Ring animation

feher · January 05, 2012, 03:28:51 PM

What your gonna have to do is three renders.
1. is your metal(ring)
2. Your Diamonds
3. is a alpha render everything is flat black except your diamonds are going to be flat white.
In AE your bottom layer will be your ring.
Middle layer will be your diamonds
Top layer will be your alpha pass.
You will have to select the middle layer and have it use the alpha layer. What that will do is block out your metal(ring) but keep just the diamonds.
Render out your animation in AE and your done.
Hope that helps.
Tim
easier said then done right?....lol

Zander85 · January 06, 2012, 05:59:45 AM

Ed-Thanks for the tips. I have heard of these methods in After Effects but have yet to try them. Thank you I will look into it.

Ed · January 06, 2012, 08:59:04 AM

Yeah Zander - The Keylight (or chroma key or green screen or whatever term you choose to use) just turns the green into transparency.

So you should be able to use just two animation render passes: Your metal + green diamonds HDR#1 animation in the top layer, and your full animation with HDR#2 in the bottom layer. Green becomes transparent revealing your HDR #2 optimized diamonds.

You could probably hide the metal shank in animation render pass #2 for speed because I don't think having it alters the look of the diamonds - if anything it may let more light into the stones.

Basically the same thing as the Photoshop actions method you describe, but done all in AE rather than externally frame by frame.

Let us know how it works out.

Ed

Zander85 · January 06, 2012, 11:26:51 AM

Ed- Your spot on. That is exactly how I am working. I am gonna try and see how the batch and action features work in photoshop since I have already rendered the metal shank with a bright yellow. But I am working on several projects right now, but I will keep you guys informed with my progress. Thanks for the help.

Cheers
-Zander

Zander85 · January 06, 2012, 11:45:42 AM

Ed- Just got to try Chroma Key in AE. Good thinking! This was much easier then trying to set up actions in photoshop. So a big thank you to you for saving me a rather large head ache.

Ed · January 06, 2012, 11:52:12 AM

Cool - Love to see the results and hopefully you'll get close to the look of that original ring video you referenced a while back made by the "pros".

You may also want to experiment with adding a little motion blur in AE while you're at it.

Ed

feher · January 06, 2012, 12:34:14 PM

If everything is Flat green except for what ever you want to render won't the green reflect into your metal or diamaonds depending on your shot your doing?
Also you might have some halo's when you start cutting pieces and defringe will have to be applied. That's why I suggest keeping you bottom layer untouched without masks.
At any case good luck. You will find the best process that works for you.
My door is always open if you need some help.
Tim

Zander85 · January 06, 2012, 12:46:41 PM

Ed- I have a little bit of motion blur on there its starting to look pretty decent.

Tim- Thanks for the advice. I was able to bypass the reflection in the metal by creating my own custom "flat" material by altering an "emissive" material. The emissive material has a check box that allows the material to not show up in reflections. Also AE has great tools for green screening. I was able to remove the halo by tweeking the feather options and the edge options in AE.

So everything seems to be working pretty decently. I am still a ways from finishing the project but I will keep you guys posted if I run into more errors.

Thanks Guys!
-Zander

feher · January 07, 2012, 12:16:17 PM

Excellent, glad to hear your making progress on this.
You know I never thought of using a emissive and turning off the reflection. That is clever.
Learn something new everyday.
Can't wait to see your final animation.
Tim