[Thiago Lobo]

Oh, if you look at the Vimeo reference, look at the boy running with the flower. I’m pretty sure that is digitally made and that’s exactly what I’m trying to achieve. Note that wherever his lineart passes, it paints the area white and leaves the trail there. THAT’S the feeling! 😀

[Thiago Lobo]

Dave and Kevin,

Yeah, I know this video is pretty complex. I know it was done for real, lots of planning and all…but all I wanted to know is if there’s some way of simulating this process in After Effects. I’m gonna be working with traditional animation (frame by frame drawings) to compose over a wall during an interview. While the actor is talking about his experiences, the drawing is going to walk and perform some actions on the wall (as the reference) behind him.

I thought about applying this little expression to the animated PNG sequence:

d = 1*thisComp.frameDuration*(index – 1);
thisComp.layer(1).position.valueAtTime(d)

I don’t understand expressions that much and I kinda “frankensteined” this one. What it gives me is the ability of repeating each frame of the animation as another static layer. This is somewhat what I’m looking for, but not quite.
The Echo effect would give me the whole in-between frames, but it keeps moving (the echo), so it doesn’t work for me. If only I could FREEZE the echo, you know what I mean? It could be generated static, in place. Or something like the frame blending feature instead of using Echo, I don’t know.

Is there some way to do that?

Maybe Dan Ebberts could help me out, hahahaha…I didn’t know this could be such a tricky request.

Thanks for the kind answers so far, though!

[Thiago Lobo]

Thanks for your answer, Todd.
As you stated, it’s pretty obvious that the movie was done for real. I guessed that, being obvious as it is, it would be equally obvious that I’m trying to achieve a similar effect using a software.
I suggested 2 videos as reference and if you watch the Vimeo one, you will see that it was probably not done for real, but using a software.

The point is: the references being done for real or not, I need to achieve this effect using After Effects or some software. I thought about some expressions or using Echo effect as a basis…and I’m asking about some enlightenment on this matter.

Still waiting for some cool ideas. Thanks!

[Thiago Lobo]

Ok, Dave,

I’ve seen your recomendations before and I totally agree with them. Rendering lossless in AE and encoding somewhere else (Adobe Media Encoder, Sorenson Squeeze, for example) is way better.

But now, in Adobe Media Encoder, the option to use DivX codec (AVI container) is missing. I’m on Windows 7 64-bit, what can I do to get this option available?