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Wild Wild West (tv show) effect
I’m trying to create a version of the Wild Wild West commercial break graphics where (in the pilot eps) the action would freeze to be replaced by a drawing. The camera would then pull back to reveal that it is a panel in the opening four panel cartoon. I however instead of a cartoon want it to be a book. Can’t really find tutorials on this, but rather a lot on replacing live action with rotoscoped animation which is completely different effect, though one might be able to deduce it from that. The closest thing is possibly recreating the “Take on Me”, video effect since the cartoon is seen in live action shots as well.
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6 Replies
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For the cartoon effect I would recommend looking into ToonIt from Red Giant.
https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/toonit/Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Are you wanting the action to be moving while looking like a cartoon or do you want it to freeze when it’s a cartoon.
If it’s the latter, you might consider taking a still frame into Photoshop and making it look like a drawing in there. (Tons of tutorials on that as well as some pretty cool actions on the Adobe Exchange.)
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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No I was thinking more along the lines that it becomes a picture in a page of a book.
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[James Smith] “No I was thinking more along the lines that it becomes a picture in a page of a book.”
So you want the frame to freeze (no cartoon effect), and then the camera pulls out to reveal that the freeze frame is a picture in a book?
This be accomplished with time remapping (to freeze the frame) and parenting the video to a large book still, then keyframing the scale of the book. Alternately, you could do it with a camera move in AE’s 3D space.
Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re asking for, this is a fairly basic AE question. If you’re new to After Effects, I’d recommend the following link, in which Adobe’s Todd Kopriva pulls together some important introductory materials:
https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/getting-started-with-after-eff.html
AE is both deep and broad, and it’s very hard to jump right in without taking a little time to learn fundamental concepts first.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Yes you have stated exactly the effect I want, and you are quite right AE is very deep and broad, hence the problem. One could become an electrician in order to change a wall socket, but it is time prohibitive.
Have begun looking at the vids (very informative btw), but your synopsis of the process to achieve the effect has helped me to focus on the aspects I need to become familiar with in the program, and to select books and tutorials that focus on those points such as keyframing and time remapping etc. Thanks.
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[James Smith] “One could become an electrician in order to change a wall socket, but it is time prohibitive.”
On the other hand, if one doesn’t at least learn the basics of electricity before changing a wall socket, one could electrocute himself or burn his house down.
[James Smith] “your synopsis of the process to achieve the effect has helped me to focus on the aspects I need to become familiar with in the program, and to select books and tutorials that focus on those points such as keyframing and time remapping etc.”
I’m glad I could point you in the right direction — but keyframing (animating by manually changing the value of a property over time) is one of the most fundamental concepts there is in After Effects, which is why I suggested you review some of the introductory materials.
I understand that you have time constraints, and I’m not trying to be rude to you. I’m suggesting that spending a little time learning up front — even just a couple hours going over basic concepts — will actually speed up your project. It won’t take you long to learn what you need to accomplish your effect. If you just dive in and click buttons, it’s very easy to get frustrated and not get timely results.
Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening my axe.”
Good luck with your project. If you get stuck with anything along the way, you’ll find a lot of great help in the After Effects basics forum [link].
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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