We think you will enjoy this high-quality, reasonably-priced 3D animation program. LogoMotion is based on our award-winning Infini-D technology, which is designed to be both powerful and easy to use. We think that from the accesibility and ease-of-use of LogoMotion's human interface, to the speed and quality of our rendering, you will find LogoMotion to be a powerful and enjoyable product.
1) The most important thing to do when working with LogoMotion is to explore. Click and double click on anything that looks interesting. Hold down the modifier keys (options, control, command) to see if anything new happens. Almost everything in LogoMotion is "undo-able" so don't worry about experimenting! The more you explore, the more you will learn about LogoMotion and the fascinating world of 3D graphics.
2) Hold down the option key on the Mac, or the ALT key on Windows when dragging objects to copy them. A surprising amount of "power" users do not know this simple trick, which is a big time saver over the standard Copy/Paste routine. This will also work for objects that have hierarchy or animation information. This works for the scale and rotate tools as well.
3) Hold down the shift key when moving or rotating objects. Holding down the shift key constrains the rotation or movement to that face of the object. This is very useful, especially in rotation, or if you wish an object to move along a perfectly straight path.
4) Hold down the control key on the Mac, or F2 on Windows, when moving objects to change the centerpoint. Holding down the control key will move an object's centerpoint. This is useful for objects that revolve around a parent object (like moons orbiting a planet.)
5) Import EPS files from Illustrator or FreeHand. This is a very useful thing to do, especially since most companies have their corporate logo in EPS format. You can knock the socks off a client by requesting their EPS logo, importing it into LogoMotion and knocking off a quick animation, then showing the final result to them. They'll think you worked for days on it!
6) Fun in the Workshop
You can have a lot of fun in LogoMotion's Extrude or Lathe WorkShops. Just a few things you can try:
Ñ Marquee-drag/delete is a fast way to delete all or a selection of points in an object.
Ñ Double-clicking on the circle tool allows you to change the number of meridians (sides) in a circle.
Ñ Double-clicking on the hand tool re-centers your view.
Ñ Double-clicking on the magnifying glass tool brings you back to your default magnification.
Ñ Putting closed shapes (circle, square) inside of another closed shape is a great way to simulate "holes" in objects.
7) On Windows, the CTRL key toggles between the hand tool and a "Z Hand" tool which lets you move the camera in and out of Z space.
8) Holding down the Command key on Mac and CTRL key on Windows when the arrow tool is selected gives you a popup menu of all objects under your mouse. This is very useful when you have more than one object occupying the same space.
9) Useful Sequencer tips:
Ñ Marquee-dragging in the Sequencer is the best way to select multiple Events (individual object keyframes)
Ñ Holding down the option key on the Mac, or ALT key on Windows when dragging Eventmarks duplicates the Events. (This works for multiple Events)
Ñ Holding down the Command key on the Mac or the CTRL key on Windows while dragging multiple Events uniformly "stretches" the timing of those events.
Ñ You can link objects in the Sequencer. To do this, select the object's name in the Sequencer, then drag onto the name of the object you want to link it to.
Ñ Dragging the time marker lets you see previews of your animation in real-time!
10) "Use Parent's Surface" saves a lot of time. When making objects with child objects that are supposed to be the same color as the parent, such as table legs, try to get in the habit of using "Use Parent's Surface" Now, if you change the surface of the parent's object, all of the children's surfaces will change as well.
These are my favorite 10 tips for LogoMotion. I hope you enjoy creating 3D animations with LogoMotion. And if you like this program, then you'll love MetaCreations Infini-D¬ or MetaCreations RayDream Studio, which are the next rung up the ladder of 3D power. Visit our website at http://www.metacreations.com for more information.
Thanks for purchasing LogoMotion!
Adam Lavine
Director of Product Development
MetaCreations Princeton
November, 1997
⌐1995-1997, MetaCreations Corporation. All rights reserved.
