rest of the flag follows Zaxwerks User Guide ERJ Animation View Window Help Effect Controls F3 a 3D Flag HE Zaxwerks i ___ _ en 27 lavinarator 43 Adding Another Keyframe This animation has three keyframes The pole rotates left then right Let s make it rotate to the left again causing the pole to be straight up at the end of the animation 1 Select the Long Flagpole tga layer
59. he Wireframe icon above the preview window This will display the flag in wireframe mode showing how the flag is constructed out of triangles Shaded Display Mode To enable Shaded display mode click on the Shaded icon above the preview window Zaxwerks User Guide 24 This will show the flag in shaded mode solid white and without textures Textured Display Mode To enable Textured display mode click on the Textured icon above the preview window This will show the flag in textured mode showing the flag with the current color image In the next section Controlling Animation Playback you ll learn how to start stop and step through the animation in the preview window Controlling Animation Playback Overview When the 3D Flag Options window is first displayed the anima tion begins playing If wind or gravity are animated their affect on the flag is shown The orientation of the flag is based on the current position and rotation of the flag in the After Effects Comp when the 3D Flag Options window is opened For example if your Comp is at time 5 seconds and your flag is rotated 45 degrees the flag in the 3D Flag Options window will be rotated 45 degrees We ll discuss ways to move and rotate your flag in the next chapter on Flag poles This section shows you how to control your flag animation You may pause restart and step through the animation using your keyboard You may also switch between
60. he layer you choose for the color will also dictate the size of the flag This is because the Size From pa rameter is set to Color Layer meaning the size of the flag comes from the same layer that the color comes from This is very convenient Big images make big flags Small images make small flags Also when choosing different flag images the shape of the flag will automatically adjust so that the flag has the correct proportions There will be times however when you want more control over the size of the flag The next section Manually Resizing a Flag discusses how to choose your own flag size Zaxwerks User Guide a a I tH 3 Camera l t O 4 H red eross jpg FOs AESI gt 3 My First Flag p 4 red cross jog Lock Edges Lock Points WIUALLAGY Color From Layer Nome Color Layer Width and Height Manually Resizing A Flag Overview As you use the 3D Flag plug in you ll likely find a situation where the flag s color layer should not dictate the flag s size For in stance if you have to create 10 identical animations but your 10 flag images are all different sizes you wouldn t want the flag to change size as you selected each image The Width and Height parameters allow you to set the size of the flag no matter what the size or shape of the flag s color layer is Setting Width And Height You ll notice that by default the Width and Height paramet
61. he transition will become especially slow If you really want to make it look cool animate the wind speed from 0 up to 11 over a 10 second period This will cause the wind take effect very slowly and then ramp up to a full billow and gale Sometimes when animating a drop effect such as this you need the fabric of the flag to be more loose and rubbery This is espe cially the case when you are suspending the flag from above like you would for a banner The next chapter Changing Flag Attributes will demonstrate how to use the 3D Flag Options window to customize the cloth of your flag The next chapter will show you that not all flags have to look the same Zaxwerks User Guide e Direction Presets bo Wind Dir Angle 85 0 My First Flag Effect Controls Color From Cay Ped cross k Cire Coser Pelee ose r Pigg Treisi k E I O T Fetan Smain ant SAF 22 This chapter demonstrates how to use the 3D Flag Options win dow The first few sections will show you how to change your view of the flag and control the playback of the animation Subsequent sections will give examples of how changing flag parameters can create different types of flags e Opening The 3D Flag Options Window e Changing Your View Of The Flag e Controlling Animation Playback e Changing The Mesh Density e Choosing Between Right And Left Meshing e Making A Rubbery Flag With
62. hite flag start to look like a long string in the middle of the screen 4 Let s turn the wind into to a very slight breeze Set Wind Speed to 1 Attaching The String To The Balloon We want the string to be attached to the bottom of the balloon and sway in the wind as the balloon animates across the screen 1 In the Attach To Layer menu select Balloon tga The string will now travel with the balloon To make the top of the string line up with the bottom of the balloon we ll use the Offset X and Offset Y parameters 2 Use the Offset X and Offset Y controls to move the string so that the top of the string hangs from the bottom of the balloon An Offset X value of 3 and an Offset Y value of 278 should be about right Zaxwerks User Guide 51 The string now follows the balloon as it floats across the screen The bottom portion of the string sways with the movement of the balloon Pretty cool huh Making balloon strings is just the start In the next section Transi tioning Between Two Layers you ll see how you can take advan tage of wind and gravity to transition from one layer to another Transitioning Between Two Layers Overview This section shows how to create an organic transition between two layers You ll remove the edge constraints from the flag and let wind and gravity push it across the screen revealing the layer behind the flag Setting Up The Scene For this example let s say youre creating
63. how weight affects the flag anima tion Weighing Your Options When modifying a flag s weight remember two things e The lighter the flag the more it reacts to the wind e The heavier the flag the less it reacts to the wind Let s see how doubling the flag s weight affects our Quick Start flag 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 1 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 Set Flag Weight to 2 This makes every point on the flag twice as heavy 4 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button The flag seems to be less upright than before The wind doesn t affect it as much 5 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to accept the change to the flag s weight and to close the Options window You may set a flag s weight to simulate different cloth materials In the next section Understanding Stretch Bend And Shear we ll learn about some important flag parameters that will greatly affect how a flag reacts to the environment Understanding Stretch Bend And Shear Overview Each flag is created by a series of springs connected to the points in the flag mesh The springs push and pull on each other allow ing wind and gravity to make the mesh look like cloth Three of the most important parameters that affect the flag s reaction to the environment are Flag Stretch Flag Bend
