Here's the post with the files... good luck! Right click and save the template. Make sure it's named .blend. Internet explorer seems to think it's HTML.

http://falzonvideo.com/vid/0501.jpg

I've created a new blender file with and some step by step instructions to customize it.

Template -

http://falzonvideo.com/vid/UniversalNewTemplate.blend

Instructions -

http://falzonvideo.com/vid/Universal%20Blender%20Instructions.doc

Good luck!

Mike

Okay guys, been racking my brain till I can't see straight anymore. I've got Blender 2.45 enhanced. Was able to easily follow Mikes tutorial to change his Universal file, created my own blend and rendored it and it looks great.... thanks to all.

I'm having one issue that I just don't think should be too difficult, but maybe someone has the answer for me. I didn't like the font being used, so I opened Mikes raw blend file and started their first.

Step 1, I tabbed and changed the name, then tabbed out of edit mode.
My Step 2: Changed the font.
My Step 3: Altered some sizing and spacing of the font.
(In my first rendor, I stopped here and continued with Mikes tutorial,.. all was fine. Rendored perfectly).

However, I wanted to add the white letters to the front and jazz it up a bit, so I did the following, continuing from step 3 above:

My step 4: Select "CBASS CINEMAS" text.
My step 5: Duplicate
My step 6: Resize duplicate text and place it just in front of original text.

Now here is where I'm stuck. Neither text has yet to be converted to a curve or mesh, but when I change the color (material) of one, it changes the other automatically. So both sets of text become white, or red, or whatever color I choose.

How can I get the front text to change without the back one changing also?

I've attached a couple of screen shots. One of the rendor show both texts the same color, and one is a screen shot showing the position of both texts.

tarheel your problem is in the way you originally duplicated the text. When you duplicated it the new text object took on all the properties of the original object, including its material assignment. When you go change the material properties of the new object all other objects that are assigned that same material will be affected.

What you have to do is basically break the connection between the new object and the original material. I forget what the exact process is for doing this but under the materials options I think you can just delete the current assignment and then create a new material to assign to the object, instead of just editing the current assignment like you're been doing.

To do this, in the materials options under the "Links and Pipeline" box click the little "X" next to the material name "MA:xxxxx". That should delete the assignment to the original material. If at this point the original text turns gray or something then the material itself got deleted rather than just the assignment so start over and don't do this step (Like I said I'm not 100% sure of the process without doing it myself before posting). After doing the above or skipping it click the little up and down arrows to the left of the MA:xxxx and choose ADD NEW. This will create a new material definition and assign it to your new text object which you can name and change the properties of.

Hopefully that made a little bit of sense. It should at least be enough to get you experimenting and stumble through a fix :)

Thanks Magius,

It actually makes perfect sense. It's a catch 22 in a sense. The reason I chose to Duplicate the text in the first place is because I wanted the text to behave exactly as the original so that when I joined the meshes together, all the rotations would be exact. That was the part I didn't want to have to try and recreate.

You hit it right on, and I was definately on the right track, but I basically did what you said. I think I added a second material to the second text, then deleted the original material in the second text, leaving only the new one being assigned. I had been trying to change the original material in the second text, which would obviously change the first as well since they were linked from the duplication. I think by adding a new material to the second and deleting the original from it, broke the link for that aspect of it's properties although I'm not positive without trying it again. Which I will do and post my results in case anyone is curious.

Thanks a ton for your help! I've attached the new rendor with white letters over gold and a new font.

Nice job. Much closer to the original Universal colors.

Thanks!

Yeah, I really like the way it came out. I'll already rendored it in 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps using the ffmpeg output and it looks great.

I'm using an optimized version of blender so it took about 45 minutes on my laptop to rendor.

You guys deserve all the credit on this one.... it's great that you let us technologically challenged folks come in and reap the benefits of your hard work. I've only been working with Blender since Sunday, but I feel like I've made some huge strides with it, and will continue to do so.

I hate to keep bothering you guys. I've spent all day trying to merge my video with my audio. I can do it at lower quality settings and in a container which I don't want.

I used blender to rendor my intro as an MPEG2 file 1280x720 (about 17mb). My audio file is a direct extraction in AC3 format.

All I want to do is combine the two without converting the end result to something other than a DVD file or MPEG2. In other words... MPEG2 + AC3 = :)

I've tried about a dozen programs and keep coming accross some limitation with each. Anyone have any experience with this.

The biggest limitation I find is that most programs output the resulting file at a max resolution of 720x480. I'm really wanting to keep the original res of 1280x720. Other programs can't handle the AC3, which I would really rather not convert due to quality issues as well.

