Video panel collage/montage

The transitions between the clips can be done with simple animations in AE- no plugins involved. You need the comic book pages templates with alpha for the frames. Best to create those in vector format so that you can size with no quality loss. Resize the template to be able to see the whole of it in the comp window. Bring in your footage. Position the two clips you want to transition between under the frame in the template, resize and link to the template layer. The other frames on the page should be filled with stills. Animate from one frame to the next.

Tudor "Ted" Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Alex Jarvis] "But is it possible to link one video to two separate templates and move it with both them? If you notice at the end when each transition begins, some of the video is still playing. Now if that one is already linked to the previous template then how can it be linked to the next one also?"

Each of the videos, stills, and the comic book page ("template") itself are separate layers. They can all be linked and animated together, and each element can also be animated separately.


[Alex Jarvis] "It seems that the same video is linked to two different templates. I didn't notice a cut anywhere. I realize I could cut the video and create a new track and pick up again at the next frame, but I wondered if there is a shorter way to do this."

You can swap out one comic book page for another while it's off-screen and the video is full-screen.

I'm guessing from your terminology that you're not very experienced with After Effects. This will all get a lot easier if you review some of the links in Todd's blog post. You won't need to learn all that much about AE in order to achieve the effect you're asking about.

The free Video Copilot Basic Training set of tutorials that Todd links to might make a nice place to start.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog - What I'm thinking when my workstation's thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Alex Jarvis] "So what you are saying is that it is possible link one layer (video) to two different layers (comic templates) and have them zoom in and out independently of one another? I guess that is the question I am trying to ask."

You can parent every element in the scene to a single null object, then animate the null. While you're showing one video full-screen, end one comic book layer, and begin another.


[Alex Jarvis] "Well I'm certainly no expert, but not an amateur. And judging by the responses here, as well as the blogs you linked to and several searches I did prior to posting here, there doesn't seem to be any specific terminology for this effect."

I didn't intend any offense, but given the nature of your question and when you spoke of cuts and tracks (whereas an AE artist would think of splits and layers), I assume you have an editing background, not a compositing background.

I'm with you -- I have no idea what to call this effect. However, it's very easily done with compositing fundamentals: layering, parenting, then keyframing position and scale.

It's like giving directions: no one can tell you exactly how to get where you want to go unless they know where you are now. I have referred you to introductory materials which will explain these concepts in full detail, but if you've got a specific question about anything I mentioned, I'd be happy to discuss it a bit more.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog - What I'm thinking when my workstation's thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

I'll second Ted's advice.

Animating an element's properties (like position and scale) over time is one of the most fundamental and important concepts in After Effects. If you're new to After Effects, I'd recommend the following link, in which Adobe's Todd Kopriva pulls together some important introductory materials:

http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/getting-started-with-after-eff.h...

AE is both deep and broad, and it's very hard to jump right in without taking a little time to learn fundamental concepts first.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog - What I'm thinking when my workstation's thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

Camera animation will work, too! You might want to use the "Separate XYZ" effect preset, or Video Copilot's Sure Target to make your work easier.

Also, if you're going to do it in 3D, you can add some lights to the scene, too, for a much more dramatic look.

Cheers,

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog - What I'm thinking when my workstation's thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events