[Steve Renard]

I will give it a try – thanks!

[Steve Renard]

That’s great – thanks! I’ll give it a try.

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

Thanks for your help – I never did figure out why things started falling through the floor but by adjusting the steps per frame at least I kept the boxes from occasionally falling through the bins. Maybe I’m doing something weird still but for whatever reason I still end up with bins falling through the floor if I try to change too many things. Have to get this project done so for now I’m chalking it up to a bug!

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

I should add that the boxes still interact with the floor, it’s just the bins that fall through. As I say – what gives?

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

That seems to work, along with pulling the various elements apart into their own extrude objects. Thanks!

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

I should add I’ve tried using an if/else statement, as below, and it just jumps to whatever the value would be at the layer in point, rather than proceeding smoothly from 0 at the layer in point.

minSpeed = 85;
maxSpeed = 115;
seedRandom(index,true);

if (time < inPoint) {
stretchSpeed = 0;
}
else {
stretchSpeed = time*(random(minSpeed,maxSpeed)/100);
}

stretchSpeed

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

You could try using gaussRandom(minValue, maxValue) instead of wiggle. According to the Adobe help, this will return 90% values between minValue and maxValue, and 10% beyond that range.

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

Thanks to you both, Dan and Kevin – your solutions have worked great in this case, and saved me a lot of tedious retyping of comp names in the expressions!

Cheers,
Steve

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

That sounds good – thanks Kevin! Unfortunately I’m rendering at the moment but as soon as it’s done I’ll give that a try.

Cheers,
Steve

————
Steve Renard
647-406-7991
steve@steverenard.com

[Steve Renard]

Hi Eric,

I’ve seen the discussion of using FFPro – it’s not a package I’m familiar with so I’ll leave that to Ted.

In terms of my technique, I would have to do some experimentation, but I would do it in miniature using a sand box or table and then something painted green or blue that I could key out that was, as you say, shaped something like the ship – maybe the end of a shovel handle or something like that. Shoot a still of the sand undisturbed, then shoot video of the object moving through the sand, and then pull the object away and shoot another still with nothing there, so that you have a good clean “before” and “after” plate with which to work in your composite.

Then you can comp your images into a desert shot, add the ship, add flying debris a la the Andrew Kramer tut, and away you go.

Of course, I’m speaking of all this like I’ve done it before, which I have not, but this is how I would approach it. Maybe over the long weekend I’ll grab a camera and some of my son’s sand toys and see what I can come up with!

Good luck!
Steve

————
Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca