[Jeremy Allen]

If you know how to do it in Illustrator, you should probably just do it there. Long credit scrolls are usually easier to deal with in Illustrator anyway, plus you get way better control of the formatting.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

Someone else may be able to offer an animation preset solution, but I can give you some tips to make it easier to do it for multiple pages..

Once you have the first 2-page comp complete (Page 1&2), simply duplicate that comp in the asset browser. Name the new duplicated comp “Page 3&4”. Double click this new comp to open it up. Select the front facing page comp (page 1). Assuming you have already imported your new PSD file for the next pages, select your page 3 comp in the browser, hold option and drag & drop it on top of the front facing page comp (page 1). Then do the same with page 4 and the back facing comp (page 2). Now in your master comp, duplicate the “Page 1&2” comp, select it, and repeat the process of replacing it with the “Page 3&4 comp”.

I hope this makes sense. Sometimes its hard to write out stuff like this in a way that makes sense to everybody. Basically the main point is once you have created one back-to-back page comp, you can quickly duplicate it and replace the pages to make more. For the ultimate efficiency, you could even go ahead and create every page in one PSD file, with each page in a layer group. Once you have all the pages created, you could then import that one file, and go through the duplicate and replace process quickly for all your pages. With this “all-in-one” method, you could also easily modify the page layouts or page graphics or whatever in that one PSD, and the changes will be reflected in After Effects.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

As you stated, glassy materials look best with lots of reflections. You can either use an image in the material’s “environment” channel, or add a Sky object to your scene, and then use an HDRi image to the Sky’s color channel. Then your glass will reflect whatever is in that image. If you don’t want to see the Sky object in the scene, add a compositing tag to the Sky and un-check “Seen by camera”..

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

You can import a PSD file as a composition, with all layers intact, in the same layer order as the original file in Photoshop. Once imported, you should see a pre-made composition of the layers, as well as a folder with all the individual layers. This is the way it usually works, so I’m not sure why you are having problems with it.

As far as the “double sided” PSD… You can do this a couple different ways. In Photoshop you could set up each page as a separate file, then import each as a composition. In After Effects, select both compositions and drag them to the “New comp” button at the bottom of the browser. Let’s call this new comp “Page 1&2”. Now you have a new comp with each “page” composition on its own layer. Make each layer 3D. Now rotate the “back” page 180 degrees, then push it back in Z-space one pixel. You now have a comp with 2 pages back-to-back. Once you place this comp in your main or master comp, enable the “collapse transformations” switch and you can spin it around to see both sides.

The other method is pretty much the same, except in Photoshop you can put all the layers for each page into a separate layer group. Now when you import the PSD file, you should have one main comp with both pages inside as sub-comps. This main comp now acts as your “Page 1&2” comp. Now go through the process of rotating and re-positioning the back page, then enable the “collapse transformations” switch in the main comp..

I’m writing this from memory, so I may have missed a step, but this should get you most of the way there. Hope it helps..

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

I’m working on a project right now using CS_MoCam, which is similar to EasyCam, but even more complex. Instead of a start and end point, it basically has 8 points. So there are essentially 7 “ghost” cams. I’ve made an AEC from my C4D file and in AE I get the camera and all the keyframes for its position.

I know this doesn’t really solve your situation, but I guess I just wanted to mention this so you know it does work for the MoCam at least. I’m pretty sure EasyCam works the same as far as the Xpresso, so I’m not sure why you can’t get that data.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

Hey glad I could help. And thanks for following up with the results of your experimentation.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

I haven’t used Spline Wrap too much, but I know you can get a similar result with the Spline Effector.. Have you tried that?

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

Dave’s initial response to your question was very thorough and details exactly what needs to be done to animate a mask shape. To be fair, this is a very basic AE question and there is even a forum on this site for such basic questions. Since you mentioned Andrew Kramer, he has an excellent series of tutorials for getting started with After Effects.

As you said, there are a lot of technicalities with After Effects and you really have to put in some time and research to get really comfortable with the program. And you gotta understand sometimes its really difficult to know exactly what problem you are having just from reading your description of the problem on a forum. Its not like we can look over your shoulder and see exactly what steps you have taken or why something is not working for you.

Most people on this forum are more than willing to help if you show some respect, but with responses like the last one you posted, you are pretty much shooting yourself in the foot. People won’t take the time to help if it doesn’t seem like you even appreciate their effort.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

In a word: no.

There are so many variables in this question that it is impossible to give you a helpful answer.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

in addition to Dave’s tips, you’ll probably want to activate motion blur for the mask layer and the scene, depending on how fast the camera pans. And you may need to go into composition settings > advanced and adjust the shutter angle to better match the original motion blur from the camera.

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1