[Scott O’hara]

Thanks for the advice… I really appreciate it.

So after what you said I was googling around for images, etc. and came across “I am number four” or whatever that movie was called. They talked about how they got that one character’s hands to glow. I watched the footage and I really liked how his palms looked like smoldering embers in a fire. The red glow and shifting colors looked pretty real and I was hoping to get something like that.

So going with what you said, I should get a texture, image, etc. and use that in place of the solid. Then are there any tricks to getting that shifting color affect in the palms? It really looked like the glow was emitting from inside the hand. I know I’ve watched tutorials with Andrew Kramer where he uses fractal noise, etc. for getting that organic shiftiness for some effects, but since I’m new to this is there any way you could put it in layman terms for me?

Thanks again for all the help.
Scott

[Scott O’hara]

Yeah, I’m pretty new to AE so one of the first tutorials I saw was using solids for glows, reflections, etc. So that’s what I did. I duplicated the layer a couple times and it’s okay.

So what you’re saying is to keep the solid and add those effects to it and tweak from there?

Sorry if that’s a dumb Q.

[Scott O’hara]

Hey all,

Thanks for the replies. It definitely gives me a pointer of where I should go. I absolutely get everyone’s point that the basics are a must, and really understanding the nuts and bolts of AE is the way to go to fully harness the capabilities of the program.

That being said I’m now focusing on the best way to do what you guys have told me. Learn the ins and outs at the basic level. To do that I plan on:

Getting Adobe’s Classroom in a Book, and looking into Total Training’s AE course or something similar as was stated in a previous post.

Look into Chris and Trish Meyer’s Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects books and DVDs (seems like that’s a good source).

I also will stick with tutorials as well and really try to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. I’m still having some issues with understanding the layers and how they affect one another to get the desired effect, pre comping, etc., but I’m sure the above resources will help clear that up.

What has helped is I always shoot my own stuff so there’s always differences from the tutorial footage and therefore always issues that arise because I didn’t film things the exact way. Or in many cases the tutorials wont show everything that I want to do. This can drive me crazy because I end up sitting at the comp for hours upon hours trying to figure something out but I know that’s of benefit.

Any other suggestions/resources?

Thanks again I really appreciate you guys taking the time.
Scott

[Scott O’hara]

Thank you Ted. I’m going to give it a shot this week and see how it goes.

[Scott O’hara]

So the space ship picture I attached. It’s about as big as a garbage can.. actually made out of one. I’m removing the fiber optic cables on it and were going to stand it upright, kind of like the moon landings and we’ll have it blast off like that. There’s three rocket engines that will ignite (least that’s what we want). Now since its a real life model I’m really not sure how this should be done. Are these still pictures that will be animated for the best effect or should I shoot the video over a green screen, etc. The plan was to have the real life model and add the effects for lights, rockets, smoke, and show it shooting into the sky.

Sorry for coming off as such a newb… but I am with the computer effects.