I'm trying to figure out how to do an effect like in the game Super Paper Mario. The game lets you switch between 2d and 3d. When in 2d, nothing have any depth, its all just perfectly flat. You can see it in this video if you skip to 30 seconds in:
Re: Super Paper Mario 3d effect by Justin Productions on Jan 5, 2008 at 12:37:48 am
Hey,
Of course this can be done (except that I wouldn't recommand to do the 3D objects in AE).
You could use Photoshop/Illustrator for the graphics for the 2D view and, for the 3D objects, use a very basic 3D program (Blender comes in mind) in wich you'd import the animated textures you made with After Effects/PS.
This doesn't look like a project you could achieve in one day. There aren't millions of details, but on the 2D view, the objects are pretty well...defined and well animated.
Good luck.
Justin Productions
Tangerin01@hotmail.com
Adobe After Effects 6.5 Professional
Re: Super Paper Mario 3d effect by Alan Clontz on Jan 5, 2008 at 1:20:41 am
Well, I'm not planning to set up a complex scene or anything. I don't think you understand the problem though. In the 2d view, there is literally NO depth, and I'm not sure how to switch from something like that to a 3d scene. It's more complicated than just showing the front of the scene, and then flipping the camera around to the side.
For instance, if you build a scene in 3d, lets say you have one box back in the distance, and another box in the foreground. The boxes can be the exact same size, but in a 3d view, one of them will appear larger than the other because it is farther away from you. In the 2d view though, they should always appear exactly the same size though, because the concept of "farther away" doesn't exist. Does that make sense?
Re: Super Paper Mario 3d effect by Alejandro Torres on Jan 5, 2008 at 1:35:22 am
Hi.
I understand what you mean. I would use two cameras. One set to front view (orthogonal). Which makes the objects look flat, avoiding the problem of the perspective of the boxes... The second camera would be a normal one, so when you are about to do the 2d/3D transition change from one camera to another and make the transition fast with motion blur so the change (between cameras) wont be very noticeable.
That's what I think would work... but if you want to make a box that is far away the same apparent size than one that is closer (but they have the same dimesions), I think the only solution is to keyframe the scale while rotating (again doing it fast with motion blur or something).
Re: Super Paper Mario 3d effect by renequin on Jan 5, 2008 at 1:15:56 am
Well, maybe i made this in my style, but that's my way :P
The 2d part of the game is a normal 2D Comp... but the magic comes true when the spot shows the 3D Part, for that I recommend to use Cinema4D, all the things are planes with a texture applied to it (except somethings like the bridge), u only need to use a alpha mate in the transparency channel of the texture to make the objects appear "irregular". The hardest thing is make all the textures for the 3D world.
Don't forget... Mario is added in AE, because Cinema exports the camera movement, and Mario is a typical 2d object, and it exist ever in the same vertical position (except when he jumps)...
Re: Super Paper Mario 3d effect by Jerzy Drozda Jr on Jan 5, 2008 at 10:58:59 pm
You can avoid going into a 3D application if your not going to do anything more complex than seen in this mario video. Since the 3D in that video is basically an extruded version of a flat 2d image you can easily use my CE ShapeExtruder to achieve the same effect. If you need more assistance just contact me directly on skype: http://maltaannon.com/maltaannons-hotline/
