[Mike Clasby]

Aharon does an interesting thing with Z Space and buildings here:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/z_scale.php

Don’t know if that will help.

[Mike Clasby]

Or a Cr

[Mike Clasby]

1) Here’s something for reflections on a 3D floor:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/reflections.php

2) Here’s some basic camera stuff:

Animating The Camera: A Five Minute Tutorial by Rick Gerard

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/AEWeekly1/index.html

Expressing the Camera: A Five Minute Tutorial by Rick Gerard

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/AEWeekly2/index.html

Taking a Wild 3D Ride

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/sjostrom_bjorn/3d_ride/index.html

3) Nulls and Camera Control:

Camera Parenting – Read this entire thread, then download the aep, it’s was for an Aussie promo, camera parenting explained! Very similar to what you’re doing.

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=872881

This post by Chris Smith on how he uses Nulls with camera movements:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=878237

4) Lights:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/oneil_bill/shadows2/index.html

5) This for cutting out Characters from photos;

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=63

There’s more but this is a lot for round 1.

[Mike Clasby]

The screen won’t be where you show it once you add a camera, the screen will be looking where the camera is looking, which as you said it along the path of the streak, out in 3D land (if you’re using Particular to make the streak, like Andrew’s tutorial.

No?

[Mike Clasby]

Try these:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/animating_signature.php

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=25

[Mike Clasby]

OK, this will work, a Dan Ebberts Grid expression.

This will work really great if all the layers are the same size and trimmed so that the right edge stop just after the last letter. I realize this is not going to happen but there’s a fix at the end.

1) Import your AI file as a composition to get all the layers in one comp. We’re going to make the comp the part that will scroll, very wide and only the height of one layer. Make sure the comp is long enough for your scrolling animation, time-wide.

So say each layer is 300 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall and there are 100 layers total, then make the comp 30,000 pixels wide and 100 pixels in height. The 30,00 is actually the AE limit, so more than that you’ll have to break the scrolling into separate comps (see #7 below). Anyway here’s how to setup that one long skinny comp.

2) To the top expression add this expression to position (Copy the expression, Alt-click the Position Stopwatch, and Paste, click outside the box):

numRows = 1;
numCols = 100;// number of layers you want to scroll

row = Math.floor((index – 1)/numCols);
col = (index – 1)%numCols;
x = col*width + width/2;
y = row*height + height/2;
xOffset = (this_comp.width – numCols*width)/2;
yOffset = (this_comp.height – numRows*height)/2;

[x,y] + [xOffset,yOffset]

Note: “numCols” in line 2 equals the number of layers to be scrolled.

Now select the expression, and then Edit>Copy Expression Only, then select all the layers (Ctrl A) and Paste.

All the layers should now be spread across the screen in the comp. There should be only the text layers in the comp or it will mess the expression up, we’ll animate it in the main comp.

3) Like I said, if the layers are all the same, no spaces etc, then your done. but I know you’re not they’ll be gaps and spaces where you don’t want them. So we’re going to Convert the expression to keyframes, parent the layers to a Null and shift them to the right accordingly.

4) Converting Expression to keyframes.

Ctrl A selects all layer, “P” reveals position. Select all the expressions by dragging a little selection box from the top expression down to the bottom layer, and then Animation>Keyframes Assistant>Convert Animation to keyframes.

5) Shifting layers as needed.

At time zero, frame 1, Add a null, Layer>New>Null Object.
In the Parent Column (if not showing, Right-Click next to Source Name, top of layer, and choose Columns>Parent).
Parent all the layers to the Null (Ctrl A) Then pickwhip to the Null or select the Null as the Parent for any layer, all the others will have the Null as their parent.

Now starting at the top say the first shift needs to occur between layer 2 and 3, select ALL the layers from 3 Down the stack (Ctrl A, then deselect the top 2 with Clicking on the top 2 and holding down Control). Now drag that 3rd layer to the left (holding shift will keep it perfectly horizontal) and all the layers to the right will slide with it. Sometimes the Arrow Keys are easier to use to get that perfect Horizontal reposition. Anyway slide them left.

