3D Animation Video (After Effects)

Hey everyone! It's great to have this forum back online and I'm so glad that Tim has been able to continue his ministry.

I have finally moved into producing videos for our church and ministries. The projects so far have been simple, but judging from the responses of the congregation, they have been effective.

I've been handed a challenge by our staff -- one that is really beyond my novice-level video production capabilities. Since we are worshipping in a multipurpose space while our sanctuary is being renovated, we have had to rethink our welcome and attendance process. We now have tri-fold black folders that we put at the end of each row of chairs. The goal is for everyone in the row to get their hands on the folder and get a prayer request/attendance card and pull out any other informational fliers they may need. The problem is that the folders are only making it about half way down the rows before someone throws them under a chair. Some of this is due to the structure of the welcome time (we're looking at how to address that in worship staff), but nevertheless, we don't get an accurate accounting of who is in worhsip, nor do we get all the prayer requests that may be out there.

We would like to produce a short, humorous clip of life from the perspective of one of these black folders. The idea is to make it a kind of "mascot" with a face and a personality. Since I have no animation skills, I'm wondering what to do. I do have a copy of AfterEffects, though I have only toyed with it and don't really know my way around the program, much less how to use it.

So my questin is -- where can I learn to do this type of work in a relatively short time (books, videos, etc) and have any of you ever worked on a similar project? I know Ginghmasburg UMC did a movie intro thing with their logo as a mascot type character, but I imagine that required more time and resources than I have available right now.

Are there any other ways to tackle this project that I haven't thought of?

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Warren
Posted by Warren Pattison on Oct 16, 2001.


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Good question.

I hope others give their two bits. In my opinion serious annimation should be left to the pro's so I say hire it out. I think I saw the Ginghamsburg logo and it was done in After Effects, at least I could figure out how it would be done in AE. The prob with After Effects is the SERIOUS learning curve. I dab in it a little when I have time. I have 18 hours of training videos and a great text and it is still a little to deep. It is major time. For projects that I have to have I call our local TV studio and a couple production houses, (the best are in Califorinia and New York) then take a bid on the project. I have recieved bids on animation work from $500 to $1,500 for :10 to 2:00 pieces. To be honest I have found great quality and the best price from the local TV station compared to production houses. The best guide to what station to call is watch the news and who has the best animation and then give them a call. They probably have a couple of guys in a dark corner that generate this stuff all the time and can realy get it produced well and fast. Don't be surprised if you see them using Adobe products and other stuff you could also buy but that is not what your paying for your are paying an artist.
Posted by Randy Neary on Oct 16, 2001.


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I think it depends on how important this is. If it's a really big deal, maybe you would want to consider hiring it out. But if you don't have the budget and can do it yourself, there are some programs that make it easy.

AE does have a nasty learning curve and computer animation isn't something you just dive into. My first animation was 30 seconds long and took me 3 weeks straight (I was learning as I went along). I've used a couple of off-the-shelf animation programs that are easy to use and have produced good results. They have wizards to do most of the work.

I'm really impressed with Ulead's Cool 3-D. Check it out at www.ulead.com. You can buy plug-ins for it, too. It's actually kind of advanced for a consumer-level product. You can render out the animations using your capture card's CODEC (i.e. RT2000 or Storm) and play it back through that card. If you transcode to MPEG-2 you can author it to a DVD (see thread #695).

There are some options out there that don't cost a lot of time or $$$. Also check out 3D Impact Pro from www.crystalgraphics.com (we can get that one for you). It's okay, but a little outdated. The former MetaCreations has some cool software that I used on my first anim project (Poser, Bryce, Ray Dream and Infini-D). Higher learning curve, but more advanced. Go to www.metacreations.com/products for links to these products.

If anyone has used any others, let us know. Keep us posted, Warren!

-Tim
Posted by Tim Eason on Oct 17, 2001.


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From what it sounds, you are envisioning the mascot being a 3-D character such as the Wal-mart smiley face. This type of precise 3-d animation with facial expressions requires expensive 3-d modeling software. Although AE can assist in the process after the 3-d models have been created, it cannot create the character. As other posters have said, I too would suggest going to a post-production house in your area if you really think its worth it. Local TV stations might work depending on your market, but by being an editor for an NBC affiliate, I know that the bigger ones may not have the time and the smaller ones probably won't have the recources. This just takes some research around your area.

At my church, we use AE for our video opening sequences as well as the credits at the end along with some help from Title Deko and Primiere. Good Luck.


Jonathan Cordell
Trinity Baptist Church
Jacksonville, FL
Posted by Jonathan Cordell on Oct 20, 2001.