[Darby Edelen]

You should use a separate layer to mask the image. Copy your mask to a solid layer and use it as an alpha track matte for your reflection layer.

Then you have separate transform controls for the mask/matte layer and the reflection layer.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

You can right-click a text layer and convert it to a shape layer. The text layer will still be in your comp but it will be hidden.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

You have a couple of options to solve this. The first is easiest but may be less adaptable:

1) Make sure that the pre-comp with collapse transformations enabled has its 3D layer switch enabled as well.

2) Set only the Z scale of the pre-comp layer to 200%. This is the third number in the scale property and is only available when the layer is a 3D layer (see step 1).

The 200% value is derived from the fact that your main comp is 200% as wide as your pre-comp.

The more adaptable solution might be to:

1) Create a new camera in your pre-comp (the default camera is “50mm”).

2) Copy that camera layer.

3) Paste that camera into the main comp and then press the “Reset” button next to the Transform group header to reset the camera transforms to default.

This gives you a camera with the same zoom value as the camera in the pre-comp and sets it in the correct “default” position.

If you already have a camera animation in the pre-comp or the camera is not at the default position then this solution gets a little more complicated as you’ll have to account for the offset in the “center” position of the main comp. You could create a new 3D Null and set it to the center value of the pre-comp. In your example this would be [400, 360]. Then parent the pasted camera from the pre-comp to the null and set the null’s position to the main comp’s center point, in your example [800,360]. This should essentially ‘Reset’ the camera transforms without changing any pre-existing keyframes on the camera.

The null can be deleted after this is done.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Can you expand on the problem, perhaps with pictures? What you’re asking for sounds like the regular behavior to me.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

It’s not clear from the first post which images are in perspective and which are not.

You have good advice for either case but I’ll just add that I think CC Power Pin is vastly superior to Corner Pin for several reasons. I’d use it even in the “simple” case

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Do you have any frames where the light from the fan opening is present but the light rays are not? Is the camera entirely stationary during the shot?

It’d be best to reshoot but if that’s not an option you may get acceptable results by placing a frame of just the fan light set to the Subtract blend mode above your footage provided that the camera doesn’t move or change focus.

You may also be able to generate a frame of just the fan light from the footage you have but that would be more involved.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Robert Luyt] “Adding the wiggle effect to the camera obviously does not work as it is controlled by the null object which is in 2D. Could anybody help me?”

You can still apply the wiggle to the camera. A few notes though. In general I’d recommend parenting 3D layers (like a camera) to a 3D layer rather than a 2D layer (use a 3D null instead of a 2D null). If you want the wiggle() to only work on 2 axes then there are other ways of achieving that:

frequency = 3;
amplitude = 5;
w = wiggle(frequency, amplitude) - value;
[w[0], w[1], 0] + value;

The above should only wiggle on the x and y axes of the object.

Also I see that you’ve attached the wiggle expression to some sliders named wiggle(x) control and wiggle(y) control. I just wanted to make sure that you know that the first parameter (where you have wiggle(x)) controls the frequency of the wiggle and the second parameter (wiggle(y)) controls the amplitude. The wiggle will have the same amplitude on both the x and y axes unless you modify them independently.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

If I understand the setup correctly then I’d leave the footage underneath the actor. Then I’d use an adjustment layer above the actor (or pre-compose both footage layers) to create the glow only on the bright blue areas.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

There are different ways of desaturating footage and lots of different ways of coloring footage.

If, for example, you need the white colors to become red then the Multiply blend mode is likely what you’re after. If you want the whites to remain white but the mid tones to become red then Overlay, Soft Light or Color will all give you looks of varying intensity.

In general I’d also recommend using the Tint effect to desaturate footage rather than the Hue/Saturation effect (or another ‘saturation’ effect). Tint will keep the perceptual brightness of colors whereas adjusting saturation down with Hue/Saturation will not.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Roland R. Kahlenberg] “Not everything! Just the characters/objects that are moving in the scene. Objects in the distance are not an issue. It’s those that cut across the frame, close to the camera that are a huge issue.”

To expand on what Roland is saying, a camera solve depends on everything that’s being tracked remaining stationary during the track. You’re attempting to solve for the motion of the camera so all the of the reference points need to be static in the scene otherwise they will contribute incorrect motion to the tracks.

Foreground objects obscuring background objects are fine so long as those objects don’t move.

Darby Edelen