Morphing for HollywoodFX

Hi Guys.

This is some info I received from Pinnacle support for HFX. I really hope you can help me. I will try to implement what they say, as far as I understand <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>.
Here it is:

---

Some guidelines for importing 3D Objects into Hollywood FX:

– Objects must be Lightwave 5.x format (not v6).
– Objects must consist entirely of triangles or quads (no n-point polys).
– Keeping the number of polygons down only speeds rendering, so a reasonable number is best.
– Skeleton, bones, displacement mapping, clip mapping, distance dissolve, particle/line size, polygon size, polygon edges, are not supported by Hollywood FX at this time.

As for putting video on an object, hopefully this will help:

The portion of the object that is displaying video should be exactly the 4:3:1 proportions (x:y:z), and should be centered at 0, 0, 0. For example, if you were designing a TV object where the face of the TV plays video, that face should have an X width of 4 and a Y height of 3, and should be centered at exactly 0, 0, 0.
If you want to map video onto a surface, use images named Map001.tga, Map002.tga, etc to map onto the surface. It is preferred to use Flat projection of textures onto the surface to get the best translation into HFX.

Hope this helped.

Lloyd@Pinnacle Systems, Inc.

---

So finally they gave some info <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –> I can’t wait to get home and try some more… <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –> Now, if you guys could give some good tips, and we can make things work, you have a whole new kind of usergroup extra in the future <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>

Thanks in advance

Eddy

Hi,

I am a user of HollywoodFX Gold, a program that does transitions for movies (home movies in my case, no pro at all <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –> ) One of the features Is that you can import Lightwave Objects, but only those… This was a disaster for I can not afford that program, until I found 3DC! Boy was I glad when I read it could export as LWO… I jumped in the deep and bought it right away and it really does the trick: I can import objects from all over the web <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –> (no, I am not a modelmaker..)

The same converter can also import 2 objects and make them morph… BUT (here it comes..)
The objects have to have the same number of points !!!
The kind of morph I am looking for is that an object morphs into a rectangle with dimensions like 4×5 (720×576 is the PAL size I use on video )

I tried dividing, but I can never get the exact same amount as the object I am aming for… If 3DC could do this trick, I am sure a lot of HFX users would jump to the product…

Any ideas? ANy HFX users ? (I know most of you are into modeling, and I thank all of you guys for all the free samples around the net for I am NOT an artist of that kind <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –> )

Thanks in Advance

Eddy

Thanks for thi info Alan.

But it is NOT as you assume… In HFX the objective is to create transitions to transiate from one peace of film to another. We do not want to just andquot;stickandquot; them together, but do nice stuff with it.

Example: a andquot;flatandquot; screen (which is a 3dobject in fact, 1 side used to stick the movie on) moviepiece1 morphs into a butterfly while in the back moviepiece2 is playing (appearing that way) as the butterfly goes off screen…

Example 2: Moviepiece1 wraps itself around a beercan, wich is tilted. Out comes a ball that morphs into andnbsp;moviepiece2.

These examples can be created inside HFX with the morphs that are included. You only have to add the beercan as an object, fit the andquot;wrapandquot; transition to it, and you are off. The ball is also provided.

But of course we like to create our own stuff like that. The hard part is that any object you use, should be transformed into a andquot;flatandquot; 3D. The importer only allows for 2 objects to be imported and transformed into a morph, if they have the same number of points and Polygons.

Since I am not a 3D artist, I use free 3D objects I find on the web. Now I need to create a andquot;flatandquot; with the same number of Points and Poligons… I am not without hope yet, but so far I have not come even close… :'(

Kind Regards

Eddy

I think it shouldbe quiet easy to get the same number of points – assuming that they are close to start with. Look at the trim and reduce functions.

Hi Alex, Hi Richard,

The 3D objects don’t need to be textured at all. The idea is to import them in HFX and there I like to apply a video image on them. So they are allready imported when they are textured, not? andnbsp;But on that part I still need some Answers from Pinnacle Support (the HFX Forum) The import works fine, but the applying of images on them… looks like it only takes a small part of the picture, but the whole thing is undocumented, so Pinnacle owns me some answers there first.
Once that matter solved, I will know better what questions to ask you guys <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –> I even don’t understand much of the jargon on the programm (3DC that is). I don’t even understand half of the things the icons do, but I find out with trial and error and the manual of course <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>
I will never be a real 3D artist, but I am pretty shure 3DC will do just what I need it to do for me <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>

Thanks for everything, and thanks in advance for the many answers of my boring questions you are going to give <!– s:-) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:-) –>

Kind regards

Eddy

Eddy,

This could be a bit tricky, though not impossible. Applying textures usually results in vertices being split. So even if you get the same number of points on an untextured object you may find that you end up with different numbers of points on the final textured objects. If you end up with different numbers of points you may find it difficult to fix. One way you could do it is to merge in a small hidden object of the number of faces/points that you need to make up the difference.

Richard