64. ick OK 6 Create a Solid using the menu option Layer gt New gt Solid Name the Solid My First Flag IMPORTANT The Solid containing the 3D Flag effect should have the same size and pixel aspect ratio as the Comp Use the Make Comp Size button in the Solid Footage Settings dialog NOTE Do not make this layer a 3D layer The image created by the 3D Flag plug in will look 3D even though the effect is applied to a 2D layer Adding The Flag Effect 1 Select the My First Flag Solid 2 Add the 3D Flag effect to the My First Flag Solid by select ing Effect gt Zaxwerks gt 3D Flag Do not add the effect to Red Cross jpg image At this point the My First Flag layer has turned into a flag as if the layer suddenly went limp like cloth Notice that the color of the flag is the same color as the Solid While it s possible to create flags this way we recommend taking an additional step in order to better choose how the flag is col ored and sized 3 In the Effect Controls window ECW find the Color From Layer control and choose Red Cross jpg from the menu The image on the flag becomes the layer you just chose Notice that the size of the flag has changed to be the same size as the layer you just chose At this point you should have a basic flag animation ready for customization Save this scene as a Starting point for the Learning 3D Flag chapters in the next section An example project cal
65. ighly Effective You won t have to set the Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear values very high for them to be effective In fact values over 20 percent may create flags that stretch too much to be useful Allowing The Flag To Stretch Bend and Shear Let s see what happens when you change the Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear values to allow the flag to expand up to 20 of its size 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 1 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 Find the Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear parameters and set each to 20 Zaxwerks User Guide Stretch Springs SNS Bend Springs N Shear Spring My First Flag Effect Controls faMy First Flag I Quick Start My First Flag Flag Presets gt Conform Air Friction 33 You may have to wait while the flag is recalculated after each parameter change Notice how the flag is now stretched out 4 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button Notice that the flag is pushed and pulled more by the wind and gravity 5 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window You may need to experiment a bit with the spring parameters to find values that fit your needs We can gain more control over the shape of the flag with the Conform parameter The next section Get
66. in Using Pre Roll To Find The Perfect Wave FPS This text field displays the current animation playback framerate in frames per second Wind Speed This field displays the current wind speed being applied to the flag in the Preview window If the Wind Speed parameter in the Effect Controls window is animated the animated effect will be shown here Wireframe Display Mode Press this button to show the flag in the Preview window using a wireframe display You can learn more about this button in Changing Your View Of The Flag Shaded Display Mode Press this button to display a white non textured flag in the Pre view window You can learn more about this button in Changing Your View Of The Flag Zaxwerks User Guide 61 Textured Display Mode Press this button to show a textured flag in the Preview window The texture used for the flag is the contents of the Color From Layer parameter in the Effect Controls window at the current frame when the Options window is opened You can learn more about this button in Changing Your View Of The Flag You can learn more about the Color From Layer parameter in Coloring The Flag Flag Presets You may either set the flag parameters individually or you may select a Flag Preset which will set the parameters for you The options for this menu are e Stiff Flag the default flag e Loose Flag e Limp Flag e Rubbery Flag The parameters that are affected by presets are
67. in the Timeline window This is the animated flagpole It has Orientation keyframes at times 0 seconds 2 seconds and 4 seconds 2 Set the Time marker to time 5 seconds 3 Using the Rotation tool rotate the flag to the left until it s straight up You should rotate the Z value back to 0 degrees A keyframe will be automatically set since we changed the value of the Orientation We ve added a keyframe but the flag has not kept up with the flagpole as we ve rotated it We need to tell the flag to update based on the new animation It s time to use the Click To Update Tracking button Updating Tracking There is a mismatch between the location of the flagpole and the flag Let s correct this problem 1 Select the Animated Flag layer in the Timeline window 2 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls and find the Click To Update Tracking button Click the Click To Update Tracking button The flag will now snap into place in its correct position and orientation 3 Play the new animation from the start by doing a RAM Preview Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview Watch the flag rotate back and forth The Click To Update Tracking Button The Click To Update Tracking button is used to synchronize a flag to its flagpole When animating a flagpole the 3D Flag plug in isn t always noti fied when the flagpole has moved Clicking the Click To Update Tracking button will tell the flag to get into its
68. iscusses the forces that give a flag its motion The parameters in the Forces section of the Effect Controls window let you craft your flag to make it look like it s naturally reacting to wind and gravity This chapter will require you to view the flag animation once parameters have been changed Be sure to familiarize yourself with how to view the flag animation in real time in the 3D Flag Options window e The Need For Wind Speed e Instant Billowing amp Gusting e Changing The Wind Direction e How To Animate Wind Direction e Earth Or Moon Gravity And Slow Motion e Turning A Flat Card Into A Flag Zaxwerks User Guide N b width Source Mame My First Flag g Light 1 t Camera 1 T red_cross jpg E pennant psd 1 My First Flag 3 4 red_cross jpg 5 pennant psd sepa ala The Need For Wind Speed Overview This section will show you how the Wind Speed parameter affects a flag s motion This section assumes that you have read the Quick Start chapter and can create a Comp with a 3D Flag in it Making A Light Breeze The 3D Flag plug in has a default Wind Speed of 11 This speed causes the flag to flap at a good rate There will be times when a slower breeze is more appropriate for your scene To slow the pace down do the following 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window find the Wind Speed param eter Lower the speed value until
