by Al Street        © 2007  Al Street. All Rights Reserved.

Plugins used:    POIcam_1.2.lsc (for AE 5.x and 6.x) or POIcam_AE7.lsc (for AE 7.x); CameraMotionBaker.lsc,  transMotion_57.lsc

Overview: In the scene there are a camera, several boxes and a floor. The camera moves and rotates. The goal is to render the scene and then recreate the camera and its motion in After Effects so that it matches the rendered footage.  The boxes are 200 units square at the base with various heights. There are several nulls in the scene that correspond to some of the faces of the boxes. These nulls will come into After Effects as solid layers and will be used to verify that the camera match is correct. This usage is optional but is useful for visualization and checking alignment. The nulls are positioned at the center of the face and have a Custom Object attached (a Grid Shape). The shape is set for Scale = 200 m using the Z-axis. Always use the Z-axis setting and then rotate the null in Layout to match the face. This ensures that the rotation will be brought into AE correctly. In this scene the nulls are rotated (if necessary) and scaled to match the face they are representing.

Steps:

In LightWave:

Load the scene POIcam_AEpro_tutorial.lws. (This file is used for both the Standard and Professional version tutorials)

Make sure Auto Key is ON and Auto Key Create is not OFF.

If you intend to export nulls to AE, use the Custom Object Grid shape set to Z-Axis. Then scale and rotate them as necessary to line up with the geometry.  The sample scene already has the nulls set up.

Bake the camera's motion starting from frame 0. You can use the Camera Motion Baker plugin for this step.  In the sample scene the camera motion has already been baked.

Render the footage. 

Save a motion file for each null that you want to export to AE.  Select the null and File > Save > Save Motion File...

For Windows PCs:

Run POIcam_1-2.lsc if using AE 5.x or 6.x or POIcam_AE7_1-2.lsc if using AE 7.x.

For Macs:

Run POIcam_1-2_mac_DEMO.lsc if using AE 5.x or 6.x or POIcam_AE7_mac_DEMO.lsc if using AE 7.x.

Choose the "Camera_baked" camera if you have used the Camera Motion Baker plugin. 

for AE 5.x and 6.x:

 camera.aek - contains the camera position and Bank rotation data

 POI.aek - contains the Point of Interest data for the After Effects camera

 FOV.aek - contains the Field of View data, converted to After Effects zoom

for AE 7.x:

camera_position.aek - contains the camera position data

camera_rotation.aek - contains the camera Bank rotation data

camera_POI.aek - contains the Point of Interest data for the After Effects camera

camera_zoom.aek - contains the Field of View data, converted to After Effects zoom

Note: The "Open files in Notepad" option will not be present in Mac versions.

Leave the Scale Factor at 1.0 unless you have a good reason to change it (see "Things to know" below). 

Note the name and location of the output files that will be created. Files will be saved in the LW "Programs" folder on the PC. On the Mac, they will be saved in the folder you have designated as the LW "Content" folder.

Click "Ok". 

Earlier, you saved a motion file for each null that you want to create a solid layer for in AE.  Now it's time to convert those motion files to a format that can be pasted into AE.  
For each file, run transMotion_57.lsc.

A file will be created whose contents will be pasted into AE later.

In After Effects

Import the rendered file sequence and create a comp from it by dragging the file

sequence name to the create composition icon.

For each null in LW that represents a box face create a new solid layer, width = 200 height = 200, opacity = 75%, to check alignment.  Make it a 3D layer.  

Create a new Camera layer and accept the default parameters.  For each of the .aek files created by POIcam, Select All, Copy, and Paste into the appropriate camera track:

for AE 5.x and 6.x:

camera.aek --->  Position

 POI.aek --->   Point of Interest

FOV.aek --->   Zoom

for AE 7.x:

camera_position.aek ---> Position

camera_rotation.aek ---> Z rotation 

camera_POI.aek ---> Point of Interest

camera_zoom.aek ---> Camera Options Zoom

select all the "Null" solid layers.  

The solids layers are set for 75% opacity so you can see the LW rendered footage behind them. With the solid layers selected you should also see the outlines of the layers matching the faces of the rendered boxes.