[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Dave,

My expression capabilites are fairly rudimentary. I use them, but need a fair deal of guidence as things become more complex.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Dave,

I do have Syntheyes as well as PF Track. PF Track seems to be a superior tracker and I’m using it on some problem shots. But, because we shot greenscreen and mocap, there’s often an absence of trackable features. The shot I posted about doesn’t have sufficient foreground tracking possibilities to get an accurate track.

So, I was wondering if there was some way I could use a 2D track of the foreground bounce and subtract the crane movement from it, then apply the result – being only the bounce to the background.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi,

I’ve found that different trackers work best for different reasons. Mocha is a great tracker, and works well where you have an area you can track. When I have a situation where there are just points or small objects, I use AE’s internal tracker. It seemed to get better in CS3. Although, I always track things twice forward and backward and use an averaging script to get a smoother track. For more complex situations, particularly 3D, I’ve used Syntheyes and PF Track. Syntheyes has an overly complex, poorly thought out interface, but can work on some tracks. PF Track is great, but very expensive. PF Track has much better tracker than syntheyes.

I hope this helps,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your help. I sent in the files you requested. Unfortunately, you won’t see any difference between the the screen shots in Color Finesse and in AE. Screen shots have to be pasted into Photoshop and Photoshop has the same problem as AE in that images in Color Finesse look different than when in Photoshop.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

You are right. PreComping, putting Color Finesse in the precomp, but leaving the Mattes in the main comp worked. Thank you.

By the way, I’ve noticed that the color correction looks great inside of Color Finesse, but loses something when viewed in AE. Any thoughts on how to work around this?

Thanks for your help,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Dave,

I’m using Color Finesse for final color correction – not to remove spill. The problem is Color Finesse’s interaction with the mattes.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Thanks,Kevin

I just hit on this before I read your post:
((thisComp.layer(“Main Hinge”).transform.position[2])*-1)

but a negative sign before the expression is nicer.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Kevin,

That’s just what I was looking for. Thanks very much,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the explanation. I actually wanted to rotate the emitter in the hopes that it would transmit the rotation to the particles. I want to get a a twisting effect as you have with a rotating sprinkler head. Unfortunately, rotating the camera doesn’t achieve this.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

I would also shoot the shot both ways. Putting a like object in the actor’s hand allows them to position their hand correctly and the weight of a real object will influence their movement and add to the realism of the shot.

If you are shooting motion capture or from a static camera position, I would also shoot a background plate, which would easily allow you to paint out the prop object.

If you are moving the camera and not using motion capture, I would first work with the actor and the prop object until you have everything as you want it. I would shoot takes with the real object and then shoot without the prop object. Encourage the actor to feel the weight of the object so you maintain the realism. You can also try having the actor release the object earlier in their throw than they normally would. This allows the actor to position their hand correctly and feel the weight of the object, but allows it to leave frame quickly. It may be that the prop object is covered by the post object and you don’t have to paint anything.

Hope this helps,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com