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R
ryan_calixto
Participating Frequently
June 12, 2018
Question

Camera movement with 3D layers HELP

  • June 12, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 2464 views

PLEASE HELP! I am making a lyric music video for school. So I created a precomp for every verse in my song and in the precomp is a text layer for each word. I've added a few preset animations like "slide in by word" to make the video more kinetic. When I convert the precomp layer to a 3D layer and add the camera everything is fine. The problem occurs when I try to move the camera in to one of the verses. Instead of zooming into the lyrics, when i move the camera, it also moves my text layer with it. I am never able to center the lyrics in front of the camera. HOW DO I FIX PLEASE?!

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1 reply

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David Arbor
Inspiring
June 12, 2018

If you're just moving your camera then your text precomps aren't moving, the camera is moving around in 3D space. There are a lot of questions here, such as:

Are you using a one-node or two-node camera?

If you're using a two-node camera are you animating your Point of Interest as well as your camera's position?

It sounds like you need do go back to the basics on how to use the camera. Evan Abrams has a 10 minute tutorial to get you started: Learn to Better use the Camera in Adobe After Effects - YouTube

R
ryan_calixtoAuthor
Participating Frequently
June 12, 2018

Those are great questions that I’m actually unsure about. If it helps this is the video that I am following

How To Make A Lyric Video In After Effects - YouTube

At around 4:35 he adds the camera and I able to “zoom” the camera into one of the verses. In my project, when I move the camera forward it moves the text layer along with it

Andrew Yoole
Andrew Yoole
Adobe Expert
June 13, 2018

Hey Rick,

I am attaching 3 pictures. The first being my main comp where you can see all of the precomps labeled per verse. The second picture is the first verse precomp opened to see the text layers in the precomp as well as a simple animation preset. The third picture is me moving the camera back on the Z axis and on the right screen instead of moving further away from the lyrics you can see that it also moved the first verse over to the right. When I zoom in, the verse goes off screen.


There are lots of issues with your workflow.

Why are you precomping the text layers?  The tutorial doesn't tell you to do that.  It's really complicating the process.  By creating very small text and precomping it, your text will look awful when the camera gets close to it, unless you Collapse Transformations of your precomps.  If you do that, you should switch every text layer within the precomps to 3D layers.

Only one of your precomps has been switched to 3D.  They should all be 3D layers.

What are the positions of your layers?  We can't see from your screen grabs.  Are they all in the same Z space?

What kind of camera are you using, one or two node?  If you're using a two node camera, are you taking note of where the Point Of Interest is?

How are you moving the camera?  Using the camera tools, or by just changing numerical position values?   If you are using a two node camera and you change the position of the camera without altering the POI, the camera will rotate toward the POI.  If the POI is very close to the camera, even tiny movements of the camera can cause large movements in the overall view, because the camera will rotate toward the POI.  If the POI gets behind the camera, the camera will literally flip around and look the opposite way.

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