Expressions, part 1
For the new promo dvd for Proeye Video Production, we decided to totally revamp the menu design.
Going from a static look to a 3D environment was a pretty big leap, and meant that we would have to look in to using software capable of dealing with it. I decided on After Effects, as I’m pretty familiar with it and have used its 3D tools in the past.
What is really cool about it, that i only really discovered recently was Expressions. Expressions are like little scripts that changes a layer’s property. You can reference other layer’s properties and there is a whole range of math tools to help you out.
For instance, I had a whole bunch of buttons for the DVD which I needed to see when designing, but then turn them off when I output. So I put an expression on each button-layer’s opacity that referenced the opacity of an adjustment layer. I could then change one variable instead of 30.
So thats a pretty simple example. What was more complex was my next brain-wave.
The DVD menus are designed so that when you go from one to another, its like you are going though into a different part – See this example on Youtube
What we wanted to do was, as the “camera” moved towards an object went from transparent to opaque. The way we did this was through an expression (special thanks to an old friend Stuart Evans, a math teacher at Heathdale Christian College).
Stay tuned for part 2…
