(P.S. below are self -reminders)
For this task there are two parts. Using tracker in aftereffects the program is able to identify a single point and follow it even if it is a shaky video. The best part id that when using these trackers it leaves a path - exactly like using position keyframes, including keyframes- and imagery and text could be attached to this (along with any animation or effects attached to those) and thus be unmoving in the video.
The process in using trackers in itself is really simple. First is right clicking the layer you wanted tracked and select 'track motion'. Open the tracker window from the window tab, select 'track motion' and a double layered square appears and if you click within the outer layer the square magnifies. You drag this square over the point wanted to be tracked. The inner square serves as the border for the area under tracking a small square = a smaller area tracked...I think XD Then you press the play button in the tracker window and it should follow the point through the video (should). This could be done in the middle of the video beginning etc. and the path of the tracker can be altered like the path of a position animation keyframe.
To attached images/text go back to the original composition window and place in file, drag the item/s focal point to where it should be in the video (a near the tracking point). Back to the tracking window, choose edit target, pick layer accept x/y (if text) and the file should follow the same path as the tracked point and remain still in the video. Many trackers can be present at one point and on the one image.
For the first part of this task there was a short shaky video of buildings and using the techniques mentioned above attach a text or image to the building and experiment with rotating the words. Despite using the tracker i find that in aftereffects the tracker tend to stray point no matter what method I use to try stop it (stabilizer, choosing colour differentiated area). In the end it was still shaky but the link between the text and a point was still slightly visible - I used a effect on the 'CI building text' it only made the whole thing due to the funny tracker, but I left it there as an example.
The second task is using motion tracking again but instead of tracking a point it was a square area that was being tracked and an image was to be placed in the screen (since the video was of a move computer). The process was the same as with the point tracker but the 'Track type' changed to parallel corner pin using the toggle button. Track a area meant that there was a change in border shape and as the area was tracked the outlines of the area tracked had to changed in the middle. Sadly for some reason I had the same shaky result as with prt one of the task
There is stabilizer which creates another point that is supposed to help keep tracker point consistent but it is fairly unhelpful during the task and can cause a bit of confusion in layers even if labeled.
Even if I failed terrible at this aspect of after effects it was fun to see how the feature worked - it reminds me of the TV advertisements where the text/words would follow behind people or swing out from buildings.
link;
http://www.vimeo.com/15055006
http://www.vimeo.com/15055550
Friday, September 17, 2010
Task 6 - Audio Keyframes
A simple task, there is an audio provided and we find an image from a previous task and converting audio into keyframes animated the character to 'bop' to the beat. By opening audio into keyframes it recreates the audio values but in key frames. These key frames can be copied into the character's position values via copy/paste but to be a different value (position etc,) you have to link it to the layer through 'expression'.
The character was then copied twice (one layer with audio key frames other not) and masked so that in the animated character only the top half can be seen and is joined to the non-animated bottom half of the other dog are together to create the 'full' dog image. When this is played the top half will move to the audio key frames while the bottom half is still creating the 'bopping' sensation. Also the audio key frames can be adjustment manually - I had intensified the reaction of the character to the audio keyframes by pullin up their values in the curve-keyframes
This concept of audio key frames is quite interesting and usefull tool, espescially in video - is this how they make those flickeringbackgrouns and edges during movies.
http://www.vimeo.com/15051066
The character was then copied twice (one layer with audio key frames other not) and masked so that in the animated character only the top half can be seen and is joined to the non-animated bottom half of the other dog are together to create the 'full' dog image. When this is played the top half will move to the audio key frames while the bottom half is still creating the 'bopping' sensation. Also the audio key frames can be adjustment manually - I had intensified the reaction of the character to the audio keyframes by pullin up their values in the curve-keyframes
This concept of audio key frames is quite interesting and usefull tool, espescially in video - is this how they make those flickeringbackgrouns and edges during movies.
http://www.vimeo.com/15051066
Task 5 - Temporal Graffiti
A 4 second video (100 frames). We were given an image and, finding our own images, were meant to animate the masks so that the images fade in and using multiply layer settings to make images semitranparent and lower saturation and curves in the effects so that colour will not over power - creating a graffiti effect that will fade in and out.
