[Hans Van vliet]

Well, I watch through it and it’s all done by hand it looks like. Some artist has done a nice charcoal stencil of the whole thing and they have put a lot of mask work in it. Truth is, you really don’t want an easy way to do this, you want control because they have married camera movment with mask moves and so on and it makes the whole thing dynamic. They can control it all, but with that comes a lot of work .. Most of the time, things that you see like this are done by hand (that’s most of the art of it) .. but that’s why I do it, I love that kinda stuff .. but heck, I’m a geek .. LOL. Would me doing up a mock project help out at all? Because I could show you some basic moves if your intrested?

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

Hey,

If you press F1 while in AE and then do a search for MASK you might find some stuff about how to get started. Then in the manual it should have some great tips. As for understanding a mask .. People sometimes call them Alpha’s and Mattes, they are different but all do the same thing. They tell an image how to be transparent. So in the case of using one with a pipe coming out of a portal. You might just set up a mask (look into help on how to do that). Then animate the size of it. When you watch the animation back, it should look like it wiped the pipe on. But that’s very simple, anyways .. see if the help, HELPS .. and just mess around with it, and hopefully you’ll unlock the magical world of masks/alphas and mattes .. (Lol, sorry just couldn’t resist)

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

Also this effect uses, AE6.5 plugins as well .. so when you finally get your copy install the CC plugins and you’ll be able to use it.

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

Hey,

I havn’t seen any tuts for that kinda effect. It’s a lot of work to get the flow of something like that, anyways I hope I’m watching the same spot as you .. it was “charcoal – Quicktime”. If I get time, I could do up a fake project for you to look at. It’s not tricky, it’s just nice design and curve’s work the best with this kinda thing.

Anyways, hope someone else can come up with something.

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

Hey, I can output a .zip if you want? I just use .rar because I’m a geek 😀 and I snob my nose at .zip format. Anyways, it’s no problem really. I’ll set it up when I get home if you want? 😛

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

Hey,

I watched it all and I get what your trying to do now. 4 different projectors, and something scolling through them all. Seriously, this is what I would do. Make an animation that was four screens long instead of doing them as one screens. So your native res would have been 3072×576 (square pixles PAL) or if your working in NTSC 2880 x 540 (square pix). Then I would create a template (much like they use for cd layouts in graphic design .. showing you were each screen sits and so on). Then I would do all my animations working with the 4 screens – side by side. Now for the output. Start a new comp that would be .. 768×576 (Square PAL) or 720×540 (Square NTSC) and drop and drag the big 4 screen comp into that. And then duplicate it 3 times (making 4 projects). Name each one a different Screen number. Line them up for each comp and render them out. This way you can tweek your main 4 screen animation and all the cut up comps will update .. and so on.

Um, if you need a template for this, let me know I can set it up for you I don’t mind at all.. Just let me know what format your working in .. NTSC (non-square) so on .. but give it a crack 1st 😀
Thanks for the webpage that really helped what you were trying todo, hope this all makes sense. Hope it doesnt’ sound to harsh 😛 but have fun, hope it all works out.

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

Hey,

I watched it all and I get what your trying to do now. 4 different projectors, and something scolling through them all. Seriously, this is what I would do. Make an animation that was four screens long instead of doing them as one screens. So your native res would have been 3072×576 (square pixles PAL) or if your working in NTSC 2880 x 540 (square pix). Then I would create a template (much like they use for cd layouts in graphic design .. showing you were each screen sits and so on). Then I would do all my animations working with the 4 screens – side by side. Now for the output. Start a new comp that would be .. 768×576 (Square PAL) or 720×540 (Square NTSC) and drop and drag the big 4 screen comp into that. And then duplicate it 3 times (making 4 projects). Name each one a different Screen number. Line them up for each comp and render them out. This way you can tweek your main 4 screen animation and all the cut up comps will update .. and so on.

Um, if you need a template for this, let me know I can set it up for you I don’t mind at all.. Just let me know what format your working in .. NTSC (non-square) so on .. but give it a crack 1st 😀
Thanks for the webpage that really helped what you were trying todo, hope this all makes sense. Hope it doesnt’ sound to harsh 😛 but have fun, hope it all works out.

..::hunz..

[Hans Van vliet]

I don’t know how your animating the 2 objects but I would create a null then link both of them to it, Then move the NULL for the Y movement (or the X) and then move the individual layers on the X (or Y). They would be moving at the same speed on one of the axis then you could move them around on the other to change the paths a little. Again, I don’t know what the effect looks like but that’s my best guess for something that has to move at the same speed but have a different path.

The other thing is you can copy and paste the paths onto both objects. Select all the position keyframes of one of the objects. Make sure your on a keyframe (frame 1 should do) and then go up to the comp window and you’ll see the keyframes selected and there movment Dotted, then you just select one and drag and move … it would be like moving it around. Then you could make adjustments where you see fit to shake them up a little .. I don’t know what your trying to achieve so hope it works out ..

Good luck.

..::hunz.

[Hans Van vliet]

I don’t know how your animating the 2 objects but I would create a null then link both of them to it, Then move the NULL for the Y movement (or the X) and then move the individual layers on the X (or Y). They would be moving at the same speed on one of the axis then you could move them around on the other to change the paths a little. Again, I don’t know what the effect looks like but that’s my best guess for something that has to move at the same speed but have a different path.

The other thing is you can copy and paste the paths onto both objects. Select all the position keyframes of one of the objects. Make sure your on a keyframe (frame 1 should do) and then go up to the comp window and you’ll see the keyframes selected and there movment Dotted, then you just select one and drag and move … it would be like moving it around. Then you could make adjustments where you see fit to shake them up a little .. I don’t know what your trying to achieve so hope it works out ..

Good luck.

..::hunz.

[Hans Van vliet]

Hey,

Sorry I don’t know of any tuts that might help you out. But play around with it, I am sure you’ll get the hang of it. There are some plugins that do morphs too, a lot easier then flex does .. https://www.revisionfx.com/rflx.htm re:flex it’s called. Anyways hope that helps, flex has some tuts set up as well ..

..::hunz..