Photomontage effects
 

I viewed a photomontage here a while back that must have been done in After effects. It had an abstract background image and then several baby pics on top and the camera "flew" through the pics. The pics also rotated and zoomed in and out...very cool!

I can't seem to figure out how to do this in After effects. Is there a tut or something that might be able to help me out?

There is a "bonus" tutorial in Meyer's "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects" 3rd addition volume 1.

Basically you are creating layers from your shots in Photoshop. For example, in a shot with a person in the foreground, you might choose to select the person in one layer, then fill in the background behind them to complete the second layer. These layers are imported into AE 6.5 (which supports this). You then separate and animate the layers in AE, add your camera movements and you're set.

Edit: Here's a free tutorial from Adobe

Howdy,

Go here and tell if this is the kind of thing you are talking about:

www.TTDWeddings.com

Go to the demo page and look at the "quirky montage". This is created in AE with a little reading from the Meyers books. It is really just placing layers in 3D space then flying a camera around them. One tip to make it easier in the beginning is turn off auto orient on the camera layer

Ctrl>Alt>O and select off.

Once you get the hang of it you can mess with orientation. If I get a moment I might be able to send you a project file but it may be a little bit.

Cheers

Mike

Hey Mike, that was something i had in mind too, if you don't mind could you pass along the project file? The other one i was doing was pretty much start out on a single picture, then it would zoom out slowly showing a mosaic of other pictures. Finally the screen will reveal a mosaic picture of the subject. I use a mac and an ok program i got to do the mosaic was MacOSaiX. But that montage of yours is very impressive.

thats some nice work Mike, very impressive.
I like the site too but one thing you should change ASAP, is in your source code.
you need to change the following lines...

<title>Merge Template</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

Change that code to this - of course, change the bold words to what fits for you :)

<title>Calafornia Videographer Todays the day Weddings- Professional Videography</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="keywords" content="add key words here that work for you along with these ones professional, wedding videography, wedding videos, events, weddings ">
<meta NAME="description"
CONTENT="Todays the day wedding Video Productions. YOUR LOCATION based video company serving YOUR AREAS with professional Wedding Videography.">
<meta NAME="OWNER" CONTENT="YOUR EMAIL">
<meta NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="YOUR NAME">
<meta name="distribution" content="Global">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="30 days">
<meta name="robots" content="All">
<meta name="rating" content="General">

Good luck
Dave

David -

Err, I am pretty much a web illiterate so fill me in here. I think what I see you suggesting is for search purposes not some security problem - right?

I guess what I am asking is should I be panicing about a security issue or praising you for some great bussiness advice? I mean, I thank you very kindly either way but just want to know how immediate this should be.

Much appreciated!

Mike -

You will need to email and remind me about the project file next week. I am gone till then and will forget. Just email to the address at the website. It is an After Effects project file - do you have AE?

Mike

no security, its search and esthetics,

The 'title portion' shows up when people
a: bookmark your site - you would like them to se your company name and not the template-
b: on your browser bar at the bottom
c- the content part... if someone searches your site, that content is what shows as the description of your site..

Do change your 'title" portion at the least on all your pages, you do nice work and as they say, you only get one chance at first impressions.

Take care
David

Dave, good tip!

And since you are from Canada we will let it slide, but he should put "California" and not "Calafornia," LOL

you mean Kanuhduh :)

You guys are smart enough to have health care, so I ain't putting a "duh" anywhere in the name!

Mike Cook
 

Mike,

The montage on your website is the effect I was talking about. Great job!! I have also seen this effect on Fox Sunday Football promo's.

It would be great if I could get the AE file from you to look at. I will send you an email addy.

Thanks Dan

ive always loved ur work Mike, and your attitude to the work itself is refreshing considering the typical attitudes and mentalities to what a wedding video "should" be...

keep it up mate :)

Thanks for all the kind words folks, it is appreciated.

And thanks also for the web info. I have not had the time to learn much about it other that designing it. All the code stuff is beyond me right now but I will heed your advice and get on it.

For you two who were looking for project files, I will be back in town later this week and try to get them to you. Again, if you don't hear from me, drop me an email and I will shoot them out. I seem to forget alot lately!

Cheers

Mike

Cool Stuff Mike! So out of curiosity, how much time did it take to create this clip? ML

Hello Mike,

That's a neat work you'ave done... thanks for sharing...by the way, i have sent an email to your site address. would there be a chance of sending the project file you have mentioned earlier? thank you very much, appreciate your kindness. Thanks again.

Errf. Just got done with a huge project and sent that file off to those who sent me an email. If I missed anyone, just drop me an email and I will shoot it right off. I have it handy now.

Sorry about the delay, just a little under water lately....

Cheers

mike

Thanks! I'll be sending out an email.

