[Trevor Gent]

The paths should be moot unless you’re editing inside Illustrator. When you import the file into After Effects there should be an option to import as a composition? Is this not the case? Can you post the Illustrator file?

Trev

[Trevor Gent]

Thanks very much Adam!

Will put your tips into effect shortly!

I’m definately learning from my mistakes and your first suggestion (using a lower poly mesh) is one that I’m sure I will remember in the future!

Thanks again for all your help!

Trev

[Trevor Gent]

Thanks once again Adam. I really appreciate all your help.

I will definitely check the preset models out.

I guess weighting is something thatI just have to get the feel for. There’s just not a lot of in depth documentation on the subject.

I am finding some areas are easier to work on than others.

The models arm for instance I’m finding to be a real pain. I’m trying my best to blend the weight so that when the arm is rotated there is no stretching or warping. So far have only been only moderately successful!

Any tips? Or is it a trial and error/ keep trying till you get it right sort of thing? I’ll be happy either way but even more so if there was an easier way!

Thanks again

Trev

[Trevor Gent]

Thanks Adam,

I sure wish I talked to you before I started all this!

I’ve been messing around with c4d for about 3 months and only just recently got into rigging.

So from what you’ve told me I should animate everything before adding fine details to my model? Does this include “accessory” details like hair, clothing etc?

Not having a problem with modeling (thanks, Art Classes) but finding rigging/binding/weighting a bit more of a challenge to wrap my head around. Still, I am making progress after ditching a set of tutorials that was more or less steering me in several wrong directions.
I’ve used other training tutorials from the same company and found them fairly thorough. But their C4D offerings are VERY general at best. ( I won’t name names but my girlfriend, Lynda, totally agrees with me!) 😉

Thanks again.

[Trevor Gent]

Yee Haww!

So simple if it was a dog it would have bit me!

I just cranked up the strength of the weight/brush tool to 100% and set it to erase. Then I erased ALL weighting and re-weighted “by hand”. A bit of a mess-around but it seems to have done the trick.

Sorry to be a pain but I’m still kind of new to all this.

Thanks again!

[Trevor Gent]

Thanks Adam,

So I guess you’re telling me that I’ve really just painted myself into a corner on this one? :O

Ideally, I wanted to have quite of bit of detail in my models face. I used a lot of subdivisions only in the face because I wasn’t getting the result I wanted out of displacement/bump mapping. So here I am.

It just seems strange. I’ve weighted and corrected all the limbs with no troubles. But when it comes to the high density areas I run into problems. (Even though it seems to be the same operation. Just on a larger scale)

I am definitely taking heed of your suggestions but I also want to try a few more things before I go back to re-modelling (again!)

Here’s my new angle:

I’ve tried using the weight/brush tool to select the vertices that need to follow as I move the goal IK but it seems they either get too much or too little weight applied.(distorting the face even more) Is there some way I can equalize the weight so that all the vertices in the model’s head get an equal amount of weight? So that when I move the IK the entire head moves as one?

I’ve looked into the “bleed” function of the weight tool but so far this appears to do the exact same thing as “Add”. Either adds too much or too little weight.

Any thoughts?

Much appreciated.

Trevor Gent

[Trevor Gent]

Hey Jason,

Did you try precomping the logos before applying cc sphere?

[Trevor Gent]

3d stroke should do it. You could also used masked layers and animate the masks path shape or you could try a shape layer and animate the stroke value. There are quite a few ways and I’m sure there’s many more I don’t even know about.

The benefit of using 3d stroke would be that you could then rotate the camera AROUND the strokes as they animate on and not have them be revealed as flat layers ( hope that makes sense! )

Trev

[Trevor Gent]

Hey Jason,

Did you try just ‘pick-whipping’ each of the rotation values (x to x, y to y, z to z) of the two logo spheres to the main sphere? That should make it so you can rotate the main sphere and the logos should follow along . (Plus you can adjust the logos positions separately)

Hope this helps

Trev

[Trevor Gent]

Sounds like great fun.

Unfortunately its just too involved to try to explain the whole process ( how I would go about it anyway 😉 There is a lot to it and its covering a pretty broad spectrum of tips and tricks. If you had a more specific “bite-sized” question about creating the effect it wouldn’t be so bad. But going through it from A to Z would take a long time so instead I’ll try to point you in the right direction.

Poke around on the net and look for tutorials.

You might not find the definitive “car explosion tutorial” but if you know what you’re after and take bits and pieces from a bunch of them you will be on the right track.

Look at the effect your trying to create and break it down into “how do we do this part” then look for a tutorial that has a similar trick in it.

Off the top of my head here’s a few to get you started.

Andrew Kramer has a good one (“car hit” I think it’s called) you’ll need a few tips from that one. (Not just because it involves a vehicle of some kind but it shows you how to add particles/ create some damage and all that cool stuff)

If its shot with a hand held or the camera is moving then your going to need to track it etc.. again look for some tutorials on that. ( Google is your pal )

For fire effects you can either use a particle generator or get a hold of some stock footage and comp that in. “Detonation Films” has some cool free explosions for folks like us to use. Again look for tutorials.

Sorry I couldn’t give you a winner here but hopefully you’ll be off in the right direction. Again if you have a specific question like ” Okay I’ve got the explosion happening, but now I need an old lady’s hair to catch fire.. How do I do that?” then post here again and I’m sure someone will help you out.

Best of luck and have lots of fun!

-Trev