Export AE camera to 3ds max 8

[Jeff Dobrow]

Check out MAX2AE at http://www.boomerlabs.com

It is a plugin for MAX which allows camera/light/object export for use within MAX.
Great app.

[Tim Klink]

Thanks for now, but I still got a few Problems left:

1. I don’t wanna spend money again, for now I downloaded the demo, but I’m not sure if it will work without watermark, so..

2. And if it would work how do I save cameras out of AE ?

3. Isn’t there a free way ??

ANd so maybe there is another way I just don’t know I’ll describe very short what I wanna do: It’s a project I’m working on with a classmate, (he dos the 3d. And there will be a presentation of our school at a contest and we two have to make somekind of Intro. So we buildt the schoolbuilding in 3d, than we want to capture some sceens in front of a green screen kay the collor out and place them in 3d.

ANd now there is the Prob we have to adjust the movement of our real camera and the camera in 3ds, and I thought there might be a way to export the AE camera to 3d. The movement of the AE cvamera itself I wanted to do with the Motion tracke or is that a bad idea ?

I don’t know, I’m working with AE noly since 2 or 3 months, but I think it’s not too bad what I learned.

PS If somebody got a good tip for a book or something, because I just startet with the second book of creating motion Graphics and I think about buying the TotalTraining series, but that’s noit the point (but If you got a good tip you can meantion it by the way).

So I would be happy if somebody could Help me with my Problem.

Thanks a lot

Tim Klink

The things you own end up owning you.

[Jeff Dobrow]

HMmmm….let me see if I understand you.

1) You have a MAX scene of this building,…
2) You are going to film some people greenscreen…
3) You want to be able to composite the filmed people into the MAX scene so that it looks lilke they are ‘there’ ?

Is this correct?

If so, you have a few possible issues……..
1) If you animate the MAX camera, you must film your people at exactly the same distance, focus, lens settings and movement,…….this would be very, very difficult without a motion control camera rig…AE cannot help you here at all.

2) If you film your people first, you then have to match your MAX camera ….same issues as above only in opposite. Again, AE will NOT help you here.

The problems above both lay in the fact that your actual people shoot camera will not match either your AE camera OR your MAX camera,…no matter how you go about it….once you start panning and dollying, zooming about your people…..forget it. And if you do your MAX or AE camera first,…then your real shoot camera will not match. Either way, the only real way is to do a lockdown shot with NO camera movement, or use an $$$ motion control rig..which in-itself is an epic, complex procedure….
BTW – the motion tracker will ONLY track x,y movement and rotation,…it will not track in real 3D….so unless it is a very simple left to right camera move, then forget it. Also, you will need a seperate 3D pass of ‘markers’ for the motion tracker to use as tracking points….

3) If you are filming your people straight-on, and you are want to put them in the MAX scene without regard for camera movement,…meaning they will look like thin ‘cut-out’ people at many angles then AE can help you somewhat. Even in this scenario, you are still going to need to sync your AE camera to your 3D camera, and then insert your people at ‘proper’ points relevant to the MAX 3D scene….using the .rpf format from MAX, to import cam data into AE is possible,…but tricky, and it does nothing to help your people placing,…….if you got the demo of MAX2AE, read the instructions….it is uber-simple to use,…..

Isn’t there a ‘free’ way? Check out Voodoo, it is a free 3D motion tracking system. Works well, is somewhat complex and still requires you to know what you are doing. Successfully integrating 2D video elements into a 3D environment with proper camera matching is NOT a simple thing.

Good luck, and post again with any more questions,…..let us know how it all turns out

[Tim Klink]

Thanks a lot !

1-3) perfectly right

1) No, I wanted to make the real shot and than match everything together.

2) OK so that’s also no option at all.

I downloaded Voodoo and I tried it. So I exportet it to a 3ds script. Till here perfect, I don’t know if the script works because my classmate wasn’t at home today, but I guess so.

But Now I thought about something:

I now adjusted the camera in 3ds, which means the camera in 3ds will behave exactly like my real camera behaved before (right so far I hope).
Now I would go on like that:
I would render the avis in 3ds with the right movement. Import both into AE. But now I got a problem I got an adjusted movement in 3d good, but now i key out my collor i just got a 2d not moving layer.
And if I take an AE cam it will rotate around my 2d vid and so it looks flat.

So I thought: Do I have to parent it to the camera so it always faces the cam ? But if I do so the would’t fit in the image right anymore because if the camera moves up they’ll move up also or would’t they ? r better is there a way to parent the vid only on the cameras rotation and not to the movement. But I don’t know a way to do that, but I think it’s possible with expressions but I don’t know expressions yet and I’m not sure if it is right at all.

If what I just say was totally wrong than I’m sorry but I’m just not sure about all that.

If the thingsa I thought are completly wrong please tell me and if you got some time left please tell me the right way. And again I wanna thank Jeff Dobrow for his help because I wouldn’t be this far without his help.

So I’m glad about every answer and any opinion.

Thanks

Tim Klink

The things you own end up owning you.

[Tim Klink]

I’m sorry for all the mistakes.

The things you own end up owning you.

[Jeff Dobrow]

ahhh….the pain of matchmoving.

Ok,….let me see if I follow you.

The process ‘should’ in theory go like this:

1) Plan a shot of your people. Plan it like they were ‘really’ walking in front of this building even though it is not really there. Shoot them.
2) Use voodoo to get the cam info.
3) Apply the voodoo data to your MAX camera relevant to the MAX building and render.

4) IF you have done this correctly you will have 2 movies, 1 movie of your people that you shot with a vidcam, and 1 movie of your building that you rendered out of MAX. The camera moves, perspective, ..etc..etc should be the SAME. As if both were shot identically……

5) If you do not have the above 2 movies, that look like they are properly aligned, and with the same camera movie go back to step 1 and double check everything, re-do it or whatever….

6) Once you have these 2 movies,….you should be able to import the 3D building into After effects, then import the greenscreen people movie into AE. Place the greenscreen people in AE on a layer above your 3D movie and then apply some keying filters until you have keyed out the green. Align the start time of the people clip so that the camera moves begin at the same time. This SHOULD (roughly) be the process you need to get what you want. It should be a very simple keying composite in AE once you have the 2 match-moved movies. There SHOULD NOT be a need to use AE’s camera at all. Just a simple composite.

RECAP:You have 1 movie clip of people walking around in front of a greenscreen, 1 movie clip of the building….BOTH clips ‘appear’ to be shot with the same camera movement, from the same location..etc..etc. Simply bring them both into AE, keyout the greenscreen and make sure your 3D movie is undernesth the people movie….again, just a simple 2 layer composite. The hard part is getting the 2 shots (people video AND 3D) to look as if they were shot identically…..)

Maybe this helps some more?……Maybe I am not understanding everything exactly right….

[Tim Klink]

Yea that’s right, I don’t even remember what I thought when I wrote that, because it’s totally sensless what i said.

So thanks a lot again.
You really helped me with my problems.

Thanks more than a lot.

I thinks now it should work without any Problems.

Tim Klink

The things you own end up owning you.