Hey, question on bringing a 3Dobject/animation into a 2D world

#1

First, I am using Maya and After Effects.

I wanted to create a 3D animation with a character and bring it into a 2D world. Something similar to what Futurama, Invader Zim and the beginning of this Family Guy Clip do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA4-As_wK5Q&feature=related

Is there a render setting that will export only the animation or with a transparent background allowing you to put it on top of a 2D image/movie? I have done the opposite (rendered a 3D animation and animated in 2D over it), but the file size on that was way too big and I feel like there is an easy way to bring a 2D and 3D animation together. Any ideas or keywords I should search for? Thanks

#2

Search for ‘Toon Shading’

#3

I know about toon shading and vector 3D, but if you watch that clip, the truck is 3D but the rest doesn’t appear to be. It looks like the 3D truck is on top of the 2d animation.

#4

There is something called ‘alpha channel’(stores transparency in bitmaps) which is heaviliy used in ‘multipass compositing’.

So rendering a toon shaded 3d animation into a 2d bitmap sequences using an alpha channel (or ‘travelling mattes’ since you do use AE)will allow you to composite it on any background.

#5

thank you so much!

#6

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.