Progressive, smooth wiggle…!

[Adam Taylor]

if you want the motion to look real, grab any old cheap camera…(even the video on a little still cam is good enough), get a friend to drive you around for a bit whilst you hold the camera up and record looking straight ahead.

import the video into AE, track the motion of your handheld video (it helps if you can stick something to the windshield as a tracking point), apply the motion to a null, then parent your layers to the null.

It’ll look more realistic and will definitely be uniquely your own motion…random wiggles never seem to have enough randomness for me.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Nico Jones]

Many thanks for the help Adam,

Yep that probably would get me realistic results, but I need total control over the POV to build the animation around.

I’m happy with how the wiggle looks, as I’m not after total realism, but I need to be able to transition smoothly between wiggle frequencies in a single shot…

Nico J BB

[Adam Taylor]

In that case you will probably need to create a null, add a couple of Effect/Expression Controller/Slider and then use the expression pickwhip to link the various parts of your wiggle expressions to a a slider each. Then you can use keyframes to animate value changes on the slider and have those changes affect the wiggle expression.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Nico Jones]

Yep, that’s what I’m doing, but when I animate the slider that controls the frequency of the wiggle, I get a massive juddering mess inbetween keyframes instead of a smooth transition. Have you ever experienced that?

Nico J BB

[Adam Taylor]

i’d try setting the overall min & max values of the sliders to something very small…perhaps 0 to 4, or maybe even less, then you will get much finer control over the changing values.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Nico Jones]

Indeed…but the judder remains even at the smallest values. Anyone experienced this problem?

Nico J BB

[John Cuevas]

As said before, the frequency needs to be a really low number. Did something like what you are attempting and I had the frequency set around .2 to .3 per second. I didn’t use a slider, but just set a expression on the camera position to wiggle(.3,30). Really just a small amount of wiggle that doesn’t happen a lot. Even at a low number like 4, you’re moving the camera every 8.5 frames. It will be jumpy.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
http://www.thinkck.com

[Nico Jones]

Thanks guys, but I’m not sure I’m making myself clear! The problem comes when I try to animate the wiggle with sliders. Here’s a project file with the issue clearly happening…

https://www.yousendit.com/download/YWhOSlI5OW5TSUR2Wmc9PQ

You can see that when the wiggle frequency is animated, the POV goes crazy inbetween the keyframes. It’s this that I’m trying to get rid of…

Nico J BB

[Adam Taylor]

i’ve not downloaded your project – but a thought occurs…are you using linear keyframes or something else?

if you have easy ease on the keyframes, try getting rid of it. Your description sounds like its something that is often cured using the toggle hold setting on the keyframe assistant.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Nico Jones]

I had the same thought, but it happens even if the frames are eased, and I don’t think it’s the same thing as the boomerang effect.

I can’t use hold keyframes as I need a smooth transition between the frequency keyframes. Thanks for your continuing efforts though!

Nico J BB