Great intro.

i'm working on a similar intro. I'd like to simulate a travel line on the map show next destination. How can i do that?

lightads, 4 years ago

MrGruntHunter, the pivot point can be visualized be pressing <F2>.

By default, the pivot point of a picture is in the centre of the picture. So if you make sure this coincides with the centre of your wheel, the pivot point does not have to be adjusted and it will immediately rotate perfectly by animating the 3rd slider of the ROTATION property.

michiel, 4 years ago

Lightads, I would draw the travel line in Bixelangelo and render it in BluffTitler with the sketch layer.

outerspace-software.com...

michiel, 4 years ago

Thank you Vincent. That should make life for me much easier. As you also previously mentioned it was a real task getting everything on the same plane, or very close to it and then getting them sized correctly. One thing I've found is that I don't have to cut out the wheel openings when clearing the background of the coach in Photo Shop. I just took a photo of the wheels by themselves, cut out just the rims and then used the wheels in the coach photo as a guide to resize them. I can see though that I need to get the coach in a clear space in the sun with my camera set as straight on as possible to the wheels to eliminate as much parallax and shadows as possible.

LIGHTADS, I had thought about doing the same thing using and overhead view of the coach but instead used a red arrow over the map while in VEGAS Pro utilizing its Pan & Crop tool with Key Frames. I took over 2,000 during our Fall trip last year so I'm having to break them into 5 separate slide show videos to at least keep them under 25 min each, and that's still a lot.

Michiel, When I imported the wheels into the container with the coach picture layer and applied rotation to them they rotated around one edge. I also discovered there is a limitation to the rotation control. I tried inserting 2,000 but it stops at 1999.999879. Is it not possible to make something rotate/spin any faster? Might be useful for an airplane propeller. I'll probably end up extending this INTRO to around 10 sec and what would really be helpful is to be able to sync the wheel rotation with the speed of the coach as it travels across the screen, for a more natural effect.

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

Due to the stroboscopic effect your wheels will probably rotate faster with a lower value.

I do not understand why it isn't possible to enter higher values. We will look into that. Thank you for the report!

michiel, 4 years ago

Interesting Michiel, I will test a lower value and see what happens. I think I got lucky with the speed of rotation I ended up with because it appears to sync with the linear travel of the vehicle pretty close.

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

A high-tech, ULTIMATE edition only, way would be like this:
-select the picture layer of the wheel
-choose LAYER > VJ...
-select the ROTATION property in the property dropdown
-set the SENSITIVITY textboxes to 0,0,360
-set the BPM to 60
-set the WAVEFORM to SAWTOOTH

Click OK and play the show.

Play around with the BPM for the rotation speed.

Set the SENSITIVITY to 0,0,-360 to rotate the other way round.

michiel, 4 years ago

Hello,
Here is another method with a modeled rim, and if that helps you the assembly is at the following link:
drive.google.com...

Good luck and good show !

And it reminds me of wonderful memories of the USA: twenty years ago, with a Dodge pickup truck mounted from a cell, I had the tour of the "Grand Parks" to the west of your circuit. It was one of the most wonderful trips I have ever made!

Alex-Raymond T., 4 years ago

Thanks Alex, You did a great job on the wheels. I see you created them in their individual respective containers. I'll have to try that after I take my new photos of the wheels. That may help me with some of the other issues I was struggling with. At first when I would move the coach the wheels would travel at a different speed, separate and I had a hard time getting them synchronized with the coach movement. I need to get the coach out in some decent lighting so I don't have the shadows etc on them. I think if I can get back far enough and use a telephoto lens I can eliminate most of the parallax issues also. Cutting them perfectly round out of PhotoShop is another challenge also :-) The first time I tried selecting the entire wheel but the problem is that the tires are flat on the bottom so they looked funny when rotating that's when I tried just selecting the chrome rims instead and the front rim is different than the two rear axles.
Yes there's some pretty amazing scenery out west and we hopefully will be able to go back out again later this year. I want to visit all of the National Parks in UTAH plus the International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico. I told my wife we needed to do this while I'm still capable ... not getting any younger LOL.

Stay Safe
Mike

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

Michiel, I purchased Bixeangelo quite a while ago but have never used it. I open it up today and figured out how to import a copy of my background map and then draw a line around the path and save it as an eps file. I then open up a new show in BT and added a Sketch layer and added my new esp file but now I have no idea of what to do with it. Do you know of anyone who has created a tutorial video, maybe a YouTube video, of how complete the process of having an animated road map with some sort of object following the path that I could go view?

OK, a little follow up here. I watched Franco's tutorial and followed him as best as I could, not understanding Italian (sorry Franco) And was able to bring my route traced eps file into BT attached to a new Sketch Layer I created. I found how the Writer control is used. I then created a Picture Layer attached to the Sketch Layer ans selected a red arrow for a test object to follow the map route. What I'm having a problem with is keeping it attached to the route line as the route gets written out with the Writer control. I did make sure both were on the same plane and that helped some but not completely. What else am I missing?

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

So the question is: how to make the sketch layer coincide with the route on the picture layer?

The answer is: use the POSITION and SIZE properties of the sketch layer to make them match.

I don't think there's a magic trick. Play around with those 2 props to get it right.

On the screenshot you can see the result of a quick test with a part of your map, grabbed from your YT video.

michiel, 4 years ago

Michiel, I've been able to do what you demonstrated and have the route be drawn over the route path and actually for what I'm doing that will probably work fine. What I was asking about was how to have a single little object, like a car, person, arrow, circle or whatever follow the route path without drawing the line. I guess it would be like having BIX on an invisible roller coaster. I was trying to have an arrow follow that path but I couldn't get the arrow to completely follow the traced line. I figured once I got it to do that I could use the transparency control to make the line disappear. I had the track and arrow on the same plane ...... but now as I'm tying this I'm wondering if maybe I brought the arrow out to a different plane and resized it accordingly I might answer my own question.

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

When a picture layer is attached to a sketch layer, its POSITION property is relative to the sketch layer. This can be used to place the picture a bit above the plane.

michiel, 4 years ago

To make sketch invisible you can apply invisible.cfx to the sketch or set pen size to 0,0

vincent, 4 years ago

These are wheels based on eps files only. With good photos as texture it should be perfect (it's already not bad here).
Good editing.
drive.google.com...

Possibly don't forget to use "CTRL + M" to include the running gear in your assembly

Alex-Raymond T., 4 years ago

Why make pictures of individual wheels. Make a picture of one wheel. Place it set the rotation. Then clone it twice and chance the position. It's easier.

Filip, 4 years ago

Because the front wheel and those of the rear axle are not the same. At the front the rim is convex and at the rear they are concave. Of course, the two rear wheels are clones. Only the name of the container changes for easier reading of the program.
On a previous test, I had the three identical modeled wheels but they were less representative of reality.

Alex-Raymond T., 4 years ago

Alex, What are you referring to about using CTRL + M ?
Filip, Yes the front (or some call them the steer wheels) wheels are different than the rear Drive and Tag axles although it probably doesn't mean anything to anyone else except that I know what they are supposed to look like. :-) What I need to do before I fully render this is go back and take better photos to minimize the parallax and shadows in them. Right now I'm using what I have just for place holders while I'm trying to learn how to make everything work together. It took me ALL day yesterday just trying to get an animated red line tracing the trip route. I am utterly amazed at how fast you guys can create things. Pretty much everything I see posted would take me months, if not a year, to create and even then I doubt I could reproduce any of these projects. It's really tough when you only use this program occasionally.

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

This is the way to integrate one show into another:
1- You prepare your show with your trip in the background, then the mountain, then the bodywork of your beautiful motorhome in the foreground (for example).
2- You take the show that I sent you, in which you will have integrated the new textures of the wheels (photos that you will have specially taken). You will remove all the layers other than that of the camera and the container of the running gear (see attached capture).
3- You return to your assembly prepared in 1. You do "CTRL + M". In the window of the menu of your shows that opens, you choose the show that you have just changed to 2.
4- You delete the new camera 2, and you adapt the undercarriage container or each wheel container.
And now, voila !
Good road !

Alex-Raymond T., 4 years ago

Interesting. So basically you're creating individual shows for the Map background, the mountain landscape, the coach and then the wheels first and then integrating everything into a new show? Hmm I was creating everything within a single show with the coach and wheel layers in a single container with the map and mountain background on separate layers. Oh, something else I just noticed you did was you created a sketch layer for each of the wheels and also made eps files for each of the wheels where as I was just using png files for the wheels. That's the only way I know how to use them. I'm confused when it comes to creating and working with eps files and what the advantages they are to use. Maybe that's why it's been such a chore to get the wheels to rotate properly. Thanks for the comments Alex. One of these years before I croak I might get a little better at knowing how to find my way around all of BT's amazing features. I'm a very casual user, maybe only a couple of times a year, and rely a lot on an occasional show in the BixPacks I purchase for their Plug-n-Play capabilities. I was hoping that one day there might be a vacation style BixPack for all kinds of vacations and types of traveling :-) Now to go see what's involved with creating a Wheel eps file.

MrGruntHunter, 4 years ago

The story of creating an individual show is only for this occasion to make you avoid mounting the wheels. When I do a single montage for a show, I do like you. By cons if I have a show of mine that includes one or more or less complex elements that interest me, I import them by the CTL + M method, it's less work.
For the wheels, you can of course rotate the cropped photos in a circle at the axle locations (if they are well cropped with respect to their center, you will have no problem with rotation). The only small difference in result with the EPS rim method is the relief, one being convex, the others hollow, for a possible generation of shadows ...
The main thing is to have the result you hope for.

Alex-Raymond T., 4 years ago

Mike, you can find a wheel here, created with EPS, of course it's possible to customize the rim look.

outerspace-software.com...

vincent, 4 years ago

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