Animating the masks include the feather (hardness/softness) of the mask's edge, and movementof the animation by moving the points of the mask and timing the mask path. Inverting the mask means that the selection area reversed, the add toggle means that the area selected will be shown, while subtract is were areas highlighted would be hidden. This was how the images were able to animate in using masks. A second mask layer, which was animated to uncover images, is in subtract mode, so that when the subtraction mask (which was covering the image) animated away it revealed the image underneath - feathering was added to this so that is was a smooth removal of the mask.
With mine I decided a Japanese theme and picked old japanese images, I altered the edges of the images or changed their scale so that it appeared to ofollow the wall and was sprayed on. For the castle on the floor I only coverec the middle of the picture so that the edges was still visible (creating a stencil effect), squished the image's scale so that it was inlined with the floor and made the subtractive masks appear like clouds to suite theme.
1http://www.vimeo.com/14969618
Animating the masks include the feather (hardness/softness) of the mask's edge, and movementof the animation by moving the points of the mask and timing the mask path. Inverting the mask means that the selection area reversed, the add toggle means that the area selected will be shown, while subtract is were areas highlighted would be hidden. This was how the images were able to animate in using masks. A second mask layer, which was animated to uncover images, is in subtract mode, so that when the subtraction mask (which was covering the image) animated away it revealed the image underneath - feathering was added to this so that is was a smooth removal of the mask.
With mine I decided a Japanese theme and picked old japanese images, I altered the edges of the images or changed their scale so that it appeared to ofollow the wall and was sprayed on. For the castle on the floor I only coverec the middle of the picture so that the edges was still visible (creating a stencil effect), squished the image's scale so that it was inlined with the floor and made the subtractive masks appear like clouds to suite theme.
1http://www.vimeo.com/14969618
Task 4 - Kinetic Typography
For me this was a hard task, to ellict emotion I am use to using words in the video. So in this video I treated the words as if they were actual imatges and altered their size/direction to create imagery with the words themselves in the literal sense. The hardest part was trying to keep track of the camera, how it would interfere wi the light layer and if I made a image 3D..where would it appear?
For this week were taught how to create text, use camera and import audio for our videos. Importing the audio was no trouble, it acts the same as any other media file except to hear the audio the playback mode had to be used (which was slightly slower in my opinion) and that if the cache goes away or changes hell breakes lose. Creating text is again like an normal image by selection 'T' button you get into the text mode and when you type (unless you highlight an already exsisting text) creates a new layer. The best part about the text feature in aftereffects is that it can be edited in font and size anywhere, unlike photoshop, and all these features including colour can be animated. Now the camera is a tricky thinkg to use it creates a foreground and backgroun and let you zoom in past the image (not into the image itself), at an angel or turn the whole axis of the images that are set to follow the camera. Only images set to 3D layer and have will work with a camera. All features of the camera can be animated and timed.
There was also a l'ight' feature, which is similar to the camera in how it can be manipulated and moved 'in' 'out' and 'past' images, which also uses the 3D layer so if you use both in a single video, the camera will effect the light wether you want it to or not. Ligh can be adjusted/animated in the following features; intensity, shape of the light angle/position, 'zoom' ontop of the many usual tranfiguration settings. I placed my 'zoom' on high and created a flash flare by animating the path and intensity of the light.
More than one camera/light could be used at once since they are just like any other layer. Directionn such as left, rght, in, out, up, down are all representaed in 3D layers such as camera and light by different X,Y and Z values.
I myself don't like the camera besides the zomming in and out I find that all the rest of the movements can by replicated really easily using the simple features generally - it's much to confusinf not only to keep track of the camera values but changing it later on back into the defualt view.
1http://www.vimeo.com/15050995
For this week were taught how to create text, use camera and import audio for our videos. Importing the audio was no trouble, it acts the same as any other media file except to hear the audio the playback mode had to be used (which was slightly slower in my opinion) and that if the cache goes away or changes hell breakes lose. Creating text is again like an normal image by selection 'T' button you get into the text mode and when you type (unless you highlight an already exsisting text) creates a new layer. The best part about the text feature in aftereffects is that it can be edited in font and size anywhere, unlike photoshop, and all these features including colour can be animated. Now the camera is a tricky thinkg to use it creates a foreground and backgroun and let you zoom in past the image (not into the image itself), at an angel or turn the whole axis of the images that are set to follow the camera. Only images set to 3D layer and have will work with a camera. All features of the camera can be animated and timed.
There was also a l'ight' feature, which is similar to the camera in how it can be manipulated and moved 'in' 'out' and 'past' images, which also uses the 3D layer so if you use both in a single video, the camera will effect the light wether you want it to or not. Ligh can be adjusted/animated in the following features; intensity, shape of the light angle/position, 'zoom' ontop of the many usual tranfiguration settings. I placed my 'zoom' on high and created a flash flare by animating the path and intensity of the light.
More than one camera/light could be used at once since they are just like any other layer. Directionn such as left, rght, in, out, up, down are all representaed in 3D layers such as camera and light by different X,Y and Z values.
I myself don't like the camera besides the zomming in and out I find that all the rest of the movements can by replicated really easily using the simple features generally - it's much to confusinf not only to keep track of the camera values but changing it later on back into the defualt view.
1http://www.vimeo.com/15050995
Task 3 - Temporal and Spatial Montage
Mad Mack's advertisement - a 20 second mute advertisement for the company. Based on examples given the style for the advertisement was flashy and ..crazy (as mentioned). The animatating was quite simple - I stuck to simple transfiguration settings. This was totally redone after I did the 1st assignment, the movements were to slow and jerky to be really exciting and interesting as athis type of ad should be. I also used the wriggle effect alot for the bakground stars (it's really good at creating the exspastic look when used on top of rotation and scale animation).
Using effects are akin to using any other think aftereffects; there is a key frame layer which is used to time everything and adjustment can be made there or in the effects window to the side.
Overall nothing really stands out while doing this project (it was like doing a more elaborate version of the jump wall task). The hardest part was find images and fitting concept to the one theme.
http://www.vimeo.com/15041780
Using effects are akin to using any other think aftereffects; there is a key frame layer which is used to time everything and adjustment can be made there or in the effects window to the side.
Overall nothing really stands out while doing this project (it was like doing a more elaborate version of the jump wall task). The hardest part was find images and fitting concept to the one theme.
http://www.vimeo.com/15041780
All Tasks Complete! - Task 2 Temporal and Spatial Montage
Yay! as of now I was able to finish my second assignment early in time for my trip...although there is still some I'm not happy with.
First completed was the Temporal and Spatial Montage from week three. For this task we were supplied wioth 5 images and we had to animate at least one character from each picture to jump over a wall (which were also supplied with) in aftereffects.
The first step in the process was masking all the chracters I had wanted from each image. Since this was similar to photoshop's selection tools I did not have too much trouble creating a mask using the standard pen tool. Thinking back I had favoured using the standard pen tool all throughout the masking rather than using the gradient pen to create curved outlines. While less fidgety using only the standard pen to create curvews made the mask harder to animate of edit because all the higher number of points needed to create curved lines.
After masking I then opened the wall picture in photoshop and separated the wall in the foreground of the image from the background by layer via crop. The half of the picture was then saved as separately so that the characters can later bee seen 'jumping' behind the wall rather than in front - by jumping 'behind' the wall it adds dimension to the whole video and will appear realistic.
A new project was created in after effects, composition settings etc. and all the images were imported and places into the composition. The images were then scaled down as there too large for the composition size.
The images were then ordered according to the sequence I believe I had wanted for my composition (it changed quite a lot as ideas for the final video was developed). When ordering images/vidoes whatever is ontop while be the top layer. Therefore the fore wall from the 'wall image' provided was placed at the top of the list, all the character in between and the background behind them. This resulted in the characters jumping behind the wall but before the background from the image - had to be very careful about lining up the two halves of the wall image though.
To animate in Aftereffects keyframes are used to change the values of the object and it's effects against the time. Usually movement between these 'keys' are linear - since the animation could be represented as curves - and the shift from one key to another animation segment is constant. However there are other key types such as Hold - where the animation is held at the point until it snaps into the next section, Ease in - where just before the next key frame the animation slightly slows down, leading to a smooth transition into the current frame, Ease out - a smooth exit from the frame, slower beginning into the next keyframe, and the combination of both ease ins. Although it's easier and generally more natural to use the ease in key I found myself more comfortable using numerous keys to achieve the same affect so that the timing can be edited and perfected exactly later.
