Compositing Graphics

[budwzr]

So I had this epiphany today to make fancy 3D transitions using a particle emitter. So I made a bunch of white squares, animated them, set them to mask a photo, parented the tracks, so far so good.

I turned on 3D track motion on the parent, and made a tilt, but it looks weird because the still doesn't tilt. So how can I lock the still to tilt with the parent track? I'm puzzled.

[poisondeathray]

kids can be so bad, they never listen to parents

is this vegas ?

there is a separate button for the parent , "parent track motion" . It's below and to the left of the track number

[budwzr]

Yeah. hahaha. Good.

What if I want the picture to scale with the squares?

[poisondeathray]

Yeah. hahaha. Good.

What if I want the picture to scale with the squares?

Did you want the squares to scale with the parent ?

It's the same button, change the width/height parameters .

Or were you asking something else ?


Why are you doing this in vegas ? Wouldn't hitfilm give you more control ?

[budwzr]

OK, got it.

Hitfilm has some weirdities that I don't have my brain wrapped around. In HF, compositing isn't done at the tracks level, it's done in a "Composite Shot", which is like Parented Tracks in Vegas, but I haven't got familiar with it enough yet.

What I'd like to accomplish is a shatter effect, but no warping or shrapnel. I would want to use particles made of simple graphics like hearts, squares, etc. Also, I want the particles to lock to the graphic, not just act as a mask.

Remember the puzzle pieces? I abandoned that because it was too tedious.

If YOU were going to do this kind of thing, with only basic tools, no $3000 software, how would you approach it?

[poisondeathray]

OK, got it.

Hitfilm has some weirdities that I don't have my brain wrapped around. In HF, compositing isn't done at the tracks level, it's done in a "Composite Shot", which is like Parented Tracks in Vegas, but I haven't got familiar with it enough yet.

I suspect hitfilm will give you much more control and options, you probably have to explore more or RTFM

What I'd like to accomplish is a shatter effect, but no warping or shrapnel. I would want to use particles made of simple graphics like hearts, squares, etc. Also, I want the particles to lock to the graphic, not just act as a mask.

Remember the puzzle pieces? I abandoned that because it was too tedious.

If YOU were going to do this kind of thing, with only basic tools, no $3000 software, how would you approach it?

Probably I would use blender

But what do you mean by "particles to lock to the graphic" ? Did you want a 2D still picture "mapped" to the pieces ? But if they are hearts and whatever shapes (not squares or rectancles), how will they "fit" together before they are "shattered"? Did you want this 2D layers (like the example in the 1st screenshot) or real 3D pieces ? If it's 2D pieces, why not use the shatter plugin in hitfilm ?

The example of the puzzle pieces I did was fairly easy to do - because it was a simulation (no manual work or manually manipulating pieces with keyframes - it's all "automatic" because you set the simulation model parameters, like gravity , etc.. so you only have to use 1 or 2 keyframes - "start", and keyframing the camera motion. The puzzle pieces themselves do not have keyframes)

[budwzr]

But what do you mean by "particles to lock to the graphic" ? Did you want a 2D still picture "mapped" to the pieces ?


The example of the puzzle pieces I did was fairly easy to do - because it was a simulation (no manual work or manually manipulating pieces with keyframes - it's all "automatic" because you set the simulation model parameters, like gravity , etc.. so you only have to use 1 or 2 keyframes - "start", and keyframing the camera motion. The puzzle pieces themselves do not have keyframes)

Yeah, hearts wouldn't work.

I saw a transition on TV that used squares, kind of like the canned Vegas "portals", but it was made with rectangle/square particles. I knew they were particles because of the "model parameters", as you say, the motion was too good to be keyframed. Basically, the screen image broke into 2D squares that changed perspective and revealed the next scene. Both scenes stayed in motion during the transition.

Thanks for the input. I'm going to experiment some more.

[poisondeathray]

I saw a transition on TV that used squares, kind of like the canned Vegas "portals", but it was made with rectangle/square particles. I knew they were particles because of the "model parameters", as you say, the motion was too good to be keyframed. Basically, the screen image broke into 2D squares that changed perspective and revealed the next scene. Both scenes stayed in motion during the transition.

Can you describe it more clearly, the motion , or maybe find example on youtube ?

If it's 2D squares, and something on TV - it's probably after effects "cardwipe" effect .

[budwzr]

That looks like it. I don't remember the details of what I saw, but yeah, that one locks everything together, pretty cool.

I found a tutorial, and it went on for 10 minutes about making a couple layers, cutting out a graphic, blah blah, very basic stuff, then at the end "Apply the preset". hahaha. And the guy had this haughty tone, like he was actually "creating" something.

Anyway, HitFilm's partgen looks a lot like AE, but I suppose AE has a lot more of these presets, or plugins, yeah. Are these AE plugins ultra customizable? I'm thinking to just go ahead and grab AE. HF has a version 2 out now, but I doubt it uses plugins, they just mete out a few more features of AE each upgrade, seems like.

In fact, I think that's actually AE they're licensing the API and coding the GUI in HTML5. If you see any super deals on AE, can you give a holler? I'm gonna look too.

Thanks Amigo

[poisondeathray]

Anyway, HitFilm's partgen looks a lot like AE, but I suppose AE has a lot more of these presets, or plugins, yeah. Are these AE plugins ultra customizable? I'm thinking to just go ahead and grab AE. HF has a version 2 out now, but I doubt it uses plugins, they just mete out a few more features of AE each upgrade, seems like.

Yes, they are customizable, and AE has 2 built in particle systems, but they aren't that good compared to 3rd party plugin called Trapcode Particular 2 .
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/trapcode-particular/

Card Wipe isn't a particle system . Have a look here, was it sort of like these effects ?
http://videohive.net/item/24-card-wipe-transitions-full-hd-pack/64449

[budwzr]

Thanks, I'm looking at TrapCode.

Yeah, the cardwipe was like that, but looked a lot better.

Edit: TrapCode not available for Vegas.