Track motion question- simulating "turning a page"

SamCasey wrote on 1/2/2005, 9:43 PM
I have a question about track motion. I set composting mode to 3D and I have a JPG that I want to "turn" like like turning a book page. How do I change the location of the center where the XYZ axis is located? The JPG is picture of handwriting on an 8 X 11 sheet of paper. The center is located in the center of the paper, so when I use track motion to "turn" the page, it spins from the center of the paper, vice the left hand side. How do I move the center?

Thanks.

crs

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 1/2/2005, 9:52 PM
As I can't answer your question in 3D track motion terms, have you tried a simpler way, such as using a Page peel or similar transition - just overlap two pics and drop the required transition on the overlap.
farss wrote on 1/2/2005, 10:02 PM
Good question, I'm working on just this at the moment.
Now the only problem is if you're trying to make it look like a real book, books aren't 4:3 or 16:9 usually. So the peel starts from the corner of the frame not the page.
However you can make Vegas do it right. Set your project to match the size of the book with square pixels, overlap say the cover of the book and an empty event. Render out as uncompressed AVI, bring file into new project and set media properties so Vegas sees the alpha and then you can put whatever you like on a track below and the page will peel away properly.
Bob.
Grazie wrote on 1/2/2005, 10:59 PM
There WAS a 3-D page turn veg somewhere .. . Spots VASST site . . . I'ev seen it .. If I locate it I'll share . . G
farss wrote on 1/3/2005, 12:02 AM
Actually I gave up on the page peel thing. It works well but I thought it just looks, well too cheesy. What I'd really like is a real book with the pages turning so you see both sides etc. I think Disney used to do this very well in their old movies. But that I think takes a LOT of work to get it looking real. Probably to the point where it'd almost be easier doing it for real with an animation stand and camera. Although someone did say Hollywood FX has a good one, hmm.
Bob.
jetdv wrote on 1/3/2005, 8:00 AM
There is a book page turn veg file here: http://www.creativecow.net/show.php?page=/articles/vegas_veggies.html

You might also want to look at the adorage transitions here: http://www.adorage.de/
mjroddy wrote on 1/3/2005, 11:25 AM
Isn't there a bit of software that is a "photo album" kind of thing? I never had much use for it, so i didn't bookmark it. But I remember seeing software that would let you put photos into various situations, like books, photo galleries, etc. Anyone else have that memory?
It's NOT a Vegas plug or anything, but might help all the same...
SamCasey wrote on 1/4/2005, 4:09 AM
Thanks for the input and it never dawned on me that there might be websites devoted to these kind of things. Are there more of these sites?

Also, none of these suggestions get to the heart of the question, changing the actual center of the xyz plane, but they were definetly helpful suggestions. Any ideas on changing the center? It wouldn't have to be to "turn a page", as that was just one application I'd like to try. There are other things I'd like to try by changing the center (like folding).

crs
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/4/2005, 9:44 AM
> none of these suggestions get to the heart of the question, changing the actual center of the xyz plane

Changing the pivot point is quite simple. It’s done by turning off Editing in Object Space, and moving the pivot point. When you are in 3D Track Motion, this will be the 3rd icon from the left (it looks like a 3D box). Make sure it is disabled (i.e., not selected). You will see a dot in the center of the frame in the main 3D window (prespective view). Move this dot to where ever you want. (off to one edge if you want it to turn like a book page) Now when you rotate your frame, it will rotate around the new pivot point at the edge of the page.

I've add this as a new tutorial on my web site:

~jr
SamCasey wrote on 1/5/2005, 3:57 AM
Johnny,

You da man! That worked perfect AND simple. Thanks. I've got to explore this a little, as I can see some possibilities here.

crs
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/5/2005, 6:12 AM
I’m glad it worked for you. Before coming to use Vegas 3 a few years ago, I did a lot of work with Pinnacle Hollywood FX (I now use Cinema 4D) and so understanding 3D space helps a lot. One trick to moving several planes together is to group them (child composite) under a parent (master) track. (we would use a Null Object for this in HFX or C4D) In other words, set the pages up relative to each other, then make them all a child of a parent track, then move the parent track in 3D space to make all the pages move in unison. The key here is to have the parent track’s Track Motion in 3D AND the composite in 3D too. (I think I need to make up more tutorials ‘cuz its easier to show than talk about) ;-) Good luck,

~jr
SamCasey wrote on 1/5/2005, 7:28 PM
Thanks for that advice. I understand and it makes sense. By the way, I visited your site and downloaded the VEGs. No since reinventing the wheel, eh 8^)). Great site! I've had VV since 3.0, but have only recently started to seriously scratching the surface of what you can do. I've always been interested in effects, so any of this stuff I can get I want to soak up. And you're right, it's easier to see things actually work than have them described- pictures worth a 1000 words I guess.

crs