spinning logo on y axis

[nagihcim1]

I have a logo that I want to make spin in 3D (animated gif or flash).

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/logo.cmx

I've imported the logo to Xara 3D Pro and made it into a 3D

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/logo3D.png

The only way I can see to create the spin is to manually create new frames and manually spin the image a little bit in each frame until I've done a complete circle. So I did that set the frame display length to .05 seconds.

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/logoSpin.gif

I'm sure there is a better way to do this but I wanted to try things out for myself before seeking help. The two main problems I have is that creating the spin manually doesn't create a perfect y-axis and the file size is 155kd when I am done. So how should I be doing this?

[Soquili]

Hello Nagihcim1,

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

I'm not sure which Xara application you are using. There is Xara Xtreme Pro and there is Xara3D 6.

Both can create extruded shapes and both can create animations.

For the type of animated logo you have shown Xara3D 6 would be easiest to use. You can select the axis you want the logo to spin and the direction of the spin.

In Xara Xtreme 4.0 you would manually rotate the extruded shape for each frame as you have done. If you only want rotation on the Y axis you would select Angle 2 from the dropdown list on the Extrude Tool's infobar.

[nagihcim1]

I am using Xtreme Pro. The rotation is smoother now that I know that drop down box is there with "angle 2"

The second question I had was the large filesize. Is this just a result of too many frames? What is a good number of frames to do a complete circle and still have it look smooth? Is it possible to seperate the 2 objects so that the circle has a 3D effect that is different from the simple inside but they still spin together? Thanks for the help

[nagihcim1]

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/logoSpin2.gif

I know that most of you will think this is terrible but I've only been using the trial for a few days now. I don't like the transparency of the circle while it spins and it probably needs a few more frames but it's a start. Any chance someone could make this logo spin themselves just to give me something to shoot for (preferable in Xtreme Pro since that is what I'm learning)?

[ss-kalm]

If you're really wanting to do 3D animation like that, I would suggest that you at least download the demo of Xara 3D6 and have a look at it.

[nagihcim1]

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/logoSpin3.gif

I gave up on trying to get the inside logo and outside circle to be separate 3D objects that both spin together. Instead I came up with this which I am fairly happy with. I downloaded the demo of Xara 3D6 and I will play around with that tonight and post what I come up with. I hope no one minds me creating a thread to track my progress but it helps for me to write things down, plus getting tips from experts always helps also.

[simsmj]

Hello, Nagihcim1, your spinning logo isn't really an issue with transparency, but the awkwardness stems from the fact that the 3D space in Xara Xtreme Pro isn't shared between multiple extruded shapes. Each extruded shape has its own independent 3D environment. Your logo has two separate shapes each spinning independently, one image sitting over the other. If you can make these into a single object, then extrude and spin that, I think it would look better.

May I suggest you take the circle and make it into a hollow ring, select it and convert line to shape, then add it to the D logo, then you have a single shape that you can extrude and spin, and because it is a single object the D will be correctly occluded by the edge of the ring.

Mike

[simsmj]

Spinning version.

Mike

[nagihcim1]

I played with xara3d6 with fairly good results.

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/logospin4.gif


Thanks Mike, I didn't even notice that one object was spinning on top of the other in the other image. I'll work with that later and see if I can duplicate what you did. Thanks Soquili, ss-kalm, simsmj for the help so far.

[nagihcim1]

Here is the final product for xtreme pro. Thanks for the help Mike. I'm still working with xara3d to see how the final product comes out.

http://www.bohttrophy.com/images/FinalXtreme.gif