Creating automatic camera moves with expressions

[Colin Braley]

So what you are saying is that you want to be able to set up a project where you can replace the footage, move it around in 3d space, and the camera automatically moves through 3d space looking at each layer? I made a project a couple months back where I had a 3d camera set up that would automatically move around the comp at a constant speed and look at each layer in order from top to bottom. The project is AE 7 but the expressions would work in 5.5 if you changed some of the vector math stuff to the old syntax. If you want me to try to dig up the project post a message.
~Colin

[Mike Clasby]

I think you can do what you want with Dan’s comp “pan,tilt,focus&zoom” at the end of his tut, “Building the World’s Greatest Cameraman”, using After Effects 5.5’s Expression Controls, here:

https://www.creativecow.net/show.php?page=/articles/ebberts_dan/expression_cont/index.html

or click his head and scroll down.

That comp is based on 4 layers moving randomly in 3D space (the unruly, Dan, evol, James and Larry) and works a charm, so stationary layers you set up in 3D space should be no problem.

Which layer is focused on is controlled by keyframes (slider Control) on a Null referencing their order in the stack, hold time depends on the space between keyframes.

Pan Time (time to move to next layer) is the first line in the expression for the Camera’s POI, here’s the line:

pan_time = .5;

This is for 1/2 second, but you could tie that to a slider to change easily.

Maybe this will help.

And if by grid you mean a video Wall type of grid, this earlier post from Dan might help. The layers Colin want to arrange are 360×240, so adjust as needed:

Dan Ebberts – 11:14pm Jan 10, 05 PST (#1 of 2)
Colin,
Try this:

horizSpace = 360;

vertSpace = 240;

numCol = 10;

origin = [horizSpace/2,vertSpace/2,0];

col = (index – 1)%numCol

row = Math.floor((index – 1)/numCol);

origin + [col*horizSpace, row*vertSpace, 0]

Dan

Or, this one from Dan (lost specific reference), for position to make a grid out of layer order (adjust number of rows and columns to you needs):

numRows = 10;
numCols = 10;

row = Math.floor((index – 1)/numCols);
col = (index – 1)%numCols;
x = col*width + width/2;
y = row*height + height/2;
xOffset = (this_comp.width – numCols*width)/2;
yOffset = (this_comp.height – numRows*height)/2;

[x,y] + [xOffset,yOffset]

[Julian Sixx]

Hi
[Colin Braley] “If you want me to try to dig up the project post a message.”

I’d like to see your project if you don’t mind 🙂

[Patrick Hearn]

Hi,
Yeah, Colin, that’s exactly what I’m trying to make. I’m going to try out what yikesmikes suggested but I would be more than interested to see how you did your project.
Cheers for the help guys!

[Colin Braley]

Hey,
I just looked for the project and since its somthing I did for my old employer I don’t seem to have the finished project, however I do have a semi-done version of the project I brought home… I’ll fix it up and post it sometime around Monday…

~Colin