Hi Justyn, Hi Cameron
Sorry for the late reply! I prepared a short rough example. As I do not have access to other 3D programs I used gmax for that. In my example the image splits up to 4 pieces and these pieces fly and rotate away. As I am not a 3D modeler I do not know the perfect way to prepare an object sequence so I did it the manual way. But I know that there is a way to tell for example 3Ds Max to batch convert an animated scene into separate x files. So all I want to say that there is an easier way for the preparation, but this short tutorial shows the principle
1) Prepare a sequence of x filese.g open gmax and create 4 planes, apply a UVW Map to all so that they form 1 image. Then attach the objects (I applied "Edit Mesh" to the first plane and attached the other planes) in the list from the first plane you can still use "Element" to get access to each individual plane. Then I clicked the button "Reset Transform" and "Scale" and exported the object. Then I moved the elements and again exported. so step by step I exported 10 x files.
See attached a) the gmax project, b) a zip with 10 x files c) a screenshot from the UI showing how to access the "Element"s.
2) Generate an index objectOpen the 3D Warper and import the first x file. Export it as an index file.
See attached the index file, its a png file.
3) Batch convert the objects to morph targetsBack in the 3D Warper, choose the "Convert" command and convert all 10 x files to so called morph targets
See attached the zip folder containing 10 png files
4) Program the timeline in Pandoras BoxOpen Pandoras Box and drag all files to the Project tab.
- index file Drag the x file into the project, then display an image or video on a layer. As soon as you apply the index object as a mesh file to a layer it will disappear.
- morph targets Import these files as a image sequence to PB. You can do this for example in the Assets tab with right-clicking on a folder that contains these 10 png files. As a frame rate I chose 2. Obviously with more frames you can setup a smoother movement. In the Inspector, activate the option "Video Alpha Channel" !
- effects Drag the Warp Target effect from the Warp folder in the Aeon FX tab onto the layer. If you have chosen a video as a media file, simply drag the image sequence onto the FX media field. If you like to display an image, make a right-click into the FX media field and choose "Share Texture", e.g. with Layer2. Program the image sequence on Layer2, the container holding the image, the index file and the Warp effect need to be as long as the container holding the image sequnce, i.e. the morph data
See attached a screenshot from the PB interface
Alternatively you can use another effect from the "Geometry" folder called Morphing A-B-C. Again you need the index object on the layer itself, single morph target images can be used as FX media files. The fader moves between Morph A and MNorph B.
I know it seems as a lot of steps to remind and a little complicated in the beginning but in my opinion the effect is great and worth the effort. If there are any questions, please ask.
pS. if you run into performance issues with the png sequence you could as well convert the images to a video file using the Image Converter. You should then use the avi format NOT the mpg format, it is important to keep the uncompressed RGB data per pixel! Don't forget to activate the alpha channel in PB for the avi.
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