Looked through comments and FAQ, but did not see this answered - sorry if I missed it. Am I able to share a working project file w/ someone who does not have MCP installed? They wouldn't necessarily need to be able to change camera animation etc, just layer content. Thanks in advance! -bc
Hey Brendan- You should be able to do that no problem...they just can't create a build.
MonkeyCamPro has proven to be great addition to my AE toolbox. All of my projects that I have used it for has been with Element3D. The only feature that I think MCP is missing and is causing problems with couple of things is the ability to dolly the camera in/out from the target layer. You can ZOOM IN/OUT but that obviously causes distortion due to the nature of ZOOM effects. Sometimes it's what you need. The MCP Camera Position features ability to move the camera in XYZ space (Z being the dolly move in/out) is not so useful, because it's not relative to the target layer. If the target layer is orientated in any other way than 0,0,0 and you try to use MCP Camera Position controls you know what I'm talking about.
The "target relative" movement of the camera would be useful when manually trying to FRAME the target. Sometimes you want the framing to be loose and sometimes tight. I've been able to go around this by having seperate TARGET null's that I can move further away from the target or closer to it. It's useful, until you want to use DepthOfField. Obviously the DOF is OFF if you target layer/null isnt on the same depth as the actual target.
If adding target relative movement to MCP would be possible, I would see it would be very very useful for a lot of reasons! Anycase as MCP is today, it's a good script!
MonkeyCamPro has proven to be great addition to my AE toolbox. All of my projects that I have used it for has been with Element3D. The only feature that I think MCP is missing and is causing problems with couple of things is the ability to dolly the camera in/out from the target layer. You can ZOOM IN/OUT but that obviously causes distortion due to the nature of ZOOM effects. Sometimes it's what you need. The MCP Camera Position features ability to move the camera in XYZ space (Z being the dolly move in/out) is not so useful, because it's not relative to the target layer. If the target layer is orientated in any other way than 0,0,0 and you try to use MCP Camera Position controls you know what I'm talking about.
The "target relative" movement of the camera would be useful when manually trying to FRAME the target. Sometimes you want the framing to be loose and sometimes tight. I've been able to go around this by having seperate TARGET null's that I can move further away from the target or closer to it. It's useful, until you want to use DepthOfField. Obviously the DOF is OFF if you target layer/null isnt on the same depth as the actual target.
If adding target relative movement to MCP would be possible, I would see it would be very very useful for a lot of reasons! Anycase as MCP is today, it's a good script!
Thanks Miika! We'll put it on the list.
We're currently working on some cool new ideas but every once in a while we double back and make revisions when possible.
We've found that adding new features can really mess up old features or just make the whole thing a real pain to use- so we have to be very careful.
But your suggestion is a good one!
Any way to Let the camera pause for a space of time before it moves to the next marker? Sometimes I just want it to rest, but others I want it to stop and go. Maybe adding an unlabelled marker between labelled markers could work? Great script otherwise!
Any way to Let the camera pause for a space of time before it moves to the next marker? Sometimes I just want it to rest, but others I want it to stop and go. Maybe adding an unlabelled marker between labelled markers could work? Great script otherwise!
Hey Nick-
I'm sure you've tried sliding the markers manually...but heres another option- before the build, duplicate the layers you want to hold on, the more duplicates the longer it will hold. After the build you can turn off the layers.
The only drawback is that if you have Drift on, it'll reset at each marker, but maybe you can turn Drift off for that section.
Excellent product, yet again. Nice replacement for SureTarget 2, at last.
I'm still using the trial version, just to get a feel (I already own Type, Motion and Layer Monkeys)
But I've found a problem — no doubt just my own misunderstanding — but on the two or three test projects I've made, using basic 3D solids or 3D comps, I cannot get the DoF to work AT ALL.
I made a composition that also had a basic plexus object in the 3D space, and all DoF settings were working just fine with that (when its internal settings were set to DoF: ON).
I've made sure the MonkeyCamPro DoF is enabled and played with the settings, but whilst they further add to the Plexus blurring, the layers that MCP originally used to "do it!" seem oblivious to any of the adjustments and stay in crisp, jarring focus, despite being distributed quite significantly in z-depth...
