How to make this “cam-technique”?

[Annaël Beauchemin]

this uses the 3D compositing ability of AE.

You do the objects in Illustrator, you animate the graphics in compositons in AE, then you both animate these comps and the camera. If you look carefuly, you will undestand that the nested compositions in and out are pretty much animated indepandently than the global camera movement. The smoothness of the camera you’re talking about is probably motion blur coupled with the sharp movements of the camera. Learn to use the camera tool, it’s much more intuitive once you’re used to it.

[Isaac]

that is sweet… where are some good tutorials for camera movement…

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

[Mstleger]

camera tip: I’ve found it useful to parent the camera to a null node, and use the null’s controls. Sometimes, I’ll parent the scene to a null and move it around the camera, just leaving the camera still.

[Chris Smith]

I’d be blown away if they actually animated the camera at all. There would be no need. If you notice, it’s not one giant comp, it’s a bunch of “sections” that pass by the camera and once they aren’t used anymore, I’m sure they are turned off.

This was obviously well planned out, and part of that planning, i believe, is that they different sections and laid them out in 3D space and parented them to a null. Then just animated that null around in front of a static camera. When that section was out of frame is was not in the comp anymore and shut off. It’s like a stylized version of a dad setting up his home camera on a tripod then shuffling his kids in and out of the shot to show the grandparents.

BUT, if there is difficult motion of any sort (especially camera motion), I highly recommend never doing all your motions on just the camera layer. Use layers of nulls to isolate different motions.

For example, say this Brazil piece indeed was the camera moving. I would do it like this:

Layer 1: Null -only animate X and Y position on this null
Layer 2: Null -this is parented to the null above it. This will only be “up and down” motion.
Layer 3: Null -parented to layer 2 – this would be some other motion like maybe cam shake or rotations
Layer 4: Camera – parented to Layer 3. No animation except camera specific parameters like focal length or focus

This way all the motion is isolated and easy to control without conflicting or confusing keyframes.

my 0.2

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com