Rhett Robinson
3
AE Expressions Coins
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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“No card can speed up rendering”
I’m not sure that I understand this… I use a fairly recent ATI card, and although it’s already on my fastest machine, it still seem to speed up rendering, especially if I use the openGL capabilities for 3D stuff. Am I missing something? Admittedly, I sometimes have not been happy with the openGL results, and re-rendered the project, but it seems to dramatically speed up previews as well as rendering. It’s on the Adobe approved list of cards, but I didn’t have to pay a fortune, about 200 bucks since I got it on sale.
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Just a tip, as I’m an Illustrator guy – I’ve found that often effects can’t be applied to a layer with the continuous rasterize on. You can fix by precomping, but sometimes that’s a pain. I’ve found AE actually handles it easier in 3D space if you simply make the original AE file larger than needed. I frequently work with a 4/1 scale, which allows for plenty of zoom-in. AE rasterizes it at the larger size, and keeps it crisp without the need to continuously rasterize.
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Ummm – do you really need a ball? or is CC Sphere what you need, which allows complete rotation of view. Make sure your source document is twice as wide as it is tall.
For a “real” 3D ball, you can use Invigorator as described above, or there are a number of free 3D apps that can do something this simple… I’d start with
Rhett
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Looking at his reel portion actually helped quite a bit, instead of just focusing on the final product. Because that part of the sequence is so short, it actually wouldn’t be too tough to remove the subject by hand, and then motion blur him out of there. If it’s not a night shot, I’ve had pretty good luck shooting a scene with no action in it, then using that (with a garbage matte) to make a key by inverting it. There will be some work either way, but to my eye it looks like it would be only 10 frames or so to make it convincing. You could also add other elements by having your actor fall (you don’t have to show what he falls onto to get the motion impact). Good luck – I’d like to see the final outcome!
Rhett -
Hi Chris,
I also recommend using shatter, with some other goodies to add zip to it. Check out this tutorial from Ayato’s sitehttps://www.ayatoweb.com/ae_tips_e/ae19_e.html
I started using this custom shatter map technique quite a few times, once I understood it – with a little effort, you can give the fruit a little bit of realistic thickness by choosing a color for the depth. I like the above mentioned idea about a little “juice”, as that’s part of the zip that really sells the animation.
Good Luck!
Rhett -
Okay, I’ll agree this should be in the other forum, but since it’s here, I’ll chime in my .02. I’m just now trying to break into the AE market, having been a print designer for about 13 years, and pretty well known for about the last 7 (here in town, we’re not talking big time here). For most of my career, I’ve done my work on a handshake, partially because by the time someone calls me, it’s do or die, and I spend all night or close to it meeting their deadline. I’ve done 3 video projects here in town, and have never been paid (an obvious reason to have a ready contract, instead of the handshake farmboy attitude that used to work for me).
Anyway, early on, I would always give the client my “raw” files with fonts and links, whether it was Quark, PageMaker, or whatever. A number of those folks called me back to do the changes, others took them to their family members who’d pirated a copy, or whatever. Now, even with my handshake customers, unless they really object, I give them a final PDF file (I work in the print business, so I know what’s really needed, not just a “click on the PDF button”), and I protect the PDF file from changes/copying etc. There are ways around that, because I own a utility, but the average joe isn’t going to be able to do that.
Obviously, if I give them raw files, they will do whatever they want with them. If I give them a finished product, then that’s what they have. I think the same way about AE files, and the source material that goes into it. I do a LOT of illustrator work, and unless they specify that it’s part of the deal, I don’t intend to hand that out – there are too few people that understand the amount of time that Illustrator work can take, much less the “easy” AE work (which I have spent the last 4 years training at night and weekends myself, so there is a massive investment).
My gut response, and I’m formulating my own contract based on one I found a link to on this site, is that my deliverable will generally be a final product, not raw files. In addition, the contract is the key here, to enforce payment if necessary, and also to avoid misunderstanding. My business (and it’s always been a “side” business, I don’t live on it) has always been based on establishing a working relationship with a client, and having that person call me back. I’ve had many stray because someone will offer to do the same work for half the price, and after a poor job or two, I see most of them again; the others need me more than they realize, and so they will have to have that void filled in some more professional way.
So, the upshot? If you are happy doing work with these folks, you may want to sit down and have a discussion (I’d say just let the old stuff go, it’s already theirs now), but let them know that you would like to deliver a final product to them, and see what you can work out. I got a few old machines, and do multiple-machine renders… 3 G3s don’t equal a G5, but it might surprise you what you can crank out.
Good luck, and don’t let the resentment cloud your judgement or your future, it never pays off in the end.
Rhett
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Depending on the complexity of your texture in AI, making a flattened version may be faster… I recently made a very complex AI file with a great deal of transparency and varied blending modes, and although AE would render it, it was very slow. I initially just made a proxy to use during animation work, but even the test renders were very slow. I made a JPG file that was 4 times larger than the original, precomped to make up for the scale difference (there was a close camera shot in AE), and it still rendered much faster than the original AI file. Typically, I like to leave items as vector, because that’s my specialty, but I just kept it in the project folder, in case changes were needed.
Rhett -
We went back and forth about this on the forum yesterday, and there is a “smart interpolate” for masks that keep them from following a linear tween. I really think the track matte solution is the best for most things, but it did remind me of a feature that I’ve never used in AE, and had some pretty interesting results that were nice and smooth, bezier like flows on the masks when I played with it.
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Wow – Thanks! This is the reason I hang out here! Even though I vaguely remember seeing something about that in the Meyer’s AE books, I’d completely forgotten about it. Although it isn’t necessarily applicable here, I spent an hour or so playing with the smart interpolate and came up with some interesting results – I’ll definitely add it to my arsenal!
Rhett -
Hi Judy,
By using the free transform tool, I believe that you are animating the rotation of the layer, and not just the mask. The points of the mask itself must be transformed, and not the layer, for the image to remain in the same rotation. If you just need the shape of the mask to rotate, you may need to put the mask on a black solid, and set the “track matte” of your photo to the black solid layer (you need to turn off the visibility of the black solid layer…), then you can animate the rotation of the black solid to achieve the effect.
Does that work for you? If that’s what you need, then you will not be animating the mask itself, but the black solid, so you would keyframe the rotation properties of the solid, and not the mask.Maybe that is what you need, but let me know if that’s not it still!
Rhett