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jamesdrakefilms
jamesdrakefilms
Inspiring
December 9, 2023
Answered

Help! Working with camera in ae and it keeps changing?

  • December 9, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1566 views

Ok i'm not sure how this is happening, I'm working on a (very tedious) after effects project and just about to be done... I am using 3d and the camera to move in and out of these frames that zoom in and out. The video is around 4 minutes long, and as I am finishing the section at 4 minutes with keyframes for the camera all along the way, suddenly the beginning looks way off... so I adjusted that but then later the positions were off, all with keyframes throughout for the camera... 

 

Is there a reason the camera is changing perspecitve at the beginning of the video while i'm working on the end of the video? I thought keyframes were supposed to hold it in place right where it is? None of the other settings changed (field of view, orientation etc).

 

Would love some help, getting frustrated. 

 

Some screenshots of how I have the camera keyframed and how it looks incorrect in the frame as well as what it's supposed to look like 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Rick Gerard

Four minutes, multiple shots, one animated camera = asking for failure.

 

Split up your comps, even if the camera move is supposed to look continuous, into shots that are only a few seconds long, and edit and render the pieces. When the pieces are done, edit the 4-minute movie in Premier Pro. The industry standard rule: don't edit in an animation, compositing, or visual effects app. Make your shots work, then cut them using a tool designed to edit movies. 

 

You're stuck if you don't have a backup with a good beginning. You'll have to figure out where you can cut, select all the layers, split the ones that need to be split, and Pre-compose.  FYI, I work mostly on industrial and training projects and do some feature films and music videos. In many of my projects, more than half the shots require After Effects or a 3D app to create the effects. My average comp is about seven seconds because the average shot in one of my movies is about seven seconds. I rarely create an AE comp longer than a sentence, a phrase, or a couple of bars of music. It sounds like more work to make all of those short comps, but it's more efficient, and that's what Disney, Pixar, Sony, Paramount, and the rest of the pros do.

2 replies

R
Rick GerardCorrect answer
Brainiac
December 11, 2023

Four minutes, multiple shots, one animated camera = asking for failure.

 

Split up your comps, even if the camera move is supposed to look continuous, into shots that are only a few seconds long, and edit and render the pieces. When the pieces are done, edit the 4-minute movie in Premier Pro. The industry standard rule: don't edit in an animation, compositing, or visual effects app. Make your shots work, then cut them using a tool designed to edit movies. 

 

You're stuck if you don't have a backup with a good beginning. You'll have to figure out where you can cut, select all the layers, split the ones that need to be split, and Pre-compose.  FYI, I work mostly on industrial and training projects and do some feature films and music videos. In many of my projects, more than half the shots require After Effects or a 3D app to create the effects. My average comp is about seven seconds because the average shot in one of my movies is about seven seconds. I rarely create an AE comp longer than a sentence, a phrase, or a couple of bars of music. It sounds like more work to make all of those short comps, but it's more efficient, and that's what Disney, Pixar, Sony, Paramount, and the rest of the pros do.

jamesdrakefilms
jamesdrakefilmsAuthor
Inspiring
December 11, 2023

Thanks for the advice, makes good sense and I'll move that way going forwar. But I guess I wonder why there's this limitation? Seems strange to me. It is tedious to edit the whole thing in AE, I was just having a hard time visualizing how to make some of the transitions seamless but with some thought that's definitley possible 

---Cinematic Video Production, 17+ Years of Excellence.
R
Rick Gerard
Brainiac
December 11, 2023

The limitation is caused by the number of factors that start compounding in an effects timeline. It's not that you can't do a four-minute animation in AE in a single comp (or any other effects software). The problem comes when you need to change the middle 3 seconds of a four-minute timeline that could have two or three hundred layers that overlap in many ways.  The screenshots you uploaded (embedding makes them easier to see) don't show a very complex project, so we don't know what's happening in the rest of the project.

 

I'm not sure where your camera move got fouled up without seeing the project, but all it takes is a change somewhere in one parent's position, an expression, or a nested comp that was supposed to have Collapsed Transformations turned on.

 

I only see three nested comps. None of them are 3D layers, and CT is not turned on. I see a two-node camera in the timeline and four 3D layers used as Track Mattes.  It looks like there is a little camera movement in Z, and a camera moves from a little up and to the right of the comp center to the comp center. There's not much showing in the timeline that gives me any clues.

 

The camera orientation could have flipped somewhere. It might be more helpful to see multiple views with the Camera Path showing in the views. You are using a 2-Node camera, so weird things can happen if you point the camera straight down, but I don't see any weird camera moves in the screenshots.

 

I checked out your webpage, and you do some amazing work. Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.

Mylenium
Mylenium
Brainiac
December 10, 2023

You are probably missing the zoom parameters...

 

Mylenium

jamesdrakefilms
jamesdrakefilmsAuthor
Inspiring
December 10, 2023

Thank you for the reply. I looked at the zoom parameters throughout the comp and there's no change or keyframes anywhere, the strange thing being it looks correct at certain points but then it looks incorrect in other places! 

---Cinematic Video Production, 17+ Years of Excellence.
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