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[nan]

I tried different overlay objects in mosaic templates. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awLHns-FHdU

[Alex Talis]

I like what you have done.
It has a romantic, mysterious and even mystic flavors.

I know 3DTime offers a lot of different elements that you could activate, such as rose petals etc...

Personally I like much cleaner look and less clutter on my videos but it's only my opinion and my preference.

You have done a terrific job.

[mufasaxx]

Very impressive work, I enjoyed it.

Nan, the last 20 or so seconds I believe I detected 3 different speeds on the zoom effect.

1.) One speed going into the zoom

2.) a different slower speed at the beginning of the zoom

3.) then the speed seemed to excelerate towards the middle to end of zoom.

Was this intentional? If not can this be adjusted or eliminated, or was this just my computer playback acting up.

Regardless the overlay test was very impressive.

[nan]

Hi Alex and Mufasaxx, thank you both very much for the compliment and the detailed coments. This is a testing video for the overlay objects and I agree with Alex that in a real production you'd better not to add too much overlays.

Mufasaxx, you raised an interesting question. I have to go back to the project and study the motion carefully. I find that the zoom efect I used in the #5 template actually has two combined animations: the global zoom in effect and the mosaic layout formation. The acceleration in the zoom in animation can be controlled by the speed factor. Setting speed to 1 (slowest) will achieve an almost linear motion as shown in my video. However, the acceleration of mosaic llayout formation is preset and cannot be controlled. In fact, it has a continuous acceleration (not just three speeds): slow in and slow out, the way that an action begins slowly, moves quickly through the main action, and then slows down as it comes to a stop to form a snapshot of the final mosaic layout. I prefer to this effect rather than moving linearly from one position and stopping suddenly at another. In my opnion, the zoom in motion in the entire template is continuous so linear motion is preferred unless you want a quick and sudden action to match the music beat (I did this in my other video). The mosiac motion is not continuous and it has to stop at the end when the layout is formed. Therefore, slow in and slow out is a must. I think that's why 3DTime didn't give us an option for linear motion. What do you think?

[mufasaxx]

Nan, I don't have the mosaic pkg (as of yet), however I think your explanation of the speed acceleration is probably on the money (as usual).

I guess what I noticed was a somewhat sudden shift in speeds opposed to easing in/out of certain movements. The scenes I'm reffering to are 01:28 - 01:44 (mm:ss) into the movie and a scene at the very end.

95% of viewers probably wouldn't notice, care nor, pay attention to it anyway. I'm still very impressed.

Oh, and before I forget I want to thank you and Alex for motivating me to fire up "After Effects" after a 1 1/2 year hiatus (about the same time I bought 3D-Album). Hmm I wonder if it's any connection there.

Thanks again

[Styler]

I watched Nan's video and verified Louis at 3DTime. The animation at 01:28 - 01:44 is controlled by a velocity curve in the key frame. The Visviva engine uses splines to control the acceleration and it should be theoretically smooth but different curve point settings may have different degree of acceleration (or affect how quickly the speed to change). Perhaps 3DTime can provide an interface for users to specify their own velocity curve (the software has a built-in interface control for creating a velocity curve). But this might be a too complicated concept for the majority of 3D-Album users to understand.

- David from Visviva

[mufasaxx]

Styler,

Thanks for the clarification. And I agree, adjusting a velocity curve may be a too complicated concept for the majority of users too understand but, it couldn't hurt to have the option and it might attract more advanced users to the product(s).

Heck, I'd even purchase such an interface as an add-on/plugin etc. (to acheive a more professional, polished look.)

When I viewed Nan's "overlay test video" I loved it, except, for the scenes I mentioned (although I really like the mosaic templates as a whole).

How does the saying go:

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

Thanks again

[KatN]

Nan outstanding work as always. Heck - I'm still back on trying to figure out the Compose styles. Can't seem to find any time anymore!

[Alex Talis]

I may be mistaken but I suspect that 3DTime using Adobe AE to build their animations and possibly using AE expressions to combine it with 3D-Album software. It really does not matter how 3DTime making their templates.

There is a feature in AE when two keyframe points are selected and there is a motion setup between these two points, weather it's a motion from left to right, right to left, zoom in or zoom out, the feature called "Easy Ease In" under Animation menu/Keyframe Assistant. That feature activates a very, very smooth approach to your final keyframe point and makes a very smooth visuar appearance as appose to an animation that completed without that feature activated.

I specifically used that feature in my earlier example:

http://uondvd.com//v_demo/video/trailer/PHOTO_PILE.wmv

Right before the pile of photos will come to the stopping point, the animation is slowing down to a smoother stop. That is why they calling it "Easy Ease In".
What this feature is actually doing when activated, is building a large number of keyframes automatically to make the final approach to your end keyframe point which makes the final motion approach much smoother. There are many other features that are available in AE. 3D-Album, nor 3DTime gives you this ability and that is not their intention.

If you really after more professional appearance with your videos, then you most definitely need to step up to more professional but at the same time much more complex and more costly software.

Ask yourself a question. Who is your audience?
What are you trying to accomplish and what is your goal?
How much time are you willing to invest in it?

All these fancy effects looks great but it takes enormous amount of time to program and perfet them. If you doing this professionally and you charging your client some amount of money for your time and skills as animator, then I understand, otherwise 3D-Album and 3DTime is your answer.

Great discussion everyone.

[james_times]

Mufasaxx, we added an ease in/out option in MosaicPS0005 and MosaicPS0006 so that you can turn off the accelartion either at the start (ease in) or at the end (ease out) or choose an linear speed option. We did not use the velocity curve approach as suggested by David. Instead, we use a set of preset options. The velocity curve interface is quite complicated and difficult to use. "Position Offset" can be used to control how far away the pile of photos spread before they come to the stop point in MosaicPS0005, or how far the pile of photos will go away in MosaicPS0006.

Alex, first, I want to thank you for emailing us to report a couple of problems you found with other styles. We have fixed these problems in the 1.05 update. We do have some inspiration from works done in Adobe AE. However,we did not use AE to build our animation. 3D-Album does not take AE expressions. We have to write our animation using the script language provided by the 3D-Album's SDK.

Regards,
Louis
3DTime

[nan]

Thank you everybody for the following up! It's truely an inspiring discussion here. Louis, the Ease In/Out option is terrific. Alex, you are right to the point: "All these fancy effects looks great but it takes enormous amount of time to program and perfet them. If you doing this professionally and you charging your client some amount of money for your time and skills as animator, then I understand, otherwise 3D-Album and 3DTime is your answer." Mufasaxx, I've spent my whole weekend in playing AE. If my client won't pay a high premium and it is not absolutely necessary for cuustomization, I would not spend that much time in a project. David, thank you for your clarification. And, KatN, thank you for your compliments. A Happy New Year to everybody!