69. l likely want to learn more about certain parameters or features This section of the manual will discuss in detail the parameters you ll see in the After Effects Effect Controls Window as well as the Flag Options Window If you don t understand a particular parameter or would like to know how something is calculated these chapters will provide insight Zaxwerks User Guide Installation Macintosh Minimum System Requirements e G3 Power Mac G4 or G5 recommended e Mac OS 9 2 2 OS X 10 3 8 e Apple s OpenGL system extension e Quicktime 5 or 6 e High Res Color Monitor Millions of Colors e 128 MB RAM 256 MB recommended e 30 MB unused hard disk space e CD ROM drive e Adobe After Effects 5 5 or above e Additional requirements of the host application Software specifications subject to change without notice Soft ware used under license ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Refer to the Zaxwerks End User Li cense for more information Installing the Software In After Effects The 3D Flag software consists of a plug in and support files All parts are required for the software to run correctly 1 Insert the application CD and open it or decompress the archive you downloaded The disk or download archive you received contains a main folder with the words 3D Flag in the title Double click on this folder to open it Inside the window that opens you will find a folder called 3D Flag AE Inside this folder is the 3D Flag AE plug
70. lag parameters You can learn more about using the Options window in Changing Flag Attributes About Press this button to show the 3D Flag About box which provides information about the 3D Flag plug in Color From Layer This parameter shows a list of every layer in your Comp When you choose a layer the flag will use the contents of that layer to color the flag You can learn more about this parameter in Coloring The Flag Size From This parameter determines how the flag width and height are determined You have the following choices e Color Layer The size of the flag will be based on the size of the layer chosen in the Color From Layer parameter e Width and Height The size of the flag will be based on the values of the Width and Height parameters You can learn more about this parameter in Automatically Resiz ing A Flag and Manually Resizing A Flag Width If Size From is Width and Height the flag will have this width in pixels You can learn more about this parameter in Manually Resizing A Flag Zaxwerks User Guide eee My First Flag Effect Controls fary First Flag 4 Flag My First Flag Color From Layer Fo Lock Points k Size From width Height Lock Edges Comers amp One Center Attach To Layer oF Click To Update Tracking t Attach To Layer b Offset x 0 0 b Offset Y 0 0 b Offset z 0 0 Forces Speed Presets b 5 Wind Speed 11 0 e Dir
71. lagpole even when the wind speed changed In the next section In Sync Animating The Flagpole you ll see that the locked points will stay with the flagpole even when the pole is animated In Sync Animating The Flagpole Overview In this section you ll see how the locked points on a flag remain attached to an animated flagpole while the rest of the flag follows You ll also learn how to use the Click To Update Tracking button to keep your flag in sync with the flagpole animation Zaxwerks User Guide 42 Setting Up The Scene Let s say you re creating an animation of a flagpole that waves back and forth You ll need to animate the pole and then attach a flag to it Follow the instructions below to get your scene ready 1 Open the Animated Flagpole aep project This scene has a flagpole that rotates back and forth Let s add a flag to the scene and attach it to the flagpole 1 Create a new Solid Layer gt New gt Solid for the flag effect Name the Solid Animated Flag Make sure the Solid is the same size as the Comp by clicking the Make Comp Size button Make the Solid white Click the OK button to create the Solid and add it to the project Your scene will now be covered by the new Solid 2 Add the 3D Flag effect to the new Solid by selecting Effect gt Zaxwerks gt 3D Flag The Solid will turn into a flag There is an image of a British flag in our project already Let s make the flag use t
72. led Quick Start aep exists in the Tutori als folder You may use this file when learning each chapter Zaxwerks User Guide Solid Foo Name My First Flag Size Width 640 Height 480 Units pixels Pixel Aspect Ratio Squar tage Settings e Pixels bid Color Click OK to add th Cancel C OK J e Solid to the Comp _ Effect Animation View Window Help Effect Controls 3D Flag Vt Zaxwerks F3 O HE 3M Invinarator Color From Layer Size From Lock Edges y None 3 My First Flag Viewing the Flag Animation without needing to do a RAM preview This is done within the 3D Flag Options window To view the animation in real time do the following The 3D Flag plug in can display your animation in real time Aninnation Pres 4 n 1 Click on the 3D Flag logo at the top of the Effect Controls cite SS window L Cire Car Plea aie r 2 The 3D Flag Options window will be displayed showing the flag animation in real time Bi E Tedia bbe GD winie iiD 3 Notice how the flag seems to be blowing in the wind 4 Click the OK button to close the window am D pw For now just remember that you can get a real time preview of your animation in the 3D Flag Options window When changing parameter values in the Effect Controls window it s helpful to see quick results using this preview window The 3D Flag O
73. lid Now that we ve changed it we can change it back 5 From the Color From Layer menu select Red Cross Pre Comp The Brush Strokes effect now appears properly on the flag and the flag is properly sized An example file demonstrating this technique called Pre Comp Effects aep is in the Tutorials folder Zaxwerks User Guide Automatically Resizing A Flag Overview This section shows how changing the flag s color can also change the flag s shape and size Changing The Flag Image In the Quick Start chapter we created a project with the Red Cross flag Let s open that project and change the flag image 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 Import the file called United Kingdom jpg in the Tutorial Images folder This is an image of the British flag 3 Add the United Kingdom jpg image to the Comp and turn off its visibility 4 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls 5 Locate the Color From Layer menu and select United King dom jpg Your Comp window should now look like the image below Notice how when the new image was selected not only did the flag color change but the size of the flag changed too The British flag has a different aspect ratio than the Red Cross flag It is wider than the Red Cross flag The 3D Flag plug in automatically adjusts the size of the flag to compensate for this The Size From Parameter With the default settings t
