[Steve Blacker]

I think that might be the only way to do it, since you set your dof on the camera and not on the layers. Otherwise you could try to simulate dof by blurring layers and animating the blur.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Fracture object would work for that – you have to cut up your text or use the Destruction plugin to do it. Check out a recent tutorial on greyscalegorilla.com on how to shatter objects using the fracture object in C4D, as well as some info on the (free) Destruction plugin. If you’re on a PC, I’m not sure the Destruction plugin will work – you can manually slice up your text with the knife tol. If you look in the tutorials section here on Creative Cow there’s a recent tutorial on how to do that.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

I agree with Michael, I’d approach this effect in editing as opposed to doing it in AE. Very easy to do in Final Cut/Vegas/Avid.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Couldn’t you just create a null in 3D space, position your product images around it (top view would be handy for this) and parent them to the centre null, then rotate the centre null? Camera position would be up to you, then you could play with camera DOF, etc., to get the look you’re after. I’m guessing you’d have to set your product images to auto-orient to camera as they spin around the centre null, as well.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Sounds like your original (large) image is still being used by your AE comp. I would make doubly sure you’ve imported the smaller image you created in Photoshop, and make sure that the large image is replaced by it in the timeline. You can select the layer in the timeline containing the image, then Alt/Option drag the smaller file onto it to replace.

As for rendering for DVD, I generally render everything out using Quicktime animation codec for the highest quality “master render” possible, then you can convert that to MPEG-2 for DVD using Compressor, or DVD Studio Pro (Mac) or whatever DVD authoring software you use.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

When you apply Particular to a layer, you should be able to overlay that on another layer with transparency because that’s the way Particular works by default.

As for changing other parameters, you could try looking at the physics parameters in Particular, (i.e., wind), and also play with velocity/velocity from motion and so on. Experimentation is the key.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Put an empty adjustment layer between the layers. That way you re-arrange the rendering order, as it were, and you won’t see a shadow pass through to the layer below.

Then you just put your other light/layer/shadow casting object below the adjustment layer, etc.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Play around with shape layers, perhaps? Or solids and masks?

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Upon brief inspection of your image, it looks as though you have a linear wipe partially completed, which would explain the “half an effect” thing…

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Steve Blacker]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I was afraid the answer was no… It would be a handy feature for sure. I will definitely try the other method of importing the project. Thanks again.

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…