[David Bogie]

Site never completely loaded.
Try a link to a particular movie. Or grab it and upload someplace where connecting to Russian servers isn’t necessary.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

What you want to do is learn how to parent the camera to a null object.
Then move the null.
There are several tutorials here and on other AE support sites that use this technique.
Open the online AE help system and carefully read the sections on null objects, parenting, camera’s point of interest, and how to pickwhip the POI to the null’s position in 3D space.

Example: How would you create a 3D spiral path for a camera to follow, say, as it flies around and pedestals up a cube? Supremely difficult. Put a camera into the scene so it is looking down at the cube. Put a null at the center of the cube and parent the camera’s POI to it. Now, as you slowly spin the null, the camera swoops around the cube. If you orient the null to tilt down, the camera will swoop below the cube but will always be pointing at the null in the center of the cube.

It’s really easy once you’ve got the basics but the basics are not so easy.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Some particle systems have a pre-roll or a starting parameter for setting the number of pre-existing particles.
I’m not at my AE machine today but I can give you some pointers.
Set the lifespan for maximum, the length of your comp. If the value doesn’t go that high, right-click on it to edit the value.
Yo may just need to precompose the layer and set its in point after some particles have been created in order to have your world filled with floaties.
You can create a movie of particles and import it, loop it, or use it several times with a invisible transition between the copies.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

AE has Shatter and there’s a preset for Glass. It’s wonderful and has surface reflectivity. But it has no refraction or transmission settings. For those, as Stephen says, you must have a 3D modeler.

But setting up your idea in Shatter won’t be easy as it is designed to run all of its physics simulations forward from a static state. Making thing assemble instead of blow up is almost impossible. The parameters just aren’t designed that way.

Never seen the movie you guys are referring to so I don’t know what those credits are supposed to look like.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Sure hope the OP comes back to find this! I’m on vacation, won’t get to try this for a few weeks.

You rule, man. Could make a delightful tutorial for Motion. Think about tweaking it up and submitting it.

But, I gotta say, your very helpful explanation only points out how Motion’s process is hopelessly complex and defies the logical approach most people would attempt to use to problem solving. (This is where i say how much I loathe Motion’s behavior paradigm).

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[Steven Gonzales] “I believe you can select all the stills, put them in the timeline, then select all, control-click for the contextual menu, then set duration to the appropriate length, and they will all reset to the new duration.”

I’m not at my FCP machine to test this but it sounds reasonable. Removing the gaps between them will tedious!

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Hmm, last time I used variable speed it affected the audio, too. You can see the speed indicators on the timeline, use the little switch thingy in the bottom left corner to choose what is displayed n the timeline.

If the audio did not change with the video, the tracks were unlinked and will now be different lengths.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Reshoot.

There is no easy way to do this but using the 3-Way Color Corrector will allow you to choose a very narrow range of pixels to which an effect will be applied. The interface for 3-way is about as dumb as it gets in FCP (nothing is labeled) so get out the manual and follow along. You also need to understand how to use the different output view modes the filter offers.

There are other options if you understand how to create mattes and use them as inputs for other effects. You will take a copy of your footage and apply levels or color correction filters till you get a hard edge between the dancer and the background and the backdrop is a solid color without any tone. You will then use this video clip, after it’s rendered, as the matte input to drive other color correction or replacement filters.

Reshoot it.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[David Hunter] “how to import some footage I have been given recorded on DVCam cassettes. Because I don’t know anything about the recording specs. “

Sorry, I’m not seeing an issue here. DVCAM is all you need to know. Doesn’t matter how it started, could have been 35mm film, Super8, 8mm video from the 70s, VHS from the 80s, Betamax, or LaserDisc. If it’s been dubbed to DVCAM, it’s now DVCAM. Play the tape and ingest using any of FCP’s basic FW settings.

> I tried picking out a couple of Final Cut defaults, including various PAL defaults, but the footage I get will only play back in a few second clips before Final Cut announces an error. So I keep coming up with a bin full of clips that only play a few seconds each before errors. < This indicates the tape is bad, not the video that's on it. It may never play in anything. You must acquire a new copy of the tape. bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[anita sancha] “I would have thought all this would have been sorted out with the main video packages! They should really be bundled.”

Dream on. Too many licensing issues and don’t forget the egos of MrGates and MrJobs.

bogiesan