Loop Expression. Tutorial 4

Sometimes we need to place a loop on a certain motion, so that it is repeated over and over and over again. I needed to place such loop on my fishes, so that they would continually move in the water.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/layer_looping.php

http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/7832

The most common loop expression is loop_out("cycle",0) it means that the movement is going to be repeated as is.

Wiggle Effect. Tutorial 3.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/ae6_exp.php

Expressions are one of the interesting functions in After Effects. For example we can use wiggle effect to create a sense of liveliness and motion.

In order to make an object move randomly we need to use a wiggle expression. Wiggle expression can be placed on any transformation property. It can be places on rotation (and the object will rotate randomly), or position, or opacity and so on.

In order to place an expression on a position we need to command+shift click on the stopwatch. And when we get a line to place our expression we write wiggle(5,25). We can write any number according to our needs. The first number is the amount of wiggle movements or changes in the property per second. The second number is the amount of pixels, or values. 25 means that the range of the change is going to be from -25 to 25 pixels.

This week's tutorial on how to make a fish swim. Tutorial 2

By far, I found this tutorial to be the most helpful and it seems to produce the most realistic result.

http://cgswot.com/tutorials/vfx-tutorials/116-07-underwater-scene-in-after-effects-part-1.html#disqus_thread

In details, the video talks about the way we can make objects move more or less realistically. In an example of the fish, the first step is to divide a fish on several areas that are going to be moving. So, the head and the body, tail and back fin. Then we create a mask over a fish and set mask settings to none. then we copy the mask and move it to the next area of the fish, by dragging only one side of the mask. This way masks stay together and we do not see any stripes on the fish. After we make all four masks for four areas of the fish, we copy the fish four times, and delete extra masks on each fish, so that each one has different mask on it.
Then we set all of the masks on add, and set the spindle centers on all of the masks on the left edge if the fish is facing left.
The next step is to set up the parenting. The head is the parent of the body, the body is the parent of the tail and the tail is the parent of the back fin. After that we can set up the movement of the fin, tail and body and place a looping expression on the frame.

In Praise of Dissent. Process 10-18

Untitled from Natalia Zinser on Vimeo.

In Praise of Dissent (10-16)

Revision 2 11-15 from Natalia Zinser on Vimeo.

Motion Video Critique #9

A Very Vimeo Valentine from Doug Chang on Vimeo.


This time I chose a student work that talks about valentine day on a student's budget. I thought that the plot is pretty interesting and explicit.
Vith this video, I feel like the author starts out pretty strong, and even though there are some strange alignments (0:3, 0:23, 0:24) it started out pretty interesting. At the end, the transitions somehow faded.
I think that the transitions at the beginning of the video were pretty interesting, and dynamic.
I am not sure about the stylistic part though. Aesthetically, the colors are mostly pretty quiet and pastel. It is almost a Martha Stuart valentine day and not necessarily a student. The typeface choice is questionable too. Slab serif looks quirky, but it is also very stable and gives the video some scrap-booking feel.
I think that this video has a lot of potential, but it needs more work.

InPraiseofDissent(progress 10-12-2010)

Untitled from Natalia Zinser on Vimeo.