[Mike Clasby]

Lux is the slick way to go, but I like this freebie script that gives you a lux-like light with a foggy atmosphere (generated by fractal noise). You can quickly sub in fractal noise dust (#1), or use Foam to make custom dust(#2).

https://www.petertorpey.com/tutorials/volume_light/

Don’t be intimidated by the page, he just explains how he created the expressions that tie it all together.

Click on the link at the bottom of the page, the second to last sentence is the “Download the script” link. Put the .jsx file into the AE Scripts Folder. Add a camera, Add a light of choice (I

[Mike Clasby]

So when you select that same layer again, then Animation>Track Motion, it should add a second tracker, Track 2, below the first one. That doesn’t happen?

[Mike Clasby]

Good. No small feat. Those Research Groups can be very picky.

[Mike Clasby]

Put the text layer above the video layer, then on the video layer, set the TrkMat to “Alpha Matte”.

The track matte dropdown is on the same column as the Blending Modes.

And in the case with two videos (I just reread your post), before you setup the TrkMat, just precompose those two video layers so they act as one layer (select both video layers, Layer>Precompose (move all attributes, not necessary to open). Then choose TrkMat: Alpha for that bottom precomped layer.

[Mike Clasby]

Wow, that’s a long showreel, if you mean the one that plays automatically at the link you gave. Which part of that? How far in?

It sounds like a particle generator. Do you have Particular? Some of the AE can probably do what you want also.

[Mike Clasby]

It should be by default, but is “Accepts Shadows” under Material Options, set to “On” for the layer recieving the shadows?

A quick test with two PNG’s works for me.

[Mike Clasby]

It should render any comp within itself. It always does for me.

I read your post in the main AE forum. What happens when “gets to that area and skips to the end and does not render the nested comp”. Does it stop there, is there anything rendered after that point?

If it skips past the nested comp and renders something after that, then I’m stumped, never seen that. If that nested comp, is coming up blank or black screen but taking up the amount of time it should, then maybe nothing is happening in the nested comp at that time, say 5 seconds into the nested comp, when it gets to that spot in the timeline in the main comp. Do thee layers in the nested comp go to the end inside the nested comp.

Does the main comp render out at the correct length of time? is the video that’s rendered as long as the comp or shorter?

Does it RAM preview ( 0 on the numeric pad) correctly?

Is the work area set for the whole length of the main comp? If not it will only render the work area unless you set up the “Render Settings” dialog box to render the “Length of the Comp”. It usually easier to set the work area to what you want to render, like the whole comp.

Pressing the “Home” key puts you at the beginning of the comp, “B” sets the beginning of the work area there… then “End” puts the time indicator at the end of the Comp and pressing “N” sets the end of the work area there at the end. Now the work area covers the whole comp. That should render the whole comp.

You can have it render the whole comp by clicking on the Blue writing next to the “Render Settings” Dropdown in the Render Que. The default is “Best”, it’s blue, click it and the “Render Settings” dialog box opens, then set “Time Span” (fourth dropdown on the right side) to “Length of Comp”, it defaults to “Work Area Only” Like I said if the work area is set for the entire comp, it should render it all either way.

Also, you don’t have the “Solo” button click on for other layers do you. It’s the little circle between the speaker icon and the lock icon, to the right of the eyeball. If others are Solo-ed and the nested comp isn’t, then the nested comp will be invisible.

[Mike Clasby]

A precomp that is in a comp will render as part of that comp, but not as a seperate entity, just the comp will render.

[Mike Clasby]

1) At about 11 minutes of that Andrew tut, Cool 3D room, Andrew uses a pickwhipped expression to make sure the Camera’s Focus Distance is the same as the distance from the text. I changed the name of the layer to “hummingbird”. Here’s the expression:

length(thisComp.layer(“hummingbird”).transform.position,transform.position)

If you’re on an older version of AE, like me on AE6.5, the syntax is:

length(thisComp.layer(“hummingbird”).position,position)

2) OK, if you don’t want the camera to be glued (focus wise) to the hummingbird from the get-go, start with a camera, no expression added, then down the timeline, add a new camera where you want the hummingbird to be focused on, with the expression on that camera. Just make sure that camera is on top, it will then be the active camera. You can cut it off (Alt ] ) when you want the expression camera to quit. The only trouble is, if you move the camera in between, they be an abrupt jump when you switch cameras.

3) Here’s a better solution from Filip (link below). You can ease the camera from it’s original vale (like when it had no expression) into the expression, by putting this expression on the Camera’s Focus Point. First you need to add a Null (Layer>New>Null Object, name it Controller (hit Enter and rename it “Controller”), Add a Slider (Effect>Expression Controls>Slider Control, then name it “interpolate” (select the Slider, hit Enter, rename). Add the expression to the Camera’s Focus Distance :

a=value;
b=length(thisComp.layer(“hummingbird”).position,position);
c=thisComp.layer(“Controller”).effect(“interpolate”)(“Slider”);

linear(c,0,100,a,b);

This is just a linear interpolation from a (the camera’s position values at that time) to Andrew’s expression. So you need to set keyframes on that Slider named interpolate. At 0 there will only be the camera value(like no expression) and at 100, it will be all expression. Halfway between the two keyframes will be half camera value and half expression influence. Pretty cool, thanks Filip! It’s modified from here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/7515

If you have that newer syntax, change line 2 to this:

b=(“hummingbird”).transform.position,transform.position);

This should do what you want.

[Mike Clasby]

If the pipe has alpha around it, make a mask the shape of the pipe, Pen Tool or Layer>Auto Trace (only Current Frame needed if the pipe doesn’t move, Tolerance and Threshold at 1). If the pipe has a mask defining the pipes, get your mask from there, Copy the mask Shape. Anyway, take a mask the shape of the pipes and Paste that into a new Blue Solid (Ctrl Y) layer. Put that on top of the Pipe layer.

Add Transition>Linear Wipe to the Blue Solid layer, animate the Transition Completion from 100 to zero with keyframes, and set Wipe Angle at -90. You can feather the linear wipe if you want.

Most of the time you would have the other layer on top and linear wipe it, but this way, if you want to still see the pipe walls as the blue fills, a cool look methinks, then just reduce the Mask Expansion (MM reveals) on the Blue Solid’s Mask.

OR

If the Pipe has many bends and is convoluted, and you don’t like the way Linear Wipe looks (straight Left to Right), then animate that blue solid layer, now on top, as you would animate a signature being drawn on, such as this from Aharon:

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