How do you make an object stay still when you have put a camera in??

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How do you make an object stay still when you have put a camera in??

Hey everyone, I seriously need some help! I have a newspaper page set up in Motion which includes lots of different text layers. these bits of text stay where I have put them when I add a camera movement which is great but when i add a shape like a simple square and I have a camera movement going on it moves as the camera moves and obviously I want it to stay in the same place as if it was written on the newspaper page....I know that you can do something like parenting in After Effects but I am a new user to motion and have no idea how to do this sort of thing.....any ideas?? Thanks x Jodie. :o)

Posted on Nov 8, 2007 4:39 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 8, 2007 5:51 AM in response to Jodie_Duarte

Hi,

welcome to the forum.

You are on the right lines. To make a composite like in AE, you simply keep everything in the same group or layer. So create your newspaper with text and shapes and what have you, and put it all in one group and make it a 2D layer. Then I would drop that group into another group and make that a 3D layer, now the camera will move around it nicely, but it should all stay together.

Have i understood your problem correctly?

thanks
adam

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Answer 2

DiGk

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Nov 8, 2007 5:02 AM in response to Jodie_Duarte

Hey,

What if you change your square layer to 2D instead of 3D. It might not be affected by camera movements ? Also is your shape inside it's own group of layer ?

Message was edited by: DiGk

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Answer 3

Jodie_Duarte Author

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Nov 8, 2007 5:43 AM in response to DiGk

Yep I have a few shapes that I need to have stay in one place which are all in their own layer....I just tried to make the group 2d and that freaked everything out and still didn;t keep the shapes in the same place when the camera moves. ?? :o(

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Answer 4

DiGk

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Nov 8, 2007 5:55 AM in response to Jodie_Duarte

That's weird. If you use camera your shape should stay still, maybe you have keyframe or behavior attached to your shape layer group. I don't have motion here but can you post your project to help find why shapes don't stay still

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Answer 5

Jodie_Duarte Author

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Nov 8, 2007 6:15 AM in response to Adam Scoffield

Ok so I tried that putting everything into one layer and making that 2d and then putting it into another layer and makign that 3d but everything just moved all over the place! I have a lot of layers and don;t fancy movign them all back.....the square did stay where it was a lot more than before but it definitely still moved...I have checked and I don't have any keyframes on the layer....it's driving me crazy!! Will play around a bit more and let you know :o0 thanks for your help. x

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Answer 6

Nov 8, 2007 6:18 AM in response to Jodie_Duarte

are all the layers you want to stay together in the same z plane. If these differ then with a moving camera parallax will make them move. I feel your pain when you say you have a lot of layers, but sometimes you just have to start again, it can be quicker in the long run.

good luck

adam

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Answer 7

Nov 8, 2007 9:51 AM in response to Jodie_Duarte

Howdy,

If you want to have certain elements ignore the camera (stay still even if the camera moves), then you just need to put them in a root-level 2D group. A 2D group that is nested inside a 3D group will not ignore the camera, so make sure that the 2D group is at the root level of your project.

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Answer 8

Nov 8, 2007 11:02 AM in response to specialcase

hi,

I wasnt implying that a 2d group inside a 3D group would ignore the camera. I thought that the problem here was that for some reason, while text stayed together on a made up newspaper a rectangle shape did not. My suggestion then was to create the newspaper in a layer, and this might as well be a 2d layer since then you can apply a mask to crop it how you will, and then to make it be able to move or be seen in by a camera and appear to be in 3D space, then you drop the whole thing in a 3d layer.

Or did i not understand the problem?

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Answer 9

Jodie_Duarte Author

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Nov 9, 2007 1:38 AM in response to Adam Scoffield

Ok you are all on the right page as me....I solved the problem slightly by making the group 2d and then putting it into a 3d group which made the square only move a bit which is a lot better than before....root level?? Do you mean at the bottom of all the groups?? Thanks for all your help as well by the way :o)

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Answer 10

Nov 9, 2007 1:42 AM in response to Jodie_Duarte

hi,

but we've only slightly solved the problem, that's just not good enough!

Have you tried starting a fresh project with fewer things in it to get the idea, and see if it works. There might be something else screwing it up that you havent spotted yet.

regards

adam

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Answer 11

Jodie_Duarte Author

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Nov 9, 2007 1:45 AM in response to Adam Scoffield

lol I know I'm trying for the easy way out...I started another project because I got too annoyed with that one!! I will start a new project with a few of the sam elements and see if I can get my head around it on a simpler level first....:o) I'll get here in the end! :o/

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Answer 12

Jodie_Duarte Author

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Nov 9, 2007 9:03 AM in response to Adam Scoffield

Sorted.......I put the images into a 2d layer and then into a 3d layer and it worked fine :o) Thanks..

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