Simon Bonner
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Daryl,
I work on a Windows PC and would output the same way as Dave. You’ll need to have QT installed first though. Also, I would suggest you render your audio separately from your editing application (e.g. premiere). AE isn’t the best for sound. You can then assemble a timeline in Encore DVD that includes your video file and your audio file.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Hi Shea,
https://download.yousendit.com/87398D5776A239D8
Enjoy!
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Hi Caitlin,
Maybe you mean something like Stefan Bucher’s Daily Monster series? There are lots of these videos, this is just an example one. Stefan draws monsters on paper, then scans them into his computer and animates them. He doesn’t use AE (he uses Anime Studio) but you could do something similar to what he does in AE.
After you import your scan into AE, you’ll need to make a new composition and place your image into it. Then make several copies of the image and use the pen tool to mask out the individual parts of the image on each layer. For example, in the example I’ve linked to you might have an eye layer, mouth layer and leg layers, then a layer for the body. Once you have these layers prepared, you can animate them independently, e.g. move the legs while keeping the body still.
Once you are happy with this, you can experiment with parenting so that you only have to animate one layer and the rest follow (e.g. animate the body and the legs move with it) and (if you have AE CS3) with using the puppet tool to ‘bend’ layers, such as Stefan does with the legs in the example video.
As you are new to AE, you’ll have to get to grips with several new topics (making new compositions, using the pen tool to make masks, animating and using keyframes, parenting, puppet tools, rendering). You can find great introductions to all these at videocopilot.net (go to AE Basic Training) or in Aharon’s AE podcast here at the Cow.
Good luck!
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
The settings don’t matter as much as how you specify the track points. You need to track rotation, which will give you two track points. Also I should point out, as Andrew did, that if your camera is moving towards or away from the object of interest, or zooming (rather than just panning) it won’t work. OK, having done this, you need to choose decent track point positions. They should be areas of high contrast. As Andrew has suggested in later tutorials, you can improve the “trackability” of your footage by applying effects to it. For example, apply the curves effect and add a contrast curve (make the line look like a shallow S). Don’t make it too contrasted, just add a little. Then add the effect “remove grain” and change the preview setting to “final render”. Then precompose your footage (move all the layers to the precomp) and motion track the precomp. Keep an eye on the track points as the track is in progress, and if the points start to jump, stop and select a new track point. If this doesn’t work, you may have to record some new footage. Try to think what would make a good track point in your scene as you film.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Yeah, it can be a pain all those layers. You can tidy it up a bit by checking the ‘shy’ switch for the layers you don’t need to see (for the time being) and then hitting the shy button for the comp. Or you could precompose a number of related layers in AE (opening titles precomp, first part of show precomp, etc). You could also set this up in premiere by copying and pasting the various sections into their own sequences, then making a master sequence with all the “lower-order” sequences in it. Then just import all sequences into AE. Not importing audio will also help matters, as each audio clip will get its own layer – that’s just overkill!
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
I sometimes just save my prem project then import it into AE as though it were normal footage. The prem timeline becomes an AE comp. I use AE7 and Prem2 and sometimes have problems though. For example, audio transitions don’t seem to work (not a biggie, audio from AE isn’t the best way to go anyway) and I have also noticed that if you mirror flip footage in Prem, it isn’t carried over into AE.
The safest way I’ve found to do it is to edit in prem and then to add all transitions plus any image manipulation (scale and position etc) in AE.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Yeah, this can be done easily in after effects. Just save a copy of the frame you want to freeze on and then reimport it (or set your layer as a freezeframe). Then cut around the person in that layer and apply [what I think is called] the threshold effect to it, making it monochrome. Use the pen tool to draw a mask around the person. Add weird background and text (millions of ways to do this!). Then keyframe the position and scale properties of the person-layer (select the layer, hit P and shift+S, hit the stopwatch for both properties and then change them over time).
This should give you a decent approximation. If you’re new to AE and don’t understand some of the concepts in this post, check out Andrew Kramer’s beginner’s tutorial series at videocopilot.net to get up to speed.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Thanks for posting the image. It will obviously be difficult to get something that looks perfect, because the text will be very large on screen. But if you make your text 3D and then rotate it using the lines on the wall as a guide (then possibly adding some noise and a drop shadow to make it fit in with the footage), that could look good.
Good luck!
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Hi Christophe,
It depends what elements you need.
Does the logo have to be “stuck” to the building in a moving shot? If so, you’ll have to get familiar with motion tracking (search in the help files – quite a big topic, but not so difficult to get started with).
Is your logo looking too artificial? Depending on what look you’re going for, you may need to colour correct it to match your shot (try applying the curves effect and changing the RG&B values independently). You could also try putting a grunge texture (like a photograph of some metal / stone) on top of the logo and setting the transfer mode to overlay, or play with other transfer modes. Or you could add some noise to the logo with the noise effect, so that it matches the grain of your footage.
Hard to say what else might help without an image from your project, but hope these help.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Hi Angel,
Sounds like the “boomerang” effect. Aharon has a couple of podcast tutorials on solving the problem. Go to podcasts (button above) and choose the ae podcast.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX