[Walter Soyka]

I think you’re already on the right track. You want to track and solve first, so that you can get 3D camera data in AE to begin positioning your elements.

Keep in mind, though, that AE is really 2.5D. If you want to work with true 3D objects, you’ll be better off in a real 3D app.

Maybe someone else can comment on a good workflow for the roto portion?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

Has one of the comps been repositioned (thus revealing an edge?)

Or have you tried disabling GPU rendering within the plugin?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

Lloyd Alvarez’s Immigration script might do what you need.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Mark Suszko] “I would say the free version of Google Sketch-Up would be hard to beat.”

Agreed! I’ve used it to mock up some live events I’ve worked on, from the attendee’s perspective.

I can see how It’d be great for the shot setup part of storyboarding, but how are you managing all the shots?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Victor Camacho Guerrero] “I am creating a video using trapcode particular 2. I have created the whole animation, however my idea is to maintain the particles animated along a path, . For now, every second creates a few particles. If I down this parameter to 1, does not create anything. To brief, should be the same amount of particles for the whole animation.”

If you don’t want particles to disappear after they’re born, crank up the particle’s life property.

If you don’t want to see them being born, but you still want them to trace a motion path, I think you’ll have to extend the particle life as above and slide the Particular and any light emitter layers around the timeline. You’ll have to be very careful of any physics time factor or wind/gravity settings, as they will impact the look dramatically.

I hope I’ve understood what you were asking about.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

How are you transitioning from one comp to the next?

Can you post a screenshot of the noisy output you’re seeing?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Bob James] “Now the steadicam shot I used (I have done something similar for the actual music video) I would like to have 3d text/objects ‘pop-up’ from behind the artists shoulders as he says certain parts of his lyrics. I’m assuming I will have to do things like ‘tracking’ and ‘camera solving’ and also probably have to mask the subject to have the 3d objects appear like they are ‘behind’ him…as well as lighting the objects etc etc etc.”

That is exactly right. You’ll need a 3D tracker like SynthEyes or PFhoe.

[Bob James] “That’s my main problem…I just don’t know AE well enough (albeit I’m quick to learn) and I basically need to know specifically what I need to be doing here to achieve my ideas.”

I’ve found After Effects to be both deep and wide. I think it’s very difficult to get any production done — or even to get any deep knowledge in one particular aspect of AE — without first getting a wide understanding of the app. If you’re relatively new to After Effects, check out Todd Kopriva’s blog post Getting started with After Effects.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

There are two frame rates we’re discussing. 23.976, and 29.97.

29.976 is NOT a standard frame rate.

There’s no need to manually adjust all your keyframes. The procedure I outlined above will allow After Effects to smoothly and automatically re-interpret your animation at 29.97 fps (provided that you have no video footage).

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Yorgo Alexopoulos] “have a client that has asked me to deliver uncompressed QuickTime at 1080/60i. The project is all stuff made in after effect; mainly camera moves on photographs. I have set everything up at 1920×1080 at 23.976 fps. I rendered everything at 29.976 using a 3;2 pulldown – they are telling me there is a slight stutter… “

Follow Dave’s advice to the letter if they are expecting to receive 24p with pulldown for their 60i.

However, if they were expecting to receive 60i, it may be that 24p frame rate that they’re not happy with, and pull-down will not make the lower temporal resolution of 24p go away.

To get real, native 60i versions (not 24p with pull-down), simply create new comps at 1920×1080 / 29.97 fps. Drop your 1920×1080 / 23.976 comp into the 29.97 comp.

Make sure that none of the comps have “Preserve frame rate when nested” checked in their advanced composition settings, and make sure you turn on field rendering for output.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Alex Kittavong] “he also used a 2d image to pull it off, his is just a little more complex =x.”

He may have started with a 2D image, but to get meaningful stereoscopy, you need a true 3D scene. The tutorial you linked to only mentions this in passing, but that 2D image of a house was re-constructed in 3D with a technique called camera projection.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events