Do you know where I could find a tutorial on how to make a still photo graphic look 3D? There are a load of samples when I search, but no instructions on how to build the effect. I see the 3D effect used a lot in History Channel and PBS programs where the foreground and background look as though they are separate dimensional layers. Would this effect be built in MC using Boris or Photoshop or both?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Leo

Leo:

If you mean, "can I create a 3D faceted look to foreground elements with the standard toolsets?" no you cannot, but you can create a simulation of 3D perspective by isolating the foreground and background elements in photoshop and creating 2 separate comps, one with the background layer as a standard single layer, and another comp with the foreground layer(s) with alpha channels. Import these into Avid (I'll assume you know the necessary import options), position them in the timeline accordingly. Apply a 3D warp effect to the background image, and promote the imported matte key clip to 3D. Now manipulate the perspective controls of each to get the desired motion elements. Typically, the foreground elements will have slightly faster transition rates between motion keyframes than the background layers do, to get a more realistic look.

Again, this is really a simulation. You can't take a 2D object and make it 3D unless you take it into a decent compositing program first, create additional faceted elements and then send them back to Avid as a quicktime movie. I would recommend After Effects for that type of work.  

There used to be a tutorial on Creative Cow about how to do just this with AE.  Try a search over there and see if you can find it.

There's no 3D camera in Avid, so it's not really possible to do it in the same way that you would in AE or Combustion, but you can sort of cheat it for small moves.

Take the shot into Photoshop. Extract the foreground from the image, then fill in the hole it leaves in the background. Take both elements into Avid, and then place the background on V1, and the foreground on V2 and animate relative to one another.

For a zoom in, for example, the foreground element comes 'closer' to the camera. So while the background layer might go from 100% to 115% over the duration, the foreground would go 100% to 125%, for example.

This is far from perfect, as Avid doesn't handle imported images in their native resolution, meaning you are scaling the images from video-resolution up. But it does the job in a pinch, and looks pretty decent as long as you don't push it too far.

If you were really commited, you could use the Avid Pan and Zoom plugin for the background layer and have a larger resoltion, then manually position the foreground Matte Key images on that. That would be a good approch for a large pan.

It's actually a lot easier than you think. Here's a tutorial on how to make this effect in AE and Photoshop.

My very first AE project was doing this so if I could do it knowing nothing about AE just following the tutorial, anyone can.

Tutorial: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/virtual_3d_photos/ (it even includes project files).

My 3D picture effect:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiWAwOVbjUg

Good luck!

Thanks much Marcus!

What a great tutorial, I'm preparing my photo now!

Your 1st post was awsome!

Leo

Leo153:

Thanks much Marcus!

What a great tutorial, I'm preparing my photo now!

Your 1st post was awsome!

Leo

Hey Leo,

These guys are right in their answers... its MUCH easier to use PhotoShop or After Effects, but lets not say that it can't be done. True its not 3D and maybe not 2 1/2D either but anything you cut out with AniMatte, export to the desktop and then bring back into Composer comes in with an Alpha. (Look for Export Matte PICT under the File pulldown after you cut something out with AniMatte)

So you could create something like the effect you see all the time. Is it worth YOUR time to do it that way??? I gues that would depend on whether you own After Effects/PhotoShop and knew how to use them.

I'll put that on the list of tutorials to create.

- Keith