Spinning 3D Cube

Problem with 3D spinning cube. I build a cube and then export to quicktime and re-import so I can reduce the size (60%) to have the cube over other video. Problem is that when the cube spins the corners are cut off as the perspective changes. I can actually see black on the sides as the cube spins. Is there a way to reduce a cube so when it spins it doesn't do this? This cannot be that be of a problem. I see this effect all the time.
I am just having a brain ****.
tia

This cannot be that be of a problem. I see this effect all the time.,
Actually it is a big problem. You're hoping for a motion graphic effect and all FCP will give you is a transition between two adjacent clips.
You can mess with this all day in FCP and never get what you think you want, it's just not built that way. But you can easily take your clips to Motion and build a beautiful spinning cube that really exists in 3D.
However, if you've never opened up Motion, you will either need to lower your expectations and redesign your on screen effects or spend a few days figuring out how to do cubes in Motion that you can either rotate/spin or orbit a camera around.
bogiesan

Similar Messages

Putting the anchor point of the camera at the center of a cube?

I built a 3d cube and want the camera to spin around it.
I don't want to animate/spin the cube itself, but I want to animate the camera.
Whats the best and quickest way of getting the anchor point exactly at the center of the cube?
At the moment if I place the anchor visually at the center, the camera itself is too close to the cube. I can't create distance between the cube and camera.:s
Thanks,,

Howdy,
When you move an object, you also move the object's anchor point. The easiest way to accomplish what you want is to build a simple camera rig. Place the camera inside a 3D group and position the group's anchor point in the center of the cube. You can then move the camera around as you see fit, and when you want to do your orbit move (I assume that's why you want the anchor in the cube), you animate the group.
Rigs are handy for all sorts of tasks like this. For example, you may want to create a 3D motion path that flies the camera all around a scene, but you also want the freedom to have the camera pan around while flying along the path. Think of it as a camera operator riding in a cable-car.

How to check whether Java 3d is using hardware acceleration?

Hi
I just started looking into Java3d api. I am going through the tutorial examples. When I run it on Windows with JDK1.4.2, the app runs, but taskmanager shows cpu usage is around 55% of my 3GHz Intel processor.
I am sending the following VM parameters
-Djava.library.path=C:\progra~1\Java\Java3D\bin -Dj3d.rend=ogl -Dj3d.debug=true
I tried Direct3D as well by passing -Dj3d.rend=d3d. I don't see much difference in cpu usage. The sample I am playing is the one where you create a ColorCube and rotate it on a timeline. Pretty straight forward code taken from the tutorial.
I am wondering
a) Why is my cpu at 55% if it is using h/w acceleration?
b) Is there any way to find out whether Java is using software renderer vs h/w renderer.
I used sys internals processexp tool to look at the stack of java thread that is spinning the cube. I don't see any references to opengl or j3d dlls in the call stack.
I appreciate ur help.
Thanks

check this link, it queries the properties of your system:
http://download.java.net/media/java3d/webstart/test/QueryProperties.jnlp

How to control the order of transforms when using interpolators?

We want to spin one cube around another, instead of having two cubes spinning side by side. The latter is the effect we get, no matter the order of the transforms in the tree.
We can not use normal matrix multiplications since we are using a RotationInterpolator in combination with a static translation transform.
We have tried using OrderedGroup but this did not make any difference either. Where is this supposed to be used in order to make a difference?
How are we supposed to do? Any help much appreciated.
Thanks

SphereMotion example that a give with java3D that spin
one sphere around another
you should look at thisThanks. What exactly are we looking for, are they using the PositionInterpolator to make the translation survive during the animation?
Is this what we need to do, or is there any way of making a normal transform survive?
Our semi-educated-guess is that the RotationInterpolator we use to rotate our cubes operates on the compiled transform, therefore overwriting the translation we do at the beginning (this can be seen in the very beginning, as the 2nd cube is first in it's own position, and then in the next frame it returns to 0,0 (origo)).
Are we right? Or is there a simpler explanation and solution to this?
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CREATING A RECEDING RECTANGLE IN AFTER EFFECTS

