Text and Particles

So had some computer troubles which caused this post to come up late but here it is! I tried my hand at a little kinetic typography and ultimately decided it's not something you can do quickly...obviously. I think the biggest problem for me wasn't that it would take a long time - I was expecting that - but that the camera was extremely finicky. I started by creating a simple vignette around a blue solid (both 2d layers) and then made the letters themselves 3d since my original idea involved a lot more 3d camera movements, as opposed to say a lot of 2d used in Cee Lo Green's "F*ck You!" unofficial music video. Anyways, the challenge came in keeping the Point of Interest of the camera locked onto the text as it came up, and since the camera was moving all the time to accommodate the text. Basically when I went down too far the POI wouldn't change and while the camera was still at a "90*" angle to the 3d Text the offset of teh POI made it deform. So...yeah. I ended up making 2 sequences and in the 2nd I kept the camera still but animated the text so the POI and Position never changed.

Mitch in the s'th from kabraz on Vimeo.



The 2nd was the particle shot. I've dabbled with Trapcode Particular, 3D stroke, Form, etc, but never really got the hang of it. I did use Shine a lot but that's a pretty simple one...but after seeing tests of Particular 2.0 and watching a lot of videos I was determined to learn a bit more about it. Based off the Lexus Orb tutorials (crazyyyy commercial...way cool) I used particular to make a constant stream of particles. Unlike the tutorial, I managed to create what I think was a really cool texture of semi-transparent...material that made up the "tails" of the particle streams. I made the "heads" lights and attached Trapcode Lux to amplify them, then parented both to a null which I then used to control both streams. The subtle movements they make individually were achieved by messing with their individual orientations. Anyways, I had fun, learned a lot, and am excited to do more with custom particles.


Particular 2.0 Test from kabraz on Vimeo.