FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp User Manual. freeform created by mettle.com

FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp User Manual freeform created by mettle.com

Contents 3 Installation 4 Controls 6 Controls - cont d 8 Support 9 Application

FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp The FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp plugin for After Effects CS4 gives you true 3D distortion control over your 2D layers, creating possibilities for communicating depth and dimension in your compositions that you can only achieve with FreeForm. Installation System Requirements: FreeForm 3DMesh Warp is a plugin for After Effects CS4, created by www. mettle.com. It has been tested with Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Installing 1 Locate the Install file. 2 Double-click the installation program and follow the instructions. 3 The first time you attempt to run FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp (or if you are running in demonstration mode), it will show a grid on top of your effect as a watermark. To remove the watermark, click on the Register hot text in the top of the Effect Controls panel to enter your information, including the serial key you received when you purchased your plugin.. Resources Video Tutorials Check out project techniques from DigiUsers just like you. View video tutorials The Reviews See what others are saying about DE s latest releases, plugin effects, and more. Read the reviews Project Gallery DE software and plugins in action. For more information visit: http://www.digieffects.com/support/installation_guide Search, view, and download the latest presets and videos or submit your own. Visit project gallery 3

Controls Digieffects FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp places a layer in 3D space to make it available for manipulation. About Shows information about Digieffects and the FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp (created by www.mettle. com) plugin version. Reset Resets the parameters to their factory default. Animation Presets Contain groups of parameter settings you would like to keep for future use. The list is empty until you save a group of parameters as a Preset. What you ll need A layer you will be bending/warping with Free- Form 3D Mesh Warp. Optionally, you can use a 3D camera, a null object, and for the most compelling effect, some lights. NOTE: Set magnification and resolution to 50% and (Half) respectively for faster response while you are working. Digieffects FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp places a layer in 3D space to make it available for manipulation. Often, when you apply FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp to a layer, After Effects may bring up a dialog about 2D and 3D effects and layers. When that happens, select Once per session from the dropdown menu of After Effects dialog window to keep these messages to a bare minimum, and click OK to make the dialog go away. The plugin name itself may show a yellow cube with an exclamation mark inside. You can safely ignore all of these warnings.

FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp is a Digieffects plugin for After Effects, created by www.mettle.com. Effect Controls Grid AThe first set of controls you ll see on top of the list are under the Grid category. If you twirl down the sub-parameters, you ll see that you can enter values for the rows and columns of your grid. Raising the values creates more segments in that dimension...rows (height)and/or columns (width). Each intersection in the grid forms a point that can be individually manipulated. The value can range from 1 to 20, with a value of 1 restricting you to manipulation from control points on the corners only (as there is no subdivision of the surface) in that direction, and 20 creates the densest grid with (obviously) as many possible points of manipulation. Turning on the stopwatch for Mesh Distortion allows to to change your distortion over time. Some notes regarding Grid settings: 1. The more dense the grid is the smaller the area of influence each point has, quite possibly creating far more work for you if you intend to create a distortion with sweeping lines and gradual curves. Using the tangent handles on the control points to create bezier tension between a very low number of control points is the most efficient way to create more gradual and sweeping curves over wider areas. 2. A grid that has more points requires more math which will take longer to preview and render. Using only as many control points as you need is one of the key factors in becoming proficient with FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp. 3. Changing the Row or Column value after you ve created a distortion effect will reset all parameters if you want to try a different Grid setting to test how it might affect your results, you might want to make a copy of the comp you re working on and test the new Grid setting there, preserving your work for those times when you decide you d like to go back to plan A... Editing Controls Manipulation Each control point can be manipulated in 3d space on the X,Y,and Z axis. There are times when having this setting designated for all three axis can make your alterations very flexible. However, After Effects remains a 2 dimensional interface, and as powerful as it is, it can be difficult to move anything precisely on all three axes at once when you can only move the mouse in two directions. For the most control, you can select any of the axes individually and restrict movement to that axis so you can prevent any unintended movement in space that could create unintended results. Note: It can be extremely helpful to use a multiple view option in the composition view panel to see exactly how your distorted object is oriented. As your object is distorted, oftentimes the cues your eyes would have taken from being able to see an undistorted plane in space are simply not there. Lighting direction, elaborate distortions, and After Effects camera anomalies can create misleading visual cues that can be confusing when trying to determine the relative position of control points, and the orientation of their tangent vectors. Most artists who work in 3D in After Effects find that running multiple views showing at least three angles (top, right, front for example) is a very helpful way to track the status of their scene. Tangent Alignment Tangent Alignment causes these tangents to move together when it is on, creating a bit of a teeter-totter effect as you would move one tangent handle, the opposite handle along that axis would move as if the two were connected through the control point and were rigid, pivoting at the control point. Turning 5

Controls - cont d Tangent Alignment off would allow the independent movement of each tangent handle, pivoting at the control point, which can result in hard corners and points where the tangents meet. Note: The tangent handles on each control point work like similar interface controls you may have seen in other software applications. They are sometimes referred to as bezier handles. Each control point has tangents that extend out from that point along the subdividing rows or columns that it connects to... A corner control point only has two tangents as it connects to two vectors on the grid. A control point along the middle of a side of the target layer would only exist there if there was a grid intersection there, so a control point along a side would have three tangents, one extending in each direction along the side, and one extending into the mesh along a subdividing row or column. A control point inside the layer surface would have four tangents, each opposing pair forming an axis through the control point. 3D Mesh Controls Position X, Y, and Z Input values for each of the three axes to control where the Layer is placed in 3D space. Rotation X, Y, and Z Controls the rotation of the Layer along each axis in 3D space. Anchor X, Y, and Z Changes the position of the 3D anchor point that controls the position of the axis along which the Layer moves and rotates. Surface Controls Diffuse Adjusts the surface color s ability to reflect or absorb light. Higher values add light in the shadows, decreasing contrast and will make the surface uniformly brighter over its entire area. Lower values make the surface shadows look darker. If you feel the shape of your object is not as defined as you d like, increasing the darkness of the shadows by decreasing the diffuse value can help.

FreeForm 3D Mesh Warp is a Digieffects plugin for After Effects, created by www.mettle.com. Note: If you intend to use directional lighting in After Effects to indicate dimension and depth and more of the layer seems illuminated than you think your lights should be covering, you may have a high Diffuse value that is adding too much fill light to the image. Specular Controls the specular highlights (intensity)of the Layer. Higher values create a more metallic, shiny look and a brighter, harder highlight. Roughness Control the softness of the specular highlight. NOTE: The shading algorithm used by FreeForm 3D Displacer is based on the Blinn-Phong shading algorithm and the roughness control is related to the exponent value (but not directly). Backside Controls You can customize the surface of the reverse side of your target layer. Layer You can choose a different layer from within the composition to be the backside surface map of your 3D mesh, creating a completely different texture on the back side of your warped layer. Shade This will only add a solid color as the backside instead of an image, e.g. if you don t have an image to put there AND don t want the frontside displayed as the back. 3D Mesh Quality Mesh subdivision Sets the density of your mesh. Your mesh is different than your grid. While the grid density determines how many points of manipulation you have, the mesh value determines the precision of the curves when previewed or rendered. Lower values (30-300) create less defined shapes and are good for less detailed deforms like hills or wavy water. Higher values (300-600) are needed for sharp corners/ edges and high detail for creating more precise warps. You can increase this value to a maximum of 1000, but as values increase, so does render time. Rendering: Full Renders the target layer as a full color image. Shade Renders the target layer as a single solid color. Wireframe Renders the layer as a wireframe image. (This setting is most useful for quick updating as you are working to set up your effect.) Antialiasing Control the amount of smoothing along the edges of your deformation. Select a value from none to high. Higher values will affect rendering time. Image Filtering Scaling an image can cause artifacts. Selecting this checkbox to employ a Bicubic filter (similar to what you might use when resizing an image in Photoshop), smoothing the scaled image by minimizing artifacts. Multi-processing FreeForm 3D Displacement has its own multiprocessing code independent of After Effects. If you have a multi-core machine, this can speed up the plug-in s responsiveness. However, it can sometimes introduce artifacting on the target layer. If you notice any visual artifacts, uncheck Multiprocessing and see if it fixes the problem. Anchor Color Color of the layer anchors. Anchor Control Check to see all controls 7

Plugins, 3D layers, and the After Effects Warning Dialog Box FIGURE 3.0 Featured Products Falloff Lighting Turn on the light. Often, when you re using 3D plugins on a 3D layer, After Effects will complain that you can only apply 2D effects onto 3D layers. When that happens, select Once per session from the dropdown menu of After Effects dialog window to keep these messages to a bare minimum, and click OK to make the dialog go away. The plugin name itself may show a yellow cube with an exclamation mark inside. You can safely ignore all of these warnings. See Figure 3.0 Falloff Lighting provides an enhanced lighting system to AE built in light and offers the control and flexibility you need to properly light your scene. Learn More Try It Free (Trial Version) Order Now - US$49.00 Camera Mapper Simulate 3D scenes from 2D stills or video footage. Realistically create the illusion that a still image is fully dimensional moving footage. Learn More Try It Free (Trial Version) Order Now - US$79.00

Support Check out the our online Video Tutorials section for more product resources and tips. Need Assistance? Take a moment and fill out our online Email Support Form and we ll get back to you as soon as possible. Or visit us online at: www.digieffects.com User Forum Have questions? Get the answers on our expert User Forum, where you ll find the latest user tips product update info, software sales and more. Address 27 N. Front Street, Ste. 200 Wilmington, NC 28401 Business Hours 9 AM - 5 PM EST Toll Free 1-888-DIGI-EFX (344-4339) Email info@digieffects.com 9