Zaxwerks ProAnimator Standalone Application.



--- Quick Start ---

- Go to the Program Files\Zaxwerks ProAnimator 8 Folder and double click the ProAnimator icon to launch the program.



--- Release Details ---


Version 8.0.0 Update:

Real-Time Rendering
- Optimized OpenGL and Ray-Traced Renderer- Our OpenGL and Ray Trace Renderer is now faster than ever! Create hundreds of thousands of polygons without having to worry about slowdown. Everything updates in real-time with texturing, lighting and shadows.

- Auto-Rendering- With Auto-Rendering, whenever you make any changes the scene automatically renders. No need to keep having to click the Render Test button to see what your objects look like.

Depth of Field - Use Depth of Field to create highly realistic images where some objects are in focus while other objects are out of focus.
Instancing

- Instanced Objects- With instanced objects, the program automatically duplicates as many objects as you want without slowing down the program. Objects can be distributed using our distribution tools.

New Distribution Types -  Use new distribution tools such as assigning your objects totake on the shape of a different object, or other simple shapes such as cubes, spheres and more.

Materials - Apply the same material or different materials to the instanced objects.

- Instanced Text- With instanced text, you can set the text to be instanced by character, word, or paragraphs. This lets you distribute walls of text to create amazing text backgrounds quickly and easily.

Normal Maps
- Applying Normal Maps- Our Material Editor gives you the ability to load either a normal map or bump map to create realistic effects.

- Realistic Material Presets- Our material presets have been re-edited with normal maps for even more realistic effects for your objects.

New Lighting Controls
- Image Based Lighting- Apply Image Based Lighting for highly realistic lighting effects for your scene.

- Shadow Lights- Create a light that doesn't affect your scene, but has the ability to cast shadows.



Version 7.0.0 Update:



- Create as many lights as you need.  It's as easy to set up 1 light as it is to set up 50 lights. 


- Set up different types of lights such as Parallel, Spot, or Point Lights.


- Customize each light for the light color that you want.


- Adjust lights to use random, alternating, or even grouped colors.
- Add additional Light Tracks so each light can move just the way you want it to.


- Setting up animated lights is just as easy as creating an animation with ProAnimator.  Use Poses and Transitions and the program will automatically create the animation.


- Adjust different settings in the Transition such as adding Cascade, Path Arches, Twists and more.


- Set the lights to point at any direction or even objects.


- Lights can be set to follow objects or the camera.  You can also set the lights to point away from the selected objects or the camera so the lights will always face the opposite direction.
- Set the lights so that they all fan out, or have them converge at a point.


- You can also set the lights to point in random directions.  By setting up multiple Poses with Random positions, you can set up a party-type atmosphere.


- Set different Light Actions such as blink, pulse, shimmer and flicker.


- Adjust the speed and timing of the Light Action to fit the lighting animation you need.


- Set Chase styles so that lights blink in different orders such as alternating, every other light, etc.  You can set up many interesting lights such as Christmas lights, stage lights, and more.


- Add Lens Flare to lights.  This creates the flare around the light fixture when the light faces the camera and also creates the camera lens flare as well.


- Customize the look of the flare and also create special light effects such as shines.


- Enable Light Cones to create highly realistic Spot Lights.


- Use the Material Editor to create your own custom Light Cones.  This lets you set up effects such as streaky or cloudy lights.
- Set the length of the cone and also the Light Falloff to enhance the realism of the lights.


- Create highly complex trusses and pipes with a click of a button.
- Set up straight or laced pipes, box and triangle trusses, ring pipes, ring box trusses, ring triangle trusses, and even rectangle box trusses.


- Customize Truss/Pipe settings such as the size of the truss, the number of pipes, the pipe spacing, position, rotation and more.


- Automatically places the lights onto the Truss/Pipe.  Use the position control to bunch or spread the lights along the Truss/Pipe.


- Use dozens of realistic pre-made light fixtures and apply them to your lighting setup.

- Many different types of popular lighting such as Scoop, Flood, Ellipsoidal, Parnel, Fresnel, Fluorescent and more.


- Ability to create and import your own light fixtures.
- Set a light as a Prop light so that even though you can see the light fixture, it does not affect the lighting in the scene.

- Over a hundred photo-realistic materials, most which are seamless.

- Re-vamped interface with re-designed buttons and easier to read text.






Version 6.0.0 Update:


- Object Fragmentation 
- Break apart any objects into many little pieces.  This can be animated to create an interesting reveal where the pieces come together to form the word, or have a logo fall apart into hundreds of little pieces. 


- Ray-Tracing Reflections - Create highly realistic reflective surfaces.  You'll be able to see the reflections of other objects on the surface.


- Ray Traced Shadows and Ambient Occulusion 
- Work with shadows that fade off with Ray Traced Shadows.  With Ambient Occulusion, areas that are close to other objects are automatically darkened.


- Layer Tracking - Track any ProAnimator Object Track to an After Effects 3D Layer.  You can add additional effects such as Spin Y to the Poses.


- Grid Shaders - Easily create customizable Grids that can be used to create flooring or other interesting background designs.  This is also useful for creating bump maps.


- Shadow Catcher Plane - Select any After Effects Layer to act as a Shadow Catcher Plane.  The After Effects Layer will catch the shadows of all ProAnimator objects that are positioned correctly with the lighting.


- Collect Files - Collect all media files associated with the ProAnimator project.  Never worry about losing your media files when sending your project to other editors.






Version 5.0.0 Update:


New Customizable Workspaces


- Open/Close panels so you have as many, or as few panels as you need.


- Resizable/Repositional panels lets you position every panel so that it's the right size and position.


- Preserve workspace by placing panels into tabs.

