[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Use this for text layer position after aligning it to the center:

S = thisLayer;
x =transform.position[0];
y =transform.position[1];
rect =S.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
y_offset = rect.height/2;
[x,y-y_offset]


[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Hi Albert.
Unfortunately I don’t currently have time to do this in more detail, but you can get a decent enough of a key with Keylight. The best thing to do is to use two mattes, one for the head and one for the rest of the body. That biggest problem with this footage is that has this unsharp-mask caused extra edge on the clothing. You can’t really get a clean key for both the head and the body at the same time, as you have to choke the matte for the body but there’s no choke needed for the head so it ends up looking less than ideal with just one matte. The settings I made were better for the body — although I didn’t have the entire footage to check it on — so you should be able to use those settings (or something very close to it) for the body, and then tweak the settings for the head separately. Removing the choke will already get you most of the way there. Basically you need two matte layers combined with a soft mask around the shoulder/neck area, precomp that and use it as the track matte.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Composition. Lighting. Camera image quality. Color grading.

Amongst other things.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Most likely you can see in the Effect Controls panel what effect is being used.

Your image didn’t unfortunately get included. If you can’t figure it out, the original file would be good to see.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Did you make the solid layer larger than the comp? If the solid is the same size as the comp, it will obviously cut off if you move it even one pixel, so it has to be larger than the comp — or, if in 3D, closer to the camera so as to extend over the edges.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Two ideas for your consideration:

I would create a master null that all the other nulls are parented to, give it a some slow wobble (with wiggle expression), then construct some sort of a 3D sine wave motion that moves the nulls based on their x, y, and z positions. The three (or more) sine waves would themselves travel along the axes in time.

Alternately, and an easier approach, if you are doing this in Particular, you could use the built-in animated fractal offset for the main particles to make them appear to be floating in liquid and have the main particles output particles with the Auxiliary Particle System (unless you’re already planning on using both).

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Out of curiosity: how did the expressions end up?

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Looks like you are using the color image for the Apply image step. You should be using the blurred copy of the black and white image to apply to the unblurred copy. Then at the very end, after creating the detail layer, replace the blurred copy with the color image.

Likely you will need to mask off the edges of the moon on the detail layer, lest they’ll become accentuated.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

It seems to me that the coloring has been taken directly from the photo used to generate the art.

BTW, I’m fairly certain the artwork has been made in Trapcode Form in After Effects, using the original photo both as a displacement map and color map — in case you are after this exact effect.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

So, you’re saying if there is no motion at the end of a comp, SWF format end offs outputting there? Good to know in case I run into this.