74. lly change the look of the flag Depending on which points on the flag are locked and which direction the wind is blowing Left meshing may look better than Right meshing NOTE As a general rule you should see if you animation looks fine with the default meshing If it doesn t try switching the mesh ing direction Zaxwerks User Guide 30 Locked Wind Suggested The table below advises which meshing may work best when a Edge Direction Meshing particular flag edge is locked Now that you ve learned how to change a flag s mesh settings we will show you how to change other flag parameters We ll start with Flag Presets in Making A Rubbery Flag With Presets Forward Making A Rubbery Flag With Presets Back Overview Boton Left Forward Each flag has several parameters that determine how it reacts to Back forces like wind and gravity These parameters can be changed to make a flag stretchy or rigid loose or stiff The 3D Flag plug in has several presets that will automatically set these parameters to create different flag looks This section will show you how to select a Flag Preset WB My First Flag 1w Quick Start My First Flag Making Your Flag Rubbery zir OBEY Reset About The default flag corresponds to a preset called Stiff Flag These TULUM See 4 i F r 7 flag parameters produce a flag that keeps its shape but will still react well to the wind You can make the flag rubbe
75. mesh is made into triangles by a diagonal line going from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of each mesh grid rectangle In the next section Choosing Between Right and Left Meshing you ll learn what factors would cause you to change that meshing from Right to Left Choosing Between Right And Left Meshing Overview Each mesh grid rectangle is converted into two triangles by con necting two opposite corners By default the top left corner is connected to the bottom right corner This is called Right meshing You may also choose Left meshing which connects the upper right corner to the lower left corner The two images below show the difference between Right meshing and Left meshing Zaxwerks User Guide De Me a el ee ne ee ed pe he Ma el ne n E hel ne he Sa HD Se Me h A Ba A la i A a i a n a li A an De i a l Se ee A T iT Aa A A an lA Me Md A A a aA a ha A i A Se Mae Sn i Sal De aE n fe ec a a a m n a a a a fc A E A A E A a ai l a a a he A A a a a n le a A A l a E a A he Poe ne T a A N A ee ee ne Sel ne eee ne a A T te T a T A E E Mg a eg ee Se Me E hed E a fa el n n E Se Me hel ee Sa E a A Me A oe dn ge ae ne ee Ma ee Mn el He hee Sn a E hn he he RD he nD hal a Aa a aad Ma ON Mee A Med i hed A ad Mn eel Yn ha A Se TD Toad HD hed ed Mae HD nd Sal i A He ae a i a ec ta m a ee im Bt a a a a a cc hn ha A ha a a a a he i A E a A a a a i iY OY A E a k a E T
76. must struggle to stay upright 6 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button The flag may not play back well in real time on your computer since the mesh is so large Notice the number of folds in the flag and notice how gravity seems to be pulling the flag down 7 Click the OK button to close the 3D Flag Options window To view the full animation either do a RAM Preview Composi tion gt Preview gt RAM Preview or render the scene out to a movie Zaxwerks User Guide fay First Flag 1 Quick Start My First Flag 7 Ff OHELLE Reset About Animation Pres None dh i ig Ll iiss Color From k T ima E mr Palar l e rr r 37 Making A Flag Look Small By using nearly the opposite technique described above we can make a flag look small The Key is to minimize the mesh size not the flag size Let s make a flag that looks similar to the small plastic flags that you may find at a car dealership or a grocery store 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 Little flags are usually so stiff that the entire side of the flag is mounted to a thin flagpole In the Effect Controls window find the Lock Points parameter and select All Edge Points 1 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 We don t want many folds in our mesh so a small mesh den sity will work well Set Horizon
77. n This will cause the flag and flagpole to be auto repositioned so they now look like a proper combination You can do the same thing yourself by adjusting the Nudge and Position controls but this sure was a lot easier wasn t it Removing The Black From The Flagpole Edges To clean up the edges of the flagpole render the animation at Best Quality or set your layer or Monitor window to Best Quality What Else Can You Do With A Flagpole e You can use the Pole Position controls to move the flag to other positions on the screen e You can also use the Pole Rotation controls to wave the flag back and forth Normally you think of a wave as a side to side thing Z rotation However a really cool look is to rotate the flag back and forth around the X axis This is the in out axis which gives you a cool 3D look e If the flag needs to rotate around a different point use the Pole Pivot Offset to slide the pivot point along the length of the flag e If you need to adjust the position of the flag on the flagpole use the pole Nudge controls If you need more control than the Flagpole parameters can pro vide then you can always use the Attach To Layer option This Zaxwerks User Guide Lock Edges Flagpole J Left Comers amp One Center Y reinage Quick Start b Pole Scale 100 0 b Pole Nudge 0 0 b Pole Nudge Y 0 0 gt amp Pole Nudge Z 0 0 b amp Pole Pos 0 0 b amp Pole Pos Y 0 0 b amp
78. n prevention does not occur during the pre roll period You can learn more about this parameter in Preventing Self Inter section 10 Flag Optisk Bifa Ej Vi Se ee Rd Wini ered 1G 3D Flag Options Window Reference Click on one of the parameters or buttons in the picture below for more information on that item Parameters And Buttons Preview Window This window displays the flag animation using OpenGL The smoothness of the animation playback depends on your CPU and your graphics card Zaxwerks User Guide You may change your view of the flag by clicking and dragging inside the window You may use keyboard commands to control the animation play back You can find more information about this window in the chapter Changing Flag Attributes Playback Mode You may choose to play the animation in real time or a frame at a time The two options are e Real Time play the animation in real time dropping frames as necessary e Frame By Frame play every frame of the animation no mat ter how long it takes to calculate each frame You can learn more about playback modes in Controlling Anima tion Playback Time This text field displays the current time in the animation It dis plays the time as a timecode as well as a number of seconds The time does not include pre roll time That is a timecode of 0 00 means the first frame after pre roll You can learn more about using the Time field
79. nd Vertical Mesh each to 41 This will allow the wind to create more folds in the flag making it seem large The folds will also cause the flag to catch the light better 4 View the animation by pressing the Restart Simulation but ton Undulations now sweep across the flag 5 Click OK to accept the new values and close the Options window The scene is now much more dramatic than it was before The addition of a realistic flowing cloth background has added a lot of production value to this graphic Between balloon string text and background elements you ve had pretty good exposure to how the clothy nature of flags can be used for other purposes At this point you should feel comfortable putting flags in your scene and animating them You should also be ready to find alter native creative uses for flags You may wish to review certain chapters or you may continue on to the References section where you can find more details about specific parameters The first reference is the Effect Controls Reference Zaxwerks User Guide 55 Effect Controls Reference Click on one of the parameters or buttons in the picture below for more information on that item Parameters And Buttons Reset Press this button to change all of the ECW parameters back to their default values Options Press this button to open the 3D Flag Options window In the Options window you can view the flag animation in real time and change f
80. ng in the center Watch the animation in the 3D Flag Options window to see how the slower wind speed affects the banner Read below for more information on locking edges and points or continue on to the next section on Creating A Pennant where we show you how to create a flag with non rectangular shape Zaxwerks User Guide He ight Look Edges Look Points gt Attach To Layer v Forces Speed Frese gt amp wind Speed Direction Pr b wind Dir v Left Right rF Bottom Left amp Right Top amp Bottom All Sides Caption Text TA LAJ Color From Lay b width b gt Height Lock Edges Lock Points b gt Attach To Layer F Forces lt Forces Speed t amp l wind Dir gt ES Wind Speed gt Diritti Prf 4 redcross osd lt Y None All Edge Points 4 Convers amp One Center Comers amp Two Centers bees i Be 22 0 Lock Edges You can choose which edges are affected by the Lock Points parameter by setting the Lock Edges parameter You may choose a single edge or a combination of edges Lock Points For the selected locked edges you may choose which points along those edges are locked Besides None you have the four choices shown in the image above Creating A Pennant Overview So far we ve seen how to make rectangular flags but the 3D Flag software can make flags of any shape such as pennants
81. ping in their own unique way Deciding Which Parameters To Change The chart below describes how the different parameters can be used to achieve different looks In the next section Reusing Animation For Different Flags you ll learn how changing a single 3D Flag parameter can facilitate the creation of five animations Reusing Animation For Different Flags Overview Since 3D Flag allows you to change the layer that the flag color comes from you can quickly create multiple versions of the same animation Let s say you get a job where you need to create five flag anima tions each using the flag of a different country It s OK for each animation to be the same but the flag in each one needs to be different Zaxwerks User Guide Conform Air Friction ECW Parameter Wind Speed Wind Direction Pre Roll Options Window Parameter Flag Stretch Bend Shear How It Can Make Flags Different Small differences can help the flags undulate at different rates Larger differences can make flags look like they re in differ ent parts of the scene that is far away from each other Flags can look like they re in different parts of a scene By having different Pre Roll values flag undulations will occur at different times How It Makes Flags Different Changes the material of the flag Changes the material of the flag HorizontaV Vertical Mesh Changes the material of the fl
82. ptions window and all of its parameters will be discussed in more detail in the chapter called Changing Flag At tributes Match The Comp Size The 3D Flag effect must be applied to a Solid that has the same size and pixel aspect ratio of the Comp If not then a variety of bad things can happen In the above image the 3D Flag effect was applied to a layer that was smaller than the Comp Therefore the resulting flag image gets clipped by the layer s bounds There are other ways to make a flag smaller See the Resizing A Flag section in the Creating a Flag chapter for an example Coloring The Flag Overview This section describes how to set the color of your flag This section assumes that you have read the Quick Start chapter and can create a Comp with a 3D Flag in it Zaxwerks User Guide The Flag Color Comes From A Layer When the 3D Flag effect is initially applied to a layer the contents of that layer is used to color the flag Therefore if you apply the 3D Flag effect to a blue Solid the flag will be blue If you apply the 3D Flag effect to an image or a video clip that image or video will show up on the flag While you can certainly use the layer you have applied the effect to to color your flag the 3D Flag plug in allows you to select any layer to use as your flag image The advantage of this is that you can do multiple versions of the same flag animation simply by switching the layer that the color is coming
83. rameter so that the flag moves more slowly A value of 5 should work well A slower moving flag simulates how wind will take longer to move across such a large flag 3 Find the Lock Points menu and select Corners Only Large flags are usually not bound in the center They are either tied along the entire edge or just at the corners Changing Flag Attributes Now that we ve adjusted the wind speed and which points of the flag are locked let s adjust specific flag attributes to make are flag seem grand 1 Open the 3D Flag Options window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 We want our flag to have many folds in it as the wind blows through it so we ll increase our mesh density Set Horizontal Mesh to 41 Set Vertical Mesh to 31 Setting these two values higher than the default of 21 will add complexity to the mesh and that s exactly what you re looking for Now that you have a large mesh you need to adjust a few other parameters to make sure the flag acts large 4 A dense mesh may need some help in Keeping its shape so we ll set Conform to a higher value such as 10 Since the mesh is so large it is more likely to look too springy so a larger Conform value will help 5 Finally we don t want the flag to react too quickly to wind or gravity so we ll set Air Friction to 75 We want the flag to look really sluggish as if it is so heavy that it
