Need help - 3D Effects on FCP

[BMPhoto]

Hi to all FCP Experts

I need help. I'm not sure if I know how to describe it properly, but I will try. ;p

I'm looking around for a SW, FCP/Motion plugin or filter that allows me to "Drop" or "Convert" my Pic or videoclips onto the surface of a Cylinder or Sphere etc all kind 3D shapes, thereafter to create 3D visualization using either Cameras in Motion or with the SW itself. I have not found a good solution somehow after some google or forum search. Hence I wonder if all of you expert can help. Can you help advise:

1) Is there such "Hidden" capability in Motion 3? If yes, could advise how to go about achieving the result? or can it be achieved in AE? (I do not have or know AE yet, do I need to go for it?)

2) Do I have to purchase an external SW to achieve such result, preferably with ease? If yes, which would you recommend. I saw Boris FX which may potentially achieve the result, but its quite pricy and am not sure if this is the best deal. :think:

Really appreciate your advise. Thanks.

Rgds

Vincent (aka BMPhoto)

 

[BMPhoto]

Can anyone advise on this? I really need some help here to get it going. Thanks in advance.

 

[Pewpew]

AE's your best bet for this. Use CC sphere/cylinder to map your images/videos onto a 3D sphere/cylinder. Conoa (another AE plugin) has something similiar, with an extended camera and positioning toolset.

Not recommended but if you want to, you can stay in FCP and use track/alpha mattes in sphere and cylinder shapes. distort the masked images accordingly to the shape. This sucks but you won't need to buy a new software.

Just a note, for AE, use the plugin's parameters/camera to revolve and track around the 3D item, don't create a camera layer and move the AE composition cam... that'll just move the entire composition as a 2D layer.

Have fun and post some results here!

 

[viix]

1) Is there such "Hidden" capability in Motion 3? If yes, could advise how to go about achieving the result? or can it be achieved in AE? (I do not have or know AE yet, do I need to go for it?)

2) Do I have to purchase an external SW to achieve such result, preferably with ease? If yes, which would you recommend. I saw Boris FX which may potentially achieve the result, but its quite pricy and am not sure if this is the best deal. :think:

To map/distort the footage into a sphere will crop out quite a bit. Are you sure you want to do that? You'd be left with less than 40% of a frame.. but if it's just texture or some minor cutaways should be ok..

There might be a function/plugin in motion 3, but never tried it. Look around FCP sites for fxplugs or free plugins. I know there are quite a few free one available.

While BorisFX is practically drag and drop, the controls don't seem easy.. and AE is another set of cost for you also, but the cycore effects suite of CC plugs are quite sufficient for your needs..

 

[BMPhoto]

AE's your best bet for this. Use CC sphere/cylinder to map your images/videos onto a 3D sphere/cylinder. Conoa (another AE plugin) has something similiar, with an extended camera and positioning toolset.

Not recommended but if you want to, you can stay in FCP and use track/alpha mattes in sphere and cylinder shapes. distort the masked images accordingly to the shape. This sucks but you won't need to buy a new software.

Just a note, for AE, use the plugin's parameters/camera to revolve and track around the 3D item, don't create a camera layer and move the AE composition cam... that'll just move the entire composition as a 2D layer.

Have fun and post some results here!

Hi Pewpew,

Thanks for the sharing, the info is good. However, I've yet to invest in AE and it is rather costly (Commercial version of AE CS4 is about $1.6k and I can't run videography service with Edu version), as expensive as the Final Cut Studio itself. That's besides the additional plugins to purchase, hence the entry barrier is rather high. Besides, some of the function in AE can be accomplished via Motion and FCP (eg Colour Correction and Cartoon effect). However, as I'm not AE expert, probably my understanding is not complete, do feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Will review the FCP solution mentioned, looks interesting. Thanks for the insight and sharing.

To map/distort the footage into a sphere will crop out quite a bit. Are you sure you want to do that? You'd be left with less than 40% of a frame.. but if it's just texture or some minor cutaways should be ok..

There might be a function/plugin in motion 3, but never tried it. Look around FCP sites for fxplugs or free plugins. I know there are quite a few free one available.

While BorisFX is practically drag and drop, the controls don't seem easy.. and AE is another set of cost for you also, but the cycore effects suite of CC plugs are quite sufficient for your needs..

Hi viix

Thanks for the sharing. I have looked around, but the plugins are all not free, rather costly. If you do know of any such plugins, appreciate if you could share with me.


