[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

I’d buy a 3D model of a lion, facet it, turn it gold, and animate the camera move. Then add optical flares for the eyes and some sort of echo effect for the teeth.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Anything is possible. The complexity of the task depends on how realistic you expect it to be.

At one end, a very simple, but not very realistic, method would be to use a slow turbulent displacement.

At the other end, for a more realistic result you would have to cut out some flowers, turn them into 3D layers that cover the entire field and do an overall animation that would sway the entire field based on their 3D positions. You could do that in AE with expressions or use a plug-in like Trapcode Form to accomplish this.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Use this for the iris position:

origin_x=576;// rest position X value, center point of eye
origin_y=390;// rest position Y value
eye_height = 120; // vertical radius or eyeball
eye_width =80; // horizontal radius of eyeball
offset_mult = .25; // decrease in eye movement
eye_proportion =eye_height/eye_width;
x0=thisComp.layer("Null 1").transform.position[0]-origin_x;//your null reference here
y0=thisComp.layer("Null 1").transform.position[1]-origin_y;//your null reference here
distance0 = Math.sqrt(x0*x0+y0*y0)*offset_mult;
distance = Math.min(distance0,eye_width);
if (distance0>eye_width){
distance_mult = distance/distance0;
}else{
distance_mult = 1
}

x=origin_x+distance_mult*x0*offset_mult;
y=origin_y+distance_mult*y0*offset_mult*eye_proportion;

[x,y]

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Do you mean you want to have them fall as a mirror image of the forward shatter?

If you just want to rotate the back side, it is a simple matter of adding 180 to the y-rotation (of the front camera).

If you want a mirror image, you’ll have to put something like 180 minus y-rotation (of front camera), and then you have to flip the backside (or frontside) image. Gets more complex if you have moved the camera off center, so better keep it in the center if possible.

…if I understand what you are trying to do correctly.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Here’s a sample file with what I described. I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but that’s the first method I could think of. I haven’t tried to make it neat or optimized, this is just to show the concept. It is usable if you can’t find a better solution. The expansion of the line is continuous in this example, but you can put an animated warp inside the line precomp as well to make it expand for some time and then stop expanding.

I don’t know if you’re looking at making all those detailed patterns inside the line, but this way you could do that fairly easily. I used a single unit of the pattern with motion tile to repeat it.

9352_expandingline.aep.zip

Here’s what it looks like:

Evolving line

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

A better approach would be to use Motion Tile followed by the Transform effect on your adjustment layer. Tile first, transform second. Don’t rotate the original image directly but with the Transfrom effect after tiling it. And Motion Tile is better for tiling as it expands the output area.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Using camera system “Camera Position”, make the y-rotation 180 degrees. Use gravity direction of 0 degrees.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

You can speed this up by dragging all layers at once to the Make New Comp icon and select Multiple Compositions in the dialog: they will all become individual comps. Then it is a matter of pasting the position and rotation data that you can copy from your first comp. And finally pasting the other side (blue) inside each comp. You could be done in 15 minutes.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

You can draw a Mask or Shape layer in AE, twirl down to the path, select it, copy and paste into Illustrator.

You can do that with a Motion Path as well, IF you first copy and paste it into a mask or shape in AE, then copy again from mask/shape in AE and paste in Illustrator. (Directly copying a Motion Path gives you Keyframe data in text form instead.)

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

I would do this type of an effect with a precomp that has the two sides of the line masked off in the middle, animated outward. (Think of a horizon line of a completely still ocean, with the line rising from behind the horizon, and a mirror reflection of the other half of the line on the ocean.) This would give the apparency of a thickening line — and you could have all those details in the line as well if you wanted to.

This long horizontal precomp would then be distorted with a Mesh Warp to the final shape.