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Creating text that casts a shadows of video
My subject looks easy but it has me stumped. I looking to create text that casts a shadow of my moving video footage. But I wish to have the shadow move up and down with the rolling hills. I sure it is straight forward but it has me plum stumped. I’m sure it has something to do with displacement but I still can’t get to work. Also I figure if I have the text also disappear behind objects in the footage that would also help the effect but I’m also have trouble tracking the objects. It is 8mm B&W footage that is all hand held “bumpy!”. Please any help would be greatly welcomed!
Thank you in advance.
dave
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2 Replies
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[Trollsa] “Creating text that casts a shadows of video”
Sorry the subject should read: Creating text that casts a shadow that moves with video footage.
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Have you seen Aharon’s tuts on Displacement Maps? Click his head on the main AE page and scroll down to the tutorial, Displacement Mapping Part 1: The Basics , there are two more. Getting the displacement effect to work is all about creating the right gradient or grayscale footage that does what you want. You can use other channels, like red, or green, they might work on your hills. Aharon’s tuts really show you how the gradients effect the look. He walks though the effect in detail and it will take awhile for you to get through it, but when done, you will know how to use Displacement Maps.
Actually I just looked at the tuts and Displacement Mapping Part 3: Text and Time is what you want. The first half covers displacing text, he uses water rippling on a beach. You’ll see how he treats the footage to get the look he wants. He duplicated his footage and then desaturated it with Hue/Saturation, then he used Levels to crush the colors to get black and white, then blurred slightly. It’s all there in tut 3 for you to see. Maybe you can use the same technique with your hill footage.
If part 3 doesn’t make sense go back to parts 1 & 2.
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