Hi both and anyone out there

Have you tried Zaxwerks ProAnimator packages? looks interesting and the price is not that stiff (reference to the 50% offer via Digitaljuice) compares to getting an AE with plugins. Anyone has tried and has comment on this software? Appreciate your sharing.

Rgds

 

[viix]

ProAnimator works great in AE as it can use native camera within AE, but I'm not too sure in FCP or motion. The controls in ProAnimator is not that straight forward.

BUT If I remember correctly, ProAnimator does not project video footage into 3d.. It only imports or generate 3D files from illustrator to be render and animated within.

I've not use FCP or motion extensively since I'm AE based, so not much help I can offer you..
The only viable solutions is what pewpew offered, to just matte and so a bezier warp effect in FCP.. I sure there is a spherise or similar distort filter in motion if not in FCP..

 

[BMPhoto]

ProAnimator works great in AE as it can use native camera within AE, but I'm not too sure in FCP or motion. The controls in ProAnimator is not that straight forward.

BUT If I remember correctly, ProAnimator does not project video footage into 3d.. It only imports or generate 3D files from illustrator to be render and animated within.

I've not use FCP or motion extensively since I'm AE based, so not much help I can offer you..
The only viable solutions is what pewpew offered, to just matte and so a bezier warp effect in FCP.. I sure there is a spherise or similar distort filter in motion if not in FCP..

Hi viix

Thanks, your sharing is very useful to me and I really appreciate your response. Zaxwerks is also offering ProAnimator FX for FCP6 and Motion, but I wonder if the functioning is also that good as compared to those in AE. I couldn't really figure out from its website or google whether it project video footage into 3d. I hope that someone who had used it could share in this forum.

Thanks and appreciate your help.

 

[Pewpew]

Ahhh ProAnimator... thats an interesting proposition. I usually use it for quick generic solutions...otherwise I turn to 3D apps. I've only used it in AE, same with vixx, I'm AE based. Agreed with vixx, controls in ProAnimator are rather hard to navigate. Recently did a job using it, the white-blue 'clock' flying in at 7 sec is a ProAnimator object.

Viix should be right about ProAnimator not being able to project videos onto their 3D generated objects... In AE we'll normally try to script some expressions to the video to make it map to the 3D object...but in Final Cut might prove tricky. Lemme try and see if I can do that natively in Zawerks.

There should be a spherize filter in FCP...

 

[BMPhoto]

Ahhh ProAnimator... thats an interesting proposition. I usually use it for quick generic solutions...otherwise I turn to 3D apps. I've only used it in AE, same with vixx, I'm AE based. Agreed with vixx, controls in ProAnimator are rather hard to navigate. Recently did a job using it, the white-blue 'clock' flying in at 7 sec is a ProAnimator object.

Viix should be right about ProAnimator not being able to project videos onto their 3D generated objects... In AE we'll normally try to script some expressions to the video to make it map to the 3D object...but in Final Cut might prove tricky. Lemme try and see if I can do that natively in Zawerks.

There should be a spherize filter in FCP...

Thank you Pewpew. Yup, I saw your clip from another thread, very interesting and make me tempting to get ProAnimator. Is it all in ProAnimator or you use AE to create that clock?

Appreciate your help to confirm if mapping video footages onto 3D object is feasible in ProAnimator (though they show that it can be masked in their website, but I just can't be sure). If yes, I guess I'm really keen to give this software a try.

There is a Sphere filter in Motion, but it is not a 3d sphere, its a 2d sphere, the video footage is still flat. I'm dissappointed.

Thanks again.

 

[Pewpew]

Only the white-blue body that flies in is a ProAnimator object. The rest of the materials were created in Photoshop, illustrator and Cinema4d. Animated all these in AE.

Confirmed, i can't map videos onto ProAnimator 3D objects, natively in ProAnimator that is. It only recongises .jpeg or targa files to import as material/textures. Sorry to disappoint you here.

Just a heads up, Cycore plugins ( such as CC sphere etc ) are already part of AE, meaning you don't have to purchase it separately, it comes when you buy AE.

 

[BMPhoto]

Only the white-blue body that flies in is a ProAnimator object. The rest of the materials were created in Photoshop, illustrator and Cinema4d. Animated all these in AE.

Confirmed, i can't map videos onto ProAnimator 3D objects, natively in ProAnimator that is. It only recongises .jpeg or targa files to import as material/textures. Sorry to disappoint you here.

Just a heads up, Cycore plugins ( such as CC sphere etc ) are already part of AE, meaning you don't have to purchase it separately, it comes when you buy AE.

Hi Pewpew

Thanks for the heads-up. Will reconsider ProAnimator now for this job.

Rgds