I created a book in c4d. Without using after effects i want to put some effects on the images. Such as a brush effect, smoke reveal etc. Is that possible without exporting the project to Ae?
I thignk i have to use the Alpha channel to animate the image but i cant figure out how..
I do have a movie (.mov) from smoke reveal (form example)....i have to do something with the Alpha i geuss
I might state the obvious here, but we need to start somewhere:
The Alpha channel is the mask of a movie or still image. It is not needed to have something animated. If the content of the clip should be seen only partially, the alpha channel can be used. This information must be inside of the clip. To animate footage you click on the little preview in the channel you use in the material and then in the Animation tab>Calculate.
Either way, without seeing anything from the material you use, what can I tell? Use a Plane to place the footage, drag the footage to the Alpha channel or open it there as well. Anything showing up there, other than the clip itself.
Here it becomes difficult to tell anything without having your material. Can you share it? Vie DropBox or is it small enough to give you an upload link (it should be below 100MB thought, as zip file, the scene file really only with the needed parts, no 3rd party stuff please!)
Sorry to ask again, but i can’t figure it out by myself, even with your scene files..:-(
In the link below: a very simple example of my book (i think it’s enough to understand my question) The book I made has a lot more camera animation in it.
As you can see; after the page turn you’ll see a picture. I want to animate that picture, like the link below (just for example, there are a lot of different ways to animate).
The “smoke reveal” was obviously something that I had imagined more as a fire. So the file above is perhaps only of very little use. Hence why I like to get a scene file, or a sketch [storyboard}, well or a link to YouTube/Vimeo.
To create that effect, yes, that can be done with Alpha. Inside the Alpha channel, you need something that changes over time. The example below contains only one option. Take a look how the Gradient in the Alpha channel is animated. Please let me know what you like to have exactly, how this effect should work for you, there are so many options looking from the start, so we have to go from the target to limit those options.
Please feel always free to ask, any question will certainly benefit many others.
Thank you very much, thats just the information i needed!
I did not understand how to animate the alpha channel, and now i do, because i saw what do did!
Sorry for the mistake about the ‘smoke reveal’, but my Englisch is not that good:-) (i am from the Netherlands).
Well, this effect is just what i need. Now I know how to animate this channel i can do experiments on other options (in the list of effects from the alpha channel.
The _01 file creates the “gradient” and the file _11 uses the 32bit/channel file to translate the gradient into visible and invisible (and all between).
I hope that allows for a lot of experimentation. So any drawing, perhaps blurred, can be used for a “progressive mask”.
Render a little Preview, to see the effect.
Hope you will help me again, i need a little bit new support.
I hope i can explain my problem if not, let me know;-)
I build my book with the plugin: ‘magic book’. I put a lot of work to create that to a unique book, so if possible I will keep that for my project.
I did a lot of experimentation with the effects on the pictures (as you explaned), the one i like the most is the ‘gradient’ effect we talked about at first.
But when i put the effect on the picture (I made a ‘preset’ of it), there is missing a ‘starting point’. At this moment he starts always with the picture on the second page (because of the alpha channel).
I would like to start with ‘old paper’ or something else, but i can’t seem to figure out where to put that ‘old paper’ to see it at first.
To explain i made a short example, hope you understand the problem.
Since I do not see an scene file, guessing is all I can do, and I always think of guessing as un- professional.
I don’t see that any work could be lost, but without seeing anything…
But here we go: You need to place a material left sided from the one with the alpha material. This material will show up if the more right sided (Object Manager) will be in anyway not completely opaque.
Have a look at the example scene above (post #6) and there click on the material and see the Front or Back settings in the Attribute Manager>Tag>Front/Back, as well.
You need one Texture Tag for the paper (front), one for the image (front), then paper (back), image (back). This is the sequence in which they should be in the object manager. Left to right. If all front or all back comes first or last is not important, but paper more on the left, image(s) more on the right for each group. Please note that Materials are inside the Texture Tag, they are not the same.
You could place the paper twice there (Object Manager) and if the paper is the same only once with “Sides” set to Both: Paper (both), image (front), image (back), could be the simpler form.
If there is anything not clear, please ask or let me know if you like to have an example scene file. I do not have that plug in, so I do not bother to ask for the scene file again.
On a ‘normal plane’ your examples are working fine….but..
I think the problem is the plugin (magic book)....it does not work on that plugin. Even when i follow all the instructions (paper/front/paper/back etc.), the effect does not work.
