Get the look of Trapcode’s 3D Stroke with no plugins!

So Trapcode’s 3D Stroke is a great After Effects plugin with a long history. And it’s only about a hundred bucks, so if you make a living animating just go buy the real thing. It’s a lot less hacky.

If you’re a cheap bastard, though, or if you enjoy using AE features in ways they’re not designed to be used, have I got the free preset for you!

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Shh! A sneak peek at what I’ve been working on…

So what exactly am I doing with all the mocap stuff I’ve been working on with KinectToPin + After Effects? Well… add in expression-controlled facial animation and using Dynamic Link to live-switch unrendered AE comps via Premiere’s multicam setup (I am kind of freaked out that this seems to Just Work), and it looks like we’re about to have an animated Actually Happening. Shhh!

 

I’ve been figuring this out as I go, but once I have all the elements rigged it should be almost trivial to make new episodes. Also I built the set in PHOTOSHOP which is ridiculous. I don’t have any proper 3D software on my laptop, so the table is all Repousse shapes extruded from rounded rectangles.

Kinect + AE: A better way to control the puppet’s head

So in my Kinect + After Effects tutorials I offer a couple ways to rig the puppet’s head, but neither one is an ideal solution: the first one leads to occasional face-stretching and the second to increasing the manual animation workload substantially.

But there’s a better way! Put the anchor point in the center of the face, and attach the position keyframe to the Head control point. Then apply the following expression (based on one originally found here) to the rotation parameter:

this_point=thisComp.layer("Spine").effect("Head")("Point");
that_point=thisComp.layer("Spine").effect("Neck")("Point");
delta=sub(this_point, that_point);
angle=Math.atan2(delta[1], delta[0]);
ang = radians_to_degrees(angle);
(ang+90)%360+transform.rotation

Now the head will rotate to match to the angle formed by the head and neck points, but without the weird distortion the Puppet Tool can cause. You can tweak the head’s attach point by shifting the anchor point.

Side Project: The Fix Helpline Video

Just completed a freelance animation project to introduce The Fix‘s new treatment helpline. Take a look:

Animation Test: Kinect MoCap with After Effects

I’ve been doing a lot of work with rigging Kinect-controlled digital puppets for After Effects animation. I’m using a combination of Nick Fox-Gieg’s KinectToPin for Processing and a bunch of expressions to smooth things out and make connecting pins to their source tracks a little less painful. I’m hoping to put together a tutorial soon, but in the meantime here’s a test render of a puppet created from a very old engraving:

TDG on TV

The Documentary Group has had several projects on the air in recent weeks:

America in Primetime is our four-part series that traces the history of television through different character archetypes. Here’s the trailer:

The entire series is now available in streaming form at pbs.org, along with tons of bonus clips and material.

Angle of Attack: How Naval Aviation Changed the Face of War was released in November through American Public Television and is now available on DVD. I did some snazzy opening titles for this one that I’m pretty proud of. Check out the trailer:

And if you’re a Dish Network or DIRECTV subscriber, be sure to catch Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, airing tonight on the Documentary Channel as part of their “Best of Doc” series.

A cat-bunny-thing(?) for your health

I’ve been sick. (Achoo!) I doodled this little guy bringing me tea on a napkin, and he was cute enough that I decided to trace him in Illustrator and turn him into a vector:

He needs a name! Best suggestion so far is “Schroedinger”.

After Effects Before & After: The importance of a lot of adjustment layers

So I’m working on some maps for a film about naval aviation, and I was struck by how far one had evolved from the starting material.

Here’s how it looks at the moment:

Here’s the underlying vector map layer:

And even that map began life as a set of even more boring public domain vectors. Everything else is AE-generated. (And yes, the size of Hawaii and Midway are exaggerated slightly for increased visibility on your television screen. Shhhh.)

Nothing is finalized yet; the map that actually ends up in the film could be more different still.

This Trailer Will Self-Destruct.

I’m working on something fun. We’re hoping to have it finished in the next couple days, but here’s a sneak preview:

It’s very noir-y. And there’s a scene in the film where I have pigtails…

Bowlive DVD: Check out the Trailer

The title graphics for this were a fun side project for me. I got to do some motion tracking and playing with type made out of lights. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product!