3D Village flyThrough

[Ben G unguren]

I’d go to a college library and look for books with old illustrations — books with expired copyrights (stuff from the early 1900s etc). I’d scan or photograph those pages, then use those as the basis for my scene.

Since you’re working in AE you probably are going to end up with “Planar” 3D buildings — is that the idea?

Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
http://www.mostlydocumentary.com

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[Ben Watson]

Yeah, something like this. I found lots of great photos on Flickr that a may try to use. Would really like to get a fairly realistic look…

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

If you want a realistic look then you should think about using 3d models with Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro. There’s literally thousands of 3d models out there that you can get for really cheap. Import them in Invigorator and you can animate the AE camera to fly through.
Here’s an example of what can be done using 3d models in Invigorator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H_tG5_DV5Q

You can buy whole sets here:
https://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_2=75&search=Medieval+Building+Collection+3

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

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[Jeff Brown]

If you can use 3D geometry, a site I use for models is “TurboSquid” (rather 3ds-Max-centric, but lots of models in multiple formats).

-Jeff

[Ben Watson]

What’s the best format for ae or photoshop to ae conversion?

[Walter Soyka]

[Ben Watson] “What’s the best format for ae or photoshop to ae conversion?”

AE and PS have limited 3D capabilities, but aren’t really built for real 3D use.

If you use Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro, it reads OBJ files.

You mentioned Sketchup. Another possibility is to do your work there, then render from Sketchup with a third-party renderer like VRay or Kerkythea.

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

[Ben Watson]

What is everyone’s take on Blender 3D? I’m just starting the 3D stuff and dont use it often.

It seems like I can find plenty of vids and such to walk me through a simple flythrough, and with the object websites mentioned, it should be pretty easy…

Thoughts?

-Ben

[Walter Soyka]

[Ben Watson] “What is everyone’s take on Blender 3D? I’m just starting the 3D stuff and dont use it often. “

Blender is a great option. It’s a very capable application, and all the general 3D knowledge you learn with Blender will be transferable to other applications.

(Side note: the Blender to AE Exporter has recently become an official part of the package [link].)

[Ben Watson] “It seems like I can find plenty of vids and such to walk me through a simple flythrough, and with the object websites mentioned, it should be pretty easy…”

Blender’s interface was completely redesigned in release 2.5, so make sure you’re searching for recent tutorials. Older tutorials may still show good technique, but the interface will be totally different and it will be much harder to follow along.

As for “pretty easy” — acquiring pre-made models may eliminate your need to model and maybe even texture, but you’ll still need to light, animate, and composite. There’s a lot to learn!

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

[Ben Watson]

I think I’m gonna attempt to go this route. I’ve always wanted to get into 3D, and this seems like a decent jump off point.

Any tutorial suggestions for getting started (vids, books, blog, etc?)

Thank you all for your info. It has been invaluable!!

-Ben

[Walter Soyka]

[Ben Watson] “Any tutorial suggestions for getting started (vids, books, blog, etc?)”

Sure. CG Cookie [link] has some nice Blender training, and Roland Hess has written a great book called Blender Foundations. For more advanced tutorials, Andrew Price runs BlenderGuru [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