[Ryan Hill]

Does the camera have a parent?

[Ryan Hill]

Or, yeah, if you are using vector paint, change the Composite Paint option to “only” and then put a green solid layer beneath it.

[Ryan Hill]

I thought there was a parameter in wiggle that handles this, but I can’t remember it off the top of my head.

In the meantime, you could apply the regular wiggle to a null and then average the current position of the null with the position it was in a few frames ago.

That will make the turns a little smoother, though not really curved. It would turn a square corner into an octagon, for example. If you want something closer to a curve, average a greater number of samples, and it will increase the number of “sides” to each turn. Also, increasing the time span between samples will dull the corners more.

[Ryan Hill]

I thought there was a parameter in wiggle that handles this, but I can’t remember it off the top of my head.

In the meantime, you could apply the regular wiggle to a null and then average the current position of the null with the position it was in a few frames ago.

That will make the turns a little smoother, though not really curved. It would turn a square corner into an octagon, for example. If you want something closer to a curve, average a greater number of samples, and it will increase the number of “sides” to each turn. Also, increasing the time span between samples will dull the corners more.

[Ryan Hill]

Effect > Render > Ramp

[Ryan Hill]

Effect > Render > Ramp

[Ryan Hill]

For the light off the screen, you could try taping something reflective to the screen and then projecting a changing light onto that. That’s not really an AE solution, but it sounds like something that would look better and be less work if you do it during shooting rather than after.

[Ryan Hill]

I don’t know for sure if this is the problem, (you aren’t too specific as to what looks unrealistic) but does the speed of the ripples in the flag match the speed of the flag’s translation?

[Ryan Hill]

I don’t know for sure if this is the problem, (you aren’t too specific as to what looks unrealistic) but does the speed of the ripples in the flag match the speed of the flag’s translation?

[Ryan Hill]

Here is a PDF that I found that covers most of what I wanted to know.

But what’s the easiest way to have particles gradually fade away? I can sort of see how I can do it with a layer map, but if I want just one constant rate of decay, that seems overly elaborate.