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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Using Trapcode MIR to make a city?

  • Using Trapcode MIR to make a city?

    Posted by Jon Melot on September 27, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    Hello all,

    I was watching a Red Giant tutorial where trapcode mir is used to make a city. I understand the idea of using a fractal noise layer as an amplitude map, but I cannot get my mir layer to look anything like what the tutorial is doing. I’m wondering if anyone here has any different thoughts on how one might go about achieving the following. I’m not very versed with Mir, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of tutorials out there on it…

    Basically I want to make a grid of rectangles that extrude vertically, independentally of one another. I’d eventually like to link this up to some music (probably with soundkeys)so that the the extruded rectangles/squares grow and shrink with the music.

    An ideas?

    Joseph W. bourke replied 12 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Joseph W. bourke

    September 29, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    Having watched the tutorial, I think that what you’re missing is the Fractal Noise and Grid components of the tutorial, and getting those right. It’s pretty clear what the settings need to be from the tutorial – maybe you should go through it a few times.

    It sounds as if you want to make a more complex version of a 3D VU meter. The tutorial looked pretty clear to me – spend your time on getting the noise and grid down, and you’ll have it almost there.

    Joe Bourke
    Owner/Creative Director
    Bourke Media
    http://www.bourkemedia.com

  • Jon Melot

    September 30, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    Thanks for the reply! Yep, I’ve gone through this tutorial with a fine toothed comb, and I just cant get it right. I actually don’t need the grid as much in my final product but even without the grid I can’t get the extrusions to be correct. This is typically where I get:

    yep, basically the end goal is a 3d VU meter that I can rotate a camera around, move through, etc… I just can’t seem to get this portion down. I feel like I am missing something incredibly stupid and basic…

  • Joseph W. bourke

    September 30, 2013 at 5:17 pm

    Have you set the Complexity of the Fractal Noise pattern to 100 percent (it’s either that or 1.00 – I can’t remember from the tutorial). You need to have pretty high contrast (blacks and whites, not greys and off-whites) to get the solid bars effect. I think your problem is in the setup of the Fractal Noise.

    Joe Bourke
    Owner/Creative Director
    Bourke Media
    http://www.bourkemedia.com

  • Joseph W. bourke

    September 30, 2013 at 5:43 pm

    Also check your Vertices Count in MIR – it defaults to 100, which is way too low to get sharp edges and detail in the result. Try 200 or 300 and see what happens.

    Joe Bourke
    Owner/Creative Director
    Bourke Media
    http://www.bourkemedia.com

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