Adobe After Effects Help Thread

[kitten320]

Need help, how do I track the zooming in?

Whenver I apply it to the masked file, it gets shifted into different place. Though it does zoom in as it has to. How do I make it stay in place?

[ThaEagle]

Originally Posted by kitten320

Need help, how do I track the zooming in?

Whenver I apply it to the masked file, it gets shifted into different place. Though it does zoom in as it has to. How do I make it stay in place?

Do like this:

First create a null object (Layer > New > Null Object).
Secondly apply the tracking to the null and not the layer you want to move.
Lastly, you pickwhip the null object from the layer you want to move.

You want to pickwhip the null when the layer you want to move is in a good position. Like in the frame you created the overlay.

Kind of hard to explain, just bash me if there is something you dont understand

A tip, you can also check out teh basic training tutorials over at Videocopilot.com, Andrew Kramer explains motion tracking in detail here.
http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/tu...otiontracking/
Go to about 12:30 and you have the stuff you want to use.

[kitten320]

I saw his videos, that's why I'm asking here

But I'll try, thanks

[doplank]

Originally Posted by kitten320

I saw his videos, that's why I'm asking here

But I'll try, thanks

try to track motion frame by frame, if the track motion get to difference place, re-position into the correct position.

note: but if still like that, you can find another pixel to track motion.

[ThaEagle]

I think what he means is that when he applies the tracking data, it will shift the anchor point of the layer he applies to.
The layer will get the point you tracked as anchor point, hence it will get "shifted into different place".
To avoid this I suggested using a null object and pickwhip that from teh mask layer.

I don't know any other good method, besides using expressions, but it might end up messy. So the null is intended to keep things simple.

[kitten320]

Looks like Null object worked, thanks

Though I have different question now, also with tracking. I would say I need other way around.
I want the zooming moment to stay still yet whenever I do stracking and stabilization, the moment keeps shaking =/

[ThaEagle]

A way to do this would be to remove the keyframes for the times you want it to be still.

An other way would be to fix it through expressions, that way you can track several times without having to remove keyframes for the times it should be still.
You need then to use the Math.round() command, that will round up to nearest whole pixel.
To create an expression Alt-click the stopwatch besides the position value of the null object, and type:

x = Math.round(value[0]);
y = Math.round(value[1]);
[x,y]

Assuming it's a 2D object.
You might also have to do the same for the scale.


If you still have problems you might have to tweak the way you track the source.

[kitten320]

Will try once I'll get time, thanks

[ThaEagle]

yes, do so.

If you still experience problems after following these guidelines, you can always try a great planar tracker tool called "Mocha for After Effects".
If you have CS4+ you most likely have Mocha alredy since it ships with after effects. Otherwise it should work fine with older versions however you will need to get a hold of the program itself.

What it does is tracking not just a point but an area of the video. Depending on what you are after, it might lead to much more satisfactory results.
However, you need to learn a new program and a new way to think. You need to export the video to use in Mocha (either through an image sequence or a .mov file) and then extract the results back to after effects again to apply it.

So the best is if you can use any of the methods described above.

[Branduil]

I'm having an odd problem, a video file 23 minutes long is only showing up as two minutes in AFX. I even re-encoded it and it still does the same thing.

[jfs]

Well the question then is: Is the video cut off, or is it sped up? If it's the latter, check the frame rate.

[Isako]

@Brand
Another problem that it could be is that your composition is set to 2 mins, and thus the video gets clipped off. What I usually do to avoid this is just drag the video onto the new composition button on the bottom of the project panel after importing it, it reduces a lot of silly errors like forgetting to set the frame rate and composition time right.

As for myself, not sure if this needs to be in the kara thread or here, but I'll put it here :V. I'm having an issue with Pichu's script atm. I'm new to AFX kara, so maybe this is perhaps very simple, and I'm overlooking something. Anyway, I've been following crashe's tutorial. Everything seems dandy until I run the script. When I run the script, new layers are generated, but they're empty with no syllables or time bars. Any help, would be much appreciated.

