Any one know after effects?

[Hotcod]

I've decided to trash the project i was doing as i didn't like it and to try something different for it. It's already late as i was recovering from having my face smashed in a bit last week, it's in for tomorrow and me trying to do this really really is a very stupid idea but as ever so long as it's mostly done or i have something i can finish it up before it's time to submit it to be marked and it's not until the end of the term that i need to stick it in portfolio form for a real marking and even then i can resubmit at the end of the year.... why did i tell you all that? beacuse i'm likely to come in here a bit to moan about different projects.

Project is to do with the symbology of a saint and picked good old st bony.... any way... i watched something that sparked off an idea for me

http://vimeo.com/877053

wonderful bit of work, but take a look at 50 seconds 1:45 and 2:10... the main symbols i'm using is a tree and a raven and a few other things, but i say those two beacuse all the bit i point out above use the same kind of images and the truth is i'm now wanting to all but rip them off mainly beacuse i really really want to try and replicate the lighting as this is one of the best looking use of volumetric light i've seen in an after effects project... only thing is is that i can't find out if he was using after effects for it (if you know after effects it's lighting is built to be volumetric) or if his using a true 3d program... as far as i can tell there are plug ins like trapcodes lux and shine that replicate volumetric light in after effects but i'm not sure how he get results like that... it doesn't seem he used a 3d program for it and yet there's bloom and bleed and other things he either did by hand or there's some after effects trick too....

In other words if any one had a better idea of the lighting was done for this i could really use the help as it would speed up my work on this no end... the lighting doesn't have to work as well or at all really for the finished thing i'm going to make which is just a fly though in 3d of some 2d elements and a little animation (probably looped) but learning to do lighting like that would be give the project much more value than the short throw away starting back thing it is...

I know it's probably going to turn out a bit rubbishy to be honest but the tutor seemed happy enough with the rather shoddy test animation/animatic i threw togather in flash in one night while playing with some ideas

http://hotcod.madebymonkeys.net/s/an.html

which you can watch there if you really want to... i was going to make it much shoter and drop such a strict narrative but it feels too draw in flash for me and as i don't have a tablet at the moment and don't feel like spending forever drawing either in illustrator or in flash i just don't like it... so i was just working on doing a full image based off the same kind of idea but now i'm thinking hand drawn stuff in a 3d after effect fly though bird lands on sword, we pass a fox (not sure if to go man shaped, like a dog head st christopher) up towarsd a tree where another bird takes off gose up and we come back down in to a loop.

So, yes, after effects, lighting, help!

[Hotcod]

i'll take that as a no then, i shall just use this as a place to rant when it all goes wrong... but part of what i hate when i'm working in after effects is how easily i get distracted... there's some amamzing video tutorials about the place and it's so easy to find cool new things... i mean i'm awestruck by this

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_vanishing_point/

Not exactly easy but not hard it opens up worlds of possibilities and is honestly going to make me think differently when trying to think of how to deal with a project, its a damn powerful tool that i'm already getting far to many ideas for

[Hotcod]

well the lighting thing is all very very complicated and would never have gotten a handle on it in time to finish the project buuuut i used the 2nd idea... i've got what is the basics of what it will be done... timing and movement is out and the ending needs lots'o work... but just for any one who cares

http://hotcod.madebymonkeys.net/saintfft.mov

[Nuggsy]

I know that it's a few months too late here, but I use after effects regularly and I'm fairly certain that he used a combination of stop motion techniques and after effects. A cursory examination of his "making of" page reveals that to be true. I would assume that he's using Trapcode plug-ins, but there are other effects that he could have used to get similar results that come with AE.

Yours is good too. Is it your first AE project? In the beginning it looked as if you were simply moving layers in Z-Space rather than animating the camera along a path. Was the book at the end something from a 3D program or footage that you actually shot? Or did you build it in AE?

After Effects is a very powerful tool. I've been using it for almost 5 years and I'm nowhere near as proficient as I could be; I can't touch the stuff that Andrew Kramer is doing. That being said, if you ever need any help feel free to PM me and I'll see what I can do.

[Hotcod]

Thanks man :) ya i had a good look around his page and i think i understand most of what he did but the lighting is still something i've got no clue how to replicate yet. This was my first major project with it, i did a second rather rubbishy one too... i think i may back up and look at mixing 3d programs with after effects to get what i want. 3d animation i think is a skill i really need. I want to get in to games in some way or other and i think 3d animation may be my main way. I like animation a lot but 2d and stop motion stuff i'm not hugely good at. I'm getting off track some what, what i was trying to say is that i've been using 3d space in after effect in a rather heavy manner so i think i should look in to it more.

Anyway, the book. It's in fact a photograph "projected" in after effects across a matching 3d object. There's a quicker way to do it by using after effect vanishing point tool but in cs3 it's still slightly annoying. I can't recall exactly how to do it but it should be easy enough to look up. You centre the image to a cam in 3d space, set up a light at the cams view point and allow projection for the image... you then from that build up 3d flat layers to rebuild the 'space'. In effect you get a textured 3d object, it's rather intensive unlike photoshop which cuts up the image and rebuilds it in 3d in after effect... it let you relight it too.

I mean it's uses are limited in that you only really have limited room for movement with the view but once you know how to do it it's a quick and easy way of adding something a bit different to a 2d source image. I keep expecting to see it pop up in documentary's and the like... like the perspective trick that you can do by cutting up photos.

[Nura]

I have nothing to add, other then: Holy shit after effects is cool, why haven't i learned the basics of this program yet?!

[Nuggsy]

If you're interested in blending a 3D program with After Effects I'd suggest Maxon's Cinema 4D. Maxon has worked extensively with Adobe to integrate the two and iron out some of the issues that exist incorporating tracking info, etc. from a 3D app to AE.

Good luck with your endeavors!