T354 - Week 7 - Spring 2008

Agenda:

• Turn in homework (please save it as an MPEG-4 or an iPod movie) and an accompanying critique form
• Review Midterm Project Ideas
• After Effects (working with video, time stretching & tidbits)
• Look at artwork

Notes

• Midterm projects are due next Thursday! We will have time to work on them some in class on Tuesday
• Timing seems to be a challenge for some. Create a work area and use the RAM preview to work on a section at a time. Think about the order you bring elements in on the screen and the timing it takes to process (read) the words. A few of you are bringing on elements to slowly and then not leaving other words up long enough to read.
• Most of the text created in AE was extremely simple- no stroking of the edge, no filters, no parameters (tracking, size, leading) were changed. Strive not just for good animation, but for good design. You ought to be able to take a still image out of your animation and have solid graphic design.
• Use high contrast to make your text stand out from the background. You can also apply any number of filters to make it look more interesting or organic.

After Effects (continued)

Working with video

While After Effects is not video editing software, you can still do basic trimming and a number of interesting video effects. (Yes, if you really wanted to, you could edit video, but it's not well suited for this.) However, manipulating video and compositing video with animations and other elements is one of the things that After Effects is best known for. It's also an indispensible tool for making motion menus for DVDs.

Importing video - If AE is on the same computer or hard drive that you are editing video, then you can import directly from Final Cut Pro's "Capture Scratch" folder or from Avid's "OMFI MediaFiles" folder. Otherwise, you'll have to copy the individual clips you need into your AE media folder.

Setting up your compositions

If you are working with a particular kind of video (DV for instance), start off with a comp that matches your target codec. But if you need to, you can always place one comp inside another comp to re-size it. For example you can place a 720 x 540 comp inside of a 720 x 480 comp to output it for DV.

Trimming

Clips can be trimmed in the Timeline or in the Layer Window. Import a video clip into the Timeline. Slide the layer to the right a little so it doesn't start at 0. Double click the clip in the Timeline to open the layer window. The display shows 3 sets of counter numbers: in point, out point and duration.

Position the Layer window so you can see the Timeline. Note the in and out points in the Timeline. Move the time indicator somewhere near the beginning of the clip and press the in-point button. The duration value in the Layer window updates accordingly and the clip slides forward in the Timeline.

Now try dragging the triangulur handle in the Timeline. This is another way you can move in and out points.

As you may know, pressing the left bracket [ button re-positions the layer to begin at wherever the time indicator is. With video clips, it will reposition the layer's in point to the current time indicator.

Slip Edits

Once you have a video clip (or any other layer that changes over time) in your Timeline, you may want to slide the video around without messing up your in and out points relative to the Timeline. In other words you want to do a slip edit.

Position the video clip so you can see the in and out points. Select the Pan Behind tool from the Tools palette and position the pointer over the video clips. It changes into a left-right arrow. You're now in Slip mode. Try dragging the pointer to the left and right with your video clip layer selected. It slides the clip around while retaining the in and out points relative to the Timeline.

Time Stretching

Time Stretching is easy in After Effects. As with most effects, there are a number of ways you can access it.

• With the layer highlighted in the Timeline, select: Layer -> Time Stretch to open the Time Stretch window.
• Control click or right-click on the headings in the TImeline and turn on Stretch (If it's not already on). Stretch values will appear in the Timeline. Click on one to open the Time Stretch window.

In the Time Stretch window you can either enter a value other than 100% or make a new duration.

Note that you can also select a different item to hold in place other than the Layer in point, (which is the default as it's what we usually expect when we enable slow motion or fast motion).

Note: Time stretching is NOT a good way to change the duration of still images.

Time re-mapping

Time remapping is a bit more interesting than simple time stretching. You can use it to vary time and the rate in which motion changes occur.

To use it first import a comp or a video clip. (something with movement)

The, highlight the layer and select Layer -> Enable Time Remapping.

Expand the layer's arrows to show the time remapping controls. You'll see two keyframes. One at the start of the clip, the other at the end.

What the numbers mean:

The number next to Time remap shows what frame is being displayed.

Value Time: The max is the length of the movie file. The value line is a visual cue as to what parts are playing and if they are playing forward or backward

Velocity time: The middle number is the important one. It shows how fast the movie is playing and if it’s going forward or backward (uses a minus sign for backward) The numbers at the top & bottom simply show the maximum time change used.

Try adding a couple keyframes in the middle. Then you can slide the time values p and down, or the keyframes left and right.

Gradient Wipes

You can duplicate many popular wipe transitions with the transition tools. To use these you'll need to set two keyframes, one at the beginning of the transtion and one at the end.

Exercise: making video walls, split screen effects & video in a window:

Video Walls

Import four video clips (pretend they’re movies) Try to make a video wall (or the beginning of the Brady Bunch).

It helps to first set guides. To set guides, you must first show the rulers in your composition window. (Command-R). Drag from the edges to bring in a guide. You can set, snap, clear, hide, and lock them under your "View" drop-down menu.

Keep the video a tad larger than the quadrants. That way you can trim the nasty time code or vertical blanking interval artifacts found at the bottom of a video clip.

Interpret Footage

When you import video, or movies or graphics with alpha channels, it's important to make sure that they are being interpreted correctly. To get to the interpret footage window, right click on the footage and choose main-> interpret footage.

In this area you can set important parameters. If you need to, you can go back and change them later. It's important to select the right field order (upper or lower) or your video clips will stutter. Whether you should use upper or lower field first is determined by the particular hardware of the video editing system. One thing to remmeber is that DV and most firewire-captured video is lower field first.

Once useful parameter in this area is the loop __ times function. If you want a movie to loop, simply bump the number from 1 up to something higher.

In-class "Time" Exercise:

Resize and incorporate at least two of the provided video clips (or your own) in any way you desire. Apply a time-remap to one clip and a time stretch to another. Render out an MPEG-4 movie no longer than 30 seconds and place it in your week 7 folder. Make sure your movie is small (half-sized), called "time" and in square pixels!

 

Thursday ----------------------

Miscellaneous AE Tips

Making glints

• To make a glint, start off by making a tall solid in your comp.
• Turn on the preserve transparency (T) of the glint layer
• Use a mask to feather the edges
• Turn it diagonally
• Use position keyframes to move the glint solid accross the layer you'd like to glint
• You may likely want to precompose the glint with the layer you are glinting.

Transfer Modes

Frame blending

Each frame of a 15 FPS animation or movie will be duplicated in a 30 FPS comp. Some movements might not appear as smooth since frames will be repeated. Frame blending interpolates between the different frames. While it is a good thing to use- it takes longer to render. Click the box under the movie frame icon to turn it on.

Pan & Scan - Animating the anchor points

(demo)

5-point in class exercise for Thursday:

Pan and Scan with Anchor Points

• Make a simple pan and scan movie with two images (they must be bigger than the canvas of course). Try to get a smooth motion to begin and end the imitation camera move.
• Add some audio to go along with your move. Make sure it fades out at the end of your movie.
• Place a title or element of text in your composition.
• Add an animated glint to the text
• Place a small (square pixel) MPEG-4, H.264, or iPod formatted movie in your week 7 folder.
• Make sure it's called "panscan"

 

Homework/Next week:

• Read chapter 12 of the Meyer book
• Work on midterm projects Tuesday and review for Quiz. (Assume it covers all of the After Effects lectures and chapters 1-12 of the Meyer book.)
• After Effects Quiz Thursday (Approx 20 minutes)
• Turn in and review Midterm Projects & turn in critques (Thursday)

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