how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

on Mar 31, 2016 at 12:32:37 am

i am trying to put a particular in a crane shot.
even the video on this link would do for me coz there is a crane like shot.
https://vimeo.com/8957328
but when i track in after effects cc 2014 with its default camera tracker i am not able to do it.
In the shot, first crane comes down vertical down and there is a gate opening and the camera zooms in on the road and there is a slight curve on the road where the particular will moves along with it disappear(like its moving away from the camera)

problem with me in this is that when i add a trapcode particular, after tracking the shot, it doesnt show and ive to nudge the position of a Emitter light to first appear on the screen.
steps that i did are:
1. first tracked the camera with default camera tracker.
2. then i created few null obj in the sceen for the xyz position.
3. after that an Emitter to follow the emitter along the path
4. followed by the particular and set the emitter to light so the particular take the position of emitter to move along the path of light.

but when i do this it doesnt work when the camera zooms in, particles dispears. and im not able to move the particular like its flying on the road.
if anyone could help me out with it i would be very gratful. thanks

Re: how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

by Dave LaRonde

on Mar 31, 2016 at 5:41:37 pm

This doesn't seem to be a job for particular. This seems better accomplished in a 3D application.

Dave LaRonde
Promotion Producer
KGAN (CBS) & KFXA (Fox) Cedar Rapids, IA

Re: how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

on Mar 31, 2016 at 6:15:15 pm

I placed a logo at the place where I want it to be. But the problem came when the shot pan down and gate opens, then when the logo convert into particles it acts weired and I am not able to follow the particles on a emitter light path.

Re: how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

by ryan kelly

on Mar 31, 2016 at 6:05:51 pm

You may be out of visible range in Particular.

Check under Particular's "Visibility" section and try adjust the near and far vanish points. the camera tracker can make some pretty far away reference points...

Re: how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

on Mar 31, 2016 at 6:23:43 pm

Thanks for the answer. It did solve a problem of not seeing a particular in the scene but m not able to guide the particular to move along the path. I want the particular to move along a path as if it's moving on a road and disappearing on the corner of the road. Could you give me the solution on that.

Re: how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

by Kalle Kannisto

on Mar 31, 2016 at 6:44:50 pm
Last Edited By Kalle Kannisto on Mar 31, 2016 at 6:46:47 pm

I find it easiest to control Particular positioning by using a light as the emitter.

You can create 3D nulls from the tracking results along the road and animate the light from one to the next, copying the 3D positions of the nulls to the light position keyframes. And then move all of the keyframe posotions slightly up in Y (to get them off the road surface). That way they will be in the right 3D location in relation to the scene.

Also, you probably want to use the "set world origin and ground plane" utility (right-click on a selected set of tracking points that are on the ground) to ensure that the Y axis is correctly oriented. It probably makes little difference in this case, but it is generally the easiest way to get the 3D tracking data to align with the AE 3D world coordinates.

Re: how to track the crane shot or dolly shot to use trapcode particular

on Apr 1, 2016 at 11:09:35 am

Thanks for your reply. But I did try this technique and it did not helped and the particles doesn't looks like in the scene and it keeps on dragging and also moves off the scene and its hard for me to keep it in the scene. So how can I move the particles in a path and it looks like it's in the scene. If I send you the clip could you help me out with it.