I just had a client ask me to make a hibiscus flower bloom (they gave me a stop animation analogy). I've searched the cow, and found growing vine posts...but nothing about blooming flowers. Which was strange because I thought I remembered seeing some posts previously...hmmm...
I think that this is probably done in a 3-d app, but I'm an AE person. Is there a way to create a similar effect in AE?
Re: blooming flower effect by Steve Roberts on Oct 9, 2007 at 3:31:31 pm
If you want the flower to look Illustrative, adapt the growing vine tutorial. It's the same thing, only with petals, not leaves.
Now if they want it realistic or 3D, they should hire a 3D animator.
Heather, a big part of an artist's capabilities lies in knowing which effects can be achieved with which tools, even if the artist doesn't have those tools. It's part of client education. This requires a lot of research, and experimentation with editing apps, 3D applications and particles to name a few. Once you've messed around with those apps, you can say when it would be best to use 3D, even if it has to be farmed out to a third party. I'd advise all artists learn this before they run up against a roadblock (e.g. AE can't do water collisions) the night before delivery, when farming it out would have been better.
Re: blooming flower effect by Joseph W. Bourke on Oct 9, 2007 at 3:51:01 pm
Heather -
Sometimes it's easier to use practical effects to get the job done. I think it is probably easier to buy the time-lapse footage of a Hibiscus blooming than it would be to animate it, either in AE or in 3D.
Here's a reference shot from YouTube, should you decide to take the difficult route:
Here's a link to a guy who shot a Hibiscus himself - he might license it to you:
Otherwise you can use the above as reference footage. If you have Photoshop CS3, you can even hand paint your time-lapse using the footage in the background layer for reference. Good luck!
Re: blooming flower effect by heather Crank on Oct 9, 2007 at 3:54:31 pm
Thank you Joe, I really appreciate all the references. I didn't expect the client to ask for something like this, and it's really great to have the cow as a reference/sounding board. Especially when it's an area I'm not so familiar with...
Re: blooming flower effect by Paul Fechtmeister on Oct 9, 2007 at 9:41:37 pm
I couldn't help responding... there were some free after effects projects given out a time ago and it had a 2d...growing flower effect. It is kind of neat... may not be what you're looking for but who knows.
Re: blooming flower effect by Mike_S on Oct 10, 2007 at 8:30:19 am
This query reminded me of a project I saw on the Forge Freeform site recently ... though a question was raised over whether freeform plays nice with late / current versions of AE ...
