Kevin Camp
Forum Replies Created
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there are many free apps to open .rar files on mac… just hop on the mac app store.
but when you say ‘pin’, if you just want to stick a 3d layer to the surface of the sphere, you can build a pretty simple rig.
- start with cc sphere on a layer
- add a null and name it ‘centerNull’ and make it 3d.
- add another null, name it ‘pinNull’, make it 3d and parent it to centerNull.
- set the z-position of pinNull to be the negative of the cc sphere radius (i.e., if the radius is 200, set the z-positon to -200)
- twirl down the cc sphere layer’s properties to reveal the rotation properties for the cc sphere effect.
- select centerNull and type ‘r’ to reveal the rotation properties. option click the x-rotation property and use the expression pickwhip to link that to the x-rotation property of the cc sphere effect and add a minus in front of that expression.
- do the same for the y-rotation and the z-rotation, but for z, do not add the minus.
now if you rotate the sphere values, the pinNull should appear to stick to the surface. parent another 3d layer to the pinNull modify the position and rotation to line the pin up as needed, and it should do the same.
if the pin needs to rotate behind the cc sphere layer, make that layer 3d and it should move behind it.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
the threshold effect will create a hi-contrast image (like kodalith). Levels or curves will work with a little more effort.
find edges can help to define just the edges, using threshold, levels, curves or even brightest/contrast can help build contrast to the find edges effect.
the footage was likley inverted (negative) too, so the invert effect would help.
to colorize, try the tint effect (tint all also invert the image if you map white to a dark color and black to a light color).
i’d also look at adding the glow effect.
and using a blending mode like lighten, screen of add will remove the black/darker pixels, leaving jus the lighter pixels.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i think you could use Dan Ebbert’s beat counter expression to separate even numbers beats from odd beats.
try this:
threshold = 10.0;
birthrate = 100;
audioLev = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");
above = false;
frame = Math.round(time / thisComp.frameDuration);
n = 0;
while (frame >= 0){
t = frame * thisComp.frameDuration;
if (above){
if (audioLev.valueAtTime(t) < threshold){
above = false;
}
}else if (audioLev.valueAtTime(t) >= threshold){
above = true;
n++;
}
frame--
}
if ( n % 2 == 1 && audioLev > threshold ) birthrate else 0;
that should count the odd beats. for even, change the last line to:
if ( n % 2 == 0 && audioLev > threshold ) birthrate else 0;Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
you may have done this already, but select the track with the audio/music and then choose animation>keyframe assistant>convert audio to key frames. this will create a new layer with the audio levels saved as keyframe values.
for the emitter (or producer), you can add an expression for birthrate to use the audio level keyframe values. something like this will give you control over the audio threshold to start emitting the particles and the birthrate for the burst:
levels = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");
birthrate = 100;
threshold = 10;
if ( levels > threshold ) birthrate else 0;
modify the birthrate and threshold values as needed.Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
you can actually make a torus (or pretty close). you’ll have to make the ellipse paths nearly the same size, then set the bevel style for the ring to ‘convex’ and the extrusion to zero. then increase the bevel depth and you’l get a very torus-like shape (in my testing it looks just like a torus, but you may find some imperfections).
— edit —
one issue with this method, is 10 is the maximum bevel size, so that will limit the thickness of the ring quite a bit.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i don’t know if you can do expressions in C4D…. you will have to do your animation in C4D (as you found out).
if you can live without the torus, you can make a 3D ring in AE (the difference being a torus has a circular cross-section and a ring had a rectangular one).
in the comp settings, goto the 3D render tab and set it to either raytrace or cinema 4d (if you have an nvidia gpu, raytrace may be faster, if not definitely use the cinema 4d option).
create a circle with the shape tool and set the color as needed (don’t use black, at least not for now). then from the ‘add’ menu to the right of ‘contents’ for the shape layer, choose ‘elipse’ to add another circle to that shape layer. then, from the same ‘add’ menu select merge paths. in the merge paths settings, set the mode to subtract.
to extrude that ring, make the shape layer 3D. since you’ve changed the render engine to be a 3D engine, you’ll have geometry and material options as properties for that layer. in the geometry options, increase the extrusion depth. to better see the extrusion rotate the shape on it’s x or y axis.
if you are using an expression for rotation, you can likely use the same expression on that extruded shape layer.
you need to add some lights to get shading on the ring, and reflections can be difficult (it will only reflect other 3d layers, and i don’t know of an easy way to create a ‘sky’ object for reflections).
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
[kim bee] “I found it in the effects panel but it says “no cinema 4d file detected”.”
That’s part of the non-intuitive relationship between C4D and AE… You have to launch C4D from AE. Open AE and then choose file>new>Maxon Cinema 4D file… that will create the C4D file within AE and launch Cinema 4D.
To create a torus in C4D, you can simply choose it from the built-in platonic shapes… in the row of icons at the top, click and hold the blue cube icon to show the available platonic objects and select the torus.
to see how the integration works, simply save that C4D file, go back to Ae and drag the C4D file int he project window to a new comp, and you’ll see the torus in AE. if you make any changes in C4D and save it, it will update in AE.
that’s the basics, but you’ll want to learn more basics of C4D particularly texturing, lighting and animating… all of that will need to be done in C4D.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
Element 3D is a third-party plugin from Video Copilot. Raytrace rendering is an option in the Comp settings that allows you make 3D objects in after Effects (vs the 2.5D, flat layers in 3D space). The layer stacking method is taking several flat 2.5D layer and offsetting them slightly so they seem like a solid 3D shape.
The ring shape in your example is called a torus, Element 3D should be able to create that shape. I don’t know that AE’s Retrace options can do it. Layer stacking wouldn’t work well for that shape.
After Effects is also bundled with Cinema 4D lite, it can create a torus and would also be a good option, though learning C4D and AE and the way they integrate is a little daunting — they are not very similar and the integration isn’t exactly intuitive. but there are tutorials 🙂
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
it looks like your text layer is arrested to a null… what’s the scale of the null?
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
you’ll have to have the expression on each layer that you want to be controlled by the slider. however there is an easy way to do that.
select a layer that has the expression and type ‘t’ on the keyboard to reveal the opacity property. right-click the opacity property and choose ‘copy expression only’.
then select all the layers that you want to use that expression and paste. now all those layers will have the same expression, and since your expression is referencing each layer’s unique index number, you should be good to go.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW