[Greg Gesch]

Hi Jacky, you could do this using the Vegas Effect traveling along paths – perhaps make duplicate layers, one shorter white and the other longer and pale blue underneath. You most probably will need some Glow too.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Jordan, you might want to look at the Colorama effect. I suspect you might get something like what you want if you get you get a good understanding of how Colorama works.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Kris, you need to add a red solid as the background. The red in the composition settings is only for preview, it won’t show up in the render.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi, I have a vague memory that you need to use a hand drawn shape, not the automatic rectangular, elipse shapes? Might be wrong.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Syed, it’s a question of playing with the Start Time, then the Force and Gravity (and Spinning). What exactly are you trying to do?

[Greg Gesch]

Hi, you might also like to look at the “Vertigo Effect” which is made in-camera. Basically the camera dollying in as it zooms out thus keeping the framing but changing the perspective, it’s quite unsettling. An oldie but a goodie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKJeTaIEldM

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[Greg Gesch]

Hi, yes shoot with different backgrounds and a person in front – these are only tests so don’t stress about them, the object is to have something to look at that is vaguely like your final footage, so that you can see what the effects might look like. I would certainly try to shoot some greenscreen so you can experiment with different backgrounds/textures behind your performers.
Smoke? If you want to soften the look I would do it in After Effects, or do you want actual smoke for some other reason? The standard way of doing dreamy is to use slow motion, that might be worth considering.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Gigi, to give you something concrete to work with the first thing I would do is shoot some rough footage and place the Cartoon effect on it. It can give you a painted look:

It depends on your footage but as a guide:

Render = Fill
Detail Threshold = 50
Shading Steps = 3.5

Then add the Gaussian Blur effect set to about 1.5

Play with all the settings (except Edge) and see if you can get the look you need.

Once you see how that looks you should then be able to tell the best way to shoot it – you might want to shoot it on location so that the characters and background have the same painterly look – or on the other hand you might want less detail in the background, that’s an artistic decision.

[Greg Gesch]

Knew there must be a a better way – not using camera:

Keep the layer 2D and pre-compose it. In the precomposition select Position so all keyframes are highlighted, move to the first keyframe and press Ctrl(Command)+C to copy.

In the main comp, with the precomp selected, press Ctrl+V to paste the keyframes.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Bobby, this isn’t perfect but is this the general idea of what you are trying to achieve?

With your 3D layer selected Layer/Transform/Auto-Orient/Orient Towards Camera

Select the camera’s Point of Interest and (holding down Alt) click on its stopwatch – an expression will appear – use the pickwhip and drag it to Position of your layer.

The layer itself will now move but the shape will appear to stay in the same position (though with some distortion when it moves in the Y).

Is that it?