insterting & animating pictures
by Lukas Jack
on
Jun 22, 2008 at 10:42:50 pm
hi, im new to adobe after effects..i would be happy for quick help, since i need this thing done by wednesday :)
i have 3 videclips (commercials)...and in each, there are several characters...i need to take heads from pictures of people i have (i photographed people with white background)..and insert them into the video...so that the heads would match and move with the original face...i hope you know what i want to do :) ..-> simply:
1) i got 3 30second videos
2) i have about 10 photos of people taken by a HQ professional camera
with white background
3) i need to cut out their faces and add them instead of the original character ones in the videos...
4) i need the images to move with the video and in one case also "get attached"...like flat...
if someone can make a guide or tell me how to do this...please, thanks alot !!
Re: insterting & animating pictures by Christian Wheel on Jun 22, 2008 at 11:44:06 pm
Sounds like you'll need to motion track the original characters as they move around, and then you should have no problem parenting the new faces to the character's body. If the faces have a pure white background you may be able to get away with using a transfer mode on your face layers, otherwise you'll probably need to mask out each face with the pen tool. If the faces are moving, this could take some time as you'll have to rotoscope each one frame-by-frame.
----- Christian Wheel -----
Radio Host, 104.3 MyFM, Los Angeles
Audio Production & Imaging
MS Visual Studio Developer
After Effects Enthusiast
Re: insterting & animating pictures by Lukas Jack on Jun 23, 2008 at 6:09:32 am
thanks for telling me what to do, now i have a clue..
can you write me please a step by step guide ? or link me to one ?
i really have small amount of time to do this,...
Re: insterting & animating pictures by Chris Wright on Jun 23, 2008 at 12:19:25 am
imagineer monet could planar motion track, create cushion pins and raw data and insert pictures seemlessly into footage. Without it, you're stuck to AE's motion tracking. If you are trying to match head movement and their head turns, you have to go frame by frame and change 2-d perspective of images. Extract key white and attach tracker data to a null object that you can set as parent to layer image of people. colormatch heads and mmmm, yummy.
Re: insterting & animating pictures by Joey Foreman on Jun 23, 2008 at 2:03:47 pm
It always amazes me when people take on complex projects with software they have zero experience with.
Someone here might be willing to take the time to write you a step by step guide, but to have done this project correctly you should have taken some steps that it's too late for now.
There are tons of free tutorials for AE online, and a wealth of excellent AE books for sale. The manual is also a ripping read. Why not try acquiring some fundamental skills before diving into your next big job?
Joey Foreman
Editor/Animator
Nowhere Productions, Athens, GA
Re: insterting & animating pictures by Lukas Jack on Jun 23, 2008 at 2:31:14 pm
i would first learn basics, but i have been asked by the school to do this..till wednesday..i told it is possible to do, yet i thought it would be easier...in a normal situation i of course would try easy stuff first :)
Re: insterting & animating pictures by Lukas Jack on Jun 23, 2008 at 9:40:08 pm
anyone willing to elaborate this:
1. Since you said 'photographed' I assume you have still images, so use PhotoShop to cut out the still images of the heads.
2. Import the head image into AE.
3. Use Motion Tracking to generate keyframes for following the heads in the original movie.
4. Use this data to make the photo heads follow the motion track.
5. Use keyframes for scale, position and rotation to orientate/size the new head to match the old one. May need to make new > old to avoid edge artifacts.
