Simon Bonner
Forum Replies Created
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Dan,
You might like to watch some tutorials on using proxies (lower resolution copies of your original assets that are easier to work with before you decide to render). You can always turn off intensive effects like grain and blur whilst working, or work at a lower res. But like Todd says, there’s no point rendering at a lower res and then upscaling, regardless of the type of project you’re working on. It will look nasty.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Philip,
Your computer doesn’t look like a dinosaur or anything, so I would say you don’t need to worry about getting an older version. Besides, I’ve used AE7 through to CS4 on a succession of not especially high end PCs and have never noticed massive improvements in speed / response over the versions of the software. I’ve never found it to be the most stable of programmes, so I would expect it crash every now and again on whatever machine I used.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Hi, Matt. Maybe post a screenshot?
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Hi Justin,
There are several ways to do this. You could add a blur in post, but that would require a lot of keyframing of masks and might not look realistic. This will depend on the kind of shot you want to pull off, but if you want to replicate the shot from the movie above (in which someone dashes into frame and comes to rest next to another person, who is lying down) it is pretty easy because nothing else in frame is moving and the camera is static.
Assuming you have a camera with manual controls, turn the shutter speed way down. Now when you move the camera, everything goes blurry. You may also notice that your shot becomes overexposed because you are now letting more light into the camera, so you may need to adjust your lighting setup accordingly. Next, put the camera on a tripod. Then, have any actors in the shot remain as still as possible. If they’re lying down, that’s no problem! Then have your speedy actor rush into frame. They will look all blurry, but they’ll be moving at normal speed. Take your video into AE and use time-remapping to make the action happen faster. Now you have a speedy looking actor with a realistic looking blur!
If you want to have other things moving in the scene, you may have to record those using a normal shutter speed and then, with the camera locked off, lower the shutter speed and record your speedy actor. Then, in AE, you can mask out the parts of the video you don’t want. There will likely be exposure differences between the two clips, but you could either adjust your lighting on set, work with the exposure effect in AE, or use a combination of low shutter speed and a blur effect in post.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Hi Reinis,
This is a pretty simple fix. AE has to rasterize vectors at some point because the output from AE is pixel-based. You can ensure this rasterization looks good by clicking the “continuously rasterize” switch. You may have to hit the Toggle Switches / Modes button to see the switches.
In the example below, the vector text looks terrible when scaled up to 700%, until the switch is hit.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Alex,
Moving a camera around can be a real pain. Try VideoCopilot’s Sure Target preset.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Marty,
I would avoid using a masked iteration of light sweep and use a real AE light. Then, as has already been said, you can make your text 3d and have it accept shadows. When the light rotates away from the text, it will disappear. As for making the light appear volumetric (i.e. so you can see the light ‘in the air’ as well as on the objects it illuminates), you COULD use a 3rd party plugin or you could go with a cheaper solution: this oldie but goodie tutorial from Maltaannon.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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You’ll have to be more specific. Having seen KickAss twice, I don’t recall there being any specific ‘comic’ type effects in there. What precisely are you trying to reproduce?
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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The only time something like this has happened to me is when my Prem window is too small and I can’t see that the audio is mono and therefore doesn’t show up on the top few audio tracks, which are stereo by default (usually a new mono track is created at the bottom of the stack). I’m sure you would have noticed if this was the case, but as you’ve had no replies…
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx
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Hmmm, if it takes that long to render then there might not be much you can do about it except get a faster comp. You could check you have multiprocessor optmised in the After Effects preferences (see help file).
If the AE comp is slowing down your work in Prem, you might want to try using a proxy render. Depending on the kind of work you’re doing, a proxy may or may not be useful, so take a look at a couple of tutorials if you’re not familiar with the process, like this one.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysfx