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Monthly Archives: April 2013
FMX 2013
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Moving Target
So, I was trying to create an advertising intro for CB Motion Graphics – something simple but effective. I shot some footage of the cherry tree in my backyard (this was the first year that it had bloomed gloriously, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!) using my iPhone 4 on a Steadicam Smoothy that I then imported into After Effects. I wanted to have other blossoms grow out of the tree branch and bloom, but I didn’t want to draw them in Illustrator. Likewise, isolating a blossom in Photoshop wouldn’t give it the appearance of moving within the scene, so I decided to take a blossom out of the footage over time: rotoscoping.
Disclaimer: I hate rotoscoping. It ranks somewhere between sandpaper on flesh and watching C-SPAN. But it’s an integral part of what we do in motion graphics, so I gotta deal…
My first step was to track the motion of the branch that was moving in the breeze, and to get the rotation and scale values in case I wanted to add any elements later. Motion Tracking is itself an art, so I won’t try to explain my “methodology” here. Suffice it to say, there was a lot of trial and error!
The next thing to do was to find and isolate the best cherry blossoms for the job. Thanks to the RotoBrush tool, taking elements out of footage has never been easier. I selected two blooms that looked like they would fit where I’d chosen for them to go and set the RotoBrush tool to work. After a little while, and a lot of tedium, I had my blossoms.
Here’s the kicker: the new masks followed the motion of the original footage instead of staying in once place – the RotoBrush tool isolates pixels, but does not hold motion. Somehow, I had to find a way to keep my roto’d footage where I wanted it to be, not where the camera said that it should go. Keyframing the roto’d layer in place was not an appealing option, though it could have worked. However, I had all of the information that I needed already if I motion tracked the roto’d layer – there was no need to create anything new beyond a simple motion track. I also needed to keep in mind the following information:
1) a layer’s anchor point is fixed and will not move relative to the layer unless instructed to do so by the user.
2) a layer’s position property is relative to the anchor point, not the layer itself.
3) motion tracking data moves relative to the layer
What I had to do was separate the tracking data from the layer, and then move the layer in response to the tracking data so that it would appear to stand still. I took the roto’d footage, pre-composed it, created a null object to contain the tracking data, tracked the motion of the roto’d layer for position only, and applied the data to the null object. After that, I set the anchor point of the roto’d layer to the point from which I would cause it to grow, and then expression pickwhipped the anchor point of the roto’d layer to the position of the tracker null. Back in the main comp, the new blossom appeared to stand still and was ready to parent as I saw fit. All that was left was to pre-render the blossoms and parent each to my original position/rotation/scale tracking.
Adding a growing stem and “text in” to the video were the last (and easiest) steps in the process. Enjoy!
Keyframes, Expressions, and In Points (Oh My!)
There are many ways to control an animation using the tools that Adobe has provided in After Effects. In today’s tip, we’re going to take a look at three: keyframes, expressions, and a layer’s In Point.
Keyframing can work when you have a few complex animations to make that are not easily described by an expression. It also works when you wish to have direct control over an animation. The drawback, however, is when you wish to make any changes. If the changes made affect any major component of your animation, you may find yourself going back and tweaking every single keyframe. Multiply this over the number of tweaks you are likely to make to get something just right, and you can see where things might bog down. On the other hand, if you are working within very defined parameters, it might just do the trick!
Expressions are extremely powerful bits of JavaScript code that Adobe has worked into the AE interface to allow for linking of property and effect values. Sometimes those are direct; for instance linking the position values of two layers so that, as one moves up, the other moves down twice as fast. Sometimes, they can be seemingly unrelated; for instance linking the rotation value of one layer and the x-position of another layer to the evolution value of a third layer with Turbulent Noise. Despite the powerful abilities of expressions to help realize creative visions, the major drawback is having to learn to code in JavaScript. Adobe has lessened that to a certain extent by providing expression pickwhips and expression controller effects, but if something doesn’t work exactly as you expect it to work, you may need to tweak the code. Expressions also eat up processor power when compared with keyframes, but in practice the difference is usually not noticeable.
Changing the In point of a layer, however, is useful for when you have a large number of layers of the same or similar type following a same or similar expression, and when you want to have precise control of exactly when the layers enter the comp. By creating your original layers with the appropriate effects, keyframes, and/or expressions, and then duplicating them as your needs require, you can have multiple instances of the same layer beginning at different points in your composition without the need to manually move keyframes or write complex expressions. To position the layer, simply click on the layer that you wish to position, and drag it to the time where you wish to see the layer begin.
To make things even more simple, put the Current Time Indicator (CTI) at the frame where you wish the layer to enter the comp, then click and hold the layer, press the shift key, and drag the In point near the CTI. The layer will then snap into place at the CTI.
See the animation attached to this post for an example of a comp using all three techniques listed above. The tree branch growth was made using keyframes on motion paths, the cherry blossoms were made using multiple instances of the same layer animated in by changing the layer’s In Point, and the breeze was made using a Wiggle Expression on distortion points using the Puppet Pin and Puppet Starch tools.