Big Question Re: 3D Rendering and Animation

[NikonErik]

I'd really like to take two circular logos, and animate them as two sides of a coin flipping into the frame and settling on to one side in order to kick-off a powerpoint slide show . . .

I have the CS3 apps including PS CS3Ex, and I can get Blender 3D if I aught to.

This would be my first 3D/Animation project by the way . . .

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[agentxi]

Hey Erik, i'm not a blender guru at all, but i know how i'd make this in maya.

I found you a tutorial in blender on how to create a logo, to help with your logo and coin idea.

Essentially, when it comes down to the coin, I would probably just have a cylinder modelled, and then texture on the face of the coin, and adding a "bump map" to the face to make it look like it has a relief on it.
A bump map is a greyscale image that represents it's "bump" value. White usually = 1 which is a highest value of the bump, while black will represent "0" which means it's flat (or even with the original surface)

If you get stuck, the manual/wiki is pretty good, and so is the tutorials section of the page.

I would first familiarize yourself with the interface of blender, as the learning curve is VERY high, when it comes to learning new 3d software from scratch.

Creating a Logo at BlenderNation


Manual - BlenderWiki

Alternatively, you could do some of the 3d in illustrator, and then composite the different sections together afterwards.

hope this helps some.

[FistMaster]

Of course you always have the option of photography to create the animation, although it would involve a "lot" of camera mapping in PS to fit your logo to the physical coin photos.


Jimmy