The layer will slide under, if you need it on top, select just that layer and move it up above in the stack. You can also use masks (the Rectangular Mask Toll (M reveals the mask, you’ll probably need to check the Invert box) to cut off the right or left edges, then slide all accordingly.

That’s basically it for you one very wide, not very tall comp to be scrolled in your main comp.

6) In the main comp (NTSC PAL?) add you scroll comp (the one we just created. Drag it so the left hand edge is just offscreen right, and add this expression to Position:

currentFrame = timeToFrames();

value – [currentFrame*1.4,0]

This will scroll that long layer at 1.4 pixels per frame, a weird thing I know, but it’s what the guy asked for when he asked Dan the question(yes another Dan Ebbert’s expression). So change that 1.4 to get whatever speed of scrolling you want.

7) You’re probably better off breaking the project down into manageable pieces, so there might be 4 or 5 long skinny files to be scrolled instead of just one.

[Mike Clasby]

1) Click on the “Sticky Posts” at the top of the main page:

COMMON AFTER EFFECTS QUESTIONS !!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE LOOK HERE FIRST by Joel Hooton on Oct 10, 2006 at 3:20:09 pm

and scroll down to:
Rotoscoping / Masking / Greenscreen

2) In this post is a link to a great tut on Roto, especially how to create masks for different body parts, one for the swinging arm, one for the torso, one for a leg, etc.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/917680

Then when you change mask shape from frame to frame, actually choose points where there is a major change, then often you can just rotate the mask for the leg or arm as it swings (double click the mask to get a transform box like in PhotoShop). The tut is for combustion but the principals are the same for AE.

3) If you can use track points to track an object, this script will attach a mask to trackpoints, more useful for nonhuman regular shapes.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/916507

4) There is also the painting method to paint out the background, go to the Cow AE Tutorials Page (the link is down for me at this moment) and search with your web browser for “roto” and “paint”.

5) Anyway you do it it’s tedious stuff, and you can see why greenscreening was invented.

[Mike Clasby]

Here’s a Dan expression that goes on Source Text, link below.

1) Put any letter on the screen where you want it with the Text Tool, the font you want and the size you want for your counter.

Add the following expression for Source Text (Copy the expression, Alt-Click the Source Text Stopwatch, Paste, click outside the box):

numDecimals = 0;
commas = true;
dollarSign = false;
beginCount = 0;
endCount = 130000;
dur = 4;

t = time – inPoint;
s = linear (t, 0, dur, beginCount, endCount).toFixed(numDecimals);

prefix = “”;
if (s[0] == “-“){
prefix = “-“;
s = s.substr(1);
}
if(dollarSign) prefix += “$”;

if (commas){
decimals = “”;
if (numDecimals > 0){
decimals = s.substr(-(numDecimals + 1));
s = s.substr(0,s.length – (numDecimals + 1));
}
outStr = s.substr(-s.length, (s.length-1)%3 +1);
for (i = Math.floor((s.length-1)/3); i > 0; i–){
outStr += “,” + s.substr(-i*3,3);
}
prefix + outStr + decimals;
}else{
prefix + s;
}

This will count from zero to 130,000 in four seconds (dur, line 6 in code above).

To go from 130,000 back to 1000, first trim that first text layer (Alt }) then I’d duplicate the Text layer, slide it back until it takes over where the first text layer stops, then change the expression, line 4 to;

beginCount = 130,000;

and line 5 to:

endCount = 1000;

That should do it. Dan’s expression lives here for a complete explanation:

https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/counter.html

[Mike Clasby]

OK, that was probably a stupid question, if it were in a file you can Paste it into PhotoShop’s text tool then import into AE, see this:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/202/877173

But, thinking on it, I’m sure you probably scanned it… let me think on that a bit.

Aside from masking a repositioning multiple copies (or duplicates) nothing easy jumps to mind.

Someone else please jump in.

[Mike Clasby]

Are you scanning this or is it in a file , like a .doc or .txt file?