[Mike Sevigny]

hard to tell without seeing the footage.
Try this:
https://vimeo.com/102474963
Once you get the still frame patch in there you can paint it in and everything should fit.

Mike Sevigny (on LinkedIn)
https://www.torusfx.com

[Mike Sevigny]

You could export a black & white animated matte and use that in Premiere..

Mike Sevigny
torusfx.com

[Mike Sevigny]

It looks like you have 2 layers at the exact same place in 3D space. Separate them in 3D space by half a pixel or so and it should fix your problem.

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

hey Jon,
It doesn’t sound like it’s an interlace issue with the DV footage. Howaever, anything to do with interpreting the footage can be found in Project Settings in the File Menu and in the Interpret Footage>Main when you right click on your footage in the Project tab.

Depending on the refresh rate and other settings of the monitor you used when filming it, that flicker may be baked into the footage. You likely can’t remove it.. only improve it slightly. If you have a chance to reshoot, it’s possible to get it looking right.

Anyone have a working solution for this once it’s in the can?

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

hey Matthew,
I’ve had the same problem. I was hoping someone would reply with an easy workaround but I think this is a limitation of particular in the current version. Depending on how big you need your grid you can make yourself a grig of lights and a series of particular layers driven by a single control layer.

If you’re familiar with expressions you can us the Index to offset them and parent all your particular properties to a single layer with variance controls. This will take a little bit to setup but once it’s up you’ll be able to have full control. Plan it out before you write the expressions; the last thing you want to do is have to add a line to 200 layers. Give yourself control of the offset for the grid, maybe variance there too,etc.

That may sound like a good solution or a nightmare depending on your experience level and the scene you’re building, but that’s the only way I was able to do it.

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

hey Ian,
what do you mean by ‘it wants CUDA’?
what’s the exact error/warning message?

Typically you just go to Edit>Preferences>Previews
Click on GPU Information and switch it from CPU to GPU

I’m not on a MAC, but I did find this
How To Enable GPU Cuda in Adobe CS6 for Mac
https://www.vidmuze.com/how-to-enable-gpu-cuda-in-adobe-cs6-for-mac/

On PC you can just add your video card to
raytracer_supported_cards.txt
in your ‘support files’ directory.

As for the drivers you should have them up to date and Nvidia’s tools can help you delegate the GPU to AE and elsewhere. Mac may work differently.

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

wow. very nice effect.

Firstly. If you’re planning on recreating this effect, keep in mind that it’s a spot for the Armed Forces of Germany so the budget is probably unthinkable. Now having said that, let’s break it down and see how they did it.

Aside from the obvious greenscreen, notice how the characters’ movements are very mechanical and their start and end positions are very precise. Also notice that the camera has no paralax and barely moves; this was shot static on a tripod. Although on the surface the video looks seamless, there is a cut for every wardrobe change. Take a close look at their faces and you’ll see morph transitions from one shot to the other. Brilliantly done.

Each shot would have its own wardrobe as well as an A & B pose. The actors would have to change clothing, go to the last shot’s B pose and move to the next (B) pose. There are cameras with features to help you match frames precisely but you can draw lines on the preview monitor (tape) and match the position for the next shot.

If you look closely at each object you’ll see that they have a transition from when they are sharp to complete motion blurs as they fly out of frame. It doesn’t look like there are 3D models in here, just deformation, animation and blur. Each object was treated individually.

For instance if you break up a jacket in 5 pieces and animate the pieces in different directions with motion blur revealing the next wardrobe it’ll look pretty cool. So you’ll want a still of the jacket on the exact frame that it’s to start moving, cut it to pieces, put it back where it was and start animating.

You’ll also want a clean plate of the table and chairs for the objects animated on the table.

This will take a long time for each object but you should spend a lot of time making the faces look perfect. More specifically the eyes, that’s where everyone is looking.

I didn’t really lay it out step by step but hopefully you can fill in the blanks. This is how I would have done it. Also remember that commercials like this are planned down to the edit on paper before ever going to camera. Thanks for sharing the video. If you have any specific questions I’ll try to answer.

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

hey Chris,
I haven’t seen any tutorials on keeping things organized but it starts with your actual folders and trickles into AE and other software from there. Depending on what type of work you’re doing (Motion Graphics / Compositing) you should have certain folders created when you start.

In your OS create a ‘Projects’ folder or ‘Projects’ Hard Drive. Within that you should have all the projects you’re currently working on named appropriately. Usually this will be an acronym for the show/job or company. For example: Beauty and the Beast would be a folder called ‘BATB’. Avoid using spaces; use underscores. Within that folder you want to separate episodes or different projects for that company (‘BATB_101’ or ‘doraSpot’)

Projects/BATB/BATB_101/

Once you’re there.. You’ll want to break up all the elements you’re anticipating into folders. How many folders depends on how complex the project/episode/shot is. The way I do it is how I’ve grown accustom to but is certainly not a standard anywhere.

aeSaves – Any versions you save for the current project should be saved in here and clearly labeled & dated.
media – – raw media, untouched and never altered.
trackingSaves – matchmove/mocha projects, same as aeSaves
trackingMedia – any media rendered to use as a utility layer. Anything to do with image based mattes or media w/contrast to track later, proxies..
renders – renders with dates & proper versions.
references – Everything anybody sends you to reference and everything you find and think would be helpful. https://file2hd.com is nice to quickly pull down references for later.
elements – This is a bit of a catchall for things that don’t fit into the rest and isn’t worth a folder.
3Dmedia – this folder can get very large with all the passes you’ll get from the 3D depo.
paperwork – You’ll have to sign and return documentation, you’ll get shot lists, excel sheets, set data..

That’s how I do it.. Simply put though, you should name your folders the way you would want to receive them if someone sent you the project. Start somewhere and refine your process in and out of After Effects over time.

Within After Effects is the same thing.
trackingMedia
media
subComps
etc..

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

Hey Jacob,
I’m trying to recreate the problem but everything looks smooth here. Can you be more specific? What version of AE you’re using, project specs, etc..

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495

[Mike Sevigny]

Here’s a list of the software/pipeline I worked out for BATB.

Compositing:
After Effects CS6
AE plugins: Trapcode Suite, BCC, Sapphire and VC Flares.

Matchmoving/Object Track:
PFtrack 2012

3D Applications:
3D Studio Max w/FumeFX
zBrush
Vue (I only used this for sky generation, nothing mad)

The bulk of the first season was completed by 4 guys. My assistant which is a roto/paint machine, 2 very talented 3D Artists and myself.

Thanks Roland,

Mike Sevigny
TorusFX Inc.
https://vimeo.com/channels/mikesevigny/
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-sevigny/49/875/495