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After Effects for Compositing
Hey guys, I need some advice. I’m currently working on a project that’s going to involve some compositing, and I’m wondering if AE is the right tool for the job.
Here’s what I’ll be doing
1. Heavy rotoscoping w/ tracking
2. A small amount of high-quality keying (greenscreen)
3. Some basic painting
4. Possibly some cloning, but if so, it will need to be high quality (and more than just wire removal)Up to this point my plan was to use After Effects 6.5 Pro plus various plug-ins to supplement AE’s weaknesses. For rotoscoping/tracking I’d use Silhouette FX, for keying AE’s native keying effects, for painting AE’s native vector paint features, and for cloning either AE’s native tools or if they weren’t suitable, Silhoutte FX’s cloning tools. Does anyone have an opinion on whether or not this will be suitable? And if not, are there other plug-ins I should consider?
The work needs to be relatively high-quality, since it’s for broadcast spots for a large corp. I can’t have any glows around keyed elements, etc.
The only affordable alternative is Combustion 4. I’ve messed around with the trial version and done some tutorials, and I’m impressed with it’s features. It seems like a better compositing tool than AE. But I’m loathe to learn a whole new app with only a couple of weeks to spare before the post work gets underway. I know AE’s interface and it’s basic features well. So I’m trying to weigh the benefits of learning a better compositing tool vs. the benefit of already knowing AE. Plus there will be some mograph work involved, and so I’d probably have to jump back and forth between AE and Combustion anyway.
Realizing that AE 7 will probably not be available before I need to start this work, I’m stuck with these two choices (plus who knows what’s going to be in AE 7 anyway).
Any input as to what I should do is really appreciated!
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3 Replies
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Financially speaking, it may be in your interest to look into Combustion. Admittedly I haven’t played with Combustion recently but I am relatively familiar with the way discreet handles things. I’ve heard (as no doubt you may have as well) that AE is potentially going to include Silhoutte’s roto tools in the next version. I can say that I’ve had pretty good success with AE’s Primatte plugin and it’s rotoscoping tools (Bezier, haven’t had an opportunity to use rotobezier yet which is supposed to make things easier). I miss good ‘ol Commotion 😉
Another application you might want to look into is Eyeon’s Digital Fusion. If you’re familiar with node-based effects, it’s pretty powerful.
-Rob
Motion Graphics Animation
Professional & Freelance
Respond2Opinions expressed above are not in any way connected to Respond2.
Personal website under construction 😉
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You can do it in AE except tracking which is atrocious in AE. I like AE paint and clone tools though. There is a difference overlay setting in AE for cloning which is really handy when you need it. If you really need high quality keying then I would also recommend Primatte 3. It can pull a much better key than the native AE plugins. If you can do all your tracking in silhouette and use Primatte for keying. I think you will be fine.
Pete -
Thanks for the help guys! I actually heard that it’s going to be Curious gFX that’s going to be in AE, not Silhouette. In fact, if you go to the Curious website, they say that they’re no longer offering a free trial of gFX because they’ve liscened the product out to Adobe. But I guess it’s all just speculation until AE 7 appears.
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