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How to make a camera move through 3D space and then after finishing the movement, start to follow a separate object’s motion?
Quick set up:
I’m using AE CS5. I am creating a “Galaga” style, 2-d arcade game visual with horizontal movements. Just the ship going back and forth for a few seconds while shooting a couple of lasers at the aliens on the top of the screen. When the third laser is fired, I want to have the camera move through 3D space and end up facing the side of the third laser as it is moving through space, towards the aliens. Written on the side of the laser, is the name of the series that this intro is for. Once it reaches the side of the laser, I want the camera to stay locked onto the movement of the laser through the composition until just before it reaches the alien, where we see an explosion.
All the layers are 3D already. The enemies all have depth to them as I made many layers to each. The laser is a cuboid and the logo is already connected to the side of the laser.
I first tried using key frames on the camera and having it begin at the “Arcade Game View” and end at the logo, but the movement from point A to B wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped, even after choosing smoother key frames and scattering more key frames in between the two points to get a more precise movement, it was still a little rough. And even after I reached the logo, i didn’t know how to make it follow the laser layer.
Next, I tried using a null object and parenting the camera to the null. Then I tried parenting the null layer to the laser. Now while this allowed me to have the camera follow the speed and movement of the laser, i was having trouble going from the original view to the right side of the laser.
Once I am able to get this general motion down and have the camera follow the object all the way through as I want, I had hoped to also be able to move the camera around very slightly when it is on the logo to give the impression that it’s travelling at a fast speed and there’s slight turbulence.
I’ve pretty much run out of ideas on how to get the full camera movement though. So if anybody has any suggestions, I would be very thankful! I’ve been slaving over this for the past few days.
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4 Replies
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Hi John
– you can create the turbulence using an expression I think
– am not really up to speed enough to give you the exact details but its called ‘wiggle’ —- Andrew Kramer is pretty wizz on this sort of stuff at Video Copilot ( . net ) and does some of the best demos in the business….
—————— all the best —-chris —
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Check out this thead, there are 3 methods discussed-SureTarget from VideoCopilot,the use of multiple controller nulls and using expressions to move the camera. One of those ways will probably help you out.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
Thanks! The new Sure Target update looks like it’ll work perfectly. I’ll definitely check out those other tutorials as well.
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VideoCopilot has a free preset for switching a 3d camera between null objects
https://www.videocopilot.net/presets/energetic_titles/
try watching through that tutorial and using the preset. You’ll just have to play around with the placement of the first target to get the right look when the camera jumps to the second target, the laser.Either that, or you could leave the laser more or less stationary and animate the background to look like it’s moving. A simple particle world effect could give the illusion of movement. Choose bubble and make the color a white/whiteblue, throw them in the background moving left to right and they might look like stars.
Those are the first two ways I’d try to do it.
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