mapping animations onto footage but in a 3d way?
by stephen james
on
Jun 4, 2008 at 12:22:04 pm
Hello, I have a project where i need to put 2d simple line animations onto some HD footage...easy enough but i want the animation to appear on the surfaces of the objects. so the animations map the shapes and contours of objects.
I therefor create the animations, import to after effects, make 3d, overlay onto footage, get the right angle to match plains and then reveal with mask.....however i need it to be cleverer because the surfaces aren't just flat and there is perspective involved as the plain in questionis receding away? is there a way of creting a 2d/3d grid without having to go fully fledged 3d?
I have checked the posts and looked into displacement maps but when you add 3d-the displacement map doesn't seem to be specific enough in terms of directions and angles.
example.
camera angle end of desk with papers spawled all over, mans hand starts drawing and then i animation will reveal outwards, appearing to trace over the paper and books on the desk at different levels. the animation needs to go over the surfaces of books and then bend round the spines of the books etc...
Re: mapping animations onto footage but in a 3d way? by Darby Edelen on Jun 4, 2008 at 9:07:26 pm
As long as all of the 3D planes exist as 3D layers in AE you can try using camera projection, or a similar technique, where in the animation you want to map to the planes is a single layer that casts a 'shadow' (with 100% light transmission) onto white solids to project its image/animation onto the solid surfaces.
Try looking up more info on camera projection on the COW and online in general.
Darby Edelen Lead Designer Left Coast Digital Santa Cruz, CA
Re: mapping animations onto footage but in a 3d way? by Immanuel Morales on Jun 6, 2008 at 12:33:18 am
Check the corner pin effect. this is exactly the type of thing it is designed for. combine that with displacement mapping and you should have a pretty realistic effect. i would also recommend glowing your animation a bit. for semi-realistic shadow interaction, you might want to apply subtle gradients to the composite will make it even more awesome
