Building a Cube World: Part 2 : Adobe After Effects Tutorial

Comments

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Gent Ng

Thank you very much Carl! How nice of you to allow me to borrow this background. I am humbled by this. I appreciated it very much!

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Mark O'Connell

Great job Carl! Really well done.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

Technically, there's no reason why you couldn't make a cube world that integrates moving imagery - either as an element within the cube (i.e the birds) or as the cube itself.

With the flock of birds, I'd double check your layer sort order and that the particle generator is actually somewhere within the cube. Beyond that, I'd be guessing.

To get live objects, like people, into your cube faces you'll want to shoot your footage from roughly the same perspective as the 360 panorama, keep the camera locked down, and insert them into the scene using the same principles demonstrated in part 3 of this series.

Obviously, there are limitations to what can be done using this technique. For example, you could insert a locked down shot of a person waving from a window or at a the street level without too much effort. But, if you want them to jump out of the window and run from one corner of the scene to the other while while maintaining realistic lighting, shadows, and perspective, you may want to pursue alternate solutions. The key is to play with it and explore for yourself.

Thanks for all the great questions.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Christophe De Backer

Wonderful tutorial. The first time I tried it, I failed :)

One question, do you think it is possible to create a cube world with video files? Or at least to at something that can move.

I tried to at the flock of birds (from Aharon Rabinowitz) but for some reason they didn't stay on place. When I moved the null (camera rotater) they where gone to.

CheerS

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

Go ahead and use the image. I wouldn't have included it in the project if I didn't want anyone to use it in their own work. Thanks for asking - that's noble.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Gent Ng

Hi Carl,

I was just wondering.... can I borrow your background for my project since I can't find one (within the creative commons licence) that closely resembles Vancouver's downtown. :P Or do you have any reservations about this?

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

I think you'd have to make Andrew Kramer your buddy to make that happen. All of his products are well worth the price.

OR

You could make your own. Check out Jayse Hansen's tutorial on making things grow.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hansen_jaysen/growing.php

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Taylor Lawton

Hey Carl,

Your my buddy right, your all of our buddies here at CreativeCow. So anyway I was wondering could You supply your good buddies with the flourishes?

Thanks

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

No need for the credits. This concept is a piggyback off of a plugin anyways. Play with it. Have fun. Make it your own.

Thanks for the feedback.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Gent Ng

Thanks Carl! Do I need to cite you in the credits? I believe that may be a good way to cite you since you are the originator of this concept.

Please feel free to come to BC for an equirectangular shot. ;) We have jaw-dropping mountains and sea-to-sky environments around Vancouver. I was hoping for something like either streetscapes of trendy Robson Street in downtown(it's now the host of many upscale retail lines like Coach, Leone, some TV stations, HMV on the site of the now-defunct Planet Hollywood... etc.), or around the exterior of Canada Place, the cruise ship terminal with its iconic "sails" as part of its roof design, or the Lookout (the Harbour Centre tower) on Hastings and Seymour street. :)

In short I wanted to create an upbeat mood to a series that can get boring right at the start of the show (I am an Assistant Cameraman as well and have been through the taping... it will bore people out without good music and graphics :P) without some flavour added to spice things up. ;)

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Gent Ng

Hi Carl great tut!! I am currently contracted to do an open and credits for a Chinese-Canadian consumers association, who are producing several episodes of consumer infomercials for Chinese-language TV in Canada (or TV info tips if you will) and I was looking for ideas for my open and I came across your tutorial. I was wondering if I could borrow your concept but change the background equirectangular to Vancouver BC landscape, something which I could not find... your help and tips are appreciated. :)

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

Chris, the font is a freeware typeset called steiner designed by Gabriele Magurno. You can download it from the following link.

http://www.fontspace.com/gabriele-magurno/steiner

Gent, I'd suggest you have me come to BC to shoot the exact image you're looking for! Ha! Feel free to use the technique in your own work - That's why we put these tutorials out.

I'm hoping to create some more lessons on panoramic work in the future.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Chris Pass

Carl, what font are you using in this tutorial? Very clean.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Marije van der Nat

Wow, great tutorial!
For those of you who want to convert a regular photo into a spherical map in Photoshop: I found this tute:
http://www.lizardlounge.com/html/tutorials/c4d/sphericalMap/index.html

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

Great find, Ian. Thanks!

Frank, I'm on a mac running 10.5.5 and safari 3.1.2 and I get it to stream right away. Strange. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Frank Maier

Strong Tutorial, only problem I had, the QT movie didnt stream, i had to fully DL the movie to watch it (Firefox3, Win Xp, QT Player 7.4.5) Maybee its an issue on my machine...

Can

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Ian Hayward

Hi Carl
Really enjoyed your tutorial. (Better camera control than Trapcode Horizon!)Just like to give Windows users a heads up about a little program called ToCube.
ToCube is a little stand alone applet that converts an equirectangular image to the equivalent cubic projection. It can be found at:
http://www.tiempo-digital.com/en/software/tocube/tocube.html

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Lyndon Alvarez

Thx man, you're awesome. Covering that for a tut would make for a nice change and pace. might make some of us burn a little more calories :)

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Carl Larsen

I'm hoping I can cover how to make 360 panoramas in a future tutorial.

For now, check out this link.
http://tjhole.com/tutorials/?p=7

Building a Cube World: Part 2
by Lyndon Alvarez

Dude your two recent tuts on here are awesome! 5 cows most def! i guess it would be overkill to ask but i have to. do you know anywhere i could go via the web that would explain how to prepare your own spherical pics?

Much Thought & Thanks