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How could I simulate stuff under a microscope?
I am just doing an animation (rendering in AE 6.5) that is supposed to represent the view down a microscope eyepiece.
I have a piece of art from a real microscope, but it is just a still image. I can do the moves very succesfully (sharp and imprecise) but wondered how to get that rack focus effect. A microscope tends to look through an object and distort the edges as it pulls focus.
For the background I used the drissle effect to create rain drops that I pre-comped and time remapped to achieve a expand-contact effect. But the actual still image I am not happy with, all I could do was apply some blur and transfer an unblured layer over that.
Any suggestions welcome!
Cheers DavidP.S. I decided later to stick a focus graticule over the magnified image to sell the idea of focusing. it is a simple crosshair that rotates in time with the distortion.
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3 Replies
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you could create a b/w image using a circular ramp – so its darker at the edges that it is in the centre – then use that comp with the compound blur maybe – this would blur the image according to black and white areas – black being more intense blur than the white areas (might be other way round but there is an inverse button on the compound blur).
dunno if this is the kind of thing your after – wouldn’t mind seeing a pic if poss to get a better idea?failing that you could precomp that whole left/right/up/down move and use a bit of the liquify (v6.5) plugin to pull the edges or even enlarge them? again – just thinking on my feet here. Displacement map with the radial ramp described above might do a similar thing?
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A few things I would do (and have done for microscope shots). First is to use a black solid and mask a circle to reveal the image (cheesy, but it sells the shot). Next, take the image and rotate it in Z space slightly. Then use an A.E. camera and animate the focus so it actually does a rack focus. At the same time have a slight directional blur follow the rack, and slightly adjust the exposure. Use Au Naturel for both the blur and exposure, it’s exposure adjustment is worth the $99 by it self. As you can probably see, I’m a big fan of lots of little tweaks and slight adjustments. “Reality” is all about the minute, we might as be the same.
https://www.buena.com/aunaturel.shtml (I’m not affiliated in any way, I just love this Plug-in)
Amish Ed
Dual 2Ghz G5, 4GB, running 10.3.6 w/QT 6.5.2, Black Majic DeckLink, AE Pro 6.5 w/BCC and Invig. 3D, PS CS2, AI CS2, FCP HD -
Thanks for these usefull tips. I ended up putting on the circle mask and losing the graticule in the middle. The producer got me to slow down the movement but those gross reframes are what the real microscope stuff looks like. So i scaled the artwork up to fill the eyepiece but retained the move speed, this made it look like it wasn’t moving so far.
I got scared off the blur and left it out, i will try to perfect it on my own time.
d
Cheers
David Mcsween
Editor ABC Brisbane, Australia
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