I came accross some "Audio" settings in Blender when I chose to output my file using FFMpeg. Any chance to import the AC3 at this juncture? I'm using Blender 2.5.

FYI,

I found ULead Video Studio 11 that does exactly what I'm wanting!!

All set and finished.

I'm a big fan of the Ulead products. That's what I use too.

I seem to be having a problem trying to get this to work, I think I followed the directions but obviously I went wrong some where.

The part where you are supposed to move the move to the top of the screen and press shift-w then bring the mouse down until the text "inverts" and is about the size of the diameter of the globe, well for some reason that doesn't work for me, I can only get it to "invert" a little bit...see attached pictures and video, I will also attach the blender file

Video
http://www.mediafire.com/?myymgmdnmdj

Blender File
http://www.mediafire.com/?to5dxwcjdjw

Not sure about the inverting procedure, but I followed Mike's instrctions and used his blend file for the base, and it could not have been any easier. If all you really need to do is change your name, you can be rendoring your animation in less than 10 minutes.

If you wanted to add the white lettering in front of the gold, just let me know and I can run through the extra steps. Here are the links for Mike's stuff:

Template -

http://falzonvideo.com/vid/UniversalNewTemplate.blend

Instructions -

http://falzonvideo.com/vid/Universal...structions.doc

I think I had a similar problem. I think I solved by noticing where I had the mouse pointer when I pressed crtl w.

Adam

Good evening,
I have just rendered my first Universal logo from the instructions in this cool thread. You guys are awesome. I followed the instructions to the letter, they were well written and easy to understand. I am using Blender 2.42. The render looks pretty good except its a little choppy at the beggining and a little in the middle as the letters are about half way around Earth. I was wondering if anyone else has had this with their render and might know how I can solve it. Please be patient, other than this project I have never used Blender.

Thanks, ED

Just finished first Universal render (followed the instructions).

My custom title, however, starts coming out from behind Earth backwards and - exactly where the instructions tell you too add a curve point at frame 255 or something - does a 180 (along the horizontal axis) and flips around to read correctly.

Why does my text come from behind Earth backwards and then flip around at the last second?

I seem to be having a problem trying to get this to work, I think I followed the directions but obviously I went wrong some where.

The part where you are supposed to move the move to the top of the screen and press shift-w then bring the mouse down until the text "inverts" and is about the size of the diameter of the globe, well for some reason that doesn't work for me, I can only get it to "invert" a little bit...see attached pictures and video, I will also attach the blender file

Video
http://www.mediafire.com/?myymgmdnmdj

Blender File
http://www.mediafire.com/?to5dxwcjdjw


Same problem here.

Klover make sure that the cursor is directly over the words when you hit shift-w.
I had the same problem and it seemed to work for me when I had the cursor on the words. I also saved my render right before I did the shift-w so I could start there if things got messed up

MikeFalz (or anyone),
followed the included instructions but when I get to the bit about " Back in the Shapes Tab, left click on the bar next to the 1.00 (it should stay at 1.00, but this will add another key frame).". I cant seem to follow where exactly I click. Any help?
Cheers

MarkH,

Take a look at this screenshot. I've put a red circle on the bar you need to click on. When you do it, it may not seem like anything happened, but all you need to do is click it once.

If you want, some people drag the bar from 1.00 back to 0 and then back to 1.0, all in one motion. That way you can be sure you've clicked on it to set up a new key frame. But either way works. I just click on it once and move on.

MarkH,

Take a look at this screenshot. I've put a red circle on the bar you need to click on. When you do it, it may not seem like anything happened, but all you need to do is click it once.

If you want, some people drag the bar from 1.00 back to 0 and then back to 1.0, all in one motion. That way you can be sure you've clicked on it to set up a new key frame. But either way works. I just click on it once and move on.

Thanks tarheel23. On a slightly related note, how do you I set up the output resolution of Mike's file to be 1920x1080? Its been over a year since I used Blender for the Fox intro and its changed so much!

When your ready to rendor your file, place your cursor anywhere in the bottom portion of the screen and hit F10. That will bring up a section that is located all the way to the right hand side of the screen.

Click on the "HD" button at the bottom. I've attached a picture showing where to click.

Once you have done that.... you are ready to rendor at 1920x1080.

When your ready to rendor your file, place your cursor anywhere in the bottom portion of the screen and hit F10. That will bring up a section that is located all the way to the right hand side of the screen.

Click on the "HD" button at the bottom. I've attached a picture showing where to click.

Once you have done that.... you are ready to rendor at 1920x1080.

Legend!! Thanks again!

