Compositing 3D text/objects into a moving shot…

[Walter Soyka]

[Bob James] “Now the steadicam shot I used (I have done something similar for the actual music video) I would like to have 3d text/objects ‘pop-up’ from behind the artists shoulders as he says certain parts of his lyrics. I’m assuming I will have to do things like ‘tracking’ and ‘camera solving’ and also probably have to mask the subject to have the 3d objects appear like they are ‘behind’ him…as well as lighting the objects etc etc etc.”

That is exactly right. You’ll need a 3D tracker like SynthEyes or PFhoe.

[Bob James] “That’s my main problem…I just don’t know AE well enough (albeit I’m quick to learn) and I basically need to know specifically what I need to be doing here to achieve my ideas.”

I’ve found After Effects to be both deep and wide. I think it’s very difficult to get any production done — or even to get any deep knowledge in one particular aspect of AE — without first getting a wide understanding of the app. If you’re relatively new to After Effects, check out Todd Kopriva’s blog post Getting started with After Effects.

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

[Bob James]

Thanks Walter!

I am not quite a total ‘n00b’ at AE but in this instance I don’t want to have to re-do everything again due to my overlooking a process or going about things in the wrong order of importance.

Can you perhaps be more specific as to in your opinion what order to go about things in AE to get the results I am looking for?

Motion tracking first? etc?

Any further help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

– B

[Chris Wright]

you don’t need to worry too much, syntheyes is incredibly easy to use, has automatic modes to solve camera tracking, remove bad data, and fix lens distortion, plus the website has tons of tutorials that cover everything you can imagine. did I mention the software is super inexpensive?

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/

[Walter Soyka]

I think you’re already on the right track. You want to track and solve first, so that you can get 3D camera data in AE to begin positioning your elements.

Keep in mind, though, that AE is really 2.5D. If you want to work with true 3D objects, you’ll be better off in a real 3D app.

Maybe someone else can comment on a good workflow for the roto portion?

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

[Bob James]

Seems like Syntheyes is the way to go!

Thanks alot guys, I will give it a go and see how far I get with it tonight.

– B

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Once you have the tracking done, here’s a few suggestions (with some tutorial links tha tmay give you ideas) of what you can use to generate 3d text/objects in AE:

Zaxwerks Pro Animator,Invigorator
https://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/zaxwerks

Zaxwerks Serpentine,
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/stern_eran/autumn_movies.php

Trapcode Particular,
https://maltaannon.com/articles/after-effects/growing-3d-vines/

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior Compositor/VFX Artist
Bucharest, Romania

[Kevin Reiner]

Hey Bob,

I’m working on a similar project. I would love to hear a recap of the project. Did you end up using Syntheyes, and if so, were you happy with it? I thought the video you shot looked great and I look forward to seeing the final comp.

Thanks,
Kevin

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