[Chris Brett]

—– thanks Jon – much appreciated —— chris —

[Chris Brett]

Hi Boris

I dont have the answer to your question as such but this may be useful.

On my previous editing platform ( Flint ) I found the best way to sort this as below.

1 ) Load 2 copies of the clip into the paint module ( in AE terminology effectively 2 layers )

2 ) Slip the back copy a few frames.

3 ) use ‘restore’ as the paint option.

4 ) select small soft edged brush and zap evry speckle and scratch by hand on every frame using the keyboard to go backwards and forwards through the clip.

This works much better than cloning and you can achieve amazing results with this sometimes.

Its also much faster than you think because you can see it as you go and just settle down and get on with it.

I am newish to AE and not quite sure the best way to set this up — maybe someone else with more experience can advise on this but it might be something like this ….

1 ) load footage

2 ) duplicate footage and slip bottom layer

3 ) add new white solid as a track matte to the top layer – ie key it fully over bottom layer

4 ) scroll through the comp using the arrow keys and draw on the matte in black ( assuming AE has a decent paint tool — I’ve not tried that stuff yet )

This should work fine with a bit a patience to set it up.

If you do go down this route theres usually a few bits that dont quite work but just render it out and sort them on a second pass.

Sometimes it pays to slide the background clip sideways slightly as well – this can be good for scratches.

The problem with automated systems is that speckles etc are random and some stay up much longer than you think.

Cloning by hand can be a real pain because you need to keep selecting the area to clone from.

This might not work on AE as well as I imagine in which case apologies.

Chris Brett // uk

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[Chris Brett]

Hi Jon

Yes odd …. I reckon its a one-off …. a corrupted file on the Creative Cow server or something ….. anyway been able to access the work now and very nice too – also your main reel.

BTW – if you dont mind commenting was wondering if you generated the sparkle on the words ‘Merry Christmas’ with Particular or by some other method.

All the best

Chris Brett

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[Chris Brett]

Hi….

….slightly off-topic addition but does anyone know why I’m getting a line of html code instead of a link to Jons work please ?

What I see is a time-line slider of the type that sits below a streaming video and a line of code like this above it —

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Vimeo framework” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

3D still animation WIP from Jon Bagge on Vimeo.

Also can I use this code as a link in some way — not working for me so far …. atm am totally puzzled by this

Chris Brett // uk

[Chris Brett]

Hi Glenn

I might be missing the point here or stating the obvious but the main 3D effect on the Joseph Kony edit is achieved by multi-planeing a few cutouts.

I’m fairly new to this platform so sometimes I get my terminology wires crossed but displacement mapping in my experience usually means a ‘fake’ 3D effect applied to a 2D image using a continuous tone black and white source as a reference ( very good for water effects )

If its the multi-plane effect you want just import the PS file as cut outs on different layers / arrange them in 3D space in AE / add camera / then animate camera.

Theres plenty of good tutorials on this if you need them — all you need to do is checkout use of camera in AE on Andrew Devis’s stuff on this site / Video Copilot tutorials on their site or just surf Youtube

—————– chris brett // uk

[Chris Brett]

Hi John

There are a number of ways of doing this.

My favourite ‘all purpose’ method for 2D type at the moment is as below.

1 ) add ajustment layer to text layer

2 ) apply cc hue and saturation effect to adj layer

3 ) wind up the ‘lightness’ and ‘saturation’ so that the lettering lo0ks overbright and shiny / metallic ( this will affect all the lettering at the moment )

4 ) add an oval mask to the adj layer so the the shiny section now modifies only an area which is convincing as a light

5 ) Adjust the ‘softness’ of the mask and ‘shape’ of the mask to suit

6 ) go to point on the time-line just before the light hits the type and animate the position of the mask so that it is not applying effect to type ( just to the left say )

7 ) go to point on time-line where the shine is to end and animate mask position so that it is off the type again ( to the far right say )

8 ) ram preview to see result and adjust mask animation to suit required speed / effect

I prefer this method rather than simply adding white to simulate a light as the extra chroma is more convincing I think — just adding white can look a bit flat.