Well guys got it working and rendering at 1920x1080 using the AVI codec. Only problem is the file is over 4GB! Any ideas on reducing that down to a more manageable size?

I rendor mine using the FFMpeg codec instead of AVI. Once you select the FFMpeg as your codec, select the video tab and choose which container you want to use. You can experiment here, but I usually use the MPeg2 container and come out with about 25mb. When I used AVI, it was about 3.5gb.

Most of the guys here end up converting it to an Mpeg anyways, so this just saves the lengthy conversion on top of the bulky rendor.

I seem to be having a problem trying to get this to work, I think I followed the directions but obviously I went wrong some where.

The part where you are supposed to move the move to the top of the screen and press shift-w then bring the mouse down until the text "inverts" and is about the size of the diameter of the globe, well for some reason that doesn't work for me, I can only get it to "invert" a little bit...see attached pictures and video, I will also attach the blender file

Video
http://www.mediafire.com/?myymgmdnmdj

Blender File
http://www.mediafire.com/?to5dxwcjdjw

I had this problem too at first, and then figured out what is going on. Where the instructions say "Make sure your cursor is back in the top view and press TAB", you actually need to move the cursor to the window showing the top view of the world, NOT the top window on your screen. On my setup, I have two windows side by side on the upper part of my screen. The window showing the top view of the world is the one on the left.

--Mark

Good evening,
I have just rendered my first Universal logo from the instructions in this cool thread. You guys are awesome. I followed the instructions to the letter, they were well written and easy to understand. I am using Blender 2.42. The render looks pretty good except its a little choppy at the beggining and a little in the middle as the letters are about half way around Earth. I was wondering if anyone else has had this with their render and might know how I can solve it. Please be patient, other than this project I have never used Blender.

Thanks, ED


Ed,

Playing back a 5 gig AVI file requires a lot of disk bandwidth and a fast processor. When you convert this to an mpeg2 file for playback (like when you author a DVD), it will be smooth.

--Mark

Just finished first Universal render (followed the instructions).

My custom title, however, starts coming out from behind Earth backwards and - exactly where the instructions tell you too add a curve point at frame 255 or something - does a 180 (along the horizontal axis) and flips around to read correctly.

Why does my text come from behind Earth backwards and then flip around at the last second?

Klover,

You didn't have your mouse over the correct window when you typed shift-W. You need to be in the "top view" window. Do not confuse this with the upper window on your monitor. On my setup, it is the window on the upper left (showing the world looking down on it from the top).

--Mark

GGRRRRRRR

Followed instructions provided by atagert and can not get the text to mesh
If anyone could be so kind to blender

The Movies on Main
Brought to you in HD

I would be soo appreciated!

Thanks
abradford

PM me your email and I'll send it over.

thanks tarheel - i am in the process of rendering it in 720P

Still want and need to fully understand what i was doing wrong before but for now im ok. I think it has to do with trying to join the text while it was text - maybe it needed to me turned to a mesh - no clue but i will figure it out

Again thx tarheel

Does anybody have the 5.1 audio as a file they can send me to go with this Universal clip? Would appreciate it very much.

Thanks Magius,

It actually makes perfect sense. It's a catch 22 in a sense. The reason I chose to Duplicate the text in the first place is because I wanted the text to behave exactly as the original so that when I joined the meshes together, all the rotations would be exact. That was the part I didn't want to have to try and recreate.

You hit it right on, and I was definately on the right track, but I basically did what you said. I think I added a second material to the second text, then deleted the original material in the second text, leaving only the new one being assigned. I had been trying to change the original material in the second text, which would obviously change the first as well since they were linked from the duplication. I think by adding a new material to the second and deleting the original from it, broke the link for that aspect of it's properties although I'm not positive without trying it again. Which I will do and post my results in case anyone is curious.

Thanks a ton for your help! I've attached the new rendor with white letters over gold and a new font.

Hello!
I really liked the white over gold font, but i'm having problems with this. Can't sort out how to match the duplicated text with original one using size and spacing.:confused: Is it possible to get some instructions on how you did this?

Sure thing. Here is what I did.

I started this using Mike Falzones step by step instructions, so all credit goes to him for this particular help:

1. Press Tab to put the "Your Theater" text in edit mode. Change the text to whatever your theater name should be.
2. Press tab key to exit edit mode.

Here is where you interupt Mikes directions to get the white face:

I changed the font to a more suitable one with a wider face. You don't have to do it, but I think the results are much better. I used Arial Black. To change the font, do the following:

3. Press Tab again, to re-enter edit mode.
4. On the FONT tab (located in the lower right corner of your edit screen), click LOAD.
5. Locate your fonts that are installed on your computer. (most will be c:\windows\fonts)
6. I chose ariblk.ttf , which is Arial Black. You can find one you like and proceed from here.