My apologies, but I'm kind of a left brained guy and sometimes it's hard to wrap my mind around right brain spatial problems that others find laughably easy.
I'm interested in creating this simple box with four walls through which one could view a video at the far end. I don't need all the little videos on the side, I am just unsure how to create that simple box.
Would I extrude that in 3d somehow? Can I construct it all at once rather than aligning one wall at a time? I'm not too good with parallax and vanishing points yet.
What basic workflows do I need to master to create this simple box in 3D?
Thanks so much! Rocket science to me right now.
Here is the underlying video from which it was derived; it was constructed in another program, but I'm certain this is very straightforward in AE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvP6mFokVCETh
Thanks! Matt Dubuque

Position the anchor points is purely mathematical. Think of a cube with all of the anchor points for each layer exactly in the center of the cube. If the sides were 400 pixels by 400 pixels then 1/2 of the width or height would be 200. Offset the anchor point by 200 pixels in Z and you've moved all of the layers back by 1/2 the width of the layer. Since rotation always happens around the anchor point when you rotate the in increments of 90º they will always end up with aligned edges.
Now to the problem of your edge seams. First of all, work with even pixel values for the size of your layers. 200 X 200 works, 205 X 205 or 300 X 145 won't work as well. This is because AE does sub pixel positioning and the edges at half pixel values will be interpreted with different values than edges at whole pixel values.
The second problem is that any time there's any angle to a line or edge the edge must be interpreted to fix aliasing (jaggy edges) that are caused when you try to draw a diagonal line on a checkerboard. It is called anti-aliasing. This gives you different pixel values at the edge with the image is at an angle. After Effects makes it's transparency calculations using straight alphas. In most cases this is by far the best option. When it comes to matching up edges of these 3D planes it isn't the best. It would be better to add the alpha values together rather than use a straight calculation which combines the values.
Fortunately AE has a blend mode called Alpha Add. It only effects the alpha channels are calculated. Changing the blend mode to Alpha Add eliminates the problem until you start adding lights to your scene.
As soon as you start adding lights to the scene you run into additional problems calculating alpha edge values. There are some workarounds to eliminate light leaks in these situations that involve scaling the layers slightly that are nearest the camera so that the problem is hidden. In spite of what your wife says trying to be perfect in every frame isn't a very good way to make a living in the visual effects business. You have to be able to make your scene look right with the least amount of effort so you can move on the the next of the thousands of frames it takes to complete a project. That is the biggest challenge faced by anyone working with AE.
Unfortunately, unless you use ray traced rendering to extrude a box in AE you cannot fix the problem completely, but by carefully designing your animation to hide these problems you can make things look perfect without being so. Take these two cubes with a point light set in the center. The one on the left is perfect but looks wrong, the one on the left has the back left wall moved 1 pixel to the right and the right front wall is scaled 101% in X to hide the seams. If I needed to spin the cube and add motion blur I would need to pre-compose the spinning cube and add CC Force Motion blur to the scene to hide the seams. It's prety easy to see which version of the spinning cube works better.
I hope this long winded explanation helps. Take a look at his image. It shows two solids separated by 2 pixels in the center. The Alpha levels of the pixels that are going to match up are shown. The panel on the left shows the edges matching with the blend mode set to Alpha Add. The image on the right shows the blend mode set to normal. The differing shades of blue are caused by combining rather than adding the alpha values of those pixels.

Cube Spin Transiton Shows Horizonal Blue and White Lines through out Poss BUG?

