3d in after effects
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- CyBrainX
I'm working in AE5 and not having a very good time with camera rotation, orientation, position and the point of interest. I position everything nicely and then make another keyframe, make my changes and then the first keyframe is all mangled.
Please help. I wasted my entire day.
- CyBrainX0
By the way, I'm only animating the camera at this point. You'd think that would make this easy.
Why can't you make another layer/object the point of interest. The cheapest software on the market will at least let you do that.
- mikotondria20
yeah, it took me ages to get the hang of the cameras...
I tend to have 2 views open - and, selecting either the point of interest keyframe or the position keyframe in the timeline, nudge the position of either using the cursor (or shift-cursor for 10px)..Be aware also that you can right click several keyframes and use the 'keyframe interpolation' feature for easing types..
Its just a case of practise, really - hope that helps.
- whitmore0
make a new comp.
place your camera in the comp. (camera settings usually look nice at 80 for the focal length)
make a null then 3d it.
Parent your camera to the null.
do not move the camera, do all of your motion with the null.A trick in AFX 5.5 that they don't tell you about is if you hold the option key and then click the rotation button (located on your tool bar) a differnt icon will appear. When using the rotation tool it spins the object (or camera null) via the orientation not the rotation X, Y, or Z axis.
The X, Y, and Z rotation keyframes give you a much smoother animation.
Another trick is to be sure your four windows are open so you can view the top, side, active camera, and front.
I do tons of 2D/3D in After Effects this way. Check out my website if you can..
Going to be posting a project that I just worked on with TVLAND that is purely AFX 3D in a few weeks.
- mikotondria20
Hey Whitmore :)..
Thanks for that - great reel, btw - cant wait to see your project.
Thx again for the tip.
- mikotondria20
PS - your Tough Crowd stylee insprired me - http://www.tol23design.com
erm - sorry and thanks; I didnt know it was you, but that style really rocked me in the first 2 seconds I saw it and I had to pay homage. : /
- whitmore0
thanks man!
nice site! is this your work?
-J
- mikotondria20
yeah :)..
As you can see in the Reel section, I have been getting my feet wet with AE. It very quickly became app of the year for me :)
Any more tips thereon would be greatly appreciated .
Thanks dude.
- cyberthug0
Yeah man, that camera shit is tricky. Listen to Whitmore, he knows what he's talking about. I'll just add one more piece of advice - whenever you do anything with the camera, bust a quick render to make sure you didn't fuck anything up. Oh yeah, check out my reel too:
http://www.heavenspot.com
- CyBrainX0
Whitmore, that was the most useful thing I've gotten from this site in the year and a half I've been on here. I haven't even tried it yet, but I wil this weekend. Thanks a million. Your reel shoudl be called your unreal.
Thanks also to Cyberthug.
- mikotondria20
yeah - you're too quiet on here, Whitmore. :)
Any tips on how to produce the MK12ish coloring effect, where it seems as if eg trees etc are being maticulously filled in. I approximate it by moving masks, but it never has that multidirectional element. Its a common effect lately - any tips :)..?
- sayuncle0
have u guys checked out:
its an excellent resource for motion graphx artists..beginners to experts.
- loafheads0
I find it easier to animate a camera in maya and then export it to AE.
When I first used 3D in AE 5 i had a lot of problems rendering with intersecting planes. then 5.5 fixed all my render problems.
- illroot0
whitmore- Nice stuff, love to see some of those .aep files...
or maybe just shoot the shit sometime...
- CyBrainX0
Loafheads, Can you really export a Maya camera. that doesn't make sense to me. Please explain how that would be done. I'm somewhat comfortable in Maya. I know AE much more, but Maya has far better control over viewing windows and control over moving things.
- faston0
To export a Maya camera, set up your scene as you would to render. Then go > Edit > Keys > Bake Simulation. Now, save your scene as a Maya ascii file.
In AE, just import the scene as a composition and you'll automatically have a camera that follows your maya scene.
Works great when you you use locators and name them beginning with "null_"; In ae you can replace these nulls with images or comps of your choice and they'll take on the properties and position of the null. Just make sure you set the Camera Film Fit to horizontal or vertical.
- adamfinger0
If you can afford it, I would invest in a 3D app. Rendering out mulitple passes and animating toon-shaded and "constant" shaded objects within a 3D scene and exporting into AE allows for more possibilities than AE's limited "3D" cameras.
I tend to reserve AE for comping, layering, and masking, and do all my camera work within Softimage XSI or Max.
-adam
- CyBrainX0
Well, I haven't taken Whitmore's advice about null camera in comps yet, but I worked on what I had already. This is what I finally came up with. Keep in mind this will eventually be twice the size (600x350) and for an intro for a pharmaceutical CD-ROM. I think I have some timing issues, but let me know what you guys think:
- CyBrainX0
Check this out.
http://www.uvphactory.com/Portfo…