[Kunal Puri]

Darby…what can I say. You just assumed legendary status for that last post. It’s worth framing, which is precisely what I’m going to do for the other lads and lasses at work. As elementary as it may seem to you, this stuff doesn’t come easy to a bunch of us so take a bow and imagine a standing ovation. That schematic should be in a book.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

I guess it’s a good thing that my room is a square this time around. You see, I was always back of the class at Math, so what you call ‘simple trigonometry’ was more like ‘trigono-mommy!’ for me 😀

If you’d like to help out this hapless soul a wee more, and when you have a little time, could you help me get my head around the trig involved. I’m pretty sure (with my kind of luck) I’m going to need it sooner or later. Cheers.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Stellar advice Darby. It worked like a charm. Should any other novice, in the future, require a quick start to a project like this I’ve uploaded my basic rig that uses expressions to set the focal length of each camera to half the width of the comp. Additionally, the Master Cam Null Controller impacts the rotation and position properties of all the cams in the 4 viewports. Hope this helps others. You’ve been a tremendous help.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Thanks for that link Thomas. It certainly helps. Your suggestion to provide the operator with a flat render is very well noted and I’ll certainly be doing that. Really appreciate your input.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Hey Filip,

I’m so sorry that this response comes weeks after the job was done but I’m sure you understand that the pressures we work with stay constant across the globe even if time-zones do a “Filip”. I haven’t put up a screenshot yet but just to explain, since the width is the only variable, the brick layering wasn’t a problem since the row height stays constant. The bricks were octagonal in that instead of a curved corner the bricks had angled corners. This does not get affected by the length of the brick since the corner angles and dimensions stay constant no matter what the length of the brick.

Hope there’s a magic answer to this problem because I don’t see the end to jobs like these. I’ll try an put up a screenshot but by the time I get to work I invariably forget to do so. Just being as honest as I can and thanks ever so much for your feedback.

What would I do without you guys!

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Thanks Dan! That looks like it could get me a WHOLE LOT closer. I was far more verbose in my code and completely overlooked the if…else argument. Heading to my workstation, pronto.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Thanks Filip. Your suggestions are well taken and it’s my mistake really. I didn’t explain the task very well. In fact I didn’t explain it correctly at all.

The trouble with this project is that the bricks look a certain way (octagonal with curved edges) and the final formation is being adapted from a print job so I’ve actually already got this grid of bricks that form shapes, that now needs to be controlled in a dozen ways (all transform related).

I initially thought I’d just create my own brick system using shapes, repeaters and alpha masks but then realised that the randomisation of the brick width would be a problem as well as the animation which would get cut off thanks to the alpha mask. In some cases I need the bricks to build the structure, sequentially, by falling from above. In some cases, by moving the bricks in Z space. Given this backdrop; Other than sequencing my layers is there some way of using expressions to sequence my animation and alter the overlap while also specifying the kind of animation through a control layer. I’m trying to put together the code but I’m being terribly slow about it. Will post it anon.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Are you ALT+clicking the stop watch? Unless you keep ALT pressed you won’t get the expression editor which gives you the “twirly circle” also called the pick-whip.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

Hey Oscar, if I understand you correctly you have a video file that contains audio and you’d like to create a volume meter that responds to the audio in the video layer right? If this is what you need to do then why don’t you just export the audio from your final edit as a WAV using an After Effects Custom Render and use the WAV file as detailed in the tutorial.

All hail the cow!

[Kunal Puri]

First tighten up your image by playing with curves/levels to sharpen the colour and object edges. Precomp this clip.

Working with the precomped clip create a luma mask layer by first applying a colour range filter to key out the white. Play around with the settings till you’re happy. Focus on the edges of the object you’re keying out and not so much on the area inside the object where your highlights may get suppressed because of the filter. The next step will take care of this.

Now that you’ve got a decent edge mask, apply the matte choker to the plugin stack. Reduce the values of the first choker to fill in the suppressed white in your object and then increase the values of the second choker to suppress the white in the edges that spill over. This worked for me with an interview shot against a white wall and I got a fabulously crisp key. Hope it works for you.

All hail the cow!