Rhett Robinson
3
AE Expressions Coins
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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While actual deformation in 3D space is not AE’s thing, I won’t say it can’t be done… I’ve seen things done with AE’s 3D space that makes me wonder why anyone would do it in AE, but looks incredible!
You might want to start your search by looking for a “fluttering leaf”, or something along those lines… I remember a tutorial for that, and applied to “paper” it would be pretty good.
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/912397
is at least one discussion on that… there’s a lot of material out there.
As far as the “curling/bending” part, even though they are really 2D, there’s the new supercool puppet tool (see Aharon’s video tutorial), and a number of tried and true things like displacement maps, the cc sphere or cylinder, bezier warp. Although these don’t really bend 3D space, they look like it.
After all that, a 3D app is preferred because it allows “forces” like wind and gravity to act on an object, and the internal motion of the paper is easier as well, as a 3D app will support a mesh that makes deformation easier.
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Alright, so sounds like you skipped the precompose suggestion, but at least in some way, ended up with an image the same size as your comp, so it should work better (without knowing anything about your logo, one of the reasons I suggested it was that way only your logo gets “shattered” instead of the black background with it). If you *love* the way it looks now, but want it slower, you could go through time remapping, but it’s way too intensive most likely for what you want to do. Play with the gravity and strength settings and you should be able to slow it down (lower numbers)
Good luck!
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Without knowing exactly how you brought your logo in, it sounds like your problem is simple, and you need to precompose your logo layer, making it the same size as your 16X9 comp, *THEN* apply shatter. You’ll like learning a little about shatter though, so I would definitely take the time to pick up some info, instead of just using the defaults in the effect. It makes powerful use of the comp camera, can use a custom shatter map (Depending on the logo, a duplicate of itself might give a great effect)… there are a LOT of variations, and it’s a great plug.
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Okay, so I have to chime in… I’ve had great success with the watch folder, or setting up individual machines to render, but… it’s just me I have to deal with, so I don’t have to worry about fonts missing, etc. I have 7 machines, 1 that I usually sit at and work, and run the others through VNC including the 2 Macs. 3 of the PCs are complete dogs by current standards, but when the tension is high, they’re all on board, even the ones that render S-L-O-W-L-Y compared to my primary machine. I have it set up so that 1 mac (an old G3) is the server, and I’ll set my primary workstation to be part of the render team as well if it looks tight. The issue? Plugins. Fonts aren’t a problem, even if both Macs are working on it, as it’s easy to convert and share those. Plugins are limited by licensing restriction, as well as most not allowing installation on another network machine. I have my second fastest machine loaded with almost all the same plugins, so it frequently renders alone, or with my primary.
Here’s the deal – machines are cheap. Even though new machines are cheap, I started out with a bank (used to have 12) from my state’s surplus sales (which came with Win2k), which were all below 50 bucks a piece, and have each paid a mortgage payment for their work. When I need them, I walk by, hit the power button to turn them on, and they automatically look for the watch folder and go to work. No, and I mean -NO- hassle. If I had a partner again, it probably wouldn’t be so easy. Over time, I put Ubuntu on some of the oldest machines, and gave them to people that needed them. I’d be hard pressed to buy a new machine just as a render unit, but I’m a tightwad. -
Not knowing where you’re starting from, you may want to look over this PDF from Adobe
https://www.adobe.com/designcenter/aftereffects/articles/aft65sd3dtrick/aft65sd3dtrick.pdfI’ve used this kind of trick over and over!
Some tips, from me.
Reasonably small camera moves can really sell this without making the 2.5D really obvious.
If you decide where your camera is going to move (I duplicate a layer (or several) in Photoshop, then bring it in to AE and make those decisions, then update later) you don’t have to fill in all of the background… you fill in what’s going to be revealed!
Don’t neglect another tip that was stated, that it doesn’t have to be the original background, if you can find one that matches the feel, or know enough photoshop to make it feel right.
If you’re not that hot on Photoshop, I’d learn some about masks. I think it’s easiest to leave the original file intact, with masked layers as a PSD to adjust later if necessary.
I’m sure there are other, probably better tutorials than the link I gave. Andrew Kramer does a GREAT job of teaching some of the AE details of 3D
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/3dcompositing.php
and I learn easier watching than reading anyway…
Good luck!
Rhett -
Okay, so I have zero experience with Nucleo, but I think it would be worthwhile to set up as a render engine, if you don’t have plugin licensing issues. I have 2 older machines set up with the render engine, and depending on deadline, I usually just assign them to render, and use my primary workstation for something else. If it’s big (and I know the manual says not to have a machine render and serve), I have all 3 work, with one of the slow machines hosting the files. I get a lot done that way, and can keep tossing projects to the 2 slow machines and never stop working for a render.
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Steve’s right, that’s a good way… I like to go to the frame that I want to remain, export that single frame as an image (I usually just use the PSD, but that’s up to you), then drop it back in to the timeline instead, but like most apps, there are a number of ways to achieve the same result.
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Ooooh… I love to see these here’s the problem, here’s the solution expressions. Admittedly, I don’t take the time to learn the math behind it to generate new ones, but love to adjust – you could even get fancier and set up some sliders for the values, I love that step, especially when I’m following a tutorial like Ayato’s that gives values as “trial and error”!
Digital Anarchy sells a 3D assistants package, which gives you a lot of control – the “lite” version used to come with AE, and it really has all you need. There are also a lot of ways to get all your photos the same size (or similar, which may even be better) if you want to do that. Depending on what your final product is going to be, the easy way is frequently also the best way.
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Like most 3D apps, you need to render out the footage (animate in poser) with alpha, then use that in AE. That really means that you’ll want to add your lights and other things in Poser, so they interact properly. You can then add some volumetric light in AE to match, but you are really just faking it there…
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Ayato has a brilliant one… and easy to follow. You can get away without using the plugin suggested too.