I’m in Motion!

originally posted by Craig on June 6, 2007

I’ve started to work on some of the composite shots for the film. I just got Apple’s Motion 3, and I’m quickly learning the ins and outs of this software. I’ve used Adobe After Effects, but never got real deep into that. I guess that’s a good thing since Motion’s interface is a little different.

So far, I’ve figured out the main techniques I need, like doing a stencil silhouette alpha mask, basic motion tracking, and using the keyframe editor. I realize that Apple tried to simplify 2D compositing by including built-in behaviors. But I’m glad that they also included a good, old-fashioned keyframe editor for people like me who like to do things the hard way. There’s just something more gratifying about doing my own motion paths.

While my artistic skills are a bit limited, at least I’ve figured out how to do the type of shot I had envisioned for the ending. The trick now is to make it look good. Of course, this is the “easy” comp. There’s going to be another one earlier in the film that’s going to require a lot of tweaking since the elements must be animated on a 3D plane. But I have confidence that I can pull it off.