3D Logos

[SCDonnelly]

The production company I'm currently Interning for uses a combination of Maya and 3DS Max for all their 3D work.

We work closely with sports teams and produce 3D logos for in Arena playback. To do this, we import Illustrator files as editable splines and texture and extrude the logo's faces.

 

As i use A:M at home, I'd like to know if anyone has tried this function?

[MMZ_TimeLord]

I've used it a few times... it works great in AM. It's the AI Wizard if you didn't already know that.

 

Any Illustrator file works fine. Check the tutorial here.

 

Hope that helps. Cheers!

[John Bigboote]

HECK YEAH!!!

 

I do arena work as well...AND 3D logos for television commercials. The method you mentioned is the way we do it, too. You will 'break-down' your illustrator elements and import them to A:M using the .ai wizard...which will extrude them and add bevels if you want. Then color them and apply decals/materials/color attributes.

 

Here's a sample I did for the Detroit Red Wings that is used as a screen saver at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. I basicly imported 2 groups...the RED with all the little shapes, and the WHITE with the main unit. A little compositing in After Effects and---BINGO!

 

I am also 'told' that it is directly because of MY animations that the Red Wings are doing so well...and that I should get MY name inscribed on the Stanley Cup should they win it.

DPS_drw_logoSM.mov

[Paul Forwood]

Yes. There is an AI Import plugin built into A:M. It has been a while since I last used it though so I don't feel qualified to give you any tips at the moment.

You access the AI plugin by right clicking in a model window and following the path: Plugins\Wizards\AI and then just browse for your file, configure how you want A:M to treat the import.

 

I am pretty sure that it only handles Illustrator 9, and earlier versions, so you may need to prepare your Illustrator artwork first.

Edit: Sorry. That should be Illustrator 8, not 9.

 

--------------

Having said that, I went and tried the AI wizard in A:M13s and haven't managed to import anything yet. In fact A:M has stopped responding. I'm glad I remembered to save my project first. I know that the AI Wizard was working in previous versions of A:M. and this might just be the files that I am trying to import.

 

Anyway, good luck trying. Show us any good results you get, okay?

[John Bigboote]

"LET'S GO WINGS!" as played by 'Al' the octopus...who lives in the center ice scoreboard watching the games from above...sometimes, he loses his balance and falls onto the ice during a game.

CHANT_3_LGWorganSM.mov

[John Bigboote]

I am pretty sure that it only handles Illustrator 9, and earlier versions, so you may need to prepare your Illustrator artwork first.

 

 

 

Not 9...8. Save your AI files in the .ai version 8 (eight) format. A:M will crash on anything higher.

[Paul Forwood]

Ha ha! Nice work, Matt! (Mr. BootAY)

 

How did you get that flare effect in the first one? Is that composited in?

 

Got any more?

[John Bigboote]

Got any more?

 

 

SURE! Here's 2 more with my 'Belle Tire' guy. The hockey one is a 'bug' that will show in the corner of the broadcast to announce a 'Belle Tire' power-play during Red Wings broadcasts...and the Baseball one shows on the Scoreboard at Comerica Park during Tiger's games.

 

 

PAUL--- Yes, the flare is added in Adobe After Effects using a plug-in called Trapcode Shine... www.trapcode.com

BT_BB6_whatApitchSM.mov

BT_Slapshot_1SM.mov

[Rodney]

I've used AI version 7 pretty exclusively since the AI Wizard came out.

As its worked well for me I've never really attempted to use AI version 8.

 

So... Don't forget...

[Chrury Sanson]

Would you know how a GIMP user might use this neat feature? (Is it possible?)

[John Bigboote]

Would you know how a GIMP user might use this neat feature? (Is it possible?)

 

 

I've never used gimp before, Chrury. I would guess the test would be:

 

A) Make your vector artwork or text...convert to paths if possible.

SAVE AS: Adobe Illustrator .ai format

 

 

Other applications that I know of that can make great vector artwork easily are Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Freehand(?) and if all else fails...try the 'Font Wizard within A:M.

[largento]

Does the Gimp have any vector capabilities? (I've never used it.) You'd need an application that creates vector art and can export an Illustrator file.

[Chrury Sanson]

Gimp has some vector capabilities but it is mainly a Bitmap editor and it cannot export/save into *.ai.

 

HOWEVER! I did a poke through GIMPs User manual, and it pointed me towards Inkscape. Apparently it's not quite as in depth as Illustrator, but it's Open Source, free, and can work with/create *.ai files.

 

It looks like I'm going to have to give this guy a whirl. Perhaps it could help me with the IM UI I'm skinning.

[Paul Forwood]

Nice work, Matt!

 

Yes, Inkscape seems to be a great pretender to Adobe's Illustrator. I have it installed but as I have Illustrator I haven't played with it enough to know it's potential. Inkscape does seem to give you all the tools that you would need though.

[SCDonnelly]

Excellent! Thanks for all the replies. I actually use Freehand at home, which can export to AI files.

Although I must say I'm a Ranger's fan, the company I'm interning at does work for the Columbus Bluejackets, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Red Wings animations look great man!