Once you have loaded the font, it should now be reflected on your screen as such. You will also need to change the font properties to get it to look a little better. Do the following, but ultimately, make it look like you want it, this is my suggestion:

7. Press TAB to exit edit mode.
8. In the FONT tab, change the SIZE to 1.500, the WORD SPACING to 1.00, and the SPACING to 1.100.
9. In the TOP VIEW of the edit screen, select your renamed text (what used to be "YOUR THEATER"), by right clicking on it. It should be pink now.
10. On your number keypad, press the "." button once. This will center you on the text itself.
11. Now use your scroll wheel on your mouse, or the "+" key on your number keypad to zoom in very close. (see attached screen shot #1 for example.

BE VERY STEADY WITH THIS NEXT PART!

12. On the LEFT hand side of the screen (TOP VIEW), select the OBJECT button, then select DUPLICATE. When you click on DUPLICATE, do not move your mouse at all. You have just created a duplicate of your text, which will now be in white. Your mouse should be in the left hand side of the preview window, and when you move it, the new text will move with it. So what you want to do is move the text straight down until the desired amount is overlapping the original text. I overlap it by about 1/4. See the screenshot #2. If you do this right, you will not see any change in the right hand screen, which means your text is still perfectly lined up front the front view.

13. On the CURVE AND SURFACE tab, change the width of the front text (should still be highlighted in pink) to 0.98.
14. RIGHT click on the original (back) text and change the width to 1.030
15. Now RIGHT click on the front text again and go to the LINK AND MATERIALS tab.
16. Making sure you have the FRONT text selected (should be pink), click on NEW to add a new material to CU:Text.002.
17. Make the new material WHITE, clicking on the colored square next to “2 Mat 2”.
18. Now use the arrow keys to the left and right of “2 Mat 2” and change it to “1 Mat 2”. Click the DELETE button below it. This will delete the original material (color), and leave the white material (color) as the only one left.
19. To check that you have done this right so far, click on RENDER (at the top) and click on RENDOR CURRENT FRAME. This will give you a snapshot and you should see white on top of gold text.
20. Now select the front text and Click Alt C and convert to a CURVE.
21. Click Alt C again, and select convert to MESH.
22. Do the same thing for the Back text.
23. Hold down the SHIFT key and select both the front and back text by right clicking the mouse on each one. They should both now be pink.
24. Click on OBJECT, and select “JOIN OBJECTS” to combine both meshes.


And that’s it. Sounds like a lot, but really it’s pretty quick once you do it a time or two.

From here you just pick up with Mike’s instructions to finish it out. Your next step should be to “Left click on the button marked Centre Cursor.”

Hope this helps you out!

Thank you so much tarheel23 for very good instructions on the white on gold lettering. I managed it now, finished renedering and it looks really good. And also a big thank you to Mike for all his work with this.:)

Are any of these Intros available in Adobe (Macromedia) Flash?

ugh there was another universal logo file that was easier than this one but i can't find it O_o:mad:

ugh there was another universal logo file that was easier than this one but i can't find it O_o:mad:

Did you get it from my projects page?
http://woodyfamilycinema.com/projects.asp

Your blender file is ready. PM me your email and I'll send it to you. The only thing you may need to do is re attach the globe jpg to the sphere.

Mike

Hey. im new to this but i have some background knowledge. can u send me the latest blender file you have for this animation? also when ever i click on mikes .blend file i get an html page with a whole bunch of code/script! what am i doing wrong!

Good evening,
I have just rendered my first Universal logo from the instructions in this cool thread. You guys are awesome. I followed the instructions to the letter, they were well written and easy to understand. I am using Blender 2.42. The render looks pretty good except its a little choppy at the beggining and a little in the middle as the letters are about half way around Earth. I was wondering if anyone else has had this with their render and might know how I can solve it. Please be patient, other than this project I have never used Blender.

Thanks, ED

can you help me?

I had this problem too at first, and then figured out what is going on. Where the instructions say "Make sure your cursor is back in the top view and press TAB", you actually need to move the cursor to the window showing the top view of the world, NOT the top window on your screen. On my setup, I have two windows side by side on the upper part of my screen. The window showing the top view of the world is the one on the left.

--Mark

I am still having this problem and cannot for the life of me figure out how to inverse the text in the correct direction properly. I have tried several locations with my cursor. I have tried it over the text, the top of the screen and everywhere else with no success. I have attatched some screens to show what is happening.

