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Adobe After effects Question
This is kinda hard to explian, but i will try. I have a basic little 3d city that I made in adobe after effects. It is just basic cubes assembled to look like buildings. You can see a short clip of it here: https://www.mideagenius.com/sincity.mov
I have a HUGE pic that I want to use as a background plate, but the problem is, is that the pic is flat. Is there anyway in adobe after effects to curve the picture (think of it as wrapping it around a glass of water or something) so that when I move the 3D camera in AE, there is a nice, seamless background that covers the emtpy 3D space.
Right now I can only make it flat, so when i move the 3D camera, sometimes the background wont fill the entire background because the pic is flat. I want to be able to bend, or curve the pic so that it wraps around the little 3d city so to speak, but farther off in z space, so that I can pan around the city and always have the background in focus.
Hope this makes sense and that somebody out there has an answer. Thank you all in advance for any suggestions. Also, I am useing after effects version 6.0 on mac OSX.
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11 Replies
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Cycore makes a plug-in called “Environment” it is a virtual sphere that you can map BG maps onto. It matches to the AE cam.
Also if you just want to bend it, there is a plug in called “Freeform” to do minimal bending deformations.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
You can also try the Cycore effects… I put a huge panoramic in an even bigger comp, and then rendered that with CC Sphere (rendered “inside” only). Alternatively, if you only need it to wrap, the you can use CC Cylinder, and do the same thing…
Rhett -
Totally off subject, GREAT looking city!
I have been trying to accomplish the same type of look, using Illustrator and solids, but I can’t get my city to look right. It just looks cheesy.
Could you email me and give me some suggestions on things to do/not do to make it look like yours?
Thanks,
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I tried to use the conoa cc cylinder thing, but it didnt really do anything. I am finding that most of these pluggins just give the appearance of a cylinder, but do not actually make a full 3d cylinder that I can move around in 3d space, only a 2d image that looks cylindrical. I need some sort of pluggin that makes the picture actually bend, so say when I look at it from the top camera POV, I see a nice sublte “U” encompassing my city. Would AE even show this? I mean if the pic was in fact “u-ed” would I see that shape when viewing from the top? or is a pic always going to have its flat straight bounding boxes? I am kinda new to AE and dont reallly know all the specifics yet. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance again.
– Ryan
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If you get the CC “Environment” I mentioned in the post above, it perfectly locks to the AE camera. SO whereever you pan the camera, it is true.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I agree Jason. IF you could help explain how you accomplished this city I would hella apreciate it beacuse in my opinion it looks so stylized and cool. I like it a lot.
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Nice city:
2 notes:
1. Instead of a curved surface for your BG you could use the old fashined “Pan and Tile” method used in feature films. They’ve used Nuke to do this all through the 90’s for BG’s in movies. It can just as easily be done in AE 3D space. Here is a demo of it (see link). They show it in Maya, but it applies to AE. It’s also generally how they do the environments in video games. With a cube instead of a sphere:
https://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2004/11/nodal_point_pan_2.html
2. If you own Cinema 4D, there is a free plug in called “City Gen” that creates a city like yours automatically. You can set how big the city is, the maximum heights. The ratio of building types (skyscrapers to regular buildings to low buildings etc.) It even generates the streets and park areas. Texture mapping is really easy because for each “type” of structure it gives you up to 8 (i think) material drop boxes. It will randomly pick from one of the ones you dropped in to apply to the structure. So if you made 6 skyscraper texture maps, you will get 6 randomly assigned looking sky scrapers. This applies to all the other building types. You can build massive cities in no time.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Awsome! This is exactly what I need. Thanks a bunch!
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hey chris, is there any such option as this in lightwave? I just ordered lightwave and am eager to learn it, know anything about it or ever use it? Thanks though for all the info already.
– R
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Sorry, not familiar with Lightwave. Just Maya and C4D. I played with lightwave once a loooong time ago when it was part of the Video Toaster.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com
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