After Effects Animation Questions

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Following on from this thread . . . .
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/flash-animation-questions.308960/

I have quite rightly abandoned flash and turned to AE to enjoy some animation folly and learning. Much quicker and easier times one million.

Yesterday I scanned in a paper doll and made is sing and wobble it's head.

It's quite a simple doll, but it can do more than just stand there.
I guess I need it to interact with an environment that in some way will be an optimal teaching / learning tool for me.
Any ideas?
I guess there can be cut scenes and panning and whatever.
What essentials should I include to best teach me about how AE works?

 

[alsoknownas]

Hey nice animation. You have the basic feel of breathing life into a character. That's the very hardest thing - good stuff!

I'll have a think about more technical stuff when I get a mo. (not that I'm an expert, but I'm learning AE as well).

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Hey nice animation. You have the basic feel of breathing life into a character. That's the very hardest thing - good stuff!

I'll have a think about more technical stuff when I get a mo. (not that I'm an expert, but I'm learning AE as well).

Thanks.
I have used AE for small things before like crappy video effects, but have found it had to manipulate. Doing this brief animation has taught me to think much about the way AE works.

I think I need to do some landscapes with different objects set at different distances, I can't figure that out yet.
Also I was thinking of trying a sky or something with star holes that I could shine a light through. No idea how to approach that yet.
I guess I will just make the rabbit girl thing just walk along to the music to the last part or something.

I doubt I will get much done fast because I have no idea what I am doing.

My daughter (who incidentally is the vocal artist) is now enjoying playing with the actual cut out bits of the doll. She looked at the video and said "Is that it?"

 

[alsoknownas]

My daughter (who incidentally is the vocal artist) is now enjoying playing with the actual cut out bits of the doll. She looked at the video and said "Is that it?"

Sounds like some clients I have known .

 

[elbows]

I dont actually use after effects myself at all, so I cant give you precise pointers. But as far as I know after effects does have a proper sense of 3d depth these days, there will be a way to adjust the z position of objects to have them closer or further from the camera. You may also learn a thing or two about a particular technique of creating the illusion of depth when scrolling the camera by searching for the term 'parallax scrolling'.

As for what else to make your character do, I guess one ambitious way to learn limb stuff would be to have it juggle some objects.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I dont actually use after effects myself at all, so I cant give you precise pointers. But as far as I know after effects does have a proper sense of 3d depth these days, there will be a way to adjust the z position of objects to have them closer or further from the camera. You may also learn a thing or two about a particular technique of creating the illusion of depth when scrolling the camera by searching for the term 'parallax scrolling'.

Yes, I have seen it is possible but I have no idea how to do it. I'll see if I can find some videos to watch tonight.
It is apparently also useful for faking smooth face turning movements if you keep the 'camera' in the right position.
However the movable camera option is completely beyond me at the moment.

As for what else to make your character do, I guess one ambitious way to learn limb stuff would be to have it juggle some objects.

I think that would be quite easy actually, (relatively), I mean I know exactly how to achieve it without looking it up. Still it will probably look kind of cool so no harm in sticking it in when I get the time.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Today in my spare time I had a quick go at adding a starry night changing to daytime and some clouds and stuff.
Holy mackerel. The render time was instant until I added a little glow to the stars and shine on the sun. Then everything came to a stand still.
I imagined this would be the easy bit but it's been like walking through mud and doesn't even look all that great.
I'm rendering it now and it reckons it's going to be half an hour.

I used to work with that director chap that made the film monsters (all the effects he did at home on his computer). He was always rendering something on his computer at home. I remember we made something much easier than this and it took days (and if there was a slight error we would have to start again). I should be grateful.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

WHat the hell . . . one hour 20 minutes now.
I need a bigger computer.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Arrhhh, 2hours now.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Ok so not a lot of time to mess about on this today, not least because I put a glow effect on the stars and moon (which exploded into a brightness and became a burning sun). This gave it a five hour render time that then crashed my ram.



Currently looking a bit duff. Starting on the moon and then going into the moon? Ugh.
I guess she is going to jump into something or other when I get the time.
I took the glow and light effects off so that I could render it and actually see what I was doing.

All part of the learning process I guess.
The animating bit takes next to no time. I should have done a full story board before I started. I just kept going blank though.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

No time to spend on anything today really, but I was pleasantly pleased that I managed to turn a stick and two daffodil petals into a moving butterfly puppet in about five minutes. Not an amazing addition, or particularly impressive, but quick and relatively 'fun'.



I guess I could fill the screen with them later.
I just wanted something less boring than just panning back up to the moon.

