[Colin Braley]

Using AE you could rotoscope out some backgrounds and add in some footage of another background. Using AE you could also adjust the color properties of the footage to have them match toghether better. But if the camera was to move in any of your shorts you would have to use some form of motion control rig so the cmaera move is the same in both scenes, and if the intended background was a 3d render you would have to somehow use a matchmoving app to extrapolate the camera move and apply it to your 3d scene. In summary, AE is somewhat capable of doing very basic “background changing” but for it to be even remotely as good as that in the lords of dogtown link you would need other software besides AE, a bigger budget, and a lot of experience in the visual effects industry. Thats just my 2 cents and I don’t know much about the visual effects industry/process so I might be wrong.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

They talk about it briefly in the book Creatiing Motion Graphics with After Effects by Trish and Chris Meyer. It’s not a full on tutorial, but it can give you some info on the effect.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

You could also do this via expressions and the write on effect…
Try this expression for the brush position of the write on effect:

//begin
amp = 100;//Height of wave in pixels
freq = 2;//Oscillations per sec
beginTime = 0;//in seconds
endTime = 5;//in seconds

y = amp*Math.sin(freq*time*2*Math.PI) + (thisComp.height/2);

x =linear(time, beginTime, endTime, 0, thisComp.width);

[x,y]
//end

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

You could also do this via expressions and the write on effect…
Try this expression for the brush position of the write on effect:

//begin
amp = 100;//Height of wave in pixels
freq = 2;//Oscillations per sec
beginTime = 0;//in seconds
endTime = 5;//in seconds

y = amp*Math.sin(freq*time*2*Math.PI) + (thisComp.height/2);

x =linear(time, beginTime, endTime, 0, thisComp.width);

[x,y]
//end

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

If you want to average multiple motion trackers try this:

//expression begins

apArr = [_______,________,_______ ];
numOfStabilizers = 0;
x = 0;
y = 0;

for(i = 0; i <= apArr.length - 1; i++) { numOfStabilizers++; x += apArr[i][0]; y += apArr[i][1]; } [x,y]/numOfStabilizers //end To use this just highlight the _____ areas and pick-whip to the tracker ~Colin

[Colin Braley]

If you want to average multiple motion trackers try this:

//expression begins

apArr = [_______,________,_______ ];
numOfStabilizers = 0;
x = 0;
y = 0;

for(i = 0; i <= apArr.length - 1; i++) { numOfStabilizers++; x += apArr[i][0]; y += apArr[i][1]; } [x,y]/numOfStabilizers //end To use this just highlight the _____ areas and pick-whip to the tracker ~Colin

[Colin Braley]

It wouldnt be truly 3d (as in you cant use an After Effects camera to fly around it) but you could do it with displacement mapping. Just use an image of a gradient to displace the text layer. If you need more in depth instructions just post a response and I’ll help out.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

any of the books by Trish and Chris Meyer…if you are an “intermediate” user you might want to try Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects…and also don’t forget the good old manual that came with AE…it’s the most in depth (allthough maybe not well written or interesting) resource you have. Enjoy.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Trapcode’s particular has some firework presets that are easily modifiable to create other types of fireworks.

http://www.trapcode.com

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Heres the link to the tutorial on the reshape filter:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/zwar_chris/morph/