[Mike Clasby]

Try the Pan Behind Tool up in the tool bar. Does whatyoue want.

[Mike Clasby]

Here you go;

download

https://hyperfileshare.com/d/da27efd3

delete

https://hyperfileshare.com/r/3bd46e25

Looks like a mirror shake to me. Done with a still instead of footage, but no reason a vid wouldn’t work too.

Is that what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

I don’t know if I’m quite understanding what you’re shooting for. A 2D layer stays smack in front of the camera at all times, sort of blocking the view at all times.

But if that what you want to accomplish:

Make the layer 3D

Alt-click the layers Position stopwatch,

then pickwhip (looks like an “@”) to the Camera’s Point of Interest, to get an expression on the layer’s position like this:

thisComp.layer(“Camera 1”).pointOfInterest

Now to get it to always face the camera, select the layer, Right-Click>Transform>Auto-Orient>Orient Toward Camera>OK.

Now the 3D layer acts like a 2D layer with the camera, always moving itself to be centered on the camera’s POI, and Orienting toward the camera.

Is that what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

I think this page is what you want. Dan introduces hold time to a random expression (with seed random, true):

https://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/random-1.html

He gives many variations, methinks one will do the trick. There are four page of randomness, a tour-de-force.

[Mike Clasby]

I don’t think Turbulent Displace is what you want, that distorts the image, doesn’t shake it.

I’d add a Black solid above the layer with the shaking in the mirror footage. Mask the solid in the shape of the mirror. Then wiggle the position on that footage (not the solid). Something like this:

wiggle (20, 10)

Copy the expression, Altclcik the Position Stopwatch, Paste.

Now the footage chatters in the masked are.

Select the solid and footage and Layer>Precompost (Move all Attributes, open comp). Now you cna change how often it shakes, the 20 (Frequency) and how much it shakes, the magnitude, the 10. If you want highlight the 20 or 10 and pickwhip to a slider you put on the footage, then you can keyframe the changes in frequency and magnitude. Ask if you need a walk through.

Now take that precomp back in the main comp and add the tracking data, or parent it to a Null that has the tracking data applied, easier to tweak any flaws in the tracking data that way.

With a quick test this looks pretty good.

[Mike Clasby]

You can make a Custom Shatter Map with a black and white image, the black will be the pieces. Inside Shatter, Choose: Pattern>Custom, and Custom Shatter Map>Choose the black and white layer.

If you make a black and white layer with a plugin like Grid, it needs to be precomposed (Move all Attributes), for Shatter to see it.

Is that what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

You can constrain the bubbles to be inside a shape with the use of a Flow Map.

Create a black and white image in the shape you want. White will be where the bubble go, black = no bubbles. You can use a white solid, mask it off in the shape you want, then precompose (so it’s rendered first).

In Foam, twirl down Flow Map, select the layer with the black and white image in the shape you want. You might have to tweak the Flow map Steepness to keep the bubbles inside the shape. And you can move the Producer Point to the bottom of the flask so the bubbles originate there.

[Mike Clasby]

There are two scripts that do what you want.

1) Here’s a Script. It works as good as the track you get:

https://del.icio.us/escruz/Rotoscope

Download, then copy/move the jsx file RotAE.jsx to AE’s Script Folder, then open AE.

Select the layer with the Mask, File>Run Script>RotAE.jsx. Then select the Mask again, and in the control panel that popped up, hit “Apply Tracker”, and you’ll have as many track points as you have mask vertices.

Run you Motion Track. The mask will be as good as the motion track so you may have to adjust points by frame like you mentioned in Aharon’s tut.

Now twirl down the layer, select the Tracker 1 (above the mask points) and also select the Mask, then up in the Script’s Control panel, click ” Apply Mask”. You should be good to go.

You can still move individual mask points if the track wasn’t great, or adjust the bezier handles as needed, as the script just set mask Shape keyframes at each frame.

2) There is another script, “rotoTool”, I haven’t really used it yet, but his stuff is great. Here’s the script:

https://www.nabscripts.com/Downloads/downloads_en_3.php?id=1

His site is French and some of the scripts a low on translation, but the Help “?” in the script panel for this particular script is English, and looks very straightforward, yet versatile. It converts tracks to masks, or reverses that converting masks to tracks.

Lots of other interesting scripts there too.

[Mike Clasby]

Didn’t see response above, oops.

[Mike Clasby]

Can’t you limit the particle systems area with a mask, like Particle Playground and the mask as a wall, and then make the comp any size you want?

Or adjust the life of the particles to die before they leave the area you interested in and therefore make the comp any size you want.

It seems like you would have an idea of what the comp size needs to be for where the animation is to end up, then tweak the particle setup to fit that.

I guess it depends on what you doing with the particle system.