 

Again, thanks for all of your help!

[GAngus]

Hi guys,

Hey, I hijacked that tip for trying Inkscape.

Got it downloaded, but when I try to run the app., it just briefly pops on the screen as if to start up, but then it dies, and I end up looking at a unix-like terminal window in X11. No error messages indicated.

The version I got says 0.45+devel (stands for development?).

Note, on Mac OSX 10.4.9 here G4 Box

Would any of you know what I might need to do to get Inkscape working from this point ?

Guess I should really ask this over at the Inkscape site, and plan to, but thought I would give it a shot here .

Thanks for any clues.

[largento]

I installed inkscape once last year, but didn't make much use of it. I do remember it seeming difficult to get it to install and run.

 

According to their download page: http://inkscape.org/download/

 

There is a stable version (0.45.1) and then a development version (which is what I'm guessing you have.) It does say that the development version isn't stable.

 

I didn't look around too much, but my impression is that the app uses the SVG format for its compatibility with Illustrator. That would work to get it into Illustrator, but you'd need to be able to save it as an Illustrator file to get the AI Wizard plug-in to work with it... wouldn't you?

[Rodney]

I didn't look around too much, but my impression is that the app uses the SVG format for its compatibility with Illustrator. That would work to get it into Illustrator, but you'd need to be able to save it as an Illustrator file to get the AI Wizard plug-in to work with it... wouldn't you

 

David Simmons has reported gettting good results from Inkscape into AI format.

I seem to recall getting it through once but it wasn't a straightforward method to get it done.

As I have other ways to get it done (through CorelDraw/PowerTrace) I backed off of investigating further.

 

Check the Help file and it may walk you through the process.

[largento]

I'm an Illustrator guy myself, so I haven't really had the motivation to dig too deep into Inkscape. I have a friend who switched to an Intel Mac about a year ago and could no longer run his Classic apps. (He had an ancient version of Freehand.) I looked for some free/low-cost apps for him and saw Inkscape. Since I had also bought an MacBook and Adobe wasn't going to be coming out with Universal Binary versions of their apps anytime soon, I installed Inkscape and The Gimp on it. My experience was that they were too limited and I was okay with getting slow performance on the Adobe apps compared to giving up features. (I also didn't/don't really use my laptop for work.)

 

I did do a quick search about exporting to ai files from Inkscape and one page I saw indicated that you needed to install something called "ghostscript." Have no clue what that is and if it's available for the Mac.

[largento]

I actually use Freehand at home, which can export to AI files.

 

Well, it looks like it may be time to use your Freehand license to jump ship:

 

http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2007/05/...ersions-of.html

 

Adobe has now made it official that there will be no more new versions of Freehand (nor any updates, patches or attempts to make it compatible with Intel Macs or Vista PCs.) This is hardly surprising. I'm sure they thought they were killing Freehand back in the 90s when they bought out Aldus.

 

As a consolation prize, Freehand owners qualify to get a cross upgrade to AI CS3 for $199.

 

I was a Freehand user for many years and only switched to Illustrator because the industry demanded it. As much as I fought it, though, after a short time I found Illustrator to be more powerful and never looked back.

[SCDonnelly]

Luckily, I don't plan on upgrading to Vista. I'd eventually get a Mac for my video work and to get Final Cut Studio 2, but I bought a brand new Desktop at the end of XP's Run, and it's still in mint/straight out of the factory condition! I've tried Illustrator, but it just doesn't hold up in my opinion to Freehand (Damn monopolies!). I like what Adobe's doing with all of their products, but Currently i have no plans on investing in Illustrator, as anything vector related, I can produce in Freehand and export to AI if needed.

 

That's kind of rediculous. $199 for an upgrade? I bought at my college's bookstore the Student Edition of Freehand for $60! And it came with all the functions of the professional version, along with two installation discs....one Mac, one PC. Oh well.

[largento]

Yeah, pro software is expensive. But when you get into the system, it's not *as* bad. $199 may sound like a lot, but compared to $599, it's not quite as steep.

 

The Adobe buy-out was good news for me, since it allowed me to upgrade my Macromedia studio to CS3 and I ended up getting to add Illustrator CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended for what amounted to an extra $100. That was a seriously cool thing.

 

I hadn't realized that Macromedia had already abandoned Freehand even before the Adobe buyout. Apparently the last version they'd worked on was like 4 years ago, so even if the buyout hadn't happened, Freehand was already dead.

 

I kept up with Freehand until Freehand9. It did help me to upgrade to a Macromedia bundle (I also had Flash), which got me here.

 

I wish my first version of Freehand had only been $60! I'd have to check but I think the first version I bought of it (3.11, I think) was $400! I remember I took out a bank loan to buy my first computer along with Freehand and Pagemaker. The software cost more than the computer!

[SCDonnelly]

That's what I like about having a student ID, discounts on software and Mac offers student discounts! Unfortunately I only have it for a few more days and I'm done!

 

Yeah, the last version of Freehand we were able to buy was MX (2004 i believe) and that was taught up until about a few months after the Adobe buyout, so still very recent.