Hiya Mike? Could you send me the project file?

christopherccruz@aol.com

Hi Mike could you send me out the file as well please?
Paul
locktightalarms@hotmail.com

Me too
 

Nice job Mike!

I wouldn't mind seeing how it's done too...can you also send to fpit10@hotmail.com.

Thanks.

Frank.

Hi Mike your Awesom. I have shown that to so many people. If you arent to tired I would really appreciate the file also. Thanks for sharing I have been very inspired by your work. TAG e-mail is tag@pumacomm.com

Hey folks,

Just an update. I am no longer giving out the project file since I found it being passed off by someone as their own. Not from this forum I am happy to say.

At any rate, I am happy to answer any specific questions and Maybe I will do a tutorial project to pass out later.

Thanks again for all the interest!

Mike

Sorry to hear about this, Mike, but I'm glad that it wasn't one of us that did it.

Thats really annoying when you are good enough to give out the project file and someone goes and ruins it all for the rest of us, I would have loved that file.

Look forward to your tutorial when you get a chance to do it Mike.

Paul

Well, so it goes. It will not stop me from trying to help out, I just have to be smarter about it. Tutuorials may be a better way anyhow as the old saying goes

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life....

Mike

Very true,

And on a further note to do with the project file "What do you expect from a cow.....only a kick" you do people a good turn and its threw back in your face.

I for one am going to buy AE and hope to get some help with the montage effect from you as well if its alright, just one question is the standard version alright or would the pro version be best?

Thanks
Paul

Yup, standard works fine. The only thing that will slow you down a little is the "exponential keyframe assistant" which only comes with the Pro version. It helps out with scaling and zooming naturally. You can achieve similar results by tweaking velocity graphs manually, it just takes time to get it right.

Make sure you get Chris and Trish Meyers first book (3rd edition) along with AE. Hands down the best starter book on AE out there.

Mike

Thanks for that Mike.

Paul

Mike,
Just curious how long it took you to create those photo montages. Also, how did you syncronize the music with the effects? Did you do it in AE or your NLE? I'm very new to AE and just ordered the Meyers book.
BTW, very nice work!
Bob

Bob,

All done on AE. I would guess that one has about 40 hours in it but someone good and quick with AE could do it much faster. I just enjoy it.

Synching with the music (copyrighted by the way - I dare you to hijack this thread.....) is pretty straight forward. In AE if you open up the music track you can expose the waveform and just go from there. I think the Meyers book covers that. If it does not, I will send you an AE project file showing it.

Have fun and get ready to waste days and days.....

Mike

Thanks Mike,
I know what you mean...AE is complicated but addictive.

Seems like there has to be a lot of scanning, planning, creativity and PS skills involved before you even get to AE. Forty hours sounds like you're extremely accomplished and your work is the evidence.

I tried importing music into a test file and then used the asterisk key to mark the timeline. With that, I was able to at least line up some simple effects on other layers with the tempo. At least it's a start but I can see AE helping to add value to our wedding movies next year.
Bob

Hey Bob, I just saw you are in Somerville! I grew up in Concord, left there is '90. Groovy.

Mike

Hi Mike,
Always nice to meet a fellow New Englander. Concord's a very nice town but well out of my tax bracket.

We're planning a move to AZ hopefully by this time next year. Can't take these winters much longer.
Bob

the 'quirky montage'
 

Bravo, Mike. Your 'quirky montage' was just the inspiration I needed to get back into AE. Thanks-and keep up the fine work.
Vin

Great job Mike.Very creative work..u really broke out of the box!

I love after effects. I suggest anyone who wants to learn buy a how to DVD set. I bought one from Total Training and it's great! I would highly recommend it.

Here is a project that took me about 10 minutes. Not as cool as the one from Mike but its a start. I have been using after affects for about a month, so be kind, 20 sec clip. It's a background picture and three pictures, kind of the fly through effect type.

http://www.trulux.com/dvinfo/effect.wmv

Jon

I was thinking of buying that set of DVD's myself but they seem a lot of money, but I suppose if you payed for a ono on one training of the same length they are for nothing.

Your project looks to be on the right tracks like Mikes and in only 10 minutes you got a lot done. What program do you use for the edges on your photographs?

Paul

Real nice job, Jon! Thanks for posting that. I figured anything like that was beyond me. Now I'm feeling inspired!

Keep up the good work!

I use AutoFX Photographic Edges 6.0 for my edges. I really like that program, it's a great plug in for Photoshop. Makes edges in seconds.

Jon

It begins......

Now prepare yourself for endless edit sessions and throwing tremendous amounts of time out the window. Things you can expect:

You will spend 2 hours tweaking a four second segment
You will kill a whole day reviewing and playing with effects
You will destroy a whole week trying to rebuild something you saw somewhere
You will create some amazing and very satisfying bits.

Have fun

Mike