Don't know if this is a bug but I am seeing a 2 to 5 pixel Blue Line (the same colour as the CTI, CYAN) on the Cube Spin Transition when in use in Premiere Pro CC.
I am on 8.0.1.
I also notice that it appears on the renders and exported material.
Original Sequences are HDV 50i 1440x1080 and abit of 1980 x 1080 @29.97 MP4 Files taken from a Sanyo XACTI Camera.
It is visable when both playing back and scrubbing or parking the CTI inbetween the 2 clips, I am also seeing a White Line not as think at times on the left side of the Transition.
It looks like the Enable Overscan Transition setting that I used to have in EDIUS, where the default settings where set for 3% Overscan and had to be set to 0% for Transitions.
I am using an ASUS 760GTX 4GB Card with MPE On.
Just wondering if there was a quick fix before I go though and have replace this transition with a similar one, though have used it 30+ times in this project so far, am gonna have alook out see if I can see a free Cube Spin/Advance Type Transition on the internet to use as I purposely chose this on
as it fits in well.
anyway, I noticed this Line Appearing thoughout the editing process and thought that it was like Premiere Pro way of tell me that the transition had begun, like the show end of media indicator and not though that it would actually show in the final exports on the render, even on the downscale it shows when rendered to MPEG-2 DVD.
I saw another post on this on here but that dates back to CS 5.5.
I have attached a few grabs to show you. have to look very closely or download them as on whit background, but on the first there is a very thin white line and on the left of the frame and you will see the cyan line on the right a bit thicker
The First one is the very start of the transition, where the CTI hits the 1st Frame of the Transition
. Not on the left a Thin White Line and as Described on the Right the Cyan Slithly Thicker, Looks to be Same or Simialr Colour to The CTI.
Then as the transitions moves, though, the left white line disappears and you have the right Cyan Line Showing all through the transition, until it is completed.
As say, if there is a simple fix, then it would be appreciated so save having to alter all of the existing ones, as I say, kinda like the Cube Spin.

Appols if the attached images are too big, my fault, not used to posting images, anyways, if you click on each image to show full screen then you can see the lines better.
Anyway, anyone know a free one I can add in that works well?
Thanks alot

Cube spin transitions create gaps I can't seem to close

Hi,
I'm using cube spin transitions for the closing credits. I'm stuck with three different clips having gaps between the spin and the next credit, and no amount of control + g in the timeline gaps, no amount of snapping, has been able to push the two clips together with this transition. I am using other transitions in other parts of my movie, and have not had any trouble. Does anyone have any other ideas as to what next to try? I suspect that the trouble is with the type of files I'm using for the credits. I'm connecting .psd files with mov files (from LiveType) and using the cube spin transition between them. I know that these have alpha channels and so need to be on a higher line in the timeline than the rest of the movie. But obviously I'm missing something.
Thanks,
Sheila

I think I am cheating when I say that I put transitions on both the endings of one clip, and on the beginning of the next clip for full cube turning.

Adding buttons to spinning cube animataion

I found this great source file for a spinning cube with
graphics and would like to be able to add button interactivity to
each face:
http://www.senocular.com/flash/source.php?id=0.162
Unfortunately, it uses images- not buttons or movie clips.
Can anyone tell me an easy way to alter the code?
Thanks.
Scott

same questions, same answers
I'm new to AS3 too. I know the kind of frustration you face,
especially when it comes to finding out the how's. So I'm giving
answers rather than telling people where to look for them (for
now).

While browsing the cube data Excel the circle pointer starts to spin and the excel go into a not-responding state,any recommendations to improve performance in excel?

hi,
while browsing the cube data Excel the circle pointer starts to spin and the excel go into a not-responding state,any recommendations to improve performance in excel?
I have 20 measures and 8 dimensions.
while filtering data by using dimensions in excel it is taking so much time.
Ex:
I browsed 15 measures in excel and filtered data based on time(quarter wise) and other dimesion product. It is taking long time to get data.
Can you please help on this issue.
Regards,
Samba

Hi Samba,
What're the versions of your Office Excel and SQL Server Analysis Services? It will be helpful if you can share the detail computer resource information to us while encountered this issue.
In addition, we don't know your cube structure and the underlying relationships. But you can take a look at the following articles to troubleshoot the performance issue:
Improving Excel's Cube Performance:
http://richardlees.blogspot.com/2010/04/improving-excels-cube-performance.html
Excel Against a SSAS Cube Slow: Performance Improvement Tips:
http://www.msbicentral.com/Blogs/tabid/131/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/136/Excel-Against-a-SSAS-Cube-Slow-Performance-Improvement-Tips.aspx
Regards,
Elvis Long
TechNet Community Support

