Rolling dust cloud of stuff
by Ken Latman
on
Sep 10, 2006 at 11:26:44 pm
This relates to a post I put up a few days ago. I am working with card dance and have gotten my playing cards to move and rotate, but I just can't figure out how to apply the correct gradient or animated gradient to achieve what I'm looking for.
I want to have my cards start from the floor or bottom of the screen all in a pile and like a bunch of autumn leaves blow around in a swirling circle.
I can get them to look like there darting out at the camera, jiggle and what not, but I just can not figure out how to make a gradient work for me.
I've tried a fractal noise compostion with bubble type filter to warp it but that gives some mixed results. Are there any further explanations of how gradient ramps work in terms of postion with filters like card dance? I assume it is similar to a displacement map.
Re: Rolling dust cloud of stuff by Ken Latman on Sep 11, 2006 at 2:31:24 am
Thanks Steve,
I did go to this tutorial. This start you off. There are other properities to Card Dance that the tutorial doesn't go into. If there was more in depth, that would be great.
Re: Rolling dust cloud of stuff by Steve Roberts on Sep 11, 2006 at 2:46:44 am
Hmm ... I haven't spent a lot of time with Card Dance, but I tried to do what you needed, and I used a fractal noise map for the Z-position, increasing the multiplier over time to spread the cards out. I also used a vertical gradient (ramp) for the Y-position, animating so the cards come up from the floor. Also, I animated the X-rotation so the cards started flat, then faced the viewer.
I also used the comp camera, parneted to a rotating null to give the impression of cards in a vortex.
That's about as far as I got. Sorry, I have limited time right now. Hope that helps ...
Re: Rolling dust cloud of stuff by Ken Latman on Sep 11, 2006 at 2:54:10 am
Steve,
This is helpful.
I will try experimenting that way. I was only using one gradient map for both properties. Tne null camera parenting is a little confusing.
Your fractal noise map, is this very complex or just looks like a basic cloud pattern? I might have tried going too complex with many overlays of the filter and moving n a direction of curtain that I have seen in other tutorials.
I'm just about trying anything and see if it sticks.
Your help is very much appriecated.
I will keep trying.
Re: Rolling dust cloud of stuff by Steve Roberts on Sep 11, 2006 at 10:59:38 am
Well, for my little test, I just used the default settings for the fractal noise pattern, since I just wanted some randomness. It depends on what you want to see happen.
The null parenting thing is also used for orbiting around a layer: the null stays in the default position (if you want), and is rotated around Y. The camera is positioned some Z distance away from center (say, 600), then is parented to the rotating null. The camera is the child. Now the camera spins around the center of the comp, looking at the center. In our case, it looks as if the cards are spinning, not the camera.
