Chris Smith
Forum Replies Created
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I agree. I do only use Frame Forge when picking the exact lenses and placing the camera is crucial.
Otherwise, I have a document I keep with little 4:3 frames (modify it on occasion for other aspect ratios). That I do chicken scratch on. I’m not an artist so I bring in a Guy to do the actual boards.
In fact I even have a storyboard artist use my frame forge frames as reference and re-draw them in pencil/ink.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I use FrameForge. It’s really cool in some areas and a total pain in others. Really adjusting the camera is archaic. I wish it used the 3 mouse button controls like Maya and C4D. Rather than tweaking the GUI sliders.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
When we shoot spots, If I need a BG plate that is a lock off, I won’t bother bringing the motion cams and trying to shoot it, I’ll just grab still photos with an SLR cam. Then like you said, lay it in with a touch of noise. I’ve done it many times and you can’t tell it’s a still photo. But this is usually for a BG with moving elements in the FG so the eye is diverted from really noticing.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
First thing. Re-arrange your layer stack so the effect you want in front is on top.
Also can try just duplicating your first comp and only change what’s needed.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I didn’t look at the example, but you can key the footage so the alpha is in the shape of the subject. Then use the AE ‘auto trace’ function to get a vector outline. It usually needs a little bit of clean-up though.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I’m afraid I’m not familiar with Pinnacle studio. But any editor usually will do (even iMovie). What I mean by slates are sometimes just white words on a black background. They represent timing only really. So if I am doing the intro to your reel for example. In the editor I may make a text slate that says ‘tween’ for the first 20 frames, then cut to a second slate that says ‘guy’ or ‘tweenguy’ for another handful of frames. So in AE I know that when I do an animation in AE for the TweenGuy animation, I know exactly where to bring in the Tween part then animate the guy part coming in to join it. With out guessing. I establish all the timing cues in an editor so that when all the text slates, reference photos, or DV recorded hand animations are all cut together in what look like a freaky, ugly mosaic, I know that when I animate to it, the animations will be dead on. It saves Tons of time guessing. If you animate to something you’ve already approved the timing of, it takes a lot of the burden of your shoulders in AE.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
[Alvin Seah] “No problem, Chris. Keep asking :)”
Thanks Alvin. Extremely insiteful. Okay, then last batch:
1. When using PS and AI, were there any techniques you did to better prepare them for AE. Specifically, did you break any images or graphics up into internal layers first so that they could be animated or masked individually in AE?
2. How much did you use the AE Depth-of-field?
3. You mentioned color grads and flares. Tell me more about how you implemented them technically. They obviously add a nice feel by creating subtle color shifts throughout the image. DId you have a specific transfer mode that worked the best for you. Did the color washes animate, or were they a static element? Were the lens flares actual lens flares or were they color radial grads too. They didn’t seem to have a lot of lens artifacts so I wondered if they were “balls” of color grad. However I think I saw a nice anamorphic style color streak in there as well.
4. Ink spills and other grungy stuff: Did you tape/film your own spills? In water or on to a surface? How did you implement this footage?
5. WHen you shoot band footage. Are you using tracking markers at all? Or since you plan on each member being it’s own plane in 3D space, not worry about it?
6. You mentioned you guys were into music. The camera movements on the Fiqir video seem to reflect this. The camera even seems to bounce on the beat as if we’re watching the video through the eyes of someone dancing themselves. How do you implement the camera shaking and bouncing? Is most of it in the camera’s keyframing or are you using rendered 2D shaking effects like what are offered by some plug-ins?
7. Would you say that all of you are good designers and artists? Or is there someone who is more of a lead art director that sets the design and the others are more technical? How many people worked on this project (outside of crew for capturing greenscreen stuff)?
8. Would you say that you relied on plug-ins a lot? Outside of Particular, was there any other 3rd party stuff that helped out? Knoll lens flares, shaking plugs, soundkeys? What would you say the percentage of working with AE built in tools to 3rd party plugs would be?
9. For your workflow, do you ever see the need to match the camera data between AE and your 3D app?
10. Do you use AE’s ‘orient to camera’ function much? You work with so many layers in 3D space I wonder if you ever feel limited by the flat planes (to not give away the wrong perspective). Do you keep the cam always pointed generally in one direction a lot or do you orient the layers to not show their flat side? How do you deal with matching perspectives amongst all the elments and make the illusion of depth work?
Thanks again, Alvin. I’m learning a lot and this can be a thread to refernce to from now on when ppl ask how some things are done 😉
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I think it depends on what your end goal is. If the music is the top priority (like a music video), then I would sync to the audio. If your composition is the most important and the music is just for mood. I would generally place the music in as a secondary thought. That being said, you will still want to make sure there is some unity between picture and sound.
As far as syncing up visuals to audio:
At the very least, lay down a bunch of markers and label them so you can animate to match those markers. What I have done in the past is in an NLE (I used FCP). I cut together a bunch of ugly slates and edited them to the music. So I “Felt” the timing in an editor till the text (or simple image) slates were all timed the way I like them. I rendered this out and brought it into AE. Kept it as a reference track I turn on and off to match the AE animations timings to.
Another thing I’ve done a few times, is set up a DV cam in front of a plain bg (like a wall). Then I will perform hand movements in front of the lens like bad mime. These hand movements represent the timing and movement of what will eventually be graphics. I’ll throw those into the rough edit with my slates. This way I have a very specific and somewhat human-like motion reference to work from.
Since NLE’s are all about timing, I use that strength and use it as the “sheet music” to do graphics to.
Hope this makes sense.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
use a codec that supports an alpha channel.
One of the standards is Quicktime using the Animation codec (lossless preset in AE). However. the trick is to make sure it is set to RGB + Alpha and Millions of Colors+
Try a straight alpha and premultiplied and see which one works best for you.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
As long as your being generous with your answers, I have a few more 🙂 A lot of posters here ask quite often how to do many of the techniques that are in your project, so I’m asking for myself and for others to learn from.
How was the design and technical approach? Did you guys plan on a look before hand, think of the elements you want then assign them to each member in some fashion? Or did each person say work on their own elements and they were all placed together in AE to see how they worked together? What I mean, was: Was it designed very specifically from the front end or was there a lot of experimentation?
Like at what point do you say we need rhinos and giraffes for example? Or was that something somebody was working on and you guys incorporated it into the project?
Does each person have their own specialty? Like one person is the Maya person, the AE person, or the PS and Illustrator person?
What inspires the things in the composition? Do you guys create or find photographs you like, mask them out them throw them in the mix?
What was the camera animation approach? Did you actually animate the AE cam or were all the objects parented to a common layer and moved past the cam?
It seems the video is broken down into sections (as opposed to one loooong comp). Is this so? And how did you decide what defines a sequence? Did you create the cam moves first, then fill the scene, or set some key elements, then animate the cam?
The Background layer(s): Was it in 3D space as well or did you keep it in 2D so it was always there despite how the camera moved?
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com