Z Position Optical Illusion HELP!

[Dan Ebberts]

If I understand what you’re trying to do, the problem is that when the camera is pulled all the way back, the individual pieces have to be at different scales and positions off the z axis to give the illusion. That means that they will look different from each other as the camera passes them (because they will all have different scales and distances from the z axis, or, the scale and position has to animate as the camera pulls back (I’m not exactly sure how that would look).

I think what you’re after is a variation of the “The Kid Stays in the Picture” effect. There’s a lot of info out there on that effect. Give Google a try.

Dan

[Alberto Garcia]

Thanks Dan.

I kinda figured it out playing with the camera settings and yes I had to scale and reposition all the layers. Thought I could find some script that could calculate de distance between the layer and the camera and scale and reposition itself so I wouldn’t have to by “hand”. Guess my laziness got a way with me.

Again, thanks!

[Dan Ebberts]

Here’s something I posted before that might be useful. I think it’s kind of the opposite of what you’re doing (it starts with the pieces looking co-planar) but it should give you an idea of the calculations involved:

Start out with all your pieces at z = 0 and your camera on the z axis. Add a slider to each piece you want to reposition. Set each slider to 100. Add this position expression to each piece (changing “cameraZ” to the starting z position of your camera):

cameraZ = -888.9;
zControl = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
cameraPos = [thisComp.width/2,thisComp.height/2,cameraZ];
(value – cameraPos)*zControl/100 + cameraPos

Add this expression to the scale:

zControl = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
value*zControl/100

Reposition the pieces by adjusting the sliders. Slider values of less than 100 will move the pieces towards the initial camera position – values of greater than 100 will move them away. After adjusting the sliders, the image should still appear the same until you start moving the camera.

Dan