After effects question

[ingeborgdot]

I am trying to learn to use after effects (OMG) but anyway I have seen some pretty cool stuff and would like to do some neat things if I can ever learn. I was wondering if anyone would give me a little help with an idea I would like to do to begin a football highlight video with. I would like to do the helmet to helmet crash and explosion. Real original huh. What would something like that take?

[ingeborgdot]

I know this is a general question and tough to answer but could someone point me in the right direction. Thanks.

[budwzr]

What teams did you want?

[ingeborgdot]

I wanted to make it for our team and then a random helmet. I would have to somehow make our own as I don't think it would be out there anywhere. We have a columbia blue helmet with an SC on the side. Our mascot is the Beavers and we use a power beaver as the symbol.

[budwzr]

Do you have a picture? If not, do you have a still camera?

Take a photo of the helmet and post it here and we'll see if it's doable.

[ingeborgdot]

Would you like a picture of the helmet with the SC or without? Are you planning on showing me how or going to do it for me? That's a lot to ask of someone and I would hate to do that.

[budwzr]

The helmet doesn't matter. We can get a generic one from Google.

[ingeborgdot]

would this work. It was on the internet. Oops, it did not work.

[ingeborgdot]

Maybe this time.

[ingeborgdot]

One more time.

[budwzr]

What about the beaver tail, or whatever? Can you find that?

[ingeborgdot]

Do you mean the power beaver.

[budwzr]

I need a bigger one, that's too fuzzy. Increase the resolution.

What color is the helmet? Blue? And the "SC" is silver or gray?? Is it like the sample you posted?

[ingeborgdot]

This is the best I can do.

[budwzr]

Sorry, I can't work with that. Give me some better material, and I'll make you a nice custom helmet, or else hang around and see if somebody else can do the illustration work.

Advice: I would not use an image like in post #10, because the beaver insignia and lettering need to match with the helmet, and that helmet is "2D". You're better off with a flat helmet.

You need to trace the helmet in P'Shop, apply the color and insignia, flatten it, then save it with a transparent background in a .PNG format. Remember to save the "work file" separately so you can go back and use it later if needed.

I don't use AE, but the principles of animation are the same no matter the software. You basically use keyframes to direct the activity.

To crash the helmets, you use the Shatter effect, and that gets keyframed too.

This is all done along the timeline, and you'll probably need one track for the left helmet, and one track for the right, and use "track motion", or whatever AE calls it. You'll probably want to prerender the helmets coming together first, then you'll have a single track to do the shatter effect.

That's about it.

You'll probably want a little theme music. Here's something.

[ingeborgdot]

I guess it would not matter what helmet I would use. I don't know where to find one as I have never used anything like that before. If I took a picture of one would that be better? We would not need a power beaver at all as I think that might be harder to work with. I am really interested in getting something like this for an intro because it would really be cool to start off with something cool like this.

[poisondeathray]

If I took a picture of one would that be better?

It depends what you are going for or how you want to set it up. You really have to be more specific in what you want to do, there could be 1000's of ways to do this.

Planning is everything. The most important step by far.

In general terms , for animation, like budwzr said - it doesn't really matter what program you use. Most use keyframes, but there are other ways through expressions. You probably don't need After Effects for this.

For explosions, it's probably better to composite stock footage using real explosions. Computer generated ones tend to look fake, unless that's the "look" you're going for. They can be done with various particle generators and plugins. They vary from poor to almost realistic with lights, smoke

Sound effects are very important and often overlooked ; also small things like camera shake, smoke particles may help "sell" the composite more like sound FX



Anyways, you can clean up the image, upscale, antialias and blur the alpha channel edges . It should be good enough starting point for SD, probably too soft for HD, depending on how it fits into the composition. This is a png with alpha ready for compositing.

What about the beaver tail, or whatever? Can you find that?

I need a bigger one, that's too fuzzy.

EDIT: and here is "beaver". I know how budwzr is always on the lookout for big fuzzy beaver and tail

[budwzr]

Hey, nice job PDR.

OK, Ing, I'm a little busy right now, but I'll try to put something together for you later tonight. If you were using Sony Vegas instead of AE, I could just send you a project file and you'd be all set.

[M Bruner]

You see, there are several free 3D software packages available. My favorite is Blender 3D. You download a free 3D helmet model into it (Google it). Duplicate the helmet. Use a function called UV mapping to attach your school's emblem on the first helmet. Color the second helmet. Animate the first helmet into view, pan your camera to bring the second helmet into view as well. Make the helmets smash into each other. Record the video, and put the new video into After Effects. "Shatter" the video at the point of impact, add an explosion with an accompanying sound effect, along with Budwzr's music as well. Then you should have something like this:



http://www.4shared.com/video/SoUMtdpP/helmets.html

[budwzr]

@PDR Oh, I forgot to mention, yeah I do like a fuzzy beaver, although not necessarily big. :]

[budwzr]

You see, there are several free 3D software packages available. My favorite is Blender 3D. You download a free 3D helmet model into it (Google it). Duplicate the helmet. Use a function called UV mapping to attach your school's emblem on the first helmet.......

Yeah, but it takes six months just to learn the kooky user interface.

[budwzr]

OK, I'm working on the helmet. Please hold the silly banter for now. Thanks.

[budwzr]

OK, I have a rough draft: http://youtu.be/6Lo7z1Pd1c0?hd=1

Is this along the lines of what you wanted?

[ingeborgdot]

You see, there are several free 3D software packages available. My favorite is Blender 3D. You download a free 3D helmet model into it (Google it). Duplicate the helmet. Use a function called UV mapping to attach your school's emblem on the first helmet. Color the second helmet. Animate the first helmet into view, pan your camera to bring the second helmet into view as well. Make the helmets smash into each other. Record the video, and put the new video into After Effects. "Shatter" the video at the point of impact, add an explosion with an accompanying sound effect, along with Budwzr's music as well. Then you should have something like this:



http://www.4shared.com/video/SoUMtdpP/helmets.html

Cool stuff.

[ingeborgdot]

OK, I have a rough draft: http://youtu.be/6Lo7z1Pd1c0?hd=1

Is this along the lines of what you wanted?

Yes, this is what I was looking at. I like it. Nice job. I am looking at some doing some neat effects and this is a good start. How long have you guys been doing this kind of stuff?

I do use vegas pro.

[budwzr]

Cool! Here's the veggie and media. The Vegas file is in the zip.

[budwzr]

How long have you guys been doing this kind of stuff?

Seems like forever. PDR is the top NLE guru here AFAIK.

[ingeborgdot]

Also, the beaver does not need to be on the helmet. That is just our mascot but not on the helmet.
I will open it shortly, I am rendering the game right now but I will look at it sometime this morning, maybe 3 or so when I get done. Man, guys like you are awesome. Helping out us guys that just can't seem to get it. What did you use and how do you do it?

[budwzr]

Oh, OK, then just use the file that PDR made in post 17. Right click in Vegas on the file and choose "replace".

[ingeborgdot]

Oh, poop. I don't have 10 or 11 yet. I won't work on my vegas. Well, thanks. I will be getting vegas 11 shortly, when it comes out and they offer me a cheap upgrade.