Steve Roberts
Forum Replies Created
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Oh, yes. It does take time to figure out what an app can or can’t do for you.
I recommend that every motion graphics artist buy and get to know a 3D app such as Cinema 4D (preferred by most MG artists) so they can hit the ground running when AE can’t do the job.
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Regarding the “walking through rooms” piece, anything that complex would not be done with After Effects. AE’s tools for realistic 3D integration with live footage are just not as powerful as those in a real 3D app. So even though the objects might be thin and flat, it’s often best to do the animation in a 3D app.
However, if less realism or integration is required, or if you’re setting up an entire graphic-style scene in CG, AE might be a good tool.
AE’s boundaries can only be pushed so far before a 3D app is the best (or only) tool for the job.
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Partly. If you do things a certain way, without using a lot of the features of AE, you can make a small Flash file in AE. Search the Help for “SWF” to see which features are supported for vector SWF Export.
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Sorry … I just use the shortcut, so I gave you the wrong location. It’s composition>save frame as>file.
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File>Save Image As.
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Try using Vector Paint or Paint to draw frame-by-frame in a 12fps or 15 fps comp. Vector Paint has a useful “onionskin” mode. Check the help for more details.
For a solid area of colour, consider creating a solid then masking it, then animating the mask shape frame-by-frame if necessary.
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Don’t use those fancy dodge/burn modes for this. Also, it’s never a one-layer, one-mode deal. The blood is darker than the skin, so I’d use Multiply mode if I wanted the dark red blood layer to acquire some of the characteristics of the skin. I’d also add a “normal mode” copy of the blood over that, adjusting its opacity until it looks right.
Did you “light” the blood? By that I mean “did you add a gradient (ramp) layer to the composite so the blood appears to be lit by the same light that’s lighting the talent? You might not need to do that if you use Multiply mode.
Maybe you started with a blood red solid, then tried to make it look good through modes? Try tweaking the solid colour *after* you get a realistic non-blood stain. Once you get something that looks like *some* kind of a realistic stain/liquid on the talent, you can then adjust the colour of the blood solid until it looks like a blood stain in the composite. Also, note that if you use Multiply mode or lower the opacity, you can change the solid’s colour to compensate.
Does that help?
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Did you search the COW for “pop-up”?
Or Google “pop-up” and “after effects”?
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It might be inside a package. Try this:
Ctrl-click on the AE app’s icon in the applications folder, then choose “show package contents”. The extra plug may be in the MacOS folder therein, in a “Plug-ins” folder.
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Didn’t he mention Trapcode Lux?