84. reases you ll see the flag rotating around its fixed points in a clockwise direction Once the flag has made it back to the right let go of the mouse button Zaxwerks User Guide Forward 180 Wind Dir Angle Down 90 Wind Dir Elevation t Speed resets __ resets b S wind Speed 110 Pipection Presets Te Dir Angle 85 0 Paw ind Dir Elevation 3 0 p Gravity 38 meline en E So 3 sy A O4 00T O41 St Right 90 The Wind Dir Angle should be about 445 which is one full rota a _ tion 85 degrees 360 degrees Another keyframe is created at My First Flag Effect Controls time 4 00 since we changed the parameter value Ganan 5 To watch the flag rotate around its locked points open the Quick Start My First Flag Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Con trols window 6 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window Now that we ve seen how wind affects the flag let s learn about Color Fron esemes ee gravity in the next section Earth Or Moon Gravity And Slow Mo Eo Pine Deans Pale mene sod tion Earth Or Moon Gravity And Slow Motion Overview Newton told us about gravity We learned that an apple falls at the same rate as a grape We also learned that objects accelerate as they fall And we were taught that objects fell at about 9 8 m s 2 This section discusses how 3D Flag
85. recalculated If your time marker or play head is sitting at the beginning of the animation there is not a lot of recalculating that needs to be done in order to show you the flag at the current time However if your time marker is sitting well into the animation then all of the frames between time 0 and the current time need to be recalcu lated before the flag can be rendered The solution for the time lag you are experiencing is to move the time marker play head to time 0 00 or frame 1 Then changes will take the least possible amount of time Why is there black around the flag poles You are looking at the animation in draft mode You need to ren der in Best Quality to make the black disappear from around the flag poles Zaxwerks User Guide 65
86. ry by selecting the Rubbery Flag preset 1 Open the Quick Start aep project tle 2 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Color Fr ONTE p Effect Controls window R meee Notice how the flag reacts to the wind and gravity It stays up right and undulates in the wind Stiff Flag 3 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 4 Locate the Flag Presets menu and select Rubbery Flag apnea ed Limp Flag T Rubbery Flag J Selecting a preset will modify the six parameters below the Flag Presets menu Notice how the flag is now elongated The Rubbery parameters allow certain aspects of the flag to stretch more than the default Stiff Flag 5 Now click the Restart Simulation button As the animation plays notice that the flag stretches and pulls more than you ve seen before 6 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window There are other Flag Presets that give the flag different looks Each preset will create a flag that will react to wind and gravity in a different way In the next section Changing A Flag s Weight you ll learn about how a flag s weight affects how the flag responds to the wind Zaxwerks User Guide 31 Changing A Flag s Weight Overview The 3D Flag Options window allows you to change a flag s weight While there is usually little reason to change the weight of the flag it s good to understand
87. s jpg layer Resizing The Pre Comp The pre compose operation creates a Comp that has the same size as the Flag Comp 640x480 We want the Red Cross Pre a DUUOn Neer eMac noni mage Comp Comp to be the same size as the flag image 400x266 Let s fix that now eT 1 Open the Red Cross Pre Comp Comp mma 2 Open the Composition Settings dialog Composition gt Com New composition name Red Cross Pre Comp position Settings T _ Leave all attributes in Flag 3 We want our Comp size to match the size of the flag SO set Use this option to create a new intermediate composition with only red_cross jpg the Comp Width to 400 and the Comp Height to 266 in it The new composition will become the source to the current layer 4 Accept the changes and close the window by pressing the dor eter eT OK button se this option to place the currently selected layers together into a new intermediate composition Open New Composition Updating The Flag Cancel F Now that we ve changed the flag s color layer we ll need to up date the flag by re selecting the color layer This step is necessary so that the plug in properly rebuilds the flag object 1 Open the Flag Comp again 2 Select the My First Flag layer 3 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls 4 Find the Color From Layer menu and select None This will reset the color layer back to the color of the So
88. t of keyframes by selecting another preset from the Speed Presets parameter You can even select the same preset over and over to create different random variations of the same wind style 4 To see how the wind now affects the flag view the new animation within the Options window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo 5 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window Clearing Keyframes Now that you ve automatically created Wind Speed keyframes you can clear the keyframes with one command 1 In the Speed Presets menu select Clear Keyframes All of the keyframes for the Wind Speed parameter are deleted and the Wind Speed is set back to the default value of 11 0 So far the wind has been blowing to the right Let s learn how to change that in the next section Using Wind Direction Presets Zaxwerks User Guide fe ATTACH lo Laver k Presets Lazy Venable Lazy Steady Breezy Variable Breezy Steady Windy Vanable Windy Steady Gusty Variable Direction Presets bo amp wind Dir Angle gt amp Wind Dir Ele gt amp Gravity b Pre Roll sec Self Collision _ _ _ _ Gusty Steady Clear Keytrames a Caption Text HOI g rosal jy a d p aw 09 97 tps N eee alm Z Pam N ry el Bourot Name ERF IF My First Flag Effect Controls fay First Flag 1 Quick Start My First
