Next, we wanted to render a loop of the swoop rotating. It takes just a bit of math, says Chris, the engineer, to figure out where the new center of rotation goes. Alternatively, you could just eyeball it, says Trish. We then spun it 360 degrees over the number of seconds we wanted for a full rotation, and rendered it from a few different camera angles for variety. Our swoosh, from a couple of different camera angles, blended into a 2D composite using Overlay mode and displacement mapping.
Deformations are a handy tool to master, especially for simple modeling tasks.
Wireframes of a hand, text and other objects, blended in with blurs and transfer modes to make them appear more graphical, or even organic. Wireframes Don' t overlook some of the simpler rendering options in your 3D program to create additional graphical elements. One of our favorite tricks is to take 3D models, set up a simple rotation animation, and render them as wireframes in ElectricImage. We'll be looking more closely at these 3D plug-ins in a future column. In the meantime, don't be afraid to dip your toes into 3D with these tricks.