Review - N.O.T.A.by Gary Zullo

N.O.T.A

By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar

Hey there fellow Attackers! This time I am going to talk about NOTA, a plugin created by now famous, Renato Tarabella. So, what does NOTAmean anyway and what will it do for me? NOTAstands for "Not Only Text Animation" and could quite possibly be the most useful tool in C4D's toolbox for handling multiple objects succinctly.

Generally, the theory behind creating a plugin is to add lacking functionality to an application, or to make simple, something that would otherwise be too complicated, or take too long. Some address the former while others address the latter. NOTAis one of the few plugins that I have used in my time that actually addresses both lacking functionality _and_ workflow speed increase. Add to that the fact that there is no complicated setup or any complicated dialogs to wade through while setting the parameters. Simply create your object hierarchy, add the NOTAtag to it, and you're off and configuring. Shortly thereafter you'll be rendering an animation to make anyone jealous : have _complete_ control over how your objects will be animated. In order for NOTAto work you are only required to do the following: 1. create a keyframe that will act as your end frame position 2. specify where the objects will start from by using and referencing a null object

That's it! Seriously!! The rest is tweaking and configuring the settings and optional splines etc. to suit your needs and taste to whatever you may be animating.

The tag panel gives you access to the "basics" of NOTA. These include parameters such as Duration to specify the length of the object's animation, Animation shifting with the Step, Frame offsetting to determine animation start point within the timeline as well as locking axis position and/or rotation on any of the three axes. The offsets panel is just that...you can use a nice graph to define X, Yor Z offsets that will be applied after all transformations which means you can use curved trajectories rather than linear translations

The random panel allows you to control the randomness of the object contained within the hierarchy. In this case a random value will be added to the position, rotation and scale (depending on what you specify) at the point defined in the graph. The Spline panel allows you to manage motion splines to be used with NOTA. In this case, if you use a spline the starting position will become the beginning of the spline. The neat thing about using a spline is that you can enable looping of the objects. So, when the objects reach the end of the spline the loops around to the beginning to make a seamless animation for you.

The oscillation panel allows you to give the objects a wavy feel (oscillation). Incredibly you can control not only the axes, in which oscillation will occur, but the amount (and even phase).

The sort panel will determine the order for new objects based on the distance of each object. Reversing the curve would effectively reverse the order, etc.

The kerning panel will give you the ability to adjust the spacing of the objects in all three axes. Kerning holds the same meaning here as it would with typesetting. It's defined as the adjusting of the spacing between letters (or objects here).

My first impressions of NOTA reminded me of my web design days and using flash. There used to be an application called "swish" that I would use to make extraordinarily hard text-based effects with a few clicks of the mouse. NOTAis the same in its operation - but offers so much more. Don't let the fact that it's got "text" in its title fool you into thinking that text is all it can handle.

N.O.T.A

By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar

some "new" features coming along with this helpful little tool. In fact in the time I was reviewing NOTAhe released two pretty major versions (1.33 and 1.4). In addition to providing lightening fast updates and support, he also offers several video tutorials instead of a traditional "manual" to read. I can only speak for myself when I say that I much prefer the videos - they allow me to view what I need to get up and running as fast as possible.

Each video will give you a great insight as to what this plugin is capable of doing. Lastly, Renato has developed a "light" version of his plugins that allow you to fully demo the product. While fully functional the light versions understandably have a subset of functionality as compared to the full commercial releases, but they are certainly great demos. Make sure to visit his website for the latest information.

Breaking News!!!

Upcoming release: As if the featurelist wasn't already unbelievable Renato has decided to raise the bar. In the upcoming release (which should be out by the time you read this) [version 1.4] is going to incorporate some truly cool new features. I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to test drive the new version, and it did not disappoint. New features include:

1. Changes made to the TAG panel to allow user specified min scale and max scale. This is a huge improvement over previous versions that only allow 0 to 1 values to be used. Of course, it will default to 0 for min scale and 1 for max scale, but any number can be used. Some really cool effects can be had simply be adjusting these values. Try it out and you'll see.

2. In the KERNING tag Renato has added a reference object (!!). This means that now you can perform kerning with *any* fixed point whereas before you could perform kerning only at (0,0,0). Of course you still have all the kerning power from before as well. Seems like such an obvious improvement to make, eh? LOL, seriously -- being able to specify the kerning point myself really opens up the possibilities and makes the feature even more powerful - and EASYto use

3. And here I saved the best for last. Renato has added a new shader that is driven solely by NOTA. If you can believe this he has figured out a way to allow you to control things like transparency, bump mapping, color, etc ALLTHROUGH NOTA. When I started testing this feature it was quick to see just how powerful this feature is. Seriously, you can now control just about everything from within NOTAdirectly, and that can increase workflow amazingly. Feel free to zoom in on the above image to see detail.

You simply add the NOTAShader to whatever channel you'd like to control via NOTA. Currently, you'll have to add a float user data element to all the objects for it to work, but that will be addressed in a subsequent update. Then you simply control the effect's power via a graphical interface (similar to the rest of NOTA) and you're off

For an amazing demonstration of the newest features of version 1.4 please check out Renato's video at the following URL: http://www.tarabella.it/c4d/nota/Nota1.4_bis.mov . There are some truly amazing things going on that you'll have to see to believe

Ok, I'm sold but how much does it cost? Well, no one likes to pay for plugins and whatnot, BUTyou should always bear in mind that a plugin of this magnitude means that someone (in this case Renato) has spent a lot of time creating, testing and updating the functionality for you.

The price of this plugin is currently 77 EURO, and is a steal at twice the price in my humble opinion.

Bottom line: I think this plugin is simply a "must have". Why? Well, in addition to all the reasons above I feel like now that I have used this plugin extensively I don't think I could go back to doing many-objectanimations by hand...ever again! It is super simple to use and the

N.O.T.A

By Gary Zullo aka MrPixar

results it produces is nothing short of mind-blowing. Since our rating system only tops out at 5 stars I'll have to settle for that...lol. I can't wait to see what Renato cooks up next for us. Cheers!

Price: 77 EURO URL: http://www.tarabella.it/c4d/ Version 1.4 Platform: PC/MAC Compatible Rating: 5/5