| DEDICATION:
I dedicated this movie to our good friend Ron Lindeboom because he loves Lord of the Rings.
THE TOOLS:
You would need the following plugins for this project if you don't own them just download the demos you will not regret it.
THE COMPOSITION:
The composition will have 5 layers. Download the project files from the green bar above.
- A solid for the gravure and the ring
- The face, a Photoshop Illustration.
- The smoke, also a Photoshop Illustration.
- One light layer for the face.
- One Null Layer
THE BEGINNING:
Start by making a composition in AE: 720 X 480 about 10s length.
Import first the “Smoke” picture or your own creation.
IF you work with my picture, scale it the following way to make it better fit the face.
Add “Gaussian Blur” then the “IL Mirage” effect to your layer as follow:
I adjusted the settings to reach an impression of smoke and heat but you could, of course, also change the parameters as you wish. Feel free to experiment a bit.
The result:
Now import the “Face” in your comp.
- Add “Gaussian Blur”
- Colorize the “Hue and Saturation” as you like. You could also do that with the smoke layer btw.
- Click on the 3D icon on your timeline and change the parameters as follow:
When you are finished with this step, drag your Time Marker on the Time Line to about 6 s and change:
- The orientation to:[00]
- The X rotation to: [0.0]
- The Y rotation to: [-18.00]
Next we need to add a little bit more depth to our “Face” so just go back to the beginning of your comp, add a light layer and set it approximately this way:
The result should look like this:
THE RING:
OK, now we're going to have fun! Let's make our ring. First we need to create the footage for Invigorator:
- The ring: just draw a tiny circle about 13 pt and save it as an Illustrator file v.8, not 9 not 10. But version 8!!! Or use the file called “circle” from the ring.sit folder. (download above.)
- The gravure: for this one you can also use my file (the ring of the cow) as is or just write what ever you want, but try to keep the same dimensions.
NOTE: It is important if you edit your own text that you transform it to vector outlines as the raster images wont work with Invigorator.
Now that we have our footage we need to do the following:
- Add a new solid layer
- Click on the filter menu / Zaxwerks / 3D Invigorator
This window should open:
Open the file “circle”
Once in Invigorator click on the right red button to open the Set-Up window. Now click on the views button and chose “Front” this will bring the object right to you.
Click on the select icon and select your object (see next screenshot) Go to “Edges” and select in “Pipes and half pipes”: “Half pipes” or “semi Circle” depending on OS or versions of Invigorator.
- Scale the edge to: 37
- Depth to: 2
- Degenerate the front and back faces. You now have a ring. (see below)
Now click on the cube icon to change to Object Mode then on “Create Object” to import your gravure text. Moving just one object, bring it near to the other one so that you get approximately this view:
Now set the “Depth”, “Edges” and “Generate” as in the next screenshot. Adjust with the help of the manipulator tools the position and the scale of the gravure.
Try to bring it as near as you can to the inner side of the ring. You can make the ring invisible from time to time if it disturbs you. Just select it and check “Make invisible”. Once you are satisfied with your Fake Gravure, move all the objects together in order to see which angle looks the best.
As the text is not a map there will be some restraint in the animation of the ring but as I trying to imitate the animation from the trailer, this work around was good enough as you can see in the movie.
Now you can load your materials (I used the standard ones)
- Select your ring and gravure.
- Drag a gold or silver swatch from the bin and drop it on the preview window (see the next screenshot)
- Double click on the “Bumpiness” window and load “Rip Chrome”
- Do the same for “Reflectivity” and “Color”
- Change the parameters as on the screenshot.
- Drag your mixed material on your objects, click OK
Don't forget to switch your solid layer to best quality to see the result.
ANIMATING THE RING:
Now that we have created our scenery we just need to set our lighting and animate the ring. This you do in the Effect Control panel by clicking on light and setting the parameters that best suite your taste.
I will just imagine that you liked my own Ring Animation (Dreaming is allowed!) If yes do the following:
First activate the camera (I used the Orbit Camera) and set all your key frames. I always suggest to key frame all Camera Parameters, this will make it easier for you if you change your mind and want to go into another direction than the one you first thought about.
I did not select them all to make it easier for you to recognize which parameters are changing.
Staring by TC 0.00.00.00:
To let the ring fully disappear just scale down the opacity of your solid layer. If you followed the instructions, your ring should have been eaten!!!
The smoke coming out of the face’s mouth is done this way: Add a Null layer, include “IL Mirage” effect “Gaussian Blur”, “Scatter” and scale it over the mouth.
If you want to let your “Face” talk just use the filter “Bulge Distortion” NO! NOT ON YOUR OWN!!! Just kidding. Experiment as much as you want. Hope you found this tutorial useful. If you have any questions, ask in the Zaxwerks COW.
Mooo!
--Serge Hamad
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