Graphics

Howdy, another newbie here... at least to the XPressions forum.

I've been working with XPressions for about 2 years doing very basic graphical elements for the shows we produce. There's two of us that work with XPressions and between the both of us we have enough general knowledge to get by with the request that come down, without drastically effect our other duties.

However, we're now being asked to bulk up our graphical presence on the shows we're producing and I'm the one who's now spearheading this latest push. Obviously that means I have to buckle down and start 'Learnin' Up'. So I'll be posting a couple of questions over the next few days, weeks, months, etc. etc.

As per the subject title, there are several effects that can be applied to text elements in XPressions like Face, Border, Stroke, Neon and Shadow. My question is simple, "Is there a way to apply those same text effects to Primitive elements?"

I did do a search on the Forum and I know that the shadow FX was discussed sometime back, but from what I read there didn't seem to be a definitive answer. It seemed to be more along the lines of 'just fake it'. Is that the jest of it or has there been any new developments that I seemingly over looked when using the forum search function.

I hope this comes across as genuine and not haughty. Things don't always translate well for me on forums and I know that's in part to how I write stuff. If the latter is what comes across let me apologize in advance.

Nu

Here is the depth of my total knowledge: Face, yes you can make a primitive mimic a font by mapping the same texture to a face on the primitive. Border/Stroke? Not sure how you would pull that one off. A Neon could probably be added using a second primitive or a quad with the effect on it (depending on the primitive). Shadow is a piece of cake, but I was told it takes alot of memory. One trick we use is to have a "generic headshot shadow" we use this behind all the headshots for the referees for that nights game (NBA). Alot of it is "Hmmm.....what will this do?" And as always the forums offer great advice. Sorry for the ramble, and I hope I helped a little.

#XPression

Thanks Malcolm, that does help because it at least gives me a something to play off of.

Your are right about the border stroke, I think I had my mind focused on a simple 2D Quad Primitive and my thoughts were more vested in the way I do things in Photoshop/After Effects when I was doing my original post rather than think of how I'd do it in XPressions. Kinda dumb on my part, I should have thought it through better.

My main thing was about the Neon and Shadow anyway.

As for the Neon, you mentioned [I]'...A Neon could probably be added using a second primitive or a quad with the effect on it (depending on the primitive).'[/I] I'm not sure I follow. If I could add a second Primitive or Quad with an effect on it, wouldn't I just do that to the original Primitive? Let me ask it this way, Can I add a Neon effect to a Quad? If I can do that I'll be good either way - whether that means I have a single Quad with the effect or two quads embedded into a Group.

Lastly as for the Shadow effect, I get what your saying. I've done a couple different tricks for shadows in AE using similar method of what you described. Unfortunately, I'm hoping to add the Shadow effect to some 3D Primitives and moving Directional and Spot lights. The dynamics of that make using a generic shadow a bit more complicated. But I do appreciate your suggestion.

I do have some ideas that might get me what I'm after, but it would be more labor intensive than I'd like to get into. Applying a simple shadow effect to say a Cube, Cylinder or Sphere would be much more preferred but I'm guessing that options isn't there just yet?

Nu

#XPression

Here is what I mean. I am making some flying sparks in After Effects. I will output those as a movie with an alpha. I can then apply those sparks to a blank quad and put them anywhere I wish, at any time I wish.You could do the neon effect in AE and then apply it to a quad on top of the quad you are using to hold a texture or video. If you make the effect quad a child of the video quad then the two will act as one.

#XPression

Okay that I totally get! And I feel totally stupid for not figuring that out on my own. You just totally made my day! Thank you Malcolm... TOTALLY!

;-P

Nu

#XPression

Newbies need to stick together. I might be doing it all wrong but WTH.

#XPression