Planar Tracking for After Effects

There's a lot of things you can do with After Effects' pixel-based tracker, but they require good footage and a willingness to experiment and tweak the tracks to get usable results.

The biggest drawback is that if any of the points become distorted (by motion blur, grain or perspective shift) or move off screen, you must resort to keyframing every frame. Enter the planar tracking technique, such as in Mocha.

Here's the reasons you want to use a planar tracker:
Mocha video tutorial by Imagineer Systems
Mocha AE video tutorial by Aharon Rabinowitz



The Mocha AE costs around $300, which is drastically cheaper than the full version of Mocha which goes for a cool $2.800. However, please note that it is a stand-alone app and not a plugin, and that it only does tracking and that the rotoscoping features from the "full" Mocha are disabled. Why the same name if the features aren't the same? You tell me...

You can fake something similar in After Effects if you are willing to put in a bit more effort, but you'll still not get away from AE's pixel-based tracker and it's quirks.

Oh, there's a great course on how to use these tracking tools over at fxphd.

- Jonas

Cinema 4D Resources

After years as a casual and frustrated user of Maya and 3ds max, I finally realized that being good at a "lower-end" software is way better than being a newbie of a prestigious vfx tool like Maya. The price, the cross-platform availability and the reported integration with AE made me turn to Cinema 4D.

I thought I'd share some resources I've found while trying to dig deeper into Cinema 4D, so here's a list of stuff I've bookmarked lately:

Ko Maruyama shows the flicker tool which is part of the free CSTools.

Lynda.com's basic training to get you up to speed on Cinema 4D.

Cineversity.com: Maxon's own online training.

JHT's C4D tutorials and great planet textures.

C4DTextures.com: Free textures and shaders.

Water drops on a surface.

C4D at 3DLinks.com.

http://www.c4d-links.de/

Tim "Hypa.tv" Claphams' C4D images, animations and tutorials.

C4DCafe.com's MoGraph introduction

Update:
the c4d base

C4D Portal

Please post your own tips in a comment!

- Jonas

Search and Place 3D models into Photoshop CS3 Extended

Here's a cool, free beta plugin that will let you search, preview and download 3D models from Google's 3D Warehouse, directly from within Photoshop CS3 Extended.

I haven't tried it yet, but I see this being really useful for quick news graphics.

Sorry for not having a screenshot to publish, but I haven't had time to install the released build of Photoshop CS3 Extended yet. The irony of sitting on the bottom floor of the Adobe headquarters (notice the overhead roadsign for bonus geek points) waiting to listen to Photoshop Product Manager John Nack, with only CS2 installed, isn't lost on me.

- Jonas

3D model by jw_n_mo
Thanks to Rich at AE Portal News for the tip.

Move After Effects' Camera Data to Cinema 4D

Finally there's a way to move camera data and animation plus nulls from After Effects to Cinema 4D. Since you can already export the same data from C4D to AE, the loop seems to be closed.

I'm a bit skeptic, since all the solutions I've seen so far create brand new scenes upon import, with no way of only updating modified parameters. What I really want is a seamless way to go back-and-forth between After Effects and the 3D software, tweaking the animations on either end and have the changes updated in the other.

I've been so busy I haven't had time to test either the previous version, or the newly released version 1.1 of Paul Tuersley's script, but it seems quite a feat to pull off!

Update: Paul has confirmed that the keyframes are in fact "baked," so you won't be able to go back and forth, tweaking the camera animation in either app and have that change updated in the other app.

However, Boomer Lab's recently informed me that their MAX2AE plugin can actually update the things that have changed on either side, which is très useful.

Update 2: Eric Henry has posted a different method

- Jonas

The Best Graphics Training Available Enters Term 4

If you only give yourself one thing this year, here's my advice: sign up for the new term of fxphd, the highest-level graphics training available online. Term 4 is just about to start (even though you can sign up later) with a bunch of interesting classes lined up. Not only do you get great classes, you also get real-world footage to work with (like 1080P motion control passes of miniatures shot by the DoP of "Superman Returns") that you can use on your showreel.



I've been a member since term 1, and even though I haven't been able to follow all the classes (the day only has 24 hours) my collection of classes is safely backup up on several drives, as I plan on keeping them for reference for a long time. I've even put them all on my iPod so I can learn something new every day.

Trust me, this is the best $300 you'll ever spend!



Complete Term Course Listing

• AFX221 - After Effects Design and More
• BKD204 - Background Fundamentals
• DRW201 - Character Drawing and Development
• FCP211 - Intermediate Final Cut Pro II
• FLM101 - Introduction to Flame
• FLM201 - Introduction to Expressions
• MAX101 - 3DS Max for Compositors
• MAX201 - Advanced Rendering and Mental Ray
• MYA203 - Intermediate Maya III
• PNT201 - Matte Painting Production Techniques
• PSD203 - Photoshop CS3
• SHK101 - Introduction to Shake
• SHK201 - Intermediate Shake I
• RTO201 - Rotoscoping Techniques
• TOX101 - Introduction to Toxik I
• TOX102 - Introduction to Toxik II

When you sign up, please enter "humlan" in your sign-up form under "Referring Member," which will give me access to an extra class (hmm, should I take the "Silhouette Roto" class or the "Matte Painting" class?)




fxphd tour movie

Podcast that discusses the different classes

- Jonas

Photoshop CS3 will open Videos and 3D Models

Adobe just announced that the CS3 version of Photoshop will be made available in two flavors, Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended. The public beta that's is available for free download is the regular version, so the extended features aren't made public yet.

No much info has been released, but the brief chart states that the extended version will have the ability to open and edit videos and 3D "content" (probably the textures.)

Of less interest to me seems to be another added tool set for counting and measuring.

Coming soon: Two editions of Photoshop CS3 (adobe.com)

- Jonas

Export from After Effects to 3ds max

Despite its name, the new version 2.0 of MAX2AE actually goes both ways, letting you start your designs in After Effects and at a later stage import the AE cameras and lights into 3ds max for further work, and then re-import into AE again.

As someone who has sort of left 3ds max for Cinema 4D just to get better integration with After Effects, this little nifty plugin sheds new light on 3ds max. If only I could get the damn Autodesk network license to work...

MAX2AE 2.0

- Jonas

Free Plugin for Relighting 3D Inside After Effects

Do you hate to go back and forth between your 3D app and After Effects, just to tweak the lighting so that it will match your composite? If you render out a quick normal map, you can easily and quickly move and change the lighting of your 3D renders.

Now there's a free alternative to the commercial ZBornToy and WalkerFX Channel Lighting. Stefan Minning has kindly released a set of plugins for free, called Normality & Reality, so check them out.

They're Windows only for now, the OS X version is apparently waiting for the Universal release of After Effects.

- Jonas