Will Cavanagh
Forum Replies Created
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You may find that this is a good jumping off point for a lot of what you want to do…
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
Yes — it is possible to replicate a camera if you have the relevant information about it. You may have to do some math though, and I don’t know any specifics about that. I also don’t know which parameters affect lens distortion. It’s possible that certain parameters won’t affect image distortion at all, and will thus be unnecessary if you don’t intend to use the camera to render DOF.
I hope someone will be able to provide more details, but if not you should try asking this of the nerds over at DVXuser and maybe just doing some Googling and Wikipedia-ing.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
Flash video (FLV, F4V) or Flash animation (SWF, FLA)?
If the former, export in a lossless format and use AME, Squeeze, SUPER, FFMPEGX, or whatever you have instead of doing it in AE CS3’s render queue. You’ll have more control, and it won’t crash every other time you try and export it. FLV/F4V support in CS4 is improved, and AME CS4 is actually pretty good.
If the latter, DON’T. After Effects -> Flash animation conversion doesn’t work well at all, and you’ll embarrass yourself in front of the client when he realizes the SFW is 2MB when it should be 500KB. If you need to make SWFs, hire a Flash artist to make them for you (show him the AE comp as a reference), or learn Flash.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
I believe it’s actually a bit more complicated than this. The sensor size plays an important role in matching DOF between the cameras, and the sensor size of you camera is much smaller than the default size for the AE camera (36mm). Your camera has a 1/2.3″ sensor. That means it’s 11.04mm. There’s also a question of how this is measured — I believe CCDs are usually measured diagonally while film is measured horizontally. I may well be wrong here. Then you’ll also need to figure out the angle of view and zoom for the focal length of the lens you were shooting with. There may be an easy way to do this, but I don’t know much about it.
I hope this helps get you on the right track, sorry I can’t give you more (or better) info.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
No backup and you have autosave turned off?! It’s not like project files take up very much hard disk space…
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
Cool. I have 3DS at home, but unfortunately I’m stuck at work waiting for a render ATM, so I can’t give you a walk-through.
In C4D, basically what I would do is stick the mode in a cloner — essentially an array with a lot more control attached to it.
I would then use a volume effector to control the shape of the items (this is essentially a tool that controls the area that the array is allowed in)
I would also add a random effector, which allows me to offset the clones from their default (grid) position in the array, and to change their size. It is (obviously) random, within the parameters you give it.
I would also use a shader effector to control the color of the items.
I may use a bit of MOCCA or COFFEE to tie the different pieces together and make them easier to animate, but that’s just icing.
I’m not sure how useful this will be in 3DS — it’s been a while since I’ve used it in a production environment but I don’t think any of this will translate very directly at all.
Sorry if this is a little unclear — I’ve been working on a project for about 14 hours now, and the render is shaping up to go for at least 5 (on a render farm.) Gotta love 3d…
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
If you need it to be very realistic and are willing to use more expensive/complicated software, you should check out NextLimit’s Real Flow.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
Assuming your speaking of a logo bug, it will be a tough one…
Have you thought about putting your own bug or graphic on and just having it cover the existing bugs? This is what they do on a lot of news aggregation shows — they just throw something like “The Daily Show” on a third and put it over the station graphics (3rds, tickers, live bugs, etc.) It’s not always the prettiest since the graphics tend to have to be mostly opaque, but it’s a lot quicker than trying to clone+blur them out.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
It might help to know what your logo looks like…
I’m going to assume you can’t make it look “3d” in AE, in which case you would do best to use a 3d package.
If I were to do this, I would model the logo in c4d, place it in a cloner object (mograph module) and set up a volume effector to change the size of the cloned objects… I can elaborate if you decide to go this route.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com -
To elaborate on what’s already been said —
You can use the lens blur effect, setting the depth map to a solid with a white->black linear ramp on it. You can then use the positions of the black and white points to control where the blur starts and ends. I would also recommend playing with the bokeh settings in the lens blur effect for a more organic look.
getnmd.com
nationalboston.com