Smooth out transitions in slide shows

[James.T]

Hi Can  I ask if anyine can help ?

Iam trying to put together a 360 degee slide show of various products. I have taken 36 images of and item on a revolving table. Whe I import them into After Effects with a durations of 5 frames or so the images jump slightly when going from one image to the next.Is there anyway to smoth out the transition from one image to the next?

Iam new to animations and finding this difficult to smooth out, Iam using AE Pro 2018.

[Rick Gerard]

Are you trying to warp one image into another so that it looks like a VR shot? If so, After Effects is the wrong program for that. You need something like Photoscan to build a 3D environment from your images and create a texture for the model.  https://www.agisoft.com/features/professional-edition/

Another option would be to carefully line up the images and turn them into a video that looks like a quick camera move around the subject. Kind of the multi-camera bullet-time workflow. Your 36 images will give you a movie that is just over a second long and I'm not sure how well AE is going to handle the frame blending as you slow the project down into something that is a little easier to watch.

If I could see at least 6 of your images I would have a much better idea of how to efficiently approach the project. 

If you need to do something else then let us know and show us your comp with the modified properties of at least some of the layers and if the project has 3D layers, show us at least two views.

[James.T]

Hi Rick

No not trying any VR. 

I trying to to show a 360 degree view of small power equipment we manufacture. This is for promotional material for the items. I setup a test using a model car and a revolving turn table, and took the images with a still camera on a tripod. The turn table was moved ten degree between each shoot. That give me the 36 images. I firsted tried working in Premiers Pro CC dropping the 36 images into the time line with a duration of 4 seconds between each shot. It looks Ok but you can see each transistion between the images.  Then I tried after affects but up to now Iam still getting the jumps between each image. I am trying to see if there is anyway to smooth out the cuts from one image to the next? Yes if you shorten the duration of each images to one secound it looks smooth but it's way to fast. Iam thinking of trying time warp in AE or the morph cut but I guess it will increase the rendering  time alot.

[Rick Gerard]

Try this. If the images are sequentially numbered import them into After Effects as an image sequence. Select the image sequence in the Project Panel and press Alt/Option + Ctrl/CMnd + g to open up the File  Interpolation Panel and set the frame rate to something like 4 or 5, then close the panel. Create a composition from the image sequence then immediately open up the Composition settings and change the frame rate to something like 24 or 30.

Start a preview and while the preview is running go to the Layer>Frame Blending Menu and choose Pixel Motion. See if that is acceptable. If it is then you're done. You have turned a very fast movie into a slower one. If Pixel Motion does not give you satisfactory results try Frame Blending. 

Here's a short video I made from an image sequence I made with my phone showing the difference between the three options of frame blending. Note the playback speed in the info panel and the different distortions. in the image.

The Image Sequence was interpreted at 4 fps and the comp was set to 30 fps.

Let me know how that workflow turns out for you. If the image responds well to Pixel Motion you now have a video you can time remap to show different sides of the subject and maintain a smooth transition between views.

If AE's Pixel Motion blend mode doesn't work then Twixtor Pro can do a much better job. It is a little expensive but if you have a lot of these to do it will be worth it. 

Next time take a lot more images or just shoot a video of the product on the turntable. 

[James.T]

Thanks Rick

I will give this a go