Jonathan Miller
Forum Replies Created
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Yeah, I know what you mean. I can’t think of any way as straight forward as Zax to make it work. Have you tried setting your Invig. layer to draft mode while you create the animation? It should render very quickly in the Comp window. Then once you’ve got your motion the way you want, set the layer(s) back to full quality for your final render.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Yeah, I know what you mean. I can’t think of any way as straight forward as Zax to make it work. Have you tried setting your Invig. layer to draft mode while you create the animation? It should render very quickly in the Comp window. Then once you’ve got your motion the way you want, set the layer(s) back to full quality for your final render.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Marc, if you’ve played with the material settings for your 3D layer, and it still isn’t looking right
it’s probably not what you have that looks wrong. It’s most likely what’s missing that’s wrong.You’re not going to have any kind of refelction of your photo’s environment.
Look at a photo, and if it’s glossy you’ll see yourself staring back in reflection.
If you need to stay within AE to do this project, and you have access to Zaxwerks Invigorator, you could probably get things to look the way you want. You can use the photo as a texture map within Invig., and then use another still of the photo’s surrounding (or better yet, video) as a refelction map.
If you don’t already have the plugin, you can download a demo to see if it would be worth the investment for you (if you can afford it, it will be worth it.)
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Marc, if you’ve played with the material settings for your 3D layer, and it still isn’t looking right
it’s probably not what you have that looks wrong. It’s most likely what’s missing that’s wrong.You’re not going to have any kind of refelction of your photo’s environment.
Look at a photo, and if it’s glossy you’ll see yourself staring back in reflection.
If you need to stay within AE to do this project, and you have access to Zaxwerks Invigorator, you could probably get things to look the way you want. You can use the photo as a texture map within Invig., and then use another still of the photo’s surrounding (or better yet, video) as a refelction map.
If you don’t already have the plugin, you can download a demo to see if it would be worth the investment for you (if you can afford it, it will be worth it.)
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
What would probably work best here is Tracode’s Shine plugin.
You could take your lightning layer, precomp it, then add Shine to the precomp layer. You could mess around with the colors to get them just right, an you could probably adjust the thickness of the middle by adjusting the “boost light” parameter. Then, you could adjust how much glow there is by dropping the ray length to zero and bump it up a notch or two.
You can always go to Trapcode and download the demo.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
If you think the included grain removal tool is removing too much detail, I strongly recommend you check out Algolith’s Dynamic Noise Rediction (DNR) plugin. Plus, you can “rent” their suite of plugs for a week to try them out, and either buy them or just keep renting whenever you need them.
Here’s a link to a post I made a few months ago with some stills:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=805163
It really will do the trick of removing the gain grain for you.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Grains, I looked at your profile and it says that you are an electronic musician. It also says that you’re in Ireland. So, that would mean that you’re running PAL at 25 fps or 50 fields per second.
I totaly understand your desire to hit at subframe accuracy. However, maybe you really don’t need to.
On some projects, it’s very easy to get lost in the details. There have been sooo many projects where I’ve lost DAYS trying to get something “just so” only to discover that no one noticed it anyway. I’m not telling you to do a poor job, but maybe get an outside opinion.
For example, I am fortunate to be married to a very sharp, intelligent and beautiful woman, Heidi. She’s just great. When we were first together, I realized an entirely new value for our relationship. She’s my “everyperson”. See, whenever I get bogged down in the details, I get her to watch an animation as soon as she’s available. I cringe at how poorly the timing on a movement might be, and ask for her opinion. She consistently says stuff like, “Wow, Jon, you’re so amazing, I just love the part where everything’s red…” Most of the time she could care less about whatever it is I’m fretting over. So, seen through her eyes, I realize that I don’t have to get everything timed down to the 1000th of a second.
What you may want to try ( I think Steve mentioned it) is to tap the beats out on your keyboard. Click on the audio layer in your timeline to highlight it. Then, press the decimal key on your numeric keypad to do an audio preview. Once the music starts, tap the asterik key on the numeric keypad along to the beat. Then, place keyframes for your other layers wherever those markers fall.
Then, while you’re pulling your hair out, get a second opinion.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Grains, I looked at your profile and it says that you are an electronic musician. It also says that you’re in Ireland. So, that would mean that you’re running PAL at 25 fps or 50 fields per second.
I totaly understand your desire to hit at subframe accuracy. However, maybe you really don’t need to.
On some projects, it’s very easy to get lost in the details. There have been sooo many projects where I’ve lost DAYS trying to get something “just so” only to discover that no one noticed it anyway. I’m not telling you to do a poor job, but maybe get an outside opinion.
For example, I am fortunate to be married to a very sharp, intelligent and beautiful woman, Heidi. She’s just great. When we were first together, I realized an entirely new value for our relationship. She’s my “everyperson”. See, whenever I get bogged down in the details, I get her to watch an animation as soon as she’s available. I cringe at how poorly the timing on a movement might be, and ask for her opinion. She consistently says stuff like, “Wow, Jon, you’re so amazing, I just love the part where everything’s red…” Most of the time she could care less about whatever it is I’m fretting over. So, seen through her eyes, I realize that I don’t have to get everything timed down to the 1000th of a second.
What you may want to try ( I think Steve mentioned it) is to tap the beats out on your keyboard. Click on the audio layer in your timeline to highlight it. Then, press the decimal key on your numeric keypad to do an audio preview. Once the music starts, tap the asterik key on the numeric keypad along to the beat. Then, place keyframes for your other layers wherever those markers fall.
Then, while you’re pulling your hair out, get a second opinion.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Well, I’m very happy with my fleet of Macs. I also have a PowerBook, and my wife has an iBook.
Keep in mind that you can probably get an Apple at a discount through your school, as well as educational discount on Apple software.
This time of year Dell and the like usually have “back-to-school” discounts for people exactly in your position.
If you’re starting from scratch, the software will probably be a larger investment than the computer itself. No matter what platform you’re going to go with, check for any discounts you may qualify for.
As for the Mac laptops: My PowerBook has been a real champ. It works so well it’s hard to believe. My wife’s iBook is really sweet, though, and it just looks so cool. It’s also MUCH cooler to the touch than my PowerBook, which gets so hot it’s most likely makeing me sterile.
I just bought a new iBook for a client Friday. The 14″ with the 1.42 GHz G4 in it. These days, if I didn’t need the Gigabit Ethernet of the PowerBook, I’d get the iBook. The price/performance sure is hard to beat. The PowerBook does have a killer screen, but hey, you’re probably not making a living at motion graphics yet, so save your money on the iBook. Then, it won’t be so painfull to replace it with an Intel based PowerBook in a couple of years. 🙁
Oh, and if you go for a Mac, BUY THE APPLECARE EXTENDED WARRANTY!!!
Just do it. Period. If your computer breaks down (they ALL do, PC or Apple) call Applecare, they’ll overnight you a box, place the computer in the box, send it back to Apple (it’s pre-payed) and then they’ll overnight the computer back to you. I’ve done this several times, and it has always taken less than 48 hours from sending to receiving. Worth every penny.Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA -
Steve’s suggestion is what I tend to do. Your problem is that there’s TOO much resolution in the photo. Blurring it will knock down that resolution and stop the flickering.
You tend to get this a lot in 3D programs as well, when you’re using high resolution textures.
Good luck!
Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA