T354 Week 12
- Spring 2008
Announcements:
- Your final project
proposals are due Thursday of next week (4/10).
Agenda:
- Turn in homework & cover misc. tips
- Motion tracking
Please place your homework in your week
12 folder.
Last week I asked folks (for an in-class exercise) what they
were having troubles with and what new things they wanted to learn.
Below are what was submitted.
Troubles with:
- Making interesting work. I don't
have a project to promote or a concept about which I am really excited
and I think that translates to my designs.
- Maneuvering things in 3D space. I don't have a good interpretation
of the visual and can't extrapolate the 2D graphics to a 3D space
in mind.
- Sometimes effects fight each other….like putting path
txt on a layer makes shadows and other effects not work and it
confuses me
- Sometimes it seems like there are “ghost keyframes”…where
it looks like something should be sitting still and it moves
as if there is a keyframe there but there isn’t…maybe
its just a glitch but it is annoying….
- Lights and cameras in 3d space are still difficult…but
I think I just need more practice….
- I just sometimes feel I am doing it the hard way, that there
is a much simpler way to do some tasks.
- I sometimes have issues with having too many layers that it
gets difficult to navigate.
- Well.. I missed week 10 and I am struggling with lighting and
shadows. I hope I get a chance to figure it out before
you check them. I tried the book and some tutorials but
it is a bit confusing.
- Another thing I am struggling with is smoothing out motions. For
example for the 3d channel I want to make fast moving motions
and they turn out a bit jerky and it looks bad.
- I am struggling remembering everything we have done and continue
to do in class and trying to integrate them with out assignments
and projects
- I am also struggling with being able to keep up in class, I
learn by doing but then we do so many different things that I
also like to write the new things down so in the future I can
go back and remember how to do them, however I don’t seem
to have time to do them in class and then remember and write
them down so I can remember them in the future.
Want to learn:
- I would like to be able to do TV quality graphics that resemble
something you would see advertising a new station or program
on TV that would actually be able to be used by someone or would
interest someone in the future
- I would like to learn how to more effectively use lights and
cameras to enhance the viewers experience when looking at my
graphic design
- I would like to learn linked animation, like how to animate
a guy walking and waving.
- true 3d shapes….sometimes I flip a 2d object and I want
to put a little depth to it so it doesn’t disappear when
it lays horizontal
- earlier in the semester you mentioned morphing like that old
school Michael Jackson video….that sounds pretty cool…
- I’d like to know more about projecting lights from the
background to the foreground…some other students have
done this and I have trouble with it…
- I’d like to know if there is maybe a way to sync lip
animation with audio speaking.
- I guess I am just looking forward to learn more. I am always
surprised by what this program can do and am always surprised
the lack of limitations in the program.
- At the end of the semester I would like to learn how to compile
of my stuff in a professional manor and how to go about presenting
it to someone in an interview or posting it with like a resume
for people to see what I have done even though I am not entirely
sure what I am going to do when I graduate.
- More about masking. A friend once showed me something
he did using masking where the mask reveals a picture (I compare
a mask in AE to Flash.. are they similar?)
- I would like to learn about using AE for the web.. if that
is ever possible. I am trying to make myself a portfolio
online and AE could really help it look great.
- I would like to tap into other effects in AE. I see that
there are so many that we haven’t played with.
- how to deal with 3D space better
- how to utilize built in effects
- how to combine different things to make novel effects
I will try to address most of these in the coming weeks. In the meantime,
if you are looking for some After Effects tutorials, check out these
links:
Misc. AE tip: How
to Make a Camera or Spotlight Follow a Null Layer
Add a Null Layer and reveal it’s Position value (P)
Make sure that the spotlight or camera’s Auto-Orient feature
is set to “Point of Interest” (Layer -> Transform -> Auto-Orient
or Option - Apple - 0)
Reveal the camera or spotlight’s Point of Interest (Shift – A)
Add an Expression (Shift – Option – Equal sign)
Take the Pick Whip tool and pull it to the Null Layer’s Position
value.
Now try moving your Null Layer around (Fun, eh?)
In-Class Motion Tracking / Corner Pinning
Exercise (5 points)
In this exercise, you'll show you can track an obeject, even though
it moves out of the frame. You'll also demontrate that you can carry
out corner pinning. You'll need 3 media items from the Meyer DVD:
- LS_hihat_snare.mov
- KD_streetsign_DV.mov
- VotreNomlci.tif
Instructions
- Make a DV (4:3) comp to place the LS_hihat_snare.mov in, followed
by the KD_streetsign_DV.mov.
- Make a layer (text or a solid) to track with the movement of the
LS_hihat_snare video. (The trick is to hold the "option" key to move
the search and track square to another part of the video as needed.)
- Replace the sign in the KD_streetsign_DV.mov with the supplied
tif.
- When you are finished, render out a full-size (H.264, iPod, or
MPEG4) version in your week 12 folder.
- Make sure it's called "inclass"
Thursday -----------
Basic Parenting in AE (Meyer chapter 16)
Two ways to parent:
- Reveal/display the "Parent" column in the timeline window
- Use the pick whip tool
Parenting lets you assign the transform properties of one layer to
another. A layer can only have one parent, but a parent can have multiple
children. As demonstrated in the 3D lecture, Null Objects can be quite
effective parents.
In-Class Parenting Exercise (5 points)
Open the week 13 AE project: [Ex.03*starter] (Look on your DVD or
on the Scratch drive / T354 folder)
Note the clock face, and the hour and minute hand.
Let's start by examing the anchor points of our clock hands. They
need to be positioned properly, relative to their respective layers
first.
Use Parenting to connect the clock hands together.
Once you have succesfully parented and animated the hands, see if
you can apply an effect to the entire "family."
Add a tasteful effect behind the clock.
Make a full-size movie called "parenting" (H.264, MPEG4 or iPod)
and leave it in your week 12 folder in Oncourse.
Homework:
- Read Meyer Chapters 16 (Parenting) and 30 (Shape Layers)
- Make a 15 or 30-second animated sequence for TV. While it can be
an ad, a title, a promo, etc. it must have:
- a specific objective/purpose
- audio (natural soundtrack, sound effects,
music, etc.)
- at least two uses of Parenting
- You may turn in a full-size SDTV
version (720 x 480) using either DV, MPEG-4, H.264, or for the
iPod.
- Be
sure to note what layers you parented in the accompanying
critique form.
- Bring in a Final Project Proposal for Thursday
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