Cube Spin Video transition behavior

Hi,
I see that the cube spin video transition behaves in an odd way. I was wondering if there was a way to alter it.
Here is the behavior:
(example created for clarity)
Clip A (the 1st clip) is nothing but frames (30fps) of a big letter A.
Clip B (the 2nd clip) is nothing but frames (30fps) of a big letter B.
When a cube spin video transition is inserted between them:
As the cube begins to spin to the right you see the letter A on the face that is leaving you as you would expect.
As you begin to see the coming side, it oddly also has the letter A that then changes to the letter B.
Sometimes the leaving A side also changes to the letter B, but not always.
Is it possible to get a behavior where the leaving side is always A and the coming side is always B?
I have the transition centered on +0.
Frame blend and hold do not seem to affect this.
thanks,
fred

Jim,
You are correct.
Enough footage needs to be left before your in-point and after your out-point that looks like you want.
Then the transitions work fine.
thanks very much,
fred

Changing cube spin direction for multiple dissolves

Can't seem to figure out how to change multiple cube spins on time line from right to left direction . . in other words save the left as a favorite. I change it to left and then tried to copy, duplicate, save as a favorite but it always defaults to right direction.
I'm sure I'm missing something here that will become obvious when replies come in.
thanks . . this forum is a great learning centre

Once you setup the cube spin, drag that spin to the Browser. It should remain as you've set it to be. Then drag it from there to another transition.
Jerry

PMG4 Cube harddrive spins up/down repeatedly

Hi everyone,
my G4 Cube (10.4.10) has a weird problem. Sometimes it's running fine for days 24/7 and then suddenly I hear its harddrive spin down as if the drive would go to sleep. The next second it spins up again, then spins down and up and so on. I have to turn if off by holding the power button.
If I try to boot it again I get the spin up/down right from the start at the grey Apple logo and it (obviously) won't finish booting that way.
I already tried the following:
- checked all drive and power cable connections
- changed jumper on HD to slave (and optical drive to master)
- turned off sleep for the HD in Sharing Sys Prefs
I even let it cool down (turned off) over night and immediately got the spin up/down problem at first boot! I read on cubeowner.com about someone who fixed this problem by changing the HD to slave and the OD to master, but this didn't work for me.
Any additional ideas?
Thanks
Björn
PS: The HD seems to work fine in an external enclosure so I don't believe it is the problem.

Björn,
Sorry for the late reply, but I found your post(s) occasionally and I'd like you to know that I've experienced the same issues you are on my Cube...
Cube came originally with a 20GB Maxtor HDD. Too noisy and I needed more space so soon I exchanged it for a 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV. All went fine until I thought it was good to maximize the hard disk to the most recognised size by a PowerMac G4 Cube. So I bought a 120GB Seagate Barracuda V and this is where the problems started. A continuous/random loop of spin ups/spin downs occurred no matter what I was doing or when I was doing it. Even when left alone with monitor sleeping and only with Finder taskings.
I realized it culd (should) be a power issue, as the hard disk works flawlessly inside an external FireWire enclosure.
I am currently using a 160GB Samsung Spinpoint with Mac OS X 10.4.11 and never had any issues since then.
These are my Cube specs:
Operating System: Mac OS 10.4.11 & Mac OS 9.2.2 (classic mode only)
CPU (upgrade item): PowerLogix PowerForce 7447A Dual 1.7 GHz
Total RAM: 1.5GB SDRAM (3 x 512MB)
Hard Disk Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 7200 RPM 160GB (2 MB cache)
GPU (upgrade item) NVIDIA GeForce2 MX (32MB) + Spirica Extended Heatsink
VRM Module: Original Apple VRM + Spirica VRM Heatsink
Optical Drive (upgrade item): Panasonic DL SuperDrive
Base Fan (mandatory item): Zalman ZM-OP1 Fan running at 7V (with 5V/7V/12V options)
Display: Apple 17" LCD/ADC
Good luck,
JM

