Friday, September 23, 2011

Look at that sweet Luma Matte Transition. Made From this:

Tuesday, September 13, 2011


 GRAPH 1 - The red line stands for the Position of an object along the X axis.

If the POSITION of the object is at the location 10 in X at frame 0, and at the location 80 at frame 60 (60 frames is 2 seconds)
Where is object positioned at frame 30?

HINT:  The RED straight diagonal line indicates that this is a linear motion.  Halfway through the time, the object is halfway
through the motion.    The  GREEN horizontal line indicates that there is no motion, because the value for the green line never changes over time.


At 45

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GRAPH 2 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object along the X axis.

The objects position value doesn't change very much at the beginning of the animation,
then towards the end, the values change quickly.   Does this graph represent an ease-in or an ease-out for the first key?

HINT:  When we think about ease in/out, it's best to think, "Ease Out of a Keyframe, and Ease In to a Keyframe"

An Ease-Out.

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GRAPH 3 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object along the X axis.

The objects position value change very quickly at the beginning of the animation,
then towards the end, the values change very little.   Which keyframe (first or second) has the ease in applied to it?
HINT:  When we think about ease in/out, it's best to think, "Ease Out of a Keyframe, and Ease In to a Keyframe"

The Second.

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GRAPH 4 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object along the X axis.

Describe the motion and direction of a ball using this graph for the X position.  

HINT:  Use frame numbers, and proper terminology such as linear, deceleration, acceleration.

Left to right with it Accelerating in the middle.


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GRAPH 5 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object along the X axis.

Describe the motion and direction of a ball using this graph for the X position.   Note the value of the first key.


From left to right with deceleration in the middle.

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GRAPH 6 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object along the X axis.

Describe the motion and direction of a ball using this graph for the X position. 

NOTE: The handles have influence on the curve.  The longer the handles, the more influence. 
The shorter the handles, the less influence.  The handle is always TANGENT to the curve at the keyframe.


Starting at the right the ball will shoot to the left, decelerate, and accelerate back to its origin.

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GRAPH 7 - The red line stands for the ROTATION of an object around the X axis.

Describe the direction of the rotation of the ball using this graph for the X rotation.  Use frame #s to help in your answer.

NOTE:  The handles are always on the 'outside' of the curve. That's because the quickest way between points is
a straight line, the handles pull the curve away from the straight line.

The object holds for 15 frames, rotates slightly forward decelerates and rotates backwards.

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GRAPH 8 - The red line stands for the SCALE of an object on the X axis.  (The Y and Z scale is at a constant 100.)

Describe the scale of the ball using this graph for the X scale.  Use frame #s to help in your answer.

NOTE:  The handles can be broken to achieve an abrupt change of speed like in the graph above.  To 'break' a handle, you can
click on the PEN tool in the tool bar, and select the CONVERT VERTEX tool.  (Looks like an upside down V )

The object scaled at -10% steadily increases scale for a second, immediately stops and eases out and accelerates ‘backwards’.
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GRAPH 9 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object on the X axis.  The green is the POSITION on the Y axis.

Describe the motion of the ball using this graph for both  X and Y position.  Use frame #s to help in your answer.

HINT:  Negative values in Y translate the object upward.  Positive values translate the object downward.

NOTE:  Red is the color given to the X dimension of the transformation... Just like the red arrow indicates the X axis.
Green is given to the Y dimension of the Transformation.   Blue to the Z dimension.

The object is moving left right constantly until a second in where it immediately stops and eases backwards, all the while moving upward.

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GRAPH 10 - The red line stands for the POSITION of an object on the X axis.  The green stands for the POSITION on the Y axis.

Describe the motion of the ball using this graph for the X and Y.  Use terminology and frame #s to help in your answer.

NOTE:  You can modify the handles on more than on keyframe at the same time.   So be careful when you are selecting keys
that you don't mistakenly adjust handles on keyframes that you didn't intend.

 The object moves constantly to the right for 15 frames and essential bounces in the opposite direction all the while it ascends gradually levels and descends slightly.

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GRAPH 11 - The blue line stands for the ROTATION of an object around the Z axis.  The object is the pendulum on a clock. 
The anchor point is at the top of the pendulum so it swings back and forth like you would normally see.

Describe the motion and direction of the pendulum using this graph for the Z rotation.

NOTE:  To have smooth transitions across keyframes, make sure your Handles are perfectly horizontal.  (like above)   
You can hold the Shift key down to keep the handles horizontal.   The last key should have had a horizontal handle to ease into the final position.

The pendulum swings backwards and forwards 3 times while slowing down.

