3d photo effect historychannel style at DVinfo.net

Marcus Martell · November 9th, 2009, 11:33 AM

Hi guys,
first i gotta tell you i'm a total newbie in AE (for this reason i was aking you wich books to buy)....
Second: i'm totally obsessed on the fantastic world of the 3d picture effect.I tryed today for the first time(thx Andrew Kramer) to achieve that effect but (cause i'm a rooky) i have a few questions.I m able to move in the space those objects in the different layers but...
1: how can i add the blur effect to achieve a swallow depth of field on the different objects?
2:to have a preview i go to the play botton but i see that the footage is pretty slow....
Am i missing anything (my pc has an nvidia quadro and 4gb of ram)
any help for your spanish friend?
3: i'd like to export in hdv 1080 PALformat, could you drive me?

muchas gracias hermanos de dvinfo

Shawn McCalip · November 9th, 2009, 03:42 PM

Hi Marcus,

To create the depth-of-field effect, you'll need to create a camera. Go to Layer -> New - > Camera, and create a new camera using the default settings. Now, before you start changing settings on your new camera, make sure all of your photo layers are 3D layers- otherwise this effect won't work right. Once your photo layers are set to 3D, go back to your camera layer and open up the Camera Options drop-down. It should be directly underneath the Transform settings. Turn on the Depth of Field option, and now you're ready to start playing around!

The After Effects camera is kind of like a real physical camera. You'll need to tell it where to focus, and you'll need to adjust the aperture. To see what you're doing quickly, start by increasing your aperture until you notice the objects on the screen begin to blur. You might need to increase by a large amount, so don't be disappointed if you don't notice anything just yet. Once objects appear blurry, start adjusting your Focus distance. You can animate these functions, so you have quite a bit of control.

Your previews are playing slowly because After Effects is building the preview in your computer's RAM memory. It will render as long as your machine has available RAM, and will automatically play back once the buffer is full. If you're just hitting the Play button though, you're not going to play back at full speed. Build your preview by hitting the 0 key on the number pad.

When exporting from After Effects, I'd recommend exporting as a sequence of still frames rather than a HDV MPEG2. Still frames are easier to work with in your editing program, have no loss of quality, and perhaps most important of all, if After Effects crashes while rendering, you'll keep what you've managed to render up to that point. Whichever the case though, you'll find all those settings in Output Module within the Render Queue window. Got to Composition -> Make Movie to get to this window. The Output Module text should be visible underneath. In the Output Module settings, choose your format at the top. Additional options will become available depending on what you've chosen. If you have audio that needs to be rendered, be sure to check the audio Output box as well- it's set to off by default.

Hope this helps!

Marcus Martell · November 9th, 2009, 05:24 PM

My friend, thx for taking the time to answer my quests...
Mi first render ever of 3d pictures has just been a Failure.When i go to open with VLC i can see the screen splitted,on the left side a black screen on the right side a green....

Now i'm trying as you described....i'll let you know, 4 what mthat matters i need a file to drop on a HDV project

thx buddy

Shawn McCalip · November 10th, 2009, 02:53 PM

Hi Marcus,

Always glad to help when I can! I'm not familiar with VLC, so I'm not sure how much help I can offer in regard to that. Another rendering option is to render as an uncompressed Quicktime MOV file or an AVI file.

Not sure as to why you're getting the split screen with the black and green either. Although, you might be punching in the wrong settings. Have you tried rendering a Standard Definition DV AVI? You might try that first to see if you can get an image, and then go back and start trying different HD settings. Hope this helps.

Marcus Martell · November 15th, 2009, 05:15 AM

Shawn you were right, i rendered the file to quicktime format and now is viewable!Thanks a lot !but my powerful pc is still slow:(

have a anice weekend my friend and thanks for everything

MM

Marcus Martell · November 23rd, 2009, 02:43 AM

Do you know any useful script that could help me in DOF?

thx guys

Shawn McCalip · November 23rd, 2009, 05:58 PM

Hi Marcus,

I'm glad that Quicktime format worked for you!

What kinds of scripts are you looking for? I haven't seen anything for working with Depth of Field in After Effects...

