OSX Mavericks and After Effects Troubleshooting

So there has been a bit of a lull as I have been doing a ton of research with Cinema 4D and it's integration into After Effects. However, there has been a bit of a glitch. With the introduction of the new Apple OS X, Mavericks, I received an error message while attempting to launch After Effects. The message read "You can't use this version of the application 'Adobe After Effects CC' with this version of OS X. You have 'Adobe After Effects CC' 12.0." I spent several hours trouble shooting and resorted to un-installing and re-installing the program, but to no avail.

I will post again once I can fix this issue. Until then I will spend some time shooting clean plate footage.

cheers

Mavericks After Effects Error Message

3D Text Tracking Test

Final shot screen-shot in After Effects

After spending several hours I was finally able to create my first 3D text track. The final video is here:

http://youtu.be/rPQyBvsdqb8

I shot some handheld footage in order to add some depth and dynamic movement as I felt the camera slider was limiting at times regarding x,y,and z planar information. I then took the footage into After Effects and began to work with the 3D tracker.

raw shot

 I used the advanced method for the camera solve and spent some time finding the best points to use for the track. I then created a camera and text based of these points, tuning the text 90 on the x axis to bring it upright.

raw shot with tracking point data

different layers and elements of the comp

 After making sure the track was clean, I turned on the raytracing render mode in After Effects. This allowed me to extrude the text out and create some lights and shadow casting. I placed a shadow catcher and light beneath the text in order to generate more shadow and messed around with the settings to get a look and feel I felt was appropriate. Now, I experimented with the different textures i could apply to the text and finalized the comp.

shadow catcher preferences and options

text and tracking information for shadow catcher

Render queue

Then, I sent the comp to media encoder and let the render fun begin...

Initial 3D Camera Tracking

After taking the footage into After Effects, I began to color grade the material. I slightly adjusted the contrast as well as the sharpness and saturation in order to give the footage a little more life. 

The links to the videos from this first section can be found here and here.

Final shot with tracking points.

3D camera tracker settings.

Next, I opened the 3D camera tracker and began to adjust some of the settings. I found that I could adjust the size of my tracking points, as well as the target size generated from the points. In addition, I was able to chose the type of camera move, how detailed the camera solve was, and what sort of auxiliary component was generated with the 3D camera created (null, object, or text). I decided for my first test I would try to use text.

I wrote the word hello and attached it in 3D space to the rear mudguard of one of the bikes I filmed. I have attached my results as youtube links at the bottom.

Overall I feel that this was a successful first track. I was able to see how the 3D camera tracker worked and understand how to shoot future clean plates to function with the information the tracker is looking for. I think I will opt for more handheld shooting for some future tests as I can gain more rotational and depth data this way.

Adding the "hello" text