Viacheslav Sasykin
Forum Replies Created
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As much as I remember, Zaxwerks Invigorator imports only .3ds files (which are 3ds Max object files), but not the .max files (which are scenes files). In some online stores you can buy models in different formats but not in your case, you have no choice – this knife comes only in .max format.
But if you are lucky owner of CS4, you may import your model in Photoshop CS4 Extended, export it as PSD and import it into AE (but you have to confirm that, I just watched a tutorial that generally explains the procedure, that’s it). -
“My tunnel is 24000 pxl long x 2000 pxl tall/wide”
It’s a… quite big. Hope you won’t have a problem to render it out.
Just to be clear, intensity of the second (closest to starting point) light must be negative so it kinda consumes energy of the first light.
Your video layers… I would make them 3D and pushed them back little bit on z-axis and give your camera little bit a wiggle on X and Y as it travels along the tunnel so 3D effect will be more noticeable. If the trick with lights will work out you may need to turn option “accept lights” to “no” for those 3D video layers because they gonna be to close to the light near the exit.
But it’s up to you. If you decide to leave them 2D make sure they are at the very bottom of the stack of your layers (no 2D layers in-between 3D layers when you’re using lights). -
Did you try the trick with point lights I described above?
Let me know if it works for you.
Ramp effect along with CC Composite will give you flexibility in sense of where exactly you want your walls start to get brighter and how much brighter. Just be careful about what your start and end colors are and where you position them. You can use different settings for floor and side walls. Probably, the best way is to pre-compose every of your walls (leave all attributes) and apply Ramp and CC Composite in pre-comp.
As always, the right answer is somewhere in between, I mean, quite often it’s better to use a mix of different techniques and approaches to get best results. So you may want to try everything what’s been said here.
A. Kramer’s tutorial:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/ae_bump_maps/
Viacheslav. -
Ok, there is a trick I’ve learned when I was learning 3ds Max and its lights… I’ve just checked it and it worked in AE. I didn’t bother to create a 3D tunnel, I’ve just created a solid 720×2000 and placed it horizontally and make my camera move along it. On the far end I’ve put a point light with intensity about 280%. At the closest to the camera (before it starts to move along the solid) I’ve put another point light and turned down intensity to -200%. I’ve got an effect that you are probably looking for. Of course, you have to play with numbers for your particular situation, but you’ve got an idea.
Another option you may consider is placing spot lights with cone angle 180* and cone feather 100% along the way through your tunnel increasing intensity towards exit. For 2000 pxl long solid I’ve used 5 lights with intensity 20% (closest light), 65, 85, 105 and 130% (far light near “exit”). It worked but I did get different look from situation with point lights. Again, it’s just an idea, you have to play with number of lights, their positions and intensity.
Hopefully, it will help.
Viacheslav. -
You don`t need Photoshop for it. Apply Ramp effect to every wall. On top of that apply CC Composite. Play with start and end colors in Ramp as well with “blend with original”. In CC Composite play with opacity and blending modes. Variety of results unlimited.
Also you can add CC Glass on top of all (if you have some texture on your walls) but I don`t know how complicated it may get for you. There was a tutorial by A. Kramer (something about bump maps and walls).
Cheers. -
The only light that has some kind of attenuation is a spot light. It has cone feather attribute, but I don`t think it`s gonna help you.
What I would do:
Place a light in front of your camera (or even at the same position) and parent it to camera. As camera moves towards exit increase intensity of this light.
Or
Leave everything like it is and just add adjustment layer on top and apply exposure effect. Keyframe this effect so you go from complete dark to bright light. At the end of the tunnel apply lens flare to spice it up 🙂
Cheers. -
Just out of my experience: I’ve got pretty much the same result and look like in the first clip (by the way – amazing animation!) doing following:
Time stretch – 50%
Render it out and import it back
Put it back in your comp and do time stretch 200%. Effectively you are loosing every other frame.
Then I applied Cartoon filter from Tinderbox 4 collection and on top of that CC Time blend (of course, you have to play with settings).
It worked for me.
Cheers. -
There is some information that may be useful for you (about secret preferences and how to make AE starving for RAM):
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/mchristiansen/story/tip_force_an_after_effects_render_not_to_fail/
Hope it helps.
Viacheslav. -
Just for future:
Particle type: Custom Fill
Time sampling: Split clip – Loop
Number of clips: set to how many frames in your video.
Cheers. -
The biggest problem you are going to experience (if you’ll go the way described by A. Kramer in that tutorial) is a motion blur. Object frozen up in the air and all blurred… it just does not look good. You can find some clear frames when the object at its pick of height and has lowest speed, but not sure if it can save you.
Actually if you want to do it right, you have 2 options:
1. wire you object (ball, box, whatever). Then do wire removal and compositing. I really suggest you to watch famous Philips ad 21:9 and latest issue of FXGuide TV dedicated to that spot (making of).
2. create your object (make duplicate of the object) and animate it in 3D program.
Depending on what exactly you want (what is in your script, what your object is gonna be) you may will have to combine all of those techniques (and may be plus match moving and camera tracking).
There are a lot of details I’m not gonna go into (just because it will be too long) but hope it will give you the idea.