The Process

[Tom Hepburn]

Yes that one is sweet. I like this one below a bit better because there are more 3D elements in it, like the world tour. I would say that this is a mix of compositing software (Possibley AE) an d 3D software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyI5OnECBoM

T

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[Tom Hepburn]

Yes that one is sweet. I like this one below a bit better because there are more 3D elements in it, like the world tour. I would say that this is a mix of compositing software (Possibley AE) an d 3D software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyI5OnECBoM

T

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[Mylenium]

A 3D app is not necessarily required for anything, but it would make sense on some parts. However, in that particular clip of the series I don’t see much that is really 3D geometry, so I suppose they heavily used highend compositing systems such as flame* and inferno* and a few other tricks. For the most part it is heavy tracking jobs along with the ability of those systems to bend, twist and adjust 3D layers more flexibly than you could ever hope to achieve with AE in its current state (even if you have all 3D-ish third party plugins out there).

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Tony Bartolucci]

Hmmm this is sad news…So I could not accomplish something like this in AE? What if I used a combo of AE and Maya? Although I dont know what I would need to create in Maya

[Mylenium]

If you are willing to sacrifice some quality, it would still be doable in AE. However, it lacks some essential tools and has insufficiencies:

a) tracking is not very precise
b) you cannot directly attach tracking data to masks
c) AE only knows “rigid” layers
d) plugins that give you “flexible” layers do not work natively in AE’s 3D space, so there’s a lot of fiddling to line them up with the rest
e) the shading of the layers will always look somewhat flat due to the limited control over lighting you have in AE

So to sum up: If you were to attempt this, you should expect that it may take quite a while to put it all together and you should possibly not try to copy every little bit.

Maya certainly would be able to give you all (assuming you have Unlimited, you’d even have built-in tracking by means of Maya Live), but if you are not used to it, it may be even harder for you than trying this in AE. Maya is terribly complex and from simple transform animation to deforming the layers via clusters to texturing to rendering there are several potential snags, so I’d advise you to only do parts that you otherwise cannot achieve in AE (if you are giving it a go).

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Steve Roberts]

Indeed.

… and if you did want to try it all in AE, I’d recommend that you just do the floating flat-to-camera, non-tracked 2D graphic bits, in the style of Minority Report that is.

[Tony Bartolucci]

Yeah, I would like to possibly give some of the effects a try, I do have access to Maya 8 Unlimited, if needed, I have never used the Maya Live feature and have a fairly basic understanding of Maya….

[Tom Hepburn]

If you have access to Maya, I would at least explore what it can do in terms of deforming a plane (which can look like a paper flapping as in the commercial). There are deforming tools, bend, wave, etc., that are relatively a quick learn. Although Maya live it a bit more of a challenge as has been previously posted. It’s been my experience that although Maya is not that intuitive (and not the only 3D program) and has a steep learning curve, there are some things that just look better in a real 3D program. It can be frustrating to work with, but it also could open new options for you down the road

[Tony Bartolucci]

OK, I think I might try to create one of the photo effects, and I really like the part where the windows media player was in his hand… Any tips would be appreciated