motion customerstory

[thomase]

Can anyone help me solving this:
I watched thisvideo (http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/motion/customerstory.html)
on the apple site. There is a little section in which they explain how they got "clouds in their shot" and you see a little green cloud turning into a white one with black borders...
I know it must be some chroma thingy but I just don't get how it works... Can anyone explain? :banghead:

[VisionsUnleashed]

It's just a find edges filter, or stroke effect. Similar to the one which is in photoshop. Pretty much every motion graphics software worth using will have this as a basic effect.

I'd imagine this particular example is created with a particle system, so lots of circles moving around wiggling about then they're edges combined into a stroke, all vector of course.

[VisionsUnleashed]

I've made a very quick After Effects 6.5 example for anyone interested. It just shows the basics of how this effect was achieved. I didn't bother making it look like a cloud... but it should show you how to do it granted you understand nested compositions in AFX.

[thomase]

Thanks! I don't have AE though... You mean something like edge detect or so? Why the green stuff then?

[littlecatalyst]

thomas i have no idea about those clouds... they look really flashy.
but am curious about motion... are you able to make the particles into clouds? in maya theres paintbrish clouds whgihh are ok, but suck in comparison to the particle clouds, which you can tweak shape, behaviour/movement, hue/value... transparency... luminosity if u can turn yoru particles into clouds i think you will be very happy with the results (though wont be able to make clouds like in that vote video... which still look flash-ish to me)

[thomase]

there are even a few particle presets for clouds... check this tutorial (http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=28211&afterinter=true) and this one (http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=28350) Hope I got you right?
Wondertouch even offers some additional particle generators OR you just create you own... Is that what you mean? I think the roundish things in that video are just circles turned into particle emitter...

BTW: You're the first here to call me thomas which is cool, since the e only stands for my last name...

[littlecatalyst]

..i thought it was for ekstatse ;)

originally posted by Thomas-no-E
a few particle presets for clouds... check this tutorial and this one Hope I got you right? Wondertouch even offers some additional particle generators OR you just create you own... Is that what you mean? I think the roundish things in that video are just circles turned into particle emitter...

yeah those cloud presets! yummy!.... if you play with those there will be a way to tweak the particles luminesence, rgb, speed, thickness, gravity.... everything... i think you will like it a lot. (me, i've been making chemtrails with it for like a week and loving the results-- though i have to wear the tin foil and all)

also, at least with maya, when turning particles into clouds, they look like circles until you do a render ((in fact with clouds you have to do something called hardward-render (?) to see 'em)

also you will want to play with that emit-from-object, not so much for clouds.. but for other great particle effects... would probably look great with spinning deformers and scrolling VJ Names... heh heh heh

[thomase]

yeah, well I love motion, most of my stuff goes through it or is motion exclusively... I just couldn't figure what that particular effect was... still don't know why the greenish cloud...

[atomicone]

Originally posted by VisionsUnleashed
It's just a find edges filter, or stroke effect. Similar to the one which is in photoshop. Pretty much every motion graphics software worth using will have this as a basic effect.

I'd imagine this particular example is created with a particle system, so lots of circles moving around wiggling about then they're edges combined into a stroke, all vector of course.


I think this is right on the money, the green cloud you saw was just a particle emitter with a green dot as the source, then a find edges or line art effect on that. Duplicate that layer, scale down to get your inside set of lines, and voila, cartoony clouds.

I just picked up motion 2 last week, so I'm still getting into it, but so far I'm loving it. I doubt I'll stop using AE altogether, motion does seem quite intuitive and really easy to put stuff together quickly.

[krezrock]

I can't wait to integrate Midi into my post production workflow.

[atomicone]

After playing around a bit I was able to re-create a cloud pretty close to what they were doing for that project in motion. I'm loving this program right now.
For some reason I can't attach the project file so anyone interested send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you.


cheers,