Direct 3d Garbled / Distorted spinning cube Test

Hi, i've been having quite a bit of problems with my 3d lately i hope you guys could help me out.
I have both a geforce 2 gts 32 meg ddr and a gefroce 4 ti4200 4x 64 megs ddr and apparently both cards (supposedly are working and should be) when installed into my amd system (nforce2 mobo MSI dual chan ram... (only one stick 256 meg Ddr PC 2700 ram)) are giving me crap problems when i run the dxdiag direct3d test for direct 7 and direct 8 interface.
I have directx 8.1 right now because i've done my fresh installation of windows xp + sp1 + somewhat latest nforce2 mobo drivers and latest graphics drivers.
The symptoms are that it looks like the box is spinning but the vertexes are drawn all wrong and there's this like flashy ghost like garble effect.. for the direct x 7 , direct x 8 interface calls show a ok spinning box but jumps a bit every 2-3 seconds.
After doin some troubleshooting (using just clean install + display drivers / safe bios settings)..... I think it might have to do with smoe of the other system components.
I've installed direct x 9 b4 and same problems with directx 9 d3d test.
any help would be deeply appreciated
RIght now i'm thinking it has to do with the mobo / bios / drivers / psu.
Here's my system
lcd samsung 172n
amd xp2200 + on msi K7N2 Delta -L with PC2700 crucial ram 256 meg
350W Okia PSU 17A on the 12V rail. i haven't read how much combnied wattage of 3.3 V + 5.0.. When i read the System information on the updated voltage readings, it's alwayz showing the Voltages not very close to their respective voltages... i guess this is normal?
I have bios version 5.4 for this mobo (award bios)
i've already tested by turning off agp 8x mode and agp fast write.
sigH!
Thanks
Sedul

So you say that it 's usually the timings or the clock rate of the memory bus in the video card. The problem is my 32 meg ddr geforce 2 card worked fine in my other computer and the clock rates and timings were not adjusted.
If you do adjust clockrates and timings, is that applied to the "cmos" of the videocard. So it coudl be that someone overclocked their card previously and it could most likely not work in another computer such as mine?
I have yet to test the 64 meg Geforce 4 Ti4200 card in my own computer to see if the original computer (k7n2 delta) is the problem.
Is it possible to have an overclocked vid card.. suddently show artifacts in the long run if it's overused too much at a overclocked rate.. and that u woul dhave to lower the clcok rate in order of rit to be ok?
is there a utility to test video memory for read/write
thanks,

Efficiently Create a Cube Rolling In

I did this quickly (relatively quickly anyway) to get close to the effect that I'm going for. I'd like to have the cube roll in the three words seperately. There's got to be an easier way than trying to line up the layers the manually in 3D space and use a null to spin it in. Not to mention that the shadow catching layer kinda gets in the way too...
Do you know of any plugins that do this effect or of any tutorials on creating it?

So, Rick, that was a very helpful response, after lots of trial and error, I've got to this point.
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Data transfer from G4 cube to MacBook Pro w/ Snow Leopard

Hi,
I just purchased a MacBook Pro Friday and was able to successfully transfer my data from my Cube (OS 10.4.11) via Migration Assistant after the second attempt. Unfortunately, this MacBook encountered constant Prohibitive Screen errors even after re-installing Leopard OS requiring me to exchange it. Now with the second new MBP, I can get the firewire connection established w/ Cube HD mounting but the MBP just spins as it tries to get to the next window (selecting the data to transfer over.) The first time I tried it w/ the second MBP, I got a message that there was no OS on the cube. The cube works perfectly fine. The multiple later attempts - nothing but a spinning circle. (P.S. Mac already shipped off the first MBP to be reset so that's not an option to retrieve the data from.)
I looked into transfering via ethernet but I do not have the install DVD that is required for it (unless I'm mis-reading it.) Any suggestions? From reading the other queries, users seem to have issues getting the connection established. I am able to do so and was able to transfer the data once before, but now nothing.
I'm completely clueless re: the other suggestions of creating networks, encasing the HD, etc.
If all else fails, what can I do w/ my Cube? I don't want to sell it and ideally would like to use it as a separate drive.
Thanks,
Christina

One of the bigger problems with migrating from PowerPC to Intel is not the operating system, but the chip. Migration Assistant has been known to fail for unknown reasons when moving between the Mac platforms. Instead, this user tip has been recommended to avoid such issues:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0

Spinning 3D Cube

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