Cory Petkovsek
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If you don’t know how, and you’re doing it for someone else for free, then yes it is going to be a massive headache.
Next, MysteryGuitarMan is a fun motion graphics artist and musician. He uses Apple Motion, not that it matters. What is important is that if you look at all of his videos, you’ll see he continually pushes himself to do new things. Copying him is a worthy challenge, but also won’t get you far in creating your own path.
Now for the effect. You shouldn’t need much rotoscoping, and only a nominal amount of motion tracking. Everything you need for the first video is in here, plus some nominal planning and scripting of the camera work:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/Set_Extensions.phpThe second video won’t require much more post work, but it may need rotoscoping. It will require careful planning and practice of the camera work and scripting to get it right.
As a producer and motion graphics artist myself, I would not do it unless your producer is heavily invested in figuring out how to make it work. It will require coordination of the camera, talent and post, and probably a couple practice runs. If he just wants you to figure it out, then don’t waste your life energy, even for a friend.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
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Don’t be embarrased. You can render out of premiere or after effects. Doesn’t matter; whichever works for your workflow. I recommend editing first, then finish in AE.
I edit in vegas, export to premier, export to after effects, then finish and render there for web, or export to encore for dvd. Sounds complex, but it’s not, and it’s all for very specific reasons that gives me more desirable results than just editing and rendering in vegas, or just premiere.
Think about your workflows:
1)
– Stablize in AE, export to files*
– Edit stabilized files in premiere
– Render and finish to deliverable files
You’ll end up with twice the amount of clips; stabilized and originals. *Unless you edit AE compositions directly in premier. It’s possible, but really working backward.2)
– Edit in premiere
– Open premier project file in AE
– Grade, stabilize, add titles and graphics in AE
– Render and finishSee why it’s called “After” Effects? It’s designed to be used after the edit. But sometimes it does make sense to use it in other capacities.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
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Also make a distinction between scaling an asset (picture,video,composition), and scaling your viewport. It appears that you’re writing about them interchangeably.
Scaling a layer on the timeline has an effect on your final product. Scaling your viewport window does not.
For maximum clarity, set your viewport to 100%. Then you can scale the layer on the comp window in order to determine quality of scaling the asset.
Next, learn about composition aspect ratios, and pixel aspect ratios. 1680×1050 and 720×480 have different aspect ratios (1.6 and 1.5), so scaling one to the other means borders along two edges. Your computer monitor uses square pixel aspect ratios. If your comp is using non-square pixels, like for a DVD, it’s going to look blocky unless you turn off the stretch pixels button (forget it’s name, but its in the viewport window).
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
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Learn by doing. You need a project. Get a client, or make your own creative project. Tutorials are cool to show you new ways of doing things, and explain features, but your learning will be severely limited relying on them. You’ll learn best by needing to do something, then figuring out how to do that. A tutorial is most effective in this situation.
Cory
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My guess is you haven’t made any of the DVDs yet. Make them, see how long it takes, then you’ll have your answer as to whether $80 per game recording and DVD creation time is worth it to you. You’re having fun so you can’t lose.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
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A 40″ screen means nothing. A DVD player plugged in to it outputs DVD resolution (720×480). That same resolution is output to a 7″, 32″ or 60″ plasma tv, it just scales up. A bluray player plugged into the same TVs will output 1280×720 or 1920×1080. These are only two of many possible output devices.
As Dave said, you need more information to be able to deliver what is expected.
A DVD player attached to the TV is a reasonable, and perhaps the most familiar method, though it is not trivial. Note that 40″ TVs are 16:9. Also DVDs don’t use square pixels. This means you’ll have some odd composition settings in order to make it look proper while working on it and while delivering. Plus DVD mastering can be a lot of work.
This tutorial might help. It shows a workflow where you can work on square pixels, but output widescreen pixels (1.21 pixel aspect ratio), plus it shows how to author a dvd in encore.
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/dvd_authoring/Finally, make sure your DVD player can repeat.
Cory—
Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video -
How about on the specified frame where one passes over, you parent the null to the circle. Use a separate layer starting at this point. Then you can use an expression in the null’s position field to offset the null to the edge of the circle, which is simply the radius. A little trig will give you the x,y coordinates of the current radius and desired angle around the circle.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
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I used to have CS3 and CS4 simultaneously installed without issue. I see no reason why you can’t do that with CS4 and 5, and have all apps installed, or just one. Run the installer for CS4 and it should bring up the check boxes that will allow you to add/remove apps.
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Cory Petkovsek
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To add to the mix, yes your result will be different if you choose a different codec (not container: avi/mov). They all have different algorithms and as Dave says some are better than others for different applications. You need to look at your needs, then find codecs that meet those. For instance one of mine is a cross platform codec that allows me to work with footage in a couple software programs on both windows and mac. Thus Avid DNxHD or Cineform are the best ones for this. QT Animation, or image sequences are also options, but at a higher data rate. Some codecs natively work in mov, some in avi, some in others. Plan on spending a lot of time studying this, over time.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
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Your best bet to get a product video is to have it on your turn table in front of a white or black background, light it well (full coverage with minimal/no shadows or highlights) and hit record.
Forget the 3D program, AE and all the whiz bang stuff for this project.
Now that you have your video out of the way, you can spend time to learn motion graphics and/or cinematography and greenscreen post production properly.
Figure taking 2-3 months (part time, but regular effort) to learn how to light and key greenscreen footage well. Sure you can do it within a couple days, but to do it well is another matter.
To do the product in 3D motion graphics will take a beginner at least a similar amount of time. You need to select a 3D modeling program, learn the interface, then learn several key concepts: camera and lighting, modeling, texturing (product logos), animation, and rendering. Each concept will require several days devoted to that topic at least in order to know enough to do your product video well.
If you are going to continue learning AE, then also learning a 3D modeling program is not recommended unless you have a very high technical aptitude. It also doesn’t necessarily make sense to invest time or money into a 3D program unless you are going to continue using it for other projects.
If you do want to go down that road, I recommend getting the latest 2.5x beta version of Blender 3D (skip the 2.4x series releases as there is a completely different interface). Or you could get a trial of modo or cinema 4d which both have a base price of $1k. All three can produce great results if you know how, and all can produce crappy results if you don’t.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video