3d Shape question

[adamt]

Is there a way to generate a 3d Shape within Action using a Matte input instead of a GMask?

[Grant.Kay · Accepted solution]

Hi Adam,

The answer is no.   The 3D shapes are generated off the splines of the Gmask and cannot used with extrude a matte into a 3d shape.

As a suggestion, you could use displacement to displace a surface with the matte.   This wont give you a perfect shape but it might help if the movements are very minor.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Grant

[adamt]

thanks Grant - had a feeling that was the case but worth asking anyway!

adam

[shiver_rayfresh]

Hello Adamt,

Grant already answered you but if you want to use complex matte (picture) to use it with extrude / bevel, in Flame i suggest you this technic :

(you will need Illustrator) 

1 - open your matte picture in Illustrator

2 - Vectorize it, fine tune the curves as you you need to have a clean curve

3 - export it as SVG file

4 - (Back in Flame) In Action, Import your SVG and you will be able to play with it in 3D with Depth, bevel, shader etc.

Have a nice day

Shiver

[Grant.Kay]

Hi,

Shiver is absolutely correct...

If you use a 3rd party application to create an SVG vector file from the matte, you can import that into Action as a 3D shape and it can be extruded etc.

I might just use that idea and make a video with it in the future 🙂 . There are some illustrator settings which do catch ppl out.

Regards

Grant

[adamt]

thanks both of you...its an intriguing idea. I had not tried svgs - i'd forgotten about them being in Flame, after so long using Smoke.

Unfortunately for the test i was doing its not really practical to build a shape in vectors, as i wanted to use the complex animations of matte channel coming of a greenscreen key to generate the shape....but still its a useful solution to know about.

adam