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GRAPH 12 

Describe the motion and direction of an object if this graph was for the POSITION of an object.

NOTE:  Color determines the dimension!

The object moves from left to right consistently while it moves forward and backwards on it z axis all the while it descends.

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GRAPH 13 

This graph is impossible to create in After Effects, why?

NOTE:  Use AE and try it out.

The Z-axis can’t have two values at the same frame.

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GRAPH 14

This graph is a good representation of 'overshooting' a keyframe?   How does this graph represent the 'overshoot'?

NOTE:  If you don't know what 'overshooting' a keyframe is check out some traditional animation books.


The object reaches its final x value moves past and comes back to it, very gradually.
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GRAPH 15 

This graph represents the Y position of a bouncing ball.  Will this make for a good bounce?   Explain why or why not.


NOTE:  The name for this type of curve is call BEZIER.  Pronounced:  bez ee ay    (After Frenchman Pierre Bézier from Regie Renault) A collection of formulae for describing curved lines (Bezier Curves) and surfaces (Bezier Surfaces) , first used in 1972 to model automobile surfaces.  Curves and surfaces are defined by a set of "control points" which can be moved interactively making Bezier curves and surfaces convenient for interactive graphic design.    ["Principles of interactive computer graphics", William M. Newman, Graw-Hill]

No, the apex of arc isn’t centered, creating an awkward decline from the top.

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GRAPH 16 

Would this graph represent a good animation for the Y position of a bouncing ball.     Explain why or why not.


NOTE:   When you have the layer selected, and you are in the Motion Graph editor, you can see the motion path (line of connected dots)
in the composition window update instantly.
No, it’s upside down and the bars aren’t horizontal with the arc.


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GRAPH 17

If you had to 'fix' this graph so it would be a good bounce in Y, what would be three things you might do to fix it?  


Hint: Use the term Parabola in your answer.


I would move the 3rd key frame to be at 70 at the 30th key frame, I would extend the right arm of the 2nd key frame to create a more believable curve, and raise the value of the 4th key frame.

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GRAPH 18 

You've animated a ball bounce by hand, so you remember all the challenges of creating nice arcs, squash and stretch, good spacing.

And knowing a bit about how to read graphs, describe what you think the three curves represent.  What do you think the green curve
and the red, and the blue curve represent.



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Question 19

Why would you NOT use the keyframe assistant > Easy Ease to create all your animation?


I’m better than that. It’s lame.
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Question 20

Why is it so important to Separate Dimensions on a transformation when you are animating?

It gives more control.

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

1)  Your director has just given you a project to combine three videos from very different sources.    Source 1 appears to have every other line in the image offset, especially with objects that are moving fast. This was shot at 30 frames per second.  Source 2 is a PAL video.  Source 3 is an HD video shot at 29.97 fps.     
What would be the first question you would ask to be able to successfully complete this project?

"What format would you like the final format in."
What name is given to the process of bringing together sources of different formats and making them all the same format?

Conforming.

Why does Source 1 have a 'combing' effect, and what do you have to do to be able to use this footage?

Its interlaced, and you need change the fields.

2)  You just sent your client a finished AE project.  The video was requested in Standard Def.  The client says that the animation looks stretched out.  Their round logo looks squished.  You have to do it again.
What would be the first place you would look to find answers to solve this problem?

The source stats in the Project window will show all the details of footage.

What are two possible settings that might have caused the problem?

The Square pixel aspect, or the Region code.

Do you have to re-animate it?

No, just re-render.

3)  The project you just completed was thrown back on your desk.  Your technical director is frustrated because the logo you created is not keyable.  The background that should have been transparent, isn't.    

Where do you check to see what was actually rendered? 


Render setting in the Render queue.

What should have been the render settings to make the background transparent?

RGB+ Alpha.

How could you have checked this before you rendered the animation?
























A square button at the bottom view window.

Good things:

  Project info
  Composition Settings
  Footage Interpretation

Mixing footage of different aspect ratios can be fixed with these. Changing fps and the pixel aspect ratio can be changed in these settings in the project window and such. Conforming the footage can also do some fantastic things like removing the combing effect on certain interlaced file types.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Explorin sound 1B

So for this exploration I'm going with the eery, melodic tones of The Hive. My first thought was of a disparaging scene of a dark overwhelming void with cuts of severely blurred object to break it. Also, I'd like to play around with the idea of trimmed, pin like, shapes to create a tension onscreen to match the sound. Thirdly I'd like to look at how the the it might react to dim lighting but with color , but still with dredging slow crawl to push the tension.