After Effects: Sign Text Experiments #3

After my previous test, I decided to render out a scene with more camera movements to see if exporting the locators and camera to a JSON file would continue to work. It appears that it works fine even with more camera movements, but I did notice a few things I had to go and fix manually.

As the video above shows, since the text is on layers above the footage - it does not overlap with the objects like they should (such the poles on the sign post). To fix this, I crated a mask and animated it so it'd cover up the parts of the text that should go behind objects. This was a bit fiddly at times, since the mask was also parented to the null object, but it wasn't too difficult to sort out. Another problem is when the the camera moves from the front of the sign post to the back, the text is mirrored on the opposite side. To fix this, I animated the appropriate scale attribute to -100 to flip the text into the correct orientation. I did this when the text was flat so the change could not be seen.

I also noticed that sometimes you get better results depending on which edges you use to place the locators in Maya. For some sign posts, I got better results when I selected an edge from the front, and one edge from the back of the sign. Other sign posts I had better luck with selecting two edges next to each other. I just continued to experiment until I got the results that I wanted.

I am still finding the font 'Noteworthy' the most useful so far for replacing text that does not agree with 'Grenouille'. I used the font 'Bradley Hand' for Bulgarian in this test. 

After Effects: Sign Text Experiments #2

I think I made some decent progress with changing the languages of the text on the signposts. After some suggestions, I decided to try out exporting locators, meshes, and cameras into a JSON file to then import into After Effects (I followed this article). Initially, I had some strange results with the locators (I used a Rivet script to get the locators where I wanted). I realised I needed to make the text into a 3D layer in AE then make sure I held down 'shift' as I parented the text to the null object to snap it into place. I also tried naming the locators 'textLocator' which automatically gets converted into a text layer rather than a null object in AE. However, this gave me less freedom to adjust and edit the text in comparison to having a text layer and a null object.

I then decided to try exporting the mesh of the sign posts rather than locators. Meshes are converted into solids rather than null objects. As I experimented with this I realised all I needed to do was adjust some of the rotation attributes. These attributes weren't automatically keyframed.

I decided to return to using the locators/null objects as they required less adjustments than the mesh/solids (the mesh/solid would mirror and flip the text when it was parented). For the most part, the only adjustments the locator/null method needs is -90 degrees in rotate x, and maybe a few minor adjustments in the other rotates on the null object or position attributes for the text layer.

I'm going to continue to experiment with this method after rendering out a scene with more complex camera movement to ensure this works correctly. I also have been trying to find some fonts for certain languages that are missing characters from the chosen font (hence why in German some words have a normal 'a' rather than an 'ä' at the moment). So far I think the font 'Noteworthy' has been the most successful for Bulgarian in comparison to the others that I've tried.

After Effects: Sign Text Experiments #1

I've been trying to work on how to add text to the different signs throughout the YPGTTO world. The goal is to find a way to easily swap out the text for different languages without impacting render time within Maya. To do this, I started out by experimenting with the 3D Tracker Camera in After Effects. While this worked well with a basic scene with a simple camera zoom, it did not work as well with a less flat sign and more complex camera movements. I also discovered that some languages, such as Bulgarian, will require their own font since the main font chosen isn't compatible with certain letters.

For the second test, I found out I had to render the sign again on a separate layer on its own, or else the tracker points would simply stick to the wall. Even then, there did not seem to be enough points to place the text exactly where it needed to go. This can mostly be seen for 'The Wind City' - there were very few points which caused the text to float and jerk around a lot. I have a few other ways of going about adding different languages, so I'm going to do some more research and experiment with a few other methods, but this is a start at least.

Destination Board Test #01

To create the flipping text for the destination board I went into After Effects, created a grey panel, and centred the letter I wanted onto it. After pre-composing these two layers (the grey panel and the letter) I added an adjustment layer to brighten it up a little bit to create the Top of the flipping panel. I then duplicated both of these layers in the Project panel to create the Bottom, where I flipped the letter vertically and removed the adjustment layer so it was darker than the top. I then duplicated the 'Top' composition and replaced it with the duplicate with the 'Bottom'. Next, I created a mask to cover half of the Top composition so the Bottom would show. The Bottom composition was then turned into a 3D layer and animated the rotate so it rotated 180° - I had to play around with where the anchor point was for this to get it right although it could still use some adjusting.

After this, I went into the Bottom composition to moved the letter's keyframes so it'd only show up in the animation after the panel had rotated past the centre of the Top panel (so the upside down letter didn't show when the panel hasn't flipped yet). I then duplicated these to create the other letters and offset the animations so they didn't all flip at the same time. I still need to sort up adding more letters so the words go from things like 'Boarding' to 'Departed' or change to different cities. I also think I can make the letters flutter to give a blurring effect for a while before settling by duplicating the flips, animating them faster, and adding some motion blur. I'll continue to test this out and see where it leads me.