89. tal Mesh to 5 and Vertical Mesh to 2 These values will allow the flag to flap back and forth but not up and down 4 To add alittle more rigidity set Air Friction to 10 This will help keep the flag under control so that it doesn t flap too quickly We want it to look like it s made of plastic after all 5 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button The flag moves back and forth but can t do much else since the mesh is so simple 6 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window This little flag acts very different than the large flag even though they re technically the same size in the scene What differ entiates them is the complexity of the mesh that the flag is made from along with a few other parameters This is an important concept to remember when customizing your own flags Now that you ve seen how to set up and modify your flags we ll teach you how to attach the flag s locked points to another After Effects layer allowing you to place your flags on pictures of flag poles and even move them around the scene The next chapter is on Flagpoles Overview Every flag needs a flag pole Inside of After Effects there are two methods of creating flag poles the Fast amp Easy way and the Harder but more flexible way This section will show you the Fast amp Easy method The harder method is explained in the next sec tion called Placing Your Flag In
90. the flag is drooping at about a 45 degree angle A value of 5 should work Notice how the flag droops Since less wind is being applied to the cloth flag gravity has more effect 3 To see the results of this change in real time open the Op tions window by clicking on the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Con trols window 4 When you re done watching the flag click the OK button to close the Options window By animating the Wind Speed value you can get the flag to dance Quick changes in wind speed make the flag lift and fall How Wind Affects The Flag Wind does not affect all parts of the flag equally Those portions of the flag that face the wind towards or away will be blown more strongly than the portions of the flag parallel to it This is one of the reasons flags undulate in the wind Portions that face the wind are blown to the side This flattens out the part that was facing the wind and causes the next section of the flag to bend This flattening and bending cycle continues down the length of the flag creating a wave The diagram below shows how wind affects the flag depending on how directly the flag is facing the wind In the next section Instant Billowing amp Gusting you ll learn how to quickly create animated wind to give the flag some great look ing character Zaxwerks User Guide My First Flag Effect Controls faMy First Flag IS Quick Start My First Flag Not very affected by
91. the layer the 3D Flag plug in was applied to 2 Locate the Lock Edges parameter and select Right This will cause three of the points on the right side of the flag to be locked into place The left points are no longer locked Where did the flag go Since the wind is still blowing to the right the flag is blowing off screen Let s fix that 3 From the Direction Presets menu select Left This will make the wind blow to the left causing the flag to blow back into the frame We now have flag that is locked on the right edge blow ing to the left Immediately we can see a reason why the default Right mesh ing does not work for this scene The stair step effect is an artifact of the way the flag mesh is built To fix this we ll switch the direction of our meshing Fixing Bad Meshing 1 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window As the animation plays you can see the bad meshing all over the flag 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 Locate the Meshing menu and select Left This will change how the flag geometry is created smoothing out the look of the flag 4 Click the OK button accept the change in settings and to exit the Options window The Flag Comp looks much better now You now know that a left blowing flag probably needs Left meshing Choosing The Correct Meshing Direction As you ve seen the meshing direction can dramatica
92. the wind Wind Instant Billowing amp Gusting Overview If you leave the Wind Speed set to a constant speed the flag s ani mation will start to look repetitive To make things more interest ing 3D Flag has a built in wind pattern generator The wind pattern generator will automatically create keyframes for the Wind Speed parameter This allows you to quickly cre ate varying wind speeds making your flag animation look much better You access the wind pattern generator by picking a preset from the Speed Presets menu Creating Gusts The wind pattern generator is really quite amazing With it you can create everything from calm breezes to near hurricane type forces You should take some time to see what each setting does For this particular example we will create a gusting style of wind 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 2 In the Effect Controls window locate the Speed Presets menu and select Gusty Variable This will cause any existing Wind Speed keyframes to get cleared and dozens of new ones to be created Way more keyframes than you would want to create by hand 3 Open the Wind Speed animation graph in the Timeline win dow to see how the wind is no longer constant Your animation will look different than the image above because the wind pattern generator uses random numbers when generat ing keyframes You may edit these keyframes as you would any animation graph or you may generate a new se
93. there are all sorts of particles and dynamic forces that cause friction to a flag blowing in the wind Therefore a flag will never move quite as much as the wind would like it to The Air Friction parameter can be used to control how the flag re acts to the environment wind gravity etc With no friction the flag may blow wildly even with a light wind With a lot of friction the flag may not respond to wind or gravity very much In general a small amount of Air Friction will help keep the flag under control Removing Friction The default value for Air Friction is 5 percent This means that at each frame the flag will only undulate about 95 of what wind and gravity tell it to Let s see how the flag reacts when there is no friction 1 Open the Quick Start aep project 1 Open the Options window by clicking the 3D Flag logo in the Effect Controls window Zaxwerks User Guide My First Flag Effect Controls Quick Start My First Flag Color From k T ima E imr ma Lee l mi nru 35 2 Pause the animation by pressing the spacebar 3 Set Air Friction to 0 This allows the flag to fully respond to wind and gravity 4 Play the animation by clicking the Restart Simulation button Notice that the flag flaps about quite a bit more than when Air Friction was 5 This is because there are less constraints on the flag s movement Adding A Lot of Friction Now let s see
