Regarding Overlays--Help & Advice please

#1

So I am interested in creating a motion picture as part of another project I am involved in, and I was really impressed with the stylization and simplicity of this Shogun 2 announcement trailer released in June last year.

I have almost no idea what programs they used, but wouldn’t it be possible to do something very similar to this using painter/photoshop (to create the various images in the layers) and then manipulate those layers in After Effects, while then doing final touchups (like animated smoke and birds) in Adobe Flash?

Reference Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlMkME4bSeM

This has been bugging me for a while, so I wanted to ask CGS.

#2

The easiest way is doing a simple camera move in 3d space and moving cards with 2d animations in 3d space. That gives the feeling of 3d on 2d drawings. This could be done in most compositors that have basic 2.5D compositing like AE, Combustion, etc…(2d cards in 3d space).

You could go one step further and texture rough geometry with 2d drawings and animate them. This would require a full 3d compositor like Digital Fusion or Nuke. Though you could also do this in a full 3d appication like lw, max, maya, cinema4d, etc…

#3

yea I considered just modeling something in max, but I like the 2.5D look of the shogun trailer, and I think it would probably be easier just to use that, but would I just draw the “smoke” for example in Illustrator and animate in flash?

#4

You could draw the smoke in anything you like. Just break it into a bunch of pieces so you can individually move then in 3d space to give it the feel of it growing as it goes up.

Using Fusion or Nuke would give you more 3d control if you find AE or Combustion limiting without going to a full 3d app.

#5

I was considering nuke, but I think the 3D nature of it would conflict with the mood and art style I am trying to create/imitate.

I think I’ll stick with illustrator/dicing it up and animating in flash.

Out of curiosity, what kind of program do you think the team who created the youtube vid I linked to used?

#6

I don’t understand? How does the 3d nature of it conflict? I think it would make things far easier to attain that style.

2.5D & 3D in compositing apps just adds a 3d camera aspect to 2d images. 95% chance that the Shogun video was done in 3d space of a compositing app.

#7

Well, maybe Im envisioning it wrong, but the 3d nature of the smoke would create a 3D effect that would make everything else (the strictly 2D art made in photoshop/illustrator/painter etc) look flatter and would look out of place. But again, I don’t think I’m envisioning it the way you are.

#8

We havent started the compositing process on our film just yet, but is it possible to render a smoke or fog in Blender (freeware rendering program) and then export it to After Effects CS4?

#9

Yes. Be sure to render int a picture format that can save an alpha channel.

#10

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