AE with Stills

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

I haven;t seen the ad, but here goes…

There are a lot of ways it can be done – Personally, I prefer to do it with Null objects, rather than the camera whcih can get hairy, but sometimes you have to do it that way.

The defualt Camera can’t be animated since AE 5.5, so if you do it with a camera, make a new one.

Set up the photos in 3D space and then link them to the nul. Then bring the null forward at whatever speed you want.

This is just a suggestion, not the rule of thumb. Therea re definatyely other ways to do this. FOr example, setting everything up in 3D space, Nesting the 3D comp in a new comp, colapsing transformations and making it a 3D layer, and then just animating the nested layer. Or you COULD animate the camera instead. It’s a workflow thing – whatever you find works for you.

For a great example of 2.5D, check out the movie: “The Kid Stays in The Picture” – done by Edgeworx, an After Effects-based animation house in NYC.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
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Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Stephen Hockman]

could you tell me what are nulls and how do you use them?

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

From the AE help files:

If you want to assign a parent layer, but do not want that layer to be a visible element in your project, use a null object. A null object is an invisible layer that has all the properties of a visible layer so it can be a parent to any layer in the composition. (See Understanding parent layers.) Adjust and animate a null object as you would any other layer. (See Setting and animating a layer property in the Timeline window.)

A composition can contain any number of null objects. A null object is visible only in the Composition and Layer windows and appears in the Composition window as a rectangular outline with layer handles. Effects are not visible on null objects.

To create a null object:

Select the Timeline or Composition window and choose Layer > New > Null Object.

Note: The anchor point of a new null object layer appears in the upper left corner of the layer, and the layer is anchored in the center of the composition at its anchor point. Change the anchor point as you would for any other layer. (See Setting and animating an anchor point).

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Steve Roberts]

Aharon, you’re too fast on the copy and paste! Beat me to it!

But I’ll try to add something useful … uh … here’s one use for a null: if you want a 3D camera to orbit around a point, you place a null at that point, parent the camera to the null, aim the camera at the null and rotate the null.

You could do it with any kind of layer, but nulls don’t render and show up as an-easy-to-work-with little cross in the comp window.

Try searching the COW for “null” and you’ll find a few uses.

Steve