- Maximize any panel with the ~ tilde key.  This lets you quickly fine tune all those little details.


- Save/Load workspaces so you have all your favorite workspaces at your fingertips.


- Workspace buttons lets you quickly switch between your favorite workspaces.


 New Object List


- Use the Object List Preview window to see the object you are editing.


- The Object List allows you quickly move objects from one Set/Track to another by dragging.


- Turn the Visibility or Lock on/off for editing purposes.

- The Editor Visibility lets you hide objects to avoid clutter in the Object Editor panel.


- Use the Editor Solo button to hide all other objects so you can focus on editing the paths of the object you are working with.

- Use Editor View Sets to quickly switch between Visibility and Lock settings.


- New Object Creation buttons allows you to create objects with just a single click.


- Group Objects dragging Object Layers on top of one another, or use the shortcut "Command/Control + G".

	
- By grouping objects, you can create Hierarchy for your objects.

- Create Null Objects that other objects can be parented to.  Animate the Null Object, and all other objects will move along.


- Convert vector objects to a lathe object or vice versa.  Drew a shape that will make a nice lathe object?  No problem.  Click the convert button and you'll have a lathe object instead.


Misc Interface Changes


- Create User Cameras to set up custom views so you can edit your objects without changing the main camera.


- Change between One/Two/Four Views to position your objects exactly where you want them to be.


- Tool tips for all buttons, tabs, menus and sliders.

- Restore swatches, animation presets, workspaces, or preferences directly from the Preferences window. 




Extensive Object Editor


- Use familiar tools such as the Pen, Pencil, Shape, Text, Selection to build and edit professional logos.


- You can now edit imported Adobe Illustrator files.  There's no need to switch between programs.


- New vector drawing tools such as the Auto-curve, Corner Rounding, and Parametric Shapes lets you build objects faster than ever.

	
- The Auto-curve tool is a Pen-tool that automatically smoothes out the curves that you draw.  You can draw smooth shapes quicker than ever.

	
- The Cornering tools allow you to drag on any corner, and transforms it into a rounded corner or curve.

	
- Customizable Parametric shapes.

- Create lathe objects such as wine bottles, glasses, bowls and more by just drawing the profile of the object.  


- Many keyboard shortcut commands have been implemented so you can switch effortlessly between the most commonly used tools such as the pen tool, convert anchor point tools, or the point selection tools.


- Mouse shortcut commands include double clicking with the point selection tool to add an anchor point, or double clicking to delete an anchor point.


- Create cutout shapes by overlapping one shape with another.  The program is smart enough to know which shape to cut out.


- Draw bevels in the new Profile Editor window.  Any shape or design you create in the profile editor instantly gets applied to your object.


- Edit any existing bevels using the Profile Editor.  You can also save and load any custom bevels that you create.


- Edit any existing bevels using the Profile Editor.  You can also save and load any custom bevels that you create, and apply it to newly created objects.

	
- Load in an image or movie file to use as a background guide, or to trace with the pen or pencil tools.

	
- Set different grid colors to for different tracing purposes.  Working with a dark background picture?  Switch the grid color to Dark and all the points and grids will switch to a brighter color.




Text Substitution (Auto-Versioning)


- Set up variables in 3D Text objects and then drive the variables with a text file.  This takes versioning to the next level by enabling you to create one animation and then render countless additional animations based on changes in the text file.




Object Warps  (Deformations)

- Bend, fold, twist your 3D objects with all the exciting features of 3D Warps.  With over a dozen different deformations that are all fully customizable, you have endless possibilities.


- Animate the warps to create shape-changing effects.

- Stack multiple warps for customizable creativity.




Enhanced 3D Text

- With greatly improved font compatibility, you'll be able to all the exciting fonts on your computer.  Postscript, True Type, and Open Type Fonts are now supported.


- The Font Preview list shows you what a font looks like, without having to first select the font.


- Use the up/down arrows to quickly preview your text with the selected font.


- Type letters in the font list to quickly jump to a target font.  Typing "t" will jump you to "Tahoma" adding an "r" will bring you to "Trebuchet".


- Save the font, size, scale and baseline shift to a Favorite List to quickly access the fonts you use most.

	
- The Font Favorite saves all the settings such as Font Size, Kerning, and Spacing.




Improved Material Editor


- Resolution independent shaders can now be used for Color, Highlight, Bump, Transparency, and Reflectivity maps.


- Use blend modes such as Screen, Multiply and Overlay to overlapping shaders to create complex materials.


- Move, Rotate, Scale and Tile your image maps.

- Independent masking for every map or shader gives you custom, pixel-level control over how each map or shader is used.


- Comes with over 20 resolution independent graphic element noise generators.


- With the abilities of Gradientwerks, included in the Material Editor, now you can make and customize a mind boggling variety of resolution independent gradients.


- Copy and paste shaders to easily expand and reuse your material swatch libraries.




Mapping	
	

- Use UV, Spherical, Planar, Cylindrical, Cubic, or Camera View mapping to create different looks for your 3D Objects.
	

- Change the Position, Rotation, or Scale of the material.


- Enable Tiling to repeat or mirror in both X and Y direction.



--- Support ---



If you need support try these options.


1- Look on the Zaxwerks Help Center support page to see if there are any known issues dealing with the software.
Go to http://zaxwerks.com/helpcenter/


2- Ask the experts on the Zaxwerks User Forum.  Users from all over the world may be able to help you at any time of the day or night. http://zaxwerks.com/forum/index.html


3- Read the manual.  It's surprising what you'll find in the User Guide.


4- Contact Zaxwerks directly at support@zaxwerks.com.  Be sure to include your computer configuration as well as steps to reproduce your problem.