Marcus Martell · November 24th, 2009, 02:31 AM

My friend, thanks again....
I heard about theese 2 scripts that allows to set the objects atomatically in the differebt layers and you can add depth of fiel blurring the layer (but i don't know exactly how those work).Thx

November 9th, 2009, 11:33 AM	#1
Marcus Martell Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: spain Posts: 1,202	3d photo effect historychannel style Hi guys, first i gotta tell you i'm a total newbie in AE (for this reason i was aking you wich books to buy).... Second: i'm totally obsessed on the fantastic world of the 3d picture effect.I tryed today for the first time(thx Andrew Kramer) to achieve that effect but (cause i'm a rooky) i have a few questions.I m able to move in the space those objects in the different layers but... 1: how can i add the blur effect to achieve a swallow depth of field on the different objects? 2:to have a preview i go to the play botton but i see that the footage is pretty slow.... Am i missing anything (my pc has an nvidia quadro and 4gb of ram) any help for your spanish friend? 3: i'd like to export in hdv 1080 PALformat, could you drive me? muchas gracias hermanos de dvinfo

November 9th, 2009, 03:42 PM	#2
Shawn McCalip Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Posts: 315	Hi Marcus, To create the depth-of-field effect, you'll need to create a camera. Go to Layer -> New - > Camera, and create a new camera using the default settings. Now, before you start changing settings on your new camera, make sure all of your photo layers are 3D layers- otherwise this effect won't work right. Once your photo layers are set to 3D, go back to your camera layer and open up the Camera Options drop-down. It should be directly underneath the Transform settings. Turn on the Depth of Field option, and now you're ready to start playing around! The After Effects camera is kind of like a real physical camera. You'll need to tell it where to focus, and you'll need to adjust the aperture. To see what you're doing quickly, start by increasing your aperture until you notice the objects on the screen begin to blur. You might need to increase by a large amount, so don't be disappointed if you don't notice anything just yet. Once objects appear blurry, start adjusting your Focus distance. You can animate these functions, so you have quite a bit of control. Your previews are playing slowly because After Effects is building the preview in your computer's RAM memory. It will render as long as your machine has available RAM, and will automatically play back once the buffer is full. If you're just hitting the Play button though, you're not going to play back at full speed. Build your preview by hitting the 0 key on the number pad. When exporting from After Effects, I'd recommend exporting as a sequence of still frames rather than a HDV MPEG2. Still frames are easier to work with in your editing program, have no loss of quality, and perhaps most important of all, if After Effects crashes while rendering, you'll keep what you've managed to render up to that point. Whichever the case though, you'll find all those settings in Output Module within the Render Queue window. Got to Composition -> Make Movie to get to this window. The Output Module text should be visible underneath. In the Output Module settings, choose your format at the top. Additional options will become available depending on what you've chosen. If you have audio that needs to be rendered, be sure to check the audio Output box as well- it's set to off by default. Hope this helps!

November 9th, 2009, 05:24 PM	#3
Marcus Martell Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: spain Posts: 1,202	My friend, thx for taking the time to answer my quests... Mi first render ever of 3d pictures has just been a Failure.When i go to open with VLC i can see the screen splitted,on the left side a black screen on the right side a green.... Now i'm trying as you described....i'll let you know, 4 what mthat matters i need a file to drop on a HDV project thx buddy

November 10th, 2009, 02:53 PM	#4
Shawn McCalip Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Posts: 315	Hi Marcus, Always glad to help when I can! I'm not familiar with VLC, so I'm not sure how much help I can offer in regard to that. Another rendering option is to render as an uncompressed Quicktime MOV file or an AVI file. Not sure as to why you're getting the split screen with the black and green either. Although, you might be punching in the wrong settings. Have you tried rendering a Standard Definition DV AVI? You might try that first to see if you can get an image, and then go back and start trying different HD settings. Hope this helps.

November 15th, 2009, 05:15 AM	#5
Marcus Martell Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: spain Posts: 1,202	Shawn you were right, i rendered the file to quicktime format and now is viewable!Thanks a lot !but my powerful pc is still slow:( have a anice weekend my friend and thanks for everything MM

November 23rd, 2009, 02:43 AM	#6
Marcus Martell Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: spain Posts: 1,202	Do you know any useful script that could help me in DOF? thx guys

November 23rd, 2009, 05:58 PM	#7
Shawn McCalip Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Anchorage, AK Posts: 315	Hi Marcus, I'm glad that Quicktime format worked for you! What kinds of scripts are you looking for? I haven't seen anything for working with Depth of Field in After Effects...

November 24th, 2009, 02:31 AM	#8
Marcus Martell Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: spain Posts: 1,202	My friend, thanks again.... I heard about theese 2 scripts that allows to set the objects atomatically in the differebt layers and you can add depth of fiel blurring the layer (but i don't know exactly how those work).Thx