3d modeling
 

if i wanted to incorporate a 3d model into my project how do i do that..

Just render it out in your 3D modeling program as an uncompressed avi (for best quality), as a sequential PNG or TGA, or even as just plain ole' vanilla HDV, and drop it on the Vegas timeline.

any recommendations on programs...thanks for the response too

See the following:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=10609
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=58022

Threads on this topic are not very frequent around here. There are a lot of sites devoted to 3d modeling, but I don't have time to follow them anymore. One of the better ones is http://highend3d.com/

hmm thanks boyd...i have been investigating and looks as it is a career in itself for a peice that is impressive...i probably will farm it out if i need it done. do you or anyone here use pre made models in a project. like say i want to incorporate a model of a car. is there a place i can go and download lets say a model of a truck and then incorporate it in my project. have the 3d model spinning and overlay it on my vid track. thats basically what i am trying to do

There are LOTS of 3ds models for download. Problem is, they're just shells/frames. You need an app to which you can import them and finish them off. On the cheap side, there is Ulead Cool 3D, which is incredibly powerful, but not fast. Especially not when rendering to HD.

Yes, there are a lot of sources for models. For some reason, Poser has attracted quite a following. And aside for modeling people, it has been used for a lot of other things. I did a project last summer where they wanted Apache helicopters flying in formation like "Apocalypse Now". I found an inexpensive but very real looking poser model and imported it into Vue Infinite after animating the rotors in Poser. It looked real enough to fool people.

Check out DAZ: http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=catmain&cat=1
And Renderosity: http://market.renderosity.com/

ok i am dl ing poser right now am and going to give it a shot. i really just want to find a 3d animation i like make it an avi then bring it into my project...well see how this works

Tim,
I've created a simple 3D car model as an AVI with Sketchup.
It's only about 5Mb.
Would you like me to try to email it to you?


Robin.

yeah send it to me. i'd love to see it

turbotommmy@yahoo.com

wow poser is really quite involved. seems like it'll take a little time to grasp this one.. mabye more involved than i am looking for. but isn't that another word for 3d, "involved"?

Any of the more powerful programs will have steep learning curves. But Poser, Bryce and Carrarra all were originally introduced by a company called "MetaCreations" which no longer exists. Since then the programs have changed hands through multiple companies. But they all still share the same strange user interface which looks like it might be part of technology developed from an alien spacecraft at Area 51 ;-)

If you just want to spin a car like a logo, Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio has the lowest learning curve and it will import 3DS files (from 3D Studio Max). You can find a model of a car from places like 3DCafe.com and then import it into Ulead and spin it. This is very simple to do.

I use Cinema 4D because it does not have as steep a learning curve as 3D Max and Maya. C4D gives you way more control than a simple program like Ulead Cool 3D. Spinning it is easy, but what’s even better is flying a camera around it. Cinema 4D allows you to draw a spline curve, attach a camera to it, and then the camera flies the curve with perfect movements. You can even target the car so no matter where you move the camera, it will keep facing the car. Very powerful and easy to use if you invest a few nights (no more than a week) going through the tutorials.

~jr

thanks for the avi robin it played and looked cool. thanks guys for the suggestions i will keep trying these programs and see which one works best for me. I am not trying to create shrek movie but just something very very simple

nice!!!! ulead was easy an is gonna work perfect for me. perfect...thanks a bunch

I've used Lightwave for the last five years. 3D applications can be a steep learning curve, and often frustrating if you think 'easy' before diving in.

Go here:

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d

Loads of cool models for purchase there. You might be able to contact some of the builders there and farm out your needs, (i.e. "for a little more, can you rotate this over x time?"). Never know until you ask.

Depending on your NLE/Application you'd probably want 32bit TGA's or TIFF's image sequences with alpha. More flexibility, as I never render to AVI's.

Forgot to mention that if you want a full featured package that will cost you nothing, you should take a look at Blender.

http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html

It's open source and been under development for many years. In fact, their 10 year aniversary happens tommorrow.

Just wanted to add that this has been a very informative thread, thanks.

For my part I use Cinema4D because of the slightly more gentle learning curve (and because it has the word 'cinema' in its name, which is nice). For my modest requirements (at this time anyway) it's got more than enough. Also, its integration with After Effects seems to be better than any other 3d software.

I hope that the folks over at the SD Vegas forum get a chance to see this thread because I don't think this is a HD specific topic.

Have a great weekend.

Ian . . .

Oh, I meant to also concur with an earlier poster that 3dcafe is a fantastic source of free 3d models, all categorised and available in several formats. Well worth a look.

Blender is amazing ...
 

I decided to check out Blender and I have to say that while the learning curve is steep, this is some of the most impressive free software I have ever used. Thanks to all who have mentioned this software.

Speaking of very impressive free software, NASA's World Wind is another that is astounding.

Finally, (I hope this isn't too far off topic) is it possible to briefly explain how After Effects differs from a 3d modler? What do you typically do with After Effects and what products compete directly with After Effects?

Thanks, Shawn

what is this nasa world wind you speak of

NASA's World Wind is an amazing interactive globe of the Earth (and the Moon) that uses data from so many satellite sources. If you need a video of a spinning globe or a specific location on Earth, you can use World Wind and a video capture free plug-in to create some very impressive video. I haven't seen anything better if you need this sort of thing - Shawn

NASA World Wind (Free)
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

Movie Recorder (plugin) for World Wind (also free)
http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki...r_%28plugin%29

Helpful Site for Learning World Wind
http://www.worldwindcentral.com/

Discussion of Hi-Res Earth Video
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=51933

i dl'ed the nasa program and movie corder but can't seem to figure out how to record and export with those scripts they have any suggestions

Hey Tom,

I had played around with the default script that comes with WorldWind and I figured out that you're looking at two things. 1) There is a number (like 0 or 300) followed by a semi-colin (;) and 2) this is followed by WorldWind command. Here's what they mean. 1) The number is the total number of frames that you want to capture during your move. 2) The WorldWind command is a location that includes at least a Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude. If you click EDIT->COPY in worldwind, you can record a location, so if you copy what's inside the brackets [worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=-2.88117&lon=37.53695&alt=976384&dir=0&tilt=0] and click EDIT->PASTE in WorldWind, you end up right over Kilimajaro at an altitude high enough to see the entire southern Kenya/Tanzania border.

So if you run the default Script, you'll generate 300 frames or 10 seconds of video footage (at whatever pixel size you specify). If you run my script (shown below), you'll generate 1440 frames which becomes 48 seconds of footage. The main difference is that if you click PLAY on the Movie Recorder plug-in, it will play about 4x slower (on my computer) than having the 1440 images imported into Vegas and running at 30fps. My script creates a slow turning globe that slowly approaches to fill the screen. Hope this helps, Shawn

-------------------------------------------
DEFAULT SCRIPT
-------------------------------------------
0;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=19.70193&lon=9.55600&alt=12756393&bank=-10
90;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=37.85826&lon=10.58513&alt=123416&dir=90.4&tilt=74.9&bank=10
170;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=38.45829&lon=22.88853&alt=21294&dir=45.3&tilt=74.9&bank=10
240;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=42.09693&lon=24.62960&alt=17107&dir=2.0&tilt=74.9&bank=-10
300;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=45.61319&lon=24.53764&alt=15275&dir=43.1&tilt=74.9&bank=10

-----------------------------------------------
SHAWN'S SCRIPT
-----------------------------------------------
0;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=0.00000&alt=16e6
360;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=-90.00&alt=14e6
720;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=-180.00&alt=12e6
1080;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=-270.00&alt=10e6
1440;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=0.00000&alt=8e6

yeah i got that far shawn. but will vegas run a script file . i mean when i put my coordinates in the notepad and have movie recorder play that script file. what can i do with the script after that... how do i import to vegas

It's not a Vegas script - you can only use that script for Worldwind. You just run the Script in WorldWind by clicking SAVE and the PNG files are saved to a directory on your hard drive. The one glitch I noticed is that the script doesn't always seem to choose the same directory as the script, so if it's not where the Script is, check the WorldWind directory. Once all the PNG files are created, import them into Vegas using FILE->IMPORT->MEDIA (then click on the first file and hit CTRL-A), then check the option at the bottom that says "Open Still Image Sequence" and click OPEN. Then a "Properties" window will appear, and you can typically click OK at this point. Finally, you'll get a warning, and you can click OK as well. Now look in the Project Media tab and you should find a new PNG Image sequence that you can add to the timeline.

damb man i must be stupid becuase everything i do and i still can't get this crap to work. lol. when i try to import the png files vegas does not unshade the import image sequence box. i am confused about running and saving the script. i can save screen shots and they come out as png files then i can import them but after that i am stuck...sorry i have been trying...it looks very promising though

ok i am getting closer i found all the files now i still can't get vegas to unshade the import image sequnece box

i did it lol. nice....yeah i will have to make experiament now. cool...thanks a bunch man...

now the only other problem i have is i have a big tiff file blue marble earth phto 26 mb. vegas is having a hard time with this file. when i pan and crop it chokes. should i try to change format for an easier to work with file. what do you do

I'm assuming you downloaded this large file from NASA's website. 1) Try PNG instead of TIFF and 2) try to match the photo's pixel dimensions to the 1.33 pixel aspect ratio of HDV. So, if you crop the photo to 1920x1080 (or if it's a square pixel count vert. and horz., then resample to 1080x1080 and then expand the Canvas to 1920x1080). Next, resample the horizontal ONLY so it's now 1440x1080 (in Photoshop you do this by IMAGE->RESIZE->IMAGE_SIZE, and uncheck "Constrain Proportions"). It will look wierd (squished along the horizontal) when done, but if you import it into Vegas at 1440x1080, Vegas will automatically assign a 1.33 PAR to the event on the timeline and it will look normal. If you want to zoom into the photo, then multiply all the numbers above by 2x (2x 1440x1080 = 2880x2160), and that will give you room to zoom into the photo in Vegas using keyframes in the Pan/Crop tool. If you do use something larger than 1440x1080, Vegas will set the PAR to 1.0 and the image will look squished in Vegas. To change this, right click on the event on the Vegas timeline, and choose PROPETIES->MEDIA and set the PAR to 1.3333 (HDV 1080). Now the image will be unsquished.

One more thing - targa (.TGA) may be a better choice over PNG, but either will work better than TIFF.

If I might suggest "Hash Animation Master." It works great for me! It has alot of the features of more expensive programs, but comparatively cheap. You can get a copy for $300.00. It does it all. Modeling, compositing, Animating. Plus it has alot of presets so you can pretty much start animating as soon as you install it.I really like it!
I must also agree that Ulead Cool 3d is a good program as well.