94. ting flag usually will not intersect itself But for those times when your animation just won t look right because a flag is intersecting itself the Prevent Self Intersections parameter can be used to make your animation look more realistic Limitations While the Prevent Self Intersections parameter can be used to great effect in many situations there are scenarios that it may not handle well such as e Rapidly moving flags If the movement between each frame is too great intersections may still occur e Overly bunched flags If your flag folds over itself too many times there may not be a good way to unfurl it e Once self intersection does occur it may stay that way The Prevention Algorithm cannot usually fix a self intersection once it happens Zaxwerks User Guide 46 An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure The best way for you to avoid creating a flag with self intersec tions is to use parameters that won t cause self intersection in the first place If you ve tried the Prevent Self Intersections parameter and it hasn t worked for you situation you may want to try one of the following solutions Each of the items below can be used to help you not have self intersections in the first place e Change the wind speed A slightly slower or faster wind will change the way a flag flaps e Animate the wind speed This is especially useful if the flag only self intersects at a few points in time By setting a fe
95. uses gravity to make a flag drop naturally and how we can set gravity to a value other than 9 8 to simulate other environments like being on the moon or under water The Pull Of Gravity The flags that 3D Flag creates are made up of a grid of points Each point has a weight a mass and gravity pulls each point downward using the standard gravity equation mentioned above Gravity is different than wind speed because wind affects each point on the flag differently Gravity by contrast affects each point on the flag equally So while wind is blowing the flag in one direction gravity is tug ging it down The two forces work together to create a natural look Putting A Flag On The Moon As you may know the moon doesn t have as much gravity as the earth Astronauts float as they leap from point to point In fact the moon has only 1 6 of the gravity of earth so objects only fall about 1 6 m s 2 We can simulate a flag on the moon by setting Gravity to 1 6 and by slowing down our Wind Speed 1 Open the Moon aep project found in the Flag Tutorials folder This project has a United States flag in it We ll change our forces to make it look like the flag is on the moon similar to the image above 2 Since we re putting this flag on the moon we ll need to change the amount of gravity in the scene In the Effect Controls window locate the Gravity parameter and change its value to 1 6 The gravity in the scene is now
96. w wind speed keyframes around the time of self intersection you may be able to get rid of the intersections without changing the overall wind speed for the animation e Avoid overly rubbery flags Loose flags tend to flap about quite a bit If you can minimize how high the Flag Stretch Flag Bend and Flag Shear values are you may be able to keep your flag flapping in the wind and not into itself A higher Conform value may help as well e Keep the mesh size down Find the minimum Horizontal Mesh and Vertical Mesh values that will suit your needs An overly complex mesh will create more folds and therefore more chances of self intersection The next chapter Working With Multiple Flags will discuss ways to make your flags unique It will also demonstrate how to quickly reuse the animation from one flag to create many animations with different flag images Working With Multiple Flags As you get more advanced with your flag work you may want to create scenes that include multiple flags This chapter discusses techniques you can use to make each flag look unique and describes ways to reuse an animation for different flags e Why Do My Flags Look Identical e Reusing Animation For Different Flags Why Do My Flags Look Identical Overview In this section you ll create a scene with two flags At first they will look identical but we ll show you how to make subtle changes so each flag looks unique Zaxwerks User Guide 4
97. wards the ground With no locked points the flag is free to react to wind and gravity without con straints For our purposes the flag falls too fast and there isn t enough time for the wind to affect the flag Click the OK button to close the Options window 2 Set Wind Dir Angle to 95 This will cause the flag to be blown slightly towards the camera instead of away from the camera This will make the flag peel towards the camera 3 Set Gravity to 1 0 This will allow the flag to fall just a little bit before being blown to the side Zaxwerks User Guide 52 Preview the final animation to see the transition Composition gt Preview gt RAM Preview By utilizing the cloth like nature of flags and by not locking down any of the points on the flag you can create unique transitions between layers In the next section Animating Text you ll see how flags can bring your text to life Animating Text Overview This section will show you how 3D Flag can be used to create animated text which can add a dynamic element to your scene Let s say you are creating titles for a weather station and want to make your text move like it s being blown by the wind to indicate a storm brewing Setting Up The Scene 1 Open the Weather aep project in the Flag Tutorials folder When the project opens it should look like this The scene consists of some text over a background We want to make the text undulate as if it
98. xtra time adjusting the alignment of the flag to the flagpole so learning how to fix the size of the flag is very useful Creating Five Identical Animations Now that our scene is ready we ll render five animations in a row We ll only make a single change to the Flag Solid between each render Since we re only making a single change each time there is no need to duplicate the Comp and render out five composi tions although if you d like to render all five at once you could do it that way We re going to assume that you already know how to use the Make Movie command and how to set your render settings so the procedure goes like this 1 Use the Make Movie command 2 Set the render settings Remember that you need the Best quality settings in order to get antialiasing and non rectangular shapes if you re using these features 3 Render the movie 4 After the movie is done rendering select the Flag Solid layer in the Timeline window 5 Open the Effect Controls window Effect gt Effect Controls 6 Find the Color From Layer menu and choose the Australia jpg flag The flag in the Comp window will change into an Austra lian flag Zaxwerks User Guide 50 Repeat the sequence of steps for each flag When you are done you will have five identical animations with a different flag in each In the next chapter Other Creative Uses For Flags you ll discover that 3D Flag can be used to create more than just fl

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