Steve Renard
Forum Replies Created
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I think to do it purely in CGI and get the look you want you’re going to have to move to a proper 3D environment like Max, Maya, or C4D. But I don’t think that’s how that shot is typically done. A better bet is probably to get some footage of the ground being dug up like that, and then comp the ship in. I think that is how the shot is usually done, because the particle/dynamics system required to slam something into the ground and have it dig a trench like that is pretty complex to build.
The particle tools you’re talking about are not intended for a dynamic reaction to a moving object the way you’re talking about, at least as far as I know.
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Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca -
Several questions:
When did the problem begin? Was it related to an update?
How much RAM do you have? Is it possible it’s getting maxed out?
Is the program sluggish once you’re in it, or is it only a startup issue?
What else is open?I’m not sure if the answers to any of these will be helpful, but they are the first things I’d look at.
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Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca -
I would add a caveat to what Ted said: depending on the settings in your NLE you may experience a quality breakdown when the 1080p file gets scaled down to 720p. I don’t work with Premiere much, but this is something I’ve noticed in FCP – if you haven’t got the various preferences set right, you will actually end up with poorer quality when it scales that 1080p piece down than you would if you just did 720p in the first place, because it makes poor decisions about how to interpret the data.
That said, though, Ted’s proposal seems like the way to go, to me.
————
Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca -
Hard to say without seeing an example, but I’d start with a Curves effect and a Hue/Saturation. In the curves, pull the greens out a little bit, and in the H/S push the master toward red and reduce the saturation of the greens and yellows. I haven’t got an example here, but having do color correction on fluorescent footage that’s where I’d start.
It will also depend on what the white balance was set to in your camera.
All that said, you may never get it to look great but you will probably be able to get it to look good.
Good luck!
————
Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca -
How do you want your information to appear? 720×486 D1 (pixel aspect 0.9) with letterbox will be the most straightforward way to do it, but you’ll retain more information if you use D1 Anamorphic Widescreen (pixel aspect 1.6, I think).
I have had good luck downconverting HD in AE (in order to prep a DVD production file) by dropping my HD .mov file into a D1 Widescreen comp, and then scaling it to… I think it was 45%. (Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve done this). A little bit hung off the edges but it seemed to scale better than trying to fit everything into that frame at a hyper-specific decimal amount. Then, I was encountering some aliasing issues, so I added a Gaussian Blur with the Blur Amount set to 2, and the whole thing came out quite clean-looking.
If you require a really clean downconvert, though, I suggest doing it in hardware rather than software.
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 -
I would like to know too! I have never figure out how the CC Particle World space corresponds to Comp/Layer space, or if it does at all. I’ve always had to locate it by the good ol’ trial-and-error method…
Good luck and I hope someone has a good answer for you!
Steve————
Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca -
I haven’t done this in a while, but I think this worked for me in the past.
1. Draw an arrowhead, either on a shape layer or with a mask on another layer. Make sure the anchor point is at the proper spot for the arrow to rotate around.
2. Copy the mask path from your animated line to the position property of the arrowhead. This should give you two standard keyframes and a bunch of roving keyframes in between. Drag the standard keyframes so that they match up with your line animation.
3. Right-click the arrowhead layer and select “Tranform => Auto-Orient…”. In the dialog box, select “Orient along path”Your arrowhead should now follow your animated line.
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 -
You could also do a layer trace on the alpha of the keyed girl, to give you a mask to which you could add a stroke/fill.
————
Steve Renard
Media Director, Cicada Design Inc.
and Freelance Know-it-all
647-406-7991
srenard@cicadadesign.ca
http://www.cicadadesign.ca -
I think the key thing is to make sure you’ve got your comps and layers organized the way AE wants you to.
You should have two comps.
Comp 1 is your main comp where you’ll do the tracking.
Comp 2 has your footage in it, with the curves, etc. applied to the footage layer.
Comp 2 sits in Comp 1 as a layer.
In Comp 1, right-click on the Comp 2 layer and select “Open Layer” and you should be able to do your tracking as you would if you had rendered the footage out with FX and brought it back in. Double-clicking on it will just open the comp, which is not what you want.Hopefully whatever it was you were missing is contained in the above.
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 -
AE will try to change the timing, but you will probably end up with some weird stuff happening in your master comp as it tries to do so. I’d recommend saving a version of the project and then trying to change just master comp, and then if that is giving you weird results, try changing the sub-comps as well.
Under any circumstances you will probably end up with some strangeness like keyframes not landing exactly on a frame and stuff like that. It won’t necessarily cause problems for you, but might be a little difficult to work with until you straighten all of out.
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