Likewise with motion blur. The layers that MCP is using as targets are not moving, so... no motion blur.
Any ideas gratefully appreciated. And thanks again for such a great tool.
Excellent product, yet again. Nice replacement for SureTarget 2, at last.
I'm still using the trial version, just to get a feel (I already own Type, Motion and Layer Monkeys)
But I've found a problem — no doubt just my own misunderstanding — but on the two or three test projects I've made, using basic 3D solids or 3D comps, I cannot get the DoF to work AT ALL.
I made a composition that also had a basic plexus object in the 3D space, and all DoF settings were working just fine with that (when its internal settings were set to DoF: ON).
I've made sure the MonkeyCamPro DoF is enabled and played with the settings, but whilst they further add to the Plexus blurring, the layers that MCP originally used to "do it!" seem oblivious to any of the adjustments and stay in crisp, jarring focus, despite being distributed quite significantly in z-depth...
Any ideas gratefully appreciated. And thanks again for such a great tool.
Hey Trevor- can you open up a support ticket and send over a project so I can see what's up?
MonkeyCam Pro is an excellent tool! I have never gotten the knack of creating smooth, yet interesting camera moves in After Effects. MonkeyCam makes that process quick, easy, and good looking. The best part is how easy it is to adjust positions and timing after applying MonkeyCam. Thank you very much for this tool. I'll need to get me some more Monkeys.
MonkeyCam Pro is an excellent tool! I have never gotten the knack of creating smooth, yet interesting camera moves in After Effects. MonkeyCam makes that process quick, easy, and good looking. The best part is how easy it is to adjust positions and timing after applying MonkeyCam. Thank you very much for this tool. I'll need to get me some more Monkeys.
Hi Orrin. Still enjoying your plugin! Quick question about the Camera. Am I right in saying it generates a 50mm camera? Is there a way the change it to 35mm or 24mm? Would be handy to change when using with other setups like pt Multiplane, for instance, or dropping in and collapsing comps set to a different camera.
Hi Orrin. Still enjoying your plugin! Quick question about the Camera. Am I right in saying it generates a 50mm camera? Is there a way the change it to 35mm or 24mm? Would be handy to change when using with other setups like pt Multiplane, for instance, or dropping in and collapsing comps set to a different camera.
Hey Mark-
Yeah, you're right. It defaults to a 50mm lens. All our auto-framing was calibrated for that. You can certainly change the lens setting manually and then mess around with the Z position or Zoom settings to get the framing like you want it tho.
But I think its a pretty cool idea, to select from a series of preset lenses in the UI, and then have the Z Position (?) adjust accordingly so all set ups are consistent. ...of course it might have unintended consequences, like messing up other settings one way or another.
Hi Orrin! Downloaded the trial and am having a lot a fun with it. My primary goal is to replace VC's Sure Target — is there any way to mimic the Roll and Inertia a camera would have (a feature in Sure Target)? Kind of like your 'crash' but more natural feeling? thx!
Hi Orrin! Downloaded the trial and am having a lot a fun with it. My primary goal is to replace VC's Sure Target — is there any way to mimic the Roll and Inertia a camera would have (a feature in Sure Target)? Kind of like your 'crash' but more natural feeling? thx!
Hey William - You can try the Inertia Interpolation setting...see if that works for you. As far as Roll goes, you might have to manually keyframe it using the Camera Rotation psuedo effects.
Will this plugin do the same as simple camera rig by malty?
Thanks
Mike
Hey Mike- Sorry for the delay -I didn't see this post.
As far as I can tell they're quite different. aescripts tries not to have too much overlap between the products it carries. I'm not an expert in Simple Camera Rig, so I'd download a free copy of both and the differences should be pretty clear. Both are good, it just depends on what you're trying to do.
Will this plugin do the same as simple camera rig by malty?
Thanks
Mike
Hey Mike- Sorry for the delay -I didn't see this post.
As far as I can tell they're quite different. aescripts tries not to have too much overlap between the products it carries. I'm not an expert in Simple Camera Rig, so I'd download a free copy of both and the differences should be pretty clear. Both are good, it just depends on what you're trying to do.
Hey, Orrin,
I've owned Malty's camera rig for years and it's a great tool. But Monkey Cam seems closer to Video CoPilot's now defunct Sure Target. Malty's rig better for moving a camera around w/in a specific shot. It' mimics how a real camera behaves on set very well. So you place your objects on the set and use Malty to do a single (complex) camera move for a single shot.
Monkey Cam looks better attuned for motion graphics and seamlessly moving the camera from scene to scene. Malty really can't do that. That's why I bought it but I haven't had a chance to play w/ it much. So you'd set up multiple scenes w/in a single comp. MonkeyCam then moves the camera from scene to scene. W/ some impressive whistles and bells in the traditions.
What could be cool, but take you forever to render, is set up a number of precomped shots w/ Malty's doing slick camera moves. Then use MonkeyCam to pan from shot to shot.
I know. We try to make all our tools work with as wide a range of versions as possible... unfortunately MCp was the only one that wouldn't work with CS6 and we did everything we could to make that happen. But in the end, we had to make the choice to make it as good as we could and take advantage of all the new features available to us in the latest versions of AE, or dumb it down and make it more applicable to a wider range of versions.
Im sure you know this, but just in case - VideoCopilot's Sure Target is a good alternative that works with earlier versions of AE...
Can't there be an option of Random in Auto Frame in the next version?
That's a great idea... we'll look into it. In the mean time it's a pretty easy thing to do manually- just unshy the comp and unlock the target layer. If you select it and go into its effects panel you'll see a series of dolly settings- you can just go and adjust those to achieve similar results.
Can't there be an option of Random in Auto Frame in the next version?
That's a great idea... we'll look into it. In the mean time it's a pretty easy thing to do manually- just unshy the comp and unlock the target layer. If you select it and go into its effects panel you'll see a series of dolly settings- you can just go and adjust those to achieve similar results.
I didn't get the notification of your reply or I don't know where the notifications showup in aescripts. I had to visit this page by myself because i had trust that TeamMonkey never reply late.
Tell me more of this LightMonkey you speak of...What would it do?
We have a bunch of ideas in various stages of development but these things take a while to get right. Plus AE keeps coming out with new capabilities with each update so that gives us new options....
I guess there ain't any script about Light layers. I am not sure. But haven't found yet in AEscripts. You have included light in MonkeyCam. I saw it but haven't used it yet. Also I am into mostly Kinetic Typography. For me, the use of LightMonkey would be revealing every letter with the help of Light and after finishing the last letter reveal, the whole word would be lighted. That's just one possibility i could think of right now in my 1.5 months after effects experience. But wouldn't that be more exciting if you could show us more animations and motions with LightMonkey which we never thought of.
Is it possible to do time re-map within a movement? For example: If the camera is rotating 180 degrees around an object, can I have, say, 30 degrees of that movement go at double time, and then have the camera go back to it's original rotation speed?
Is it possible to do time re-map within a movement? For example: If the camera is rotating 180 degrees around an object, can I have, say, 30 degrees of that movement go at double time, and then have the camera go back to it's original rotation speed?
Hey Don- theres no way to do it directly, but have you tried pre-comping the whole thing and time remapping the pre-comp?
It's been a while since I used this excellent tool, and it's still just as good as it ever was.
BUT, in your Quickstart video (which I re-watched to get back up to speed), you show the keyframes you're adding to the MonkeyCam Master Control AT SUCH AN ACCELERATED PACE, there's no way for me to see how and where those keyframes are having an effect.
Because a marker represents the "middle" of a move, there's no obvious way of knowing where to put Cam position/rotation keyframes, because there's no indication as to where each moves ends. I can get my basic targeting right, but making it as dynamic and as "interesting" as your example, comes from the subsequent placement of the Master Control keyframes, and your demo is just too speeded up to see how you're achieving that.
Also, those keyframes don't move with the markers, obviously, so any change to timing not only requires the moving of the markers, but also changes where they need to be relative to the markers, because pauses etc change...
It's got me beat, and I'm no newbie.
Are there any other tuts on the use of MCP that might help me better understand what I obviously don't understand?
It's been a while since I used this excellent tool, and it's still just as good as it ever was.
BUT, in your Quickstart video (which I re-watched to get back up to speed), you show the keyframes you're adding to the MonkeyCam Master Control AT SUCH AN ACCELERATED PACE, there's no way for me to see how and where those keyframes are having an effect.
Because a marker represents the "middle" of a move, there's no obvious way of knowing where to put Cam position/rotation keyframes, because there's no indication as to where each moves ends. I can get my basic targeting right, but making it as dynamic and as "interesting" as your example, comes from the subsequent placement of the Master Control keyframes, and your demo is just too speeded up to see how you're achieving that.
Also, those keyframes don't move with the markers, obviously, so any change to timing not only requires the moving of the markers, but also changes where they need to be relative to the markers, because pauses etc change...
It's got me beat, and I'm no newbie.
Are there any other tuts on the use of MCP that might help me better understand what I obviously don't understand?
many thanks
Hey Trevor-
So...the thing about creating these scripts that have a certain degree of automation is that sometimes what manual changes you make for one setting might not work for another...
For instance - while a marker might be in the middle of a move, what you have selected for ease settings might change where you place keyframes.....it becomes more about experimenting than anything else. Theres no absolute answer unfortunately.
On a side note, check out the controls you have in the effects panel of the shy'd MCP Target layer. You can adjust order and framing there without having to use keyframes (oddly I discovered that recently). I'll do a quick tut on that when I get a break.
Hope that helps a little bit...if you have a specific issue please open a support ticket and I'll see if I can make a suggestion or two.
It's been a while since I used this excellent tool, and it's still just as good as it ever was.
BUT, in your Quickstart video (which I re-watched to get back up to speed), you show the keyframes you're adding to the MonkeyCam Master Control AT SUCH AN ACCELERATED PACE, there's no way for me to see how and where those keyframes are having an effect.
Because a marker represents the "middle" of a move, there's no obvious way of knowing where to put Cam position/rotation keyframes, because there's no indication as to where each moves ends. I can get my basic targeting right, but making it as dynamic and as "interesting" as your example, comes from the subsequent placement of the Master Control keyframes, and your demo is just too speeded up to see how you're achieving that.
Also, those keyframes don't move with the markers, obviously, so any change to timing not only requires the moving of the markers, but also changes where they need to be relative to the markers, because pauses etc change...
It's got me beat, and I'm no newbie.
Are there any other tuts on the use of MCP that might help me better understand what I obviously don't understand?
many thanks
Hey Trevor-
So...the thing about creating these scripts that have a certain degree of automation is that sometimes what manual changes you make for one setting might not work for another...
For instance - while a marker might be in the middle of a move, what you have selected for ease settings might change where you place keyframes.....it becomes more about experimenting than anything else. Theres no absolute answer unfortunately.
On a side note, check out the controls you have in the effects panel of the shy'd MCP Target layer. You can adjust order and framing there without having to use keyframes (oddly I discovered that recently). I'll do a quick tut on that when I get a break.
Hope that helps a little bit...if you have a specific issue please open a support ticket and I'll see if I can make a suggestion or two.
Thanks!
-oz
Thank you for the speedy and helpful reply, Orrin. I will experiment with that shy'd layer and see what I can get. Thanks.
I've updated my version of Ae to the latest and now MonkeyCam Pro is no longer working for me. Is anyone else seeing issues?
hey will- make sure you have the folder and the jsxbin in the right scriptsuipanels folder...you might even want to download a fresh copy too...it should work fine in the new version. If not, open a support ticket and we'll figure it out.
hey will- make sure you have the folder and the jsxbin in the right scriptsuipanels folder...you might even want to download a fresh copy too...it should work fine in the new version. If not, open a support ticket and we'll figure it out.
You are correct... downloading a fresh copy did the trick. Thank you
I'm trying to use some images to create a sequence with MonkeyCamPro. The issue I'm running into is I can't really position my layer to fit properly with the camera. See the video of what's happening attached. In the second layer, the one of the angel, I can't move that layer down to see her face. