SO--- Jason Hampton has got me going with Camtasia Studio, and he wanted to know how I did a particular trick dropping the coins 'just so' to form the Little Caesars Pizza logo a few years back. SO- I dug up the old prj and refreshed my memory and attempted to demonstrate. I have hosted the tutorial on my webserver for lack of a better place- for now.

http://campbellanimation.com/JBB_Newton%20...20Tutorial.html

Doesn't the new A:M films have a training section?

This is an excellent tutorial - I mean really excellent. Amazing how many others are just so dry and drawn out. Others who have done interesting projects (particularly commercial ones) should be encouraged to do the same.

Cheers

Great tutorial!

Thanks Matt

Great tutorial. You make a very powerful feature with limitless possibilities look fairely simple.

GLAD! Happy to hear it is playing (and not choppy I hope) off my server okay... Next time I will try to keep it shorter so I can compress less and make the size bigger.

thanks great to see an artist at work

It played very smoothly. the resolution was adequate but I would suggest a little higher if possible.

Niice job!
You've got a great voice for this too. : )

I enjoyed it - thanks

Great tut!

Watched it, thank you! Clear! Now I wonder why I never played with Newton physics before.

Michel

Dont know if these effects were done the way matte teaches but I bet by using Matt's method you could create something similar. Thanks Matt for pioneering this effect adn teaching us.

Click to view attachment

Hey Jason...Benjamin Button-right?

That loooks like a different trick altogether... if you look closely each button has a partial image applied to it and only whence they come to rest does the image make. This could be done by applying a decal in the choreography (can you do that in A:M?) AFTER the simulation(s) have been generated. Very cool effect-thanks for posting it! I have no doubt A:M is up to that!

Nice tutorial I liked it.
Some miner suggestion.
Do a dress rehearsal or two before you do the video. So you can capture ever thing you want.
Also lower the screen resolution so someone can see clearly what to select to get things to work.

But over all nice tutorial.

P.S. it would be nice to have a mini project to try out. That gose with the video.

I sort of disagree with this. I think the more improvised tutorial actually shows the process better. If the tutorial gets too refined then it makes it look easier than it really is. Seeing Matt have to figure things out now and then helps the viewer understand how to figure things out as well.

Thanks Matt. Nice tutorial.

Hey, THANKS! Glad people are lookin at it. Truth be told, I did do some dry runs...this was probably take 4 or 5, it's not easy stuff to do and I haven't pined to do another.

This is a very good point I'd like to foot stomp.

This represents an eternal dilemma; a highly polished tutorial versus a more straightforward screen capture/demonstration.
I think where the line gets drawn is when people are paying money for the product.
If monies are being exchanged they have a reasonable expectation of a polished product.
When tutorials are presented out of the kindness of a heart... you say 'Thanks', get what you can out of it and use it to improve your own product.

Both polished and 'live' tutorials have their plusses and minuses.

Where the original author is willing there is nothing to prevent anyone and everyone from editing and adding to the original tutorial content. Heck, edit the thing and provide your own voice as audio.


<shift in topic>

Matt asked about the example from Benjamin Buttons:


Most definitely. As I recall, the trick to applying a decal in a Chor is to select the model in the PWS before applying the Decal in the Chor. I don't think you can apply a single decal to multiple Models so for that you may need to export the Chor as a combined model.

Matt I see a hi dollar commercial in your future doing the Benjamin Button trick.

Seems there is no such thing anymore. When I first got into video graphics (1990ish) a simple '3D flying logo' could cost $40,000 or more, but prices dropped as 3D became more commonplace, and prices never seemed to stop dropping. Today, competition is fiercer than ever... India and China are doing big jobs for peanuts, art schools are pumping out top notch talent at an unprecedented rate, and the economy has hit budgets hard and eliminated many customers. Expectations are high because of Pixar/Hollywood stuff to boot. ONE THING that I have in my corner/favor is an inexpensive, fast and capable 3D package in A:M.

I have friends that are less talentd than you who have staff jobs making $60 per hour 40 hours per week. You just have to get in with the right company. Digital domain is where they work.

Impromtu is good but pre planned is better. Take notes, jot down everything you want to mention then just go straight ahead into it. Now I only mention taking notes just in case there is stuff you forget to mention - I'm not talking about writing a script.

Cheers