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CC Particle World 3D Stroke low to high resolution issue
So I used a video copilot tutorial on how to make 3D lines/strokes/streaks for my logo a while ago, I think it was the 3D Stroke Effect tutorial. Anyway, I have a logo that I want to be in HD, so I can use it with HD video. Problem is, the dimensions were 640 x 391 when I first made it… so when I bump up the comp settings to 2560×1600, it is warped, badly.
The project looks like this right after I bump up the resolution:
As you can see, the white solid that the CC Particle World layer is on becomes just a small square when I increase the resolution. When I try zooming in either with the camera or with the Null 4 object (which the camera is parented to) things become skewed and don’t look like they did when the composition was at a lower resolution. I’ve tweaked around with it a lot, but I thought there may be some way to bump it up to HD resolution without having to adjust every little thing manually, basically re-doing the whole thing again. Help me Obi-Wan.
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8 Replies
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The white solid containing Particle World needs to be the same size as your new composition size. What is Null 2 doing?
It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…
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I tried 3 methods: A) Taking the existing white solid and stretching it to fit the existing composition size. B) Creating a new white solid and copying the attributes and effects to it. 3) from the unaltered original file at 640 x 391, rendering at 2560 x 1600.
For my latest video, I just did the third option, but I’m not sure how good the quality is that way…
I like editing, but in this case the original was just the way I like it, so I’d rather not re-do the whole thing if it’s avoidable. The problem obviously relates to the 3D nature of CC Particle World, but I don’t know exactly what’s causing the issues when bumping it up to 2560 x 1600. The camera perhaps?
Here is the original project: https://www.box.net/s/6qaxc4qybm1znuvqnlxc
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The problem appears to be your null animation (Null 2). The position keyframes are animated to fit your original smaller comp. Since the null position keyframes determine the path of your emitter, you’d have to re-animate to fit the larger comp size – I can’t think of any way you’d “scale” that up to fit the new comp size.
I’ll have another look in a couple of hours when I have more time.
It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…
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Since you’re animating the particles in a spiral (basically) have you considered creating a spiral spline in Illustrator and pasting that into AFter Effects as a mask (path)? Then you can copy/paste the mask position data tot he position of your emitter and it will follow the spiral. Might be a simpler and quicker approach than trying to keyframe the whole thing again.
It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…
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Actually, an easier way might be to create a 3D null for the emitter then parent that to another 3D null some distance away (i.e., the radius of your spiral). Then animate the position and rotation of the parent null to control the spiral motion and movement of the emitter.
It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…
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I unfortunately have no idea how to do that spiral spline in Illustrator thing, but your second suggestion makes a little more sense (I am not too familiar with Illustrator) but I’m still confused. I don’t know what you mean by the radius of the spiral and I don’t know where the camera comes in to play. Is it even possible for the emitter to be attached to a null – and if so, could the transform options making the path of the line in the original composition just be copy-pasted into the new emitter? If it wasn’t apparent, I am quite rusty with After Effects – I’m getting back into the swing of things.
Thanks for all your help so far, I seem to be pretty lost :p
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Hmm, thinking about it that Illustrator thing wouldn’t really work in AE (I was thinking in Cinema 4D “3D mode”, I think).
With CC Particle World it’s a bit trickier to parent the emitter to a null, because it uses arbitrary values for position that don’t relate to actual comp size. There is a workaround with some basic expressions – do a search on Video Copilot’s site, I think they have one covering this.
What I meant by the radius of the spiral: if you position your emitter null a distance away from another 3D (controller) null and parent the two, you can rotate the controller null, which makes the emitter describe a circle. If you move the controller null at the same time as it’s rotating, you’ll get the spiral effect you’re after.
There is a great tutorial on this technique, but I can’t remember for the life of me where I saw it now… Not much help, I know.
I do know that using Trapcode Particular makes it easier for this kind of thing. Not as easy with Particle World.
It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…
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This is a small render demonstrating what I’m talking about, with a graphic to try to explain the setup a bit better. I used Partlcular, but you may be able to find workarounds to use CC Particle World – I just don’t have time right now to play with it.
Hope it helps somewhat.
Cheers
It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…
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