T354 - Week 9 - Spring 2008

Agenda:

• Review homework / review quiz
• 3D layers and cameras

Will cover simulated perspective, 3D space and cameras. After spring break will get into lights.

Before getting into 3D layers, it's good to understand a few layer tricks you can do to simulate depth and perspective.

Perspective can be simulated by creating multiple layers, which move similarly to each other but at different speeds. Varying sizes can also get across the feeling of depth.

In class exercise (simulated depth):

Build a 320 x 240 comp that has at least three layers that simulate depth. For example you could have:

• close/top layer: person
• middle layer: mountains
• far/bottom layer: sky with clouds

Play with simply animating each layers left-right position values. Over a 10-second  period, move the rear layer a very small amount. Move the middle layer a bit more. Move the top (closest) layer an even greater amount.

AE 3D Space

(If you have the book, refer to chapter 13 & 14)

Think of three-dimensional space in terms of X, Y & Z:

X= left to right
Y= up and down
Z= towards the camera

In the AE timeline, you can give almost any layer 3D characteristics by turning on the 3D switch. (It’s the little box icon)

Remember that layers are really still flat- we’re just looking at them and can manipulate them in 3D space.

Views

Active camera is the perspective view from the primary camera

Orthographic views don’t show perspective. They are as seen from the 6 sides of a box. These include:

• front
• left
• right
• top
• back
• bottom

Use the camera view to move these views around. This doesn’t create keyframes or disturb your composition in any way.

The "Orbit Camera" (keyboard shortcut = C) is useful for moving your view around so you can see various parts of your 3D space. It does not affect your comp- just what you see,

This is a useful tool for moving the image around, just so you can see it.

Custom views show perspective

Demonstrate moving a 3D layer in space

(Maybe cover hold keyframes and one way to set up a rotating comp)

In-class 3D "Rotating Postcard" Exercise

• Import an image into a composition and make it a 3D layer
• Using 3D Position keyframes, make it cycles through 4 different positions
• Duplicate the layer 3 times (so you have 4 of these rotating 3D layers)
• Stagger the layers uniformly in time (Hint: try aligning the layer's starting time to coincide with some of the 3D position keyframes).
• Can you figure a way to replace the existing layers with different images?
• Render out a 320 x 240 movie (MPEG-4, iPod, or H.264)
• Call it "3d".mov, mv4, etc. and place it in your week 9 folder.

Cameras

Cameras in AE only interact with 3D layers. They see regular layers- but they simply don’t have any 3D characteristics.

The Meyer book makes a good point: It’s fine to have cameras, which are stationary along with moving layers. It’s also fine to have stationary 3D layers and move the camera between them. But if you move both camera and layer, you are asking for trouble. This is best left up to the very experienced motion graphic artist who is looking for a specific “look.”

One note about Precomps: You need to have the “Collapse Transformations” box checked on pre-comps in order for cameras to see them.

AE has a default camera, which uses what might be considered a 50mm lens

You can add any number of cameras above this one. The camera highest in the layer stack will be active. And you can cut from camera to camera.

Let’s add a camera and explore the settings

Homework:

• Read Meyer, chapter 15 (lights)
• Make either a 15 or 30-second promo or a 15-30 second opening sequence for a fictitious TV show. It must have:
  • A sense of depth
  • audio
  • at least 2 3D layers
  • Use at least 1 animated camera move
  • Turn in a half-size version using any of the following codecs: MPEG-4, iPod, or H.264
  • Be sure to turn in an accompanying critique form

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