3D Conical Image Wrap for Track Motion?

Soniclight wrote on 8/16/2006, 11:25 AM

SEEKING: 3D Conical Image Wrap (Plugin and/or?) for 3D Source Alpha Track Motion -- and an affordable one at that.

Allow me explain :)

Imagine that you could warp or wrap a clip or still of boxes and spheres hanging out in outer space into a conical or other curved surfaces instead of via the flat, square and rectangle perspectives as offered in Vegas's 3D Source Alpha Track Motion.

And let's say we have two half cones, each doing the opposite motion of the other, one affecting what's above the horizon line (which is exactly at half screen), the other below it:

--- Above horizon line half cone: Our celestial boxes and spheres are streaming OUT from the center/apex of that half cone at the horzon getting larger as they move out towards, above, and then off-screen of the viewer.

--- Below the horizon line: they are streaming IN from off-screen and below the viewer towards the horizon center.

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No, I'm not just imagining this.

Someone who is both a musician and video artist has done this via After Effects with some for-now secret (he can't divulge the technique because of a copyright clause he has with the software company), and so I can't show you the clip of what it looks like.

But he has permitted me to describe it and try to figure out an alternative way to do it. He has also said that I could share a still image, so if anyone wishes to contact me to further discuss this, I could send a still to show you what I mean.

Now, there is an After Effects compatible plugin called Canoa SuperPak (http://toolfarm.stores.yahoo.net/cosu17.html) that seems to be able do something along these lines, but I don't have a compatible version of AE (only an old 3.1 I never really got the hang of and why I got Vegas).

There may or may not be something on the market for Vegas that could do something similar, however:

--- I live only on a limited disability income and cannot afford to shell out hundreds of dollars for one effect or plugin. I've already poured almost all of my extra money/savings into buying Vegas, upgrading my music production software (Steinberg SX3) and building a new Pentium D system.

All this to finally be able to do the type of work I'd like to do -- and to hopefully regain my financial independence one day doing so.

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Point:

I'm not a rich man, so I'm trying to find a creative -- and honest -- poor man's alternative. I don't do crack software or use copied/pirated software, etc. (I've even been offered a copied version of the latest AE and all kinds of plugins, but I turned it down).

All that said, yes, one could so something similar to this effect with what is already in Vegas -- using the flat/rectangle based 3D Source Alpha, I'll probably may end up having to do it that way if I can't find a free to very affordable way to do it in conical/curved surface mode.

It's just that the curved/conical just has a far more of a liquid and organic quality to it. It's a pretty stunning effect IMO.

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OK, enough rambling. Pardon the long post but I wanted to be clear and concise on both what I am looking for and on my financial situation.

Thanks for any suggestions, referrals, ideas, etc.

Comments

Grazie wrote on 8/16/2006, 9:23 PM

There is a great chap - Satish Kumar - who has developed plugins along the lines you speak.

He has developed a "freeware" plugin for doing 3-D work, but I can only see it for Vegas5 and prior. I can't see Vegas 6? Maybe others will put me correct on this.

Do have a gander at his site as there are other useful tools to try and learn from.

The one life saver for me has been his Frameserver software that allows us to literally send an unrendered project out to another application! You have to see it to believe it. In his comments on Frameserve he says it works with Vegas 6.0 . So, if you do get "other" 3-D s/w it occurs to me you could frameserve your Vegas6 OUT to this "other" 3D s/w - yes?

http://www.debugmode.com

farss wrote on 8/16/2006, 9:38 PM

Probably your best solution for doing this is something like Truespace. Older versions which would be more than adequate are available for free. Expect a steep learning curve as you would with any 3D application, there's no great secret as to how this is done BTW.

Also I've never jumped very deeply into Boris, it might do the task and you do get a cutdown version for free with Vegas. Again fairly steep learning curve, probably not as steep as a 3D application though.

Bob.

Soniclight wrote on 8/16/2006, 9:46 PM

Thanks to both for feedback and referrals. Currently busy with other things in my life path, so I'll have to return in a day or two and once I've checked out your suggestions.

Hasta la then.

TeetimeNC wrote on 8/17/2006, 5:31 AM

Soniclight, I have done something similar using Ulead's low cost Cool3d Production Studio and Alan Collinge's free PictureWall. I created a matrix of photos using PictureWall and then wrapped them around a 3d sphere in Cool3d. I put a little hook on the top of the sphere and animated the sphere to spin slowly. Brought that back into Vegas and layered it onto a photo of a Christmas tree to give the illusion of a photo ornament on the tree.

Jerry

richard-courtney wrote on 8/17/2006, 6:46 AM

I second Truespace, this is very simple with the product. (Caligari.com)

Check your local book store, Version 4.2 is included on a CD.

I used this for a picture frame with a moving graphic for both a DVD opening
and a home theater intro.

You can output as a series of stills and inport into Vegas.

Soniclight wrote on 8/17/2006, 6:27 PM

Thanks for more input. Actually, I already have a couple of the www.debugmode plugin/apps, the 3D one and the morph one, but will consider the "exporter" - that seems useful as workaround.

And as I went and checked out the other suggestions offered, inc. Truespace (found an earlier 3.2 version) and so on,

All that said...

The conical effect is something I'd like to do, but I've got so much other work to pull off -- as well as still being in the learning curve with Vegas itself, so I'd better cool my jets and take things one step at a time.

I've made note of all of your suggestions but I've got to keep it simple here and not go on overload (crawl, walk, then run :)

Short version: I'll look into the cone thing on a more substantial level a bit later down the road, but again thanks for informative input.

NRN.

AlanC wrote on 8/18/2006, 10:59 AM

Hey Jerry, any chance of posting a clip from your 3d sphere somewhere?

I would love to see the end result.

Alan

TeetimeNC wrote on 8/18/2006, 3:15 PM

Here you go Alan. It's a little rough around the edges but PictureWall worked a treat for this. This is part of a Christmas video I update each year and force my wife and grown kids to watch ;-). I use the spinning ornament to transition to our "snow train" which is part of the storyline.

http://clips2.vimeo.com/video_files/2006/08/18/vimeo.181251.3ed501.wmv

>>Hey Jerry, any chance of posting a clip from your 3d sphere somewhere?

Jerry

Grazie wrote on 8/18/2006, 11:06 PM

Awesome TT! Awesome!

Can Cool3d do video compos too? Surely not?

Excellent!

AlanC wrote on 8/19/2006, 1:41 AM

Thanks Jerry

I thought the idea was very clever but the way you pulled it off was very polished.

That's excellent. You should post it on Kelly's site.

Alan

TeetimeNC wrote on 8/19/2006, 3:57 AM

Grazie, is this what you mean by video compos: With Cool3d you can create 3d objects and lay images and/or video on the object's surface. For example, in the spinning ornament I could have placed the train video in one of the "cells". This kind of work is fairly tedious (for me) in Cool3d. It is a shame that Ulead doesn't upgrade this product - it has great potential and little competition at its pricepoint.

Jerry

>>Can Cool3d do video compos too? Surely not?

TeetimeNC wrote on 8/19/2006, 4:06 AM

Thanks for the nice comments Alan. I just uploaded to Kelly's site.

Jerry

>>You should post it on Kelly's site.

Grazie wrote on 8/19/2006, 5:59 AM

"With Cool3d you can create 3d objects and lay images and/or video on the object's surface. For example, in the spinning ornament I could have placed the train video in one of the "cells". "

Well, we can make a VIDEO Wall. I use Edward Troxel's Excalibur which has a Video Wall function that makes the VW very straight forward, then all I would need to do is then "wrap" that around the sphere, using C3D!