<layer name="Romaji">
   <line name= "Romaji" />
     <animator  name= "fill" syl= "syl" />
     <animator  name= "in out" />
</layer>

AEP
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6ZR4U5JJ

Using CS5

[Branduil]

Originally Posted by jfs

Well the question then is: Is the video cut off, or is it sped up? If it's the latter, check the frame rate.

It's cut off, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Iwata

@Brand
Another problem that it could be is that your composition is set to 2 mins, and thus the video gets clipped off. What I usually do to avoid this is just drag the video onto the new composition button on the bottom of the project panel after importing it, it reduces a lot of silly errors like forgetting to set the frame rate and composition time right.

Yes, that is what I did. I also checked the framerate and tried extending the composition time, but AFX simply acts as if the last 21 minutes of the file don't exist.

[crash-kun]

Originally Posted by Branduil

I'm having an odd problem, a video file 23 minutes long is only showing up as two minutes in AFX. I even re-encoded it and it still does the same thing.

What codec is the file encoded in? AFX is quite picky.

Originally Posted by Iwatal

As for myself, not sure if this needs to be in the kara thread or here, but I'll put it here :V. I'm having an issue with Pichu's script atm. I'm new to AFX kara, so maybe this is perhaps very simple, and I'm overlooking something. Anyway, I've been following crashe's tutorial. Everything seems dandy until I run the script. When I run the script, new layers are generated, but they're empty with no syllables or time bars. Any help, would be much appreciated.

Interesting enough it seems you have failed to follow your own advice :P In all fairness it took me a while to realize that 0:00:02:06 was actually 2 seconds and 6 frames, and not 2 minutes and 6 seconds (mainly because I normally work in frames not timecodes). Change the comp time to something more fitting for your karaoke timing and it works just fine

Also as a general rule with pichu's script (many people have this problem, myself included when I first started), if it generates layers but the layer doesn't seem to have anything in the timeline, that is a large red flag and you should check your comp length and compare it to the line timing on the .ass file, more often than not that is the problem

[Isako]

Originally Posted by crash-kun

What codec is the file encoded in? AFX is quite picky.



Interesting enough it seems you have failed to follow your own advice :P In all fairness it took me a while to realize that 0:00:02:06 was actually 2 seconds and 6 frames, and not 2 minutes and 6 seconds (mainly because I normally work in frames not timecodes). Change the comp time to something more fitting for your karaoke timing and it works just fine

Also as a general rule with pichu's script (many people have this problem, myself included when I first started), if it generates layers but the layer doesn't seem to have anything in the timeline, that is a large red flag and you should check your comp length and compare it to the line timing on the .ass file, more often than not that is the problem

Ah thanks. Yea that was the problem. XD

I didn't have a video at the time, because I was just pasting a random script that I had, and I guess I just overlooked that when I was filling in the comp information .

[letsza]

is there a new script from shinji for cs5 ?

SSA to after effects loader.v0.82 , doesn't work anymore

[ThaEagle]

pichus script works for CS5: http://code.google.com/p/aftereffectskrk/.
Have no idea about shinji's. I'm sure you can do basically the same things with pichus script anyway.

[shinjipierre]

Nah, no new script, never touched AE CS5...

Don't know if I could debug the script with a demo version.
Tell me the bug it says, just in case.

and, I'm kind of too busy working on Thor for that.....

I'm sure you can do basically the same things with pichus script

Don't really know, never used his script...

[ThaEagle]

Originally Posted by shinjipierre

Don't really know, never used his script...

Well its initially based on animators, but you can split the syl's to separate layers if u want to.
Since I've only browsed through some shinji generated kara that's the main difference as I saw it.

[hidenman]

Someone can help me to do an effect like this video

When I do it by myself, using Pault Script, it seem ok like what i want, but with Pichu script, I can't get it done. It just change color whole the line or only one words when it sing after that it return to white

I know it done well with Pault script but I can't have in/out for lines with this script so i decide to use pichu script

And it's my ae file(using cs5)(contain Pault script in comp 1 and pichu script)

http://www.mediafire.com/?c5tj6scwa944by1