Before Shift-W
http://www.theklassens.com/images/BeforeShiftW.jpg

After Shift-W
http://www.theklassens.com/images/AfterShiftW.jpg

Like I said, I have tried several cursor positions. Top of the screen (like the instructions say), hovering over the text and almost every screen position in between. The text will not grow larger than the image attached.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks for all the great infor BTW! This stuff is addicting but the people that can really use Blender to its fullest capacity must be MIT graduates or aliens because this is one complex program! :D

I have just tried rendering both the universal and the fox intro in HD and both avi files failed to open. All I did was select HD which set the dimensions to 1920x1080 and hit render animation. I got an unsupported format or damaged file error message. I tried changing from avi codec to avi uncompressed but it doesn't make a difference - does anyone have any advice? Steve

Hi Steve.

I´m having the same problem, have you found a way to fix this ???
It is only when I render in HD this error comes.
I hope someone can help.
Thanks Francis

VingenBio,

I didn't manage to fix it but I cirumvented by rendering to a set of TIFF images and used premier pro to create a video.

It might be useful to see if there are any similarities in the systems we are using. I was using blender 2.45 on Windows XP SP2 running on a Dell Intel Core2Quad 2.39GHz with 3GB of RAM.

Steve

I have had similar problems when I use the newer builds. The mouse just can't get far enough away to get it to the size I want. I find that 2.42 is the best build.

Adam

How Do You Change the text ive used blender before for the fox logo but ive never had luck with the universal logo

I'm somewhat new to blender but have figured out how to do the basics. My issue right now is the rendering....I set it to HD and click animate, but for some reason after 10 hours it gets hung up at 700. Should I allow more time or is there something going on that is holding it up....any assitance would be greatly appreciated.....by the way this thread is great

I know this is an old and somewhat dead thread, but I thought I would give it a shot. I can't seem to get the text to rotate around the earth. It is like there is no armature. I tried on Blender 2.42a as well as the current 2.48 with no luck. Any suggestions? I have followed the instructions perfectly

Hi everybody....
i found a realy nice logo shown on youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=VNWgbEZOnkg&feature=channel did anyone know how I can do this logo or has anyone a project file for after effects blender etc?

Hello friends.

With respect to the template Theatercourtains, I have a problem.

When I do render the file when it is to the end, the curtains do not have texture and the background is white.

I saw somewhere and I think the curtains theater were red and the background of the screen was black.

Anybody can help me with this little problem?

Thanks falks. :)

Guys......I know I'm a couple of years late, but I just discovered this and want to give it a shot. I am downloading blender now and was wondering if there are new, detailed instructions for the Universal logo with the High Res Death Star?

Thanks in Advance...

Hi Guys

I am knew to this and have already done the fox intro but wanted to do the universal one.Has anyone got a copy of this file pls

UniversalNewTemplate.blend

Link does not work anymore.

Cheers

Hi,

Is there someone who can provide me with a blend file with the latest Universal intro, the one where we see the sunrays from behind the earth and which also has many rays coming from the earth itself?

It also has the much better looking 3-D bold metallic letters.

If you can provide me with this blend file, it would be greatly appreciated (one where all I would need to do would be to change the text to my own personal text).

I will try and provide a YouTube link later tonight.

Thanks

Hi,

I have tried the tutorial... It works fine except that i see some lines on the faces of the letters that are not quite esthetical.
Do you have the same problem ?

I use the last version of blender 2.49b

You can see the letter D for example in the bitmap attached.

Thank you !!!

Hi,

Is there someone who can provide me with a blend file with the latest Universal intro, the one where we see the sunrays from behind the earth and which also has many rays coming from the earth itself?

It also has the much better looking 3-D bold metallic letters.

If you can provide me with this blend file, it would be greatly appreciated (one where all I would need to do would be to change the text to my own personal text).

I will try and provide a YouTube link later tonight.

Thanks
Did you ever have any luck finding this? I'm also looking for it. Let me know if you find anything. Thanks.

Hi I have my Universal intro done but do not have the music could you send me the ac3 file that would be great.

And how is the best way to add this to my intro using windows movie maker
Thks

I've been using my version with WMM for quite some time with excellent results. I resized the intro to avoid a large file being added to my movies and have used different music tracks to complement it. I just click and drag the file straight into the WMM time line, drop in an MP3 music track adjusted to match the length of the vid.

Here's a version using the Michael Kamen Morgan Creek studio theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFsZ_3BJn2E

Mike

Does anyone have the courtains file handy? I tried to read all the Posts here and I can't find a work able file.

Thanks