Sometimes I experiment using number of masks — this can give very good and interesting results — say one much bigger and softer to give a general movement and another for the highlight ( say ) / or sometimes e few lights going in different directions etc etc.

Depending on the colour of the type coloured lights can work well also

—- good luck with it all — if you need a bit of info on animating masks etc it worth checking out Andrew Devis’s tutorials on this site ( at least I’m pretty sure he has done this one )

—–chris brett // uk

[Chris Brett]

Many thanks Jeff – much appreciated ——chris —

[Chris Brett]

Hi Hassan

—— for fine tuning you might find it useful to open up the waveform on the audio track where you can see whats happening

– I dont cut videos myself but I can tell you this is very good for graphics edits as you can see precisely the ‘shape’ of whats going on and adjust small details accordingly

chris brett // uk

[Chris Brett]

Hi there —–

— as Walter points out there are some combinations of scale and speed that just do not go with the frame rate and will always jitter however there is almost always something that can be done that makes the job ok …… though sometimes it takes a lot of tweaking to get it quite right ….

I am clutching at straws a bit as I havent seen the footage but if you havent already tried these its worth considering the following I think …..

1 ) — if in fields make sure the field order is the correct way round

2 ) — if that does not work try merging the fields so it is frame based

3 ) — this one is pure superstition but I had weird things with tiffs once that were solved by taking the frame into Photoshop and converting it to a targa ( at least I think it what solved it ! )

4 ) — try shifting either the camera of the frame 1 notch in z space …

…. again a bit superstitious by if I have a field problem I always like to make sure I’m on even numbers … so shifting it one notch puts it on an even number if it isnt already … you wont see the size difference…..

5 ) — same on the y axis

6 ) — and obvious stuff / check how you are viewing the end result – is it at 100% ?

………. these checks should clear up the issue if it a ‘glitch’ but if the problem persists I expect it is a technical issue as described by Walter in which case my preference would probably be to keep the still in interlaced fields and add motion blurr .

ALSO ( this can be a useful trick ) I have, in the past, modified selected parts of a difficult frame using a mask or in photoshop.

This technique will probably help in your high contrast areas which are proving difficult ( if the fixes as above do not work )…

In photoshop you can selectively and artisticly ( ? )blurr out offending areas with great accuracy – and to varying degrees as well which can be useful.

If done carefully this should not be too noticeable so that by the time you get it back into AE and add a wee bit of motion blurr it becomes ‘passable’.

I did this once and burred the heck out of just a few edges that were really jittering but it looked ok in the comp because everything else appeared sharp.

Also best remember that you know this problem exists therefore you tend to notice it …. if a few selected ( tiny ) areas are soft no one else is likely to notice it – and probably not even yourself if you were new to the job.

If going down this route using selected blurring really precisely is what pays off … pick on the offending black line ( say )where it looks worst and blurr it to the point that when the motion blur is added as well it looks ok.

Anyway thats my tuppence worth … I wish you well on this one .. I know it can be most infuriating…..

————– chris brett // uk

[Chris Brett]

Hi Jaeson ..

…. I totally sympathise as I’ve just spent days on end going though this .. the tutorial that finally gave me what I needed to know is here: — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkQA1Q_l3z4

I would say that although the animation controls work when you get used to them they are pretty clunky and strangely complex…

I would say that the trick is to get the separate values displayed ( as explained in above tutorial ) but even then I would say the controls are fiddly and not easy to make fine tuned adjustments with ( compared to a Flint / Flame interface ) ….

I’ve probably still got a few things to learn on this but one of the things that bugs me the most is that when I have the separate values displayed and select the one I want to adjust the rest are still displayed as well — which can make it very hard to see what happening as the zoom function is pretty clunky also…

……. maybe I’ve missed something so if anyone knows any details that would assist at this end I would very much appreciate it.

Anyway — this tutorial will probably help quite a bit I think —

All the best — chris brett /// uk

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