[Greg Neumayer]

Ah, perfect. Thanks. I was actually almost there with the same basic process from the tutorial from Trapcode:
https://www.trapcode.com/in_action/shine_gobo.html

but hadn’t yet considered the cool distance/brightness idea from your link.

Here’s my line of code I used:
src = thisComp.layer(“null for flare1”); src.toComp(src.anchorPoint);

Thanks!
-Greg

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

p.s. I’m looking through my camera the whole time, so the soution will need to take into account either the actual z depth, or some way to extrapolate the depth based on the camera’s position to the light or null.

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

p.s. I’m looking through my camera the whole time, so the soution will need to take into account either the actual z depth, or some way to extrapolate the depth based on the camera’s position to the light or null.

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

p.s. I’m looking through my camera the whole time, so the soution will need to take into account either the actual z depth, or some way to extrapolate the depth based on the camera’s position to the light or null.

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

p.s. I’m looking through my camera the whole time, so the soution will need to take into account either the actual z depth, or some way to extrapolate the depth based on the camera’s position to the light or null.

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

You’ve touched on a lot of different functions there.
Do some research on expressions and gravity. There are some good equasions out there that you can use, but more importantly, gravity is only one part of your effect, and a small one at that. Gravity simply causes something to speed up as it falls. You also need to consider, bounce (probably not for paper), wind/air resistance or turbulence, and the way air will cushion lightweight objects just prior to hitting the ground, especially if something is “falling over” as you described. For your paper, you won’t be able to physically have a curved object, but you may be able to get away with simulating a curved piece of paper using warping effects.

If I were doing this and really needed camera flexibility and a range of movement, I’d probably build it in Maya, get my camera moving like I want, render it out using Maya’s gravity and hard/soft bodies, then try to import the camera data into AE and build the rest of the scene in AE.

But, if you want to simulate it in AE only, the best bet is to learn what you can and can’t do in AE, and build your camera move and scene around maximizing the app within those limitations.

Best of luck,
Greg

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

You’ve touched on a lot of different functions there.
Do some research on expressions and gravity. There are some good equasions out there that you can use, but more importantly, gravity is only one part of your effect, and a small one at that. Gravity simply causes something to speed up as it falls. You also need to consider, bounce (probably not for paper), wind/air resistance or turbulence, and the way air will cushion lightweight objects just prior to hitting the ground, especially if something is “falling over” as you described. For your paper, you won’t be able to physically have a curved object, but you may be able to get away with simulating a curved piece of paper using warping effects.

If I were doing this and really needed camera flexibility and a range of movement, I’d probably build it in Maya, get my camera moving like I want, render it out using Maya’s gravity and hard/soft bodies, then try to import the camera data into AE and build the rest of the scene in AE.

But, if you want to simulate it in AE only, the best bet is to learn what you can and can’t do in AE, and build your camera move and scene around maximizing the app within those limitations.

Best of luck,
Greg

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

I’ve had trouble on occasion with importing stroked lines, but that may have been a version or two ago. You might test it by importing a filled shape to see if you get the same problems.

I’ve had very small art try to cause problems.

Also, don’t forget that now AE supports copy and paste of vector art from AI into masks, so you don’t need even to save your ai file at all if you just need to grab a vector shape and paste it in as a mask.

Good luck. Post an image if you keep having trouble. I use AI and AE together constantly. You shouldn’t have troubles.
-Greg.

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

Double check you fields and make sure you haven’t lost a field somewhere in the transfers or interpretation. If your soft shot is the only interlaced one, you may have exported it without both fields (which then would look bad in AE as well), or you’re not interpreting the interlaced footage as interlaced in AE.

Start by figuring out where it first went soft, to isolate if the problem is in your Avid export, your AE import, or your AE export.

Hope it helps.
-Greg

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Greg Neumayer]

Thanks Dave,
After trying your suggestion, I realized that even with one linear keyframe, I was still getting a mis-match and reversal of speed just before the keyframe so I started thinking… and sure enough, my 29.97 footage was actually shot at 24, but I hadn’t yet plugged in a 3:2 pulldown, which was messing it up.
Thanks!
-Greg

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com