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2D and 3D together

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2D and 3D together

I was wondering what the general public (you people) thought was the best process of combinding a 3D backgound (ie. Maya, 3DS...) with 2D character animation. What is the best software for creating the final 2D portion (ie. Digicel) meaning inking and coloring then exporting. What would be the best settings for exporting? Then do you combined the 3D movie file and the 2D movie file in a program like Final Cut Pro? Or is there a better way? Can you import your background animation into a software along with your rough 2D animation and ink and paint in that software?

Okay I'm done... I just want to pick everyones brains.

Thanks.

You would need software like Adobe After Effects, Autodesk Combustion, or if your rich Eyeon Fusion.There is many different ways to do it and it varies from software to software. The process of combining two or more video images in a single frame is called compositing. May I suggest the book Digital Compositing for Film and Video by Steve Wright it is an excellent book to learn about compositing and its available at most online bookstores. You may also want to pick up books are your compositing software of choice. Combining 2D animation with a 3D background can be very challenging, especially if 2D character is doing alot of moving around and the background needs to move along with the character(like running). I've tried my hand at it just for fun and found out it was anything but fun but it was a good learning tool. Hope this helps as I am new at this as you are.

EDIT: I would like to know what software do you plan to be using for your 3D and 2D work? Just curious.

Software: TVPaint Pro, Harmony Standalone, Storyboard Pro, Maya, Modo, Arnold, V-Ray, Maxwell, NukeX, Hiero, Mari, RealFlow, Avid, Adobe CS6
Hardware: (2) HP Z820 Workstations + 144-core Linux Render Farm + Cintiq 24HD Touch

For the 3D part I am using Maya and for the traditional part I am still in the air. I have imported some of my frames into Flash and colored them, just as a test to see if I could export the movie with an alpha channel so that when I bring the background and character animation together in Final Cut the character animation will have a transparent background. The movie clip would come out to "pixelized" and I couldn't get an alpha channel setting, I believe if I had QuickTime Pro I could export from Flash with alpha channels, correct me if I'm wrong. Anyhow I'm not sure if that is the best way to do the 2D part of the project.

Any further insight would be great.

You should be able to export a png sequence from Flash which supports alfa channels. I'm not sure if Maya or your compositing software supports pngs but I don't see why they wouldn't.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

I have never used Final Cut Pro but from I've read it is best suited for video editing. Your are definitely going to need either After Effects, Combustion, or Fusion to composite your 2D and 3D together. The pipeline I experimented in was Maya for 3D, After Effects & Photoshop for compositing, and Premiere Pro for video editing. The Reason Chose this was because all the Adobe software play so well together and it was easy to open a AE file in Premiere Pro and vis versa. Actually compositing is capable in Mirage which is a Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, hybrid geared toward 2D animation. I say download trial versions of software and see which one suits you or buy the student version if you can.

Software: TVPaint Pro, Harmony Standalone, Storyboard Pro, Maya, Modo, Arnold, V-Ray, Maxwell, NukeX, Hiero, Mari, RealFlow, Avid, Adobe CS6
Hardware: (2) HP Z820 Workstations + 144-core Linux Render Farm + Cintiq 24HD Touch

Anyhow I'm not sure if that is the best way to do the 2D part of the project.

Any further insight would be great.

Mirage Studio Pro----------->TVP Animation Pro when it comes out. Sorry TVPaint :p or even just TVP Animation.

or Even DigiCel's FlipBook software.

Of course to use this programs well you will need a tablet. I would suggest a Wacom Intuos 3 or Cintiq 21UX(yeah I wish!) but most likely a Intuos 3.

Software: TVPaint Pro, Harmony Standalone, Storyboard Pro, Maya, Modo, Arnold, V-Ray, Maxwell, NukeX, Hiero, Mari, RealFlow, Avid, Adobe CS6
Hardware: (2) HP Z820 Workstations + 144-core Linux Render Farm + Cintiq 24HD Touch