Jeremy Allen
Forum Replies Created
-
My favorite “fade to transparent” method is the good ol’ linear wipe.
There is also a free plug-in somewhere called Alpha Ramp, that pretty much does the same thing.
You could also do track mattes, but you said you didn’t want it messy..
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
Mark, it’s one of the hardest things to get use to with AE, but its true… No real-time audio/video sync while refining the animation. After making your markers, looking at waveforms, etc, you basically have to try something, ram preview…tweak that, ram preview.. rinse and repeat as necessary.
You may know some of this but I’ll throw it out there just in case.
You can speed up the process a little by working at half resolution and 50% screen size. You can also try working in Draft 3D, which disables lights, depth of field, and other processor intensive features.
Oh, one other thing…if you have a lot of video that you need to move around, precomp it, put a still graphic on the second layer of the precomp and turn the video layer off. This way you can ram preview with only the stills, which is a lot quicker. Of course this may not work in every situation, but it usually saves a lot of time for me.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
He recently updated the site design and I think some back-end stuff. I’ve noticed the site will be down intermittently when they make major changes.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
It sounds like you’ve never even opened the program. 2 things come to mind: Read the manual, or included help files with the program and use the AE beginner’s forum.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
Great Job man. I remember the first still you posted. Surprisingly, the motion version is even more impressive. The tracking is dead-on. The shadow interaction on the sign is great. I don’t really see any problems with it at this point.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
SORRY FOR CAPS, RENDERING..
I THINK STUART’S COMMENTS ARE RIGHT ON AND I’LL JUST ADD A COUPLE THINGS.
IF YOU LOOK AT THE SHADOWS FROM OTHER THINGS ON THE WALL (PIPES, WINDOW LEDGES) IT SEEMS THE LIGHT IS COMING ALMOST FROM DIRECTLY ABOVE. THERE ISN’T A LOT OF SHADOW COMING FROM THE SIDES OF THE OBJECTS. SO YOU MAY JUST GET RID OF THE SHADOW ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF YOUR SIGN ALTOGETHER, OR PULL IT WAY IN BUT MAYBE DARKEN IT JUST A BIT. THE SHADOWS ON THE OTHER OBJECTS ARE PRETTY HARD.
AS FAR AS MAKING THE SIGN LOOK LESS CGI, I ALSO AGREE THAT THE BLUR IS A BIT MUCH. ALSO THE REAL TEST IS THE MOTION, WHICH BRINGS UP THE ISSUE OF GRAIN. EVERY CAMERA ADDS SOME SORT OF GRAIN AND YOU WILL WANT TO TRY TO MATCH THAT GRAIN ON YOUR SIGN. AND THEN THE OTHER THING ABOUT MOTION IS SEEING THE TRACKING YOU’VE APPLIED, AND THE MASKING OF THE SIGN BEHIND THE TREES. BUT IT LOOKS GREAT SO FAR IN THE STILL.
ONE OTHER THING FOR A BIT OF REALISM, ALTHOUGH THIS MIGHT BE PRETTY TRICKY TO PULL OFF. NOTICE HOW THERE IS A BIT OF DISCOLORATION BENEATH THE LEDGES FROM WATER RUNNING OFF THE EDGES FOR YEARS? IF YOU COULD REPLICATE THAT AROUND YOUR SIGN, I THINK IT WOULD REALLY “SELL” THE COMPOSITE.
I THINK YOU’VE DONE A GREAT JOB SO FAR, YOU’RE ALMOST THERE! LET US SEE THE NEXT VERSION IN MOTION 🙂
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
Yeah I wondered if that might be a problem for you. I even tried to only emit as many particles per second to match the number of frames in the precomp, but it was still random.
I’ll need to check out that script. Always looking for more efficient ways to do stuff.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
Cool, glad I could help… The funny thing is, I had to do something similar about a month ago and I went the long way about it, hanging text in 3d, and yes it took quite a while.
As I was working on your example, I thought “D’oh!, why didn’t I do that on the other project!?” Live and learn I guess..
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
I bet you could do something similar with particular or maybe another particle system.
I was gonna try to explain it, but I figured it might be easier to make an example. Not sure if this is exactly what you’re going for, but maybe you couldplay with the settings and tweak it to your liking.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
No problem.. you can access the drop shadow thru the text layer’s layer styles or under effects>perspective>drop shadow. Or you can also type “drop shadow” in the effects palette search box.
———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1