Steve Roberts
Forum Replies Created
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As I wrote, it’s different for different effects. Sometimes a value has to be set to 0, sometimes to 100%, sometimes to 1. Some effects have a ray length (reset is zero) and some magnify things (reset is 100%). Some effects don’t allow resetting. They do different things, so they work differently.
You can’t stop an effect, you can only set a value to something that appears “unaffected”. In your Magnify example, you’d set the Magnification to 100%.
Now, the way to do this immediately (not gradually) is to use hold keyframes — your last keyframe before the “stop” should be a hold keyframe. For example, if you wanted to keyframe the Magnify from 150% to 200% then stop, you’d set three keys: 150, 200 and 100. The 200 should be a hold keyframe. Try this out on a layer with only one effect so things don’t get confused.
To add a new effect on the same layer, apply the effect from the Effects menu or the Animation menu if it’s a preset. Now … it will be applied over the whole layer. To make it start at a particular point, you need to figure out which parameter needs to be set to 0/1/100 or whatever, and set that key at the start of the layer. Make that a hold key, so the effect holds at 100% (whatever) until the first key (not 100%) comes in at the point where you want the effect to be noticed.
Don’t think “stop”, think “appear unaffected”. Does that help?
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I don’t think Quicktime is a factor. Does the client have the latest Acrobat Reader on her machine?
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[Adrianna Merlucci] “Anyway, I was just wondering why its recommended to draw the mask on the solid instead of directly on the footage itself?”
Sometimes it’s recommended, but not all the time, since generally you can just draw the mask on the footage layer. But consider this: when you rotate a mask using the mask transform tools, the mask changes shape as it rotates. This is because the mask vertices have to travel in a straight line between keyframes. If you want to avoid this distortion while rotating a mask, you need to draw the mask on a solid, then rotate the solid using rotation keyframes. Or sometimes you want a mask to follow another layer’s motion, so you might have to draw the mask on a solid then parent the masked solid to that layer … since you can’t parent masks, only layers.
“As for the roto and the tracking: this method seems to work okay. The applied mask isnt perfect so I have been adjusting points (only about 4 compared with over 20) manually each frame. Do you have any tips on how to draw the original mask so that I won’t run into trouble later with the tracked points? It seems that making curves is troublesome but I don’t think its too avoidable when I am trying to draw a mask on a person…”
Yep, rotoscoping is a pain. I like to use rotobezier and place vertices at points of inflection, that is, where the curve changes shape. And you need more points at sharp curves. It’s something that requires practice, but the aim is to get an accurate mask with as few points as possible. Hope that helps.
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Sorry Adrianna, I was wrong. I should have checked out the script — as you know, it tracks points on the footage and applies that motion to the mask points. In effect, it does the mask shape animation for you.
It doesn’t require a separate layer, as I recommended. I was thinking that you were just moving the center of the mask with one tracking point. To do that, you need to move the solid layer’s position based on a tracking point’s motion, then make that solid a track matte. So, I was wrong. My sincere apologies.
You can do all this by drawing one mask on your footage, then applying the script and following its instructions. No separate layer is needed. However, your instructions above will work just as well, with the additional one-click step of using the solid as a track matte, but you know about that.
Sorry to have led you astray — you didn’t need to apply the mask to a separate solid, but it’s just a different way of doing the same thing. Sometimes we need to know more than one way to do something.
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You mean CS3?
Basic troubleshooting: disable effects first and try again. Hide layers and try again. Make sure no footage is MPEG, DivX or other low-quality codecs. Make sure audio is AIFF or WAV, not MP3. Disable OpenGL in the Prefs.
“the real fun begins when the program loads”: is that when the problem starts? If so, what happens and when? If it’s when the startup screen appears, what appears before a crash? If that’s your sig, lose it — it’s confusing in a troubleshooting forum.
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I’m talking about Effects that show up in the Effects palette (F3). If you don’t want to see an Effect, the property that you set to zero depends on the Effect.
Sometimes it is the “blend with original” property, which you would set to 100% to make the Effect disappear. Sometimes you hit “reset” at the top of the effect settings in the Effect palette.
I can’t be sure until I know exactly which effects you have in your comp.
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Maybe you should write to the RE:Flex folks?
I only tested a trial of the plug, liked it, but didn’t need it.
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Yow! I think the moon is so far away, you’ll never get the right parallax on a tracking shot. The moon should stay static in the frame when tracking, and only move when panning. So depending on your shot, you might not want to lock the moon to the skyline, but leave it as static in the frame.
I hope that made sense. You see, parallax and I aren’t exactly friends … 🙂
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Clip Notes is very new, and options are very limited. However, I’ve sent Clip Notes PDFs to clients with Windows boxes, and they’ve played fine in Acrobat.
Have you sent them to anyone?
Can you play them yourself?
If they can be played, does it matter whether it’s Quicktime or not? 🙂 -
The CC effects were originally part of a third-party plugin set called “final effects complete”, owned by various parties over time. Then the developers (cycore) got hold of them again, and Adobe bought/licensed the plugs to include with AE. There was never a cone plugin, for whatever reason. And I believe cylinder doesn’t offer taper, since a taper function probably needs to start with a cone shape, not a cylinder shape.
Anyway, you need to buy a plugin to do it. https://www.conoa.com/index.html .
Yep, it can be frustrating when something seems to be “almost there” and isn’t, but since AE wasn’t built as a 3D app, its 3D capability has, bit by bit, been created and extended through third-party and acquired plugins as far as I know. If they acquire the Conoa plugs, you’re in. Until then … 🙁