I still need to find time to read up / watch vids on the perspective and camera tools.
Got to go now though, I guess I will eventually get onto that later.

 

[alsoknownas]

I'm enjoying this. And actually it's giving me some ideas for furthering my AE learning. At the mo I'm just fiddling about with bits of footage, or doing very specific little jobs for work; but doing an animation project would be a good way of extending my skills and trying out some new stuff.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I'm enjoying this. And actually it's giving me some ideas for furthering my AE learning. At the mo I'm just fiddling about with bits of footage, or doing very specific little jobs for work; but doing an animation project would be a good way of extending my skills and trying out some new stuff.

Yes, I guess it is useful to have some sort of goal to use as a sort of tutorial.
I too have tinkered with AE for work before but never really got my teeth stuck into it. Already, if asked, do a lot more than I could last week.
Shame I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to it.
I have just cut some 'cups' out for her to jump into, but they look really shit and out of place (photos).
I think I should stick to scans. I should probably stick to pictures of real sky too, rather than the one I drew. My photoshop skills are not quite as, well, let's say charming.

 

[Silva]

Instead of pictures of the sky, I'd try a video timelapse, it looks a lot better and fuller than a moving photo. Using the find edges tool and maybe some colorization you can give it a more cartoony look.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I added some more butterflies and some horrible cup photos.
All looks a bit messy if you ask me.
I should probably stick to cut outs and scans.



I guess I will keep them for now and add something else when I do more backgrounds (and finally get around to watching a camera / 3D tutorial).

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

No time until tonight to have a look at AE, and I have finally got onto the 3D.
OK, so I see how to do all the camera moves now and I can see how it can look impressive quite quickly, but there is so much to fanny around with in the camera, and having only spent an hour looking at it I can see I will need to spend a few more getting proficient at using it correctly.
I ripped up a couple of bits of paper and wotnot and made a sort of quick backgound.

I can see that it would be a useful tool for characters to give them easy (but fake) feature movements in the head.

I can also see that I should have damn well done it all in 3D from the start for all the close and distant shots I wanted to do. Anyway it's all part of the learning process etc. I will probably just sort out all the shit camera, add a couple more things and draw a line under this one and start on something else after tomorrow.

I'm just looking at it render now, and I can see the background is all damn well out of focus for a start.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

AE can make some really top notch stuff.. some of my ... er... non mainstream anime is done in AE and it looks great

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

AE can make some really top notch stuff.. some of my ... er... non mainstream anime is done in AE and it looks great

I thought my computer was pretty handy but it seems to be blowing a gasket rendering this shitty background. I would hate to see what would happen if I took things up a level.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

yeah. it's amazing how time consuming this stuff can be. not that long ago if i wanted to convert a video to a different format i was an overnight job. and normally knocked the audio out of synch.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

yeah. it's amazing how time consuming this stuff can be. not that long ago if i wanted to convert a video to a different format i was an overnight job. and normally knocked the audio out of synch.

I authored a DVD a while back (in adobe) and though it was all ready to go and burn (I could watch the DVD as it was on the computer) but then it took all sodding night and the next day to render (or whatever it was doing).

And yes some format changes (which I can't be arsed with anymore ) used to take all night (and then crash).

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

I basically gave up on format conversion. fucking audio synch problems.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Bum bags, it just isn't right at all.

Looks all wrong, but at least I can see it now.
Phew, bed time.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

the butterfly transition looks wrong

perhaps a big flock of them right in front of the camera instead of the odd pan and zoom?

the background isn't too bad except the back is bit too blurred

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Did a walk today and made the 'cups' '3D'
Humm.
That walk is well wrong. I knew it was going to be a bit rubbish because it does not have a bend on the foot, but it looks bad on the ground.
I guess I will zoom in or something.

 

[moon]

I learnt ae through videocopilot.. Tis fantastic http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

 

[moon]

Here is someting i made using ae and other stufF
<content removed at request of poster>

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Here is someting i made using ae and other stufF

That's odd, what is it?

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I learnt ae through videocopilot.. Tis fantastic http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

And that looks like it could be very useful.

 

[moon]

That's odd, what is it?

Plants in my garden plus lots of camera and digital trickery

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

OK I am going to draw a line under this one now. I have made a few mistakes but I think I have learnt enough to not make them again.

Next time I will make a 3D environment straight away as the main stage. Then the animated objects can be placed into that.
I made the mistake of having the backgound as a nest that was animated on it's own. What was I thinking?

Also despite my best efforts it seems to go in and out of focus at times.