When picking my characters I decided for the most abstract poses so that I could have a bit of fun trying to to get them to interact with each other in the video.The first character I had animated was a female wearing exercise gear and also in starjump pose. I used the position keyframes to make her jump in growing jumps to the other side of the compositions in simulation of a daily exercise. Then just for the fun of it I picked I 'skater' dude and had him leap over the girl as she reached the end, using a bit of rotation animation. Then there was a guy who was seemingly sliding, so I did exactly that. I had the character skim through the air by lengthening the distance between where he left the ground and his landing. This also meant I had to change the path and 'strength' of the man's jump in comparison to the other character's that it would seem natural when he 'skid'. Later on, after the due date of the 1st assignment, I went back and made one of the men jump the dog character..just a crazy idea that pooped up while watching the telly. So that the man's leg could be over the side of the dog for the ride I created another mask to cover the dog's hide in the shape of the leg - this had to be timed as the dog would have had a hole in it's side when I first jumped over the wall.
Motion blur - an effect that picks up on fast movement and creates a speed blur - was used so that all character's jumps would have that realistic touch.
When creating this video the hardest part was not the actual animation but preparing the images and creating a concept before beginning - the animation only takes a long time to complete but it's not that difficult at this point.
link to task 2 - http://www.vimeo.com/14921858
-we were also taught how to create solid shapes in the Tutorial which can act both as backgrounds are as characters in themselves
First completed was the Temporal and Spatial Montage from week three. For this task we were supplied wioth 5 images and we had to animate at least one character from each picture to jump over a wall (which were also supplied with) in aftereffects.
The first step in the process was masking all the chracters I had wanted from each image. Since this was similar to photoshop's selection tools I did not have too much trouble creating a mask using the standard pen tool. Thinking back I had favoured using the standard pen tool all throughout the masking rather than using the gradient pen to create curved outlines. While less fidgety using only the standard pen to create curvews made the mask harder to animate of edit because all the higher number of points needed to create curved lines.
After masking I then opened the wall picture in photoshop and separated the wall in the foreground of the image from the background by layer via crop. The half of the picture was then saved as separately so that the characters can later bee seen 'jumping' behind the wall rather than in front - by jumping 'behind' the wall it adds dimension to the whole video and will appear realistic.
A new project was created in after effects, composition settings etc. and all the images were imported and places into the composition. The images were then scaled down as there too large for the composition size.
The images were then ordered according to the sequence I believe I had wanted for my composition (it changed quite a lot as ideas for the final video was developed). When ordering images/vidoes whatever is ontop while be the top layer. Therefore the fore wall from the 'wall image' provided was placed at the top of the list, all the character in between and the background behind them. This resulted in the characters jumping behind the wall but before the background from the image - had to be very careful about lining up the two halves of the wall image though.
To animate in Aftereffects keyframes are used to change the values of the object and it's effects against the time. Usually movement between these 'keys' are linear - since the animation could be represented as curves - and the shift from one key to another animation segment is constant. However there are other key types such as Hold - where the animation is held at the point until it snaps into the next section, Ease in - where just before the next key frame the animation slightly slows down, leading to a smooth transition into the current frame, Ease out - a smooth exit from the frame, slower beginning into the next keyframe, and the combination of both ease ins. Although it's easier and generally more natural to use the ease in key I found myself more comfortable using numerous keys to achieve the same affect so that the timing can be edited and perfected exactly later.
When picking my characters I decided for the most abstract poses so that I could have a bit of fun trying to to get them to interact with each other in the video.The first character I had animated was a female wearing exercise gear and also in starjump pose. I used the position keyframes to make her jump in growing jumps to the other side of the compositions in simulation of a daily exercise. Then just for the fun of it I picked I 'skater' dude and had him leap over the girl as she reached the end, using a bit of rotation animation. Then there was a guy who was seemingly sliding, so I did exactly that. I had the character skim through the air by lengthening the distance between where he left the ground and his landing. This also meant I had to change the path and 'strength' of the man's jump in comparison to the other character's that it would seem natural when he 'skid'. Later on, after the due date of the 1st assignment, I went back and made one of the men jump the dog character..just a crazy idea that pooped up while watching the telly. So that the man's leg could be over the side of the dog for the ride I created another mask to cover the dog's hide in the shape of the leg - this had to be timed as the dog would have had a hole in it's side when I first jumped over the wall.
Motion blur - an effect that picks up on fast movement and creates a speed blur - was used so that all character's jumps would have that realistic touch.
When creating this video the hardest part was not the actual animation but preparing the images and creating a concept before beginning - the animation only takes a long time to complete but it's not that difficult at this point.
link to task 2 - http://www.vimeo.com/14921858
-we were also taught how to create solid shapes in the Tutorial which can act both as backgrounds are as characters in themselves
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