Nate Vander plas
2
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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By “zoom” I assume you mean you are adjusting the scale of the image. The reason the image scales from the center is due to its anchor point being in the center. You can move the anchor point by using the pan behind tool or adjusting its X and Y value in the Timeline. However, to do what you are doing you simply have to animate scale and position properties and it will zoom into the part you want. You shouldn’t have to animate the anchor point.
For your other problem it sounds like you need a basic understanding of keyframes. When you click the stopwatch of a property you enable keyframing (animation) of that property. The diamond shaped icons on the timeline indicate a point in time and a value. These are keyframes. To make your image move from point A to B, set a keyframe on frame 0 and move your image to where you want it. Then move the time marker to a different point in time (however long you want the move to be) and then change the position or scale of the layer. But remember, if you have your time marker on a place in the timeline on which there are no keyframes and you move your image, it will automatically set a new keyframe. If you do this by accident you can always just select the keyframes you don’t want and delete them.
I suggest you find some training material for After Effects since you seem to be struggling with the basics. Hope I helped!
Nate -
This is just a practical suggestion: shoot ink in a tank of water with a white background. If you search the posts I think it was Andrew Kramer who gave some pointers on doing this very thing.
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Wow, I think I actually have perfect solutions for both of your problems! First, Card Dance will let you do almost exactly what you were describing. Not actually sure if you can make each card a full image, but if not you can always use a tiling effect (motion tile or cc tiler) first and then card dance.
Second, CC sphere can make a flat image into a shperical shape. If you don’t find it under effects/perspective/cc sphere, you have to install the cycore effects from your AE installation CD. Start with a map of the earth, such as this one:
Earth Observatory
or it might be better to find one that is black and white or has an alpha channel. Check out this Glass Globe Tutorial
It might have what you’re looking for as far as getting the outline of the continents. From there just apply your tiled image to the map with a track matte.
If you have any more questions just ask. I’ve done a very similar thing except using fractal noise for the earth texture instead of tiled images.
Nate -
I’m not sure what you mean by “attach” or “open mask” but are you talking about track mattes maybe? With a trackmatte you can use a layer’s alpha channel or luminosity to mask another layer.
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Nice job! I’ve considered trying that HP commercial effect myself. Looks good! I especially like the way the light reflects off the pictures- how exactly did you do that? Good rotoscoping too. I think my favorite was the guy with the beard who wrote with his finger.
Some criticisms that may or may not be under your control:
-the graphics did not always match the hand movements
-I didn’t particularly like the light streaky effect with the guy outside, but that’s a matter of taste
-the overall video quality is not the greatest, but I realize this is primarily a graphics piece and you are not necessarily a videographer
-finally, everything seemed a bit dark to me, especially for such an upbeat, happy song
Otherwise, great job. I hope you were looking for (constructive) criticism cuz that’s what I assumed. Keep up the great work! I love to see other people’s stuff!
Nate -
That could very well be, and that’s what I thought at first, but some of the camera moves and things were so different that it seemed like it was different footage. I guess they could have shot the same background plate several times and then taken two similar but slightly different shots and then done the compositing and off-setting. I’m going to have to watch it again- maybe even try to record it.
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Depends on how realistic of an effect you want which is also directly proportional to the amount of time you’re planning on spending on it. The quick and dirty way (by dirty I don’t mean necessarily bad, just not super involved) would probably be to add a lot of contrast and color correct to make it almost monochrome with a hint of blue. Then animate the opacity of the layer flickering on and off over a blank/dark background layer.
The slower, more realistic way would consist of photoshopping each picture- cutting out objects and things and creating an illusion of a light source casting harsh shadows.
I personally would go with the first suggestion since I doubt you have enough time to do the latter. Plus the average person probably wouldn’t notice the difference. -
Another thing you could do would be to “light up” the edges of buttons surrounding the lit-up ones. Check out Andrew Kramer’s Tutorial on simulating the light of gun flashes for the technical aspect.
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Haha, I didn’t even notice that! And might I add that I would prefer to be in Aharon’s body over Andrew’s any day.
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You could maybe play around with the Echo effect. If you set the length of time the echos stay long enough, the painted parts would stay painted I think. Not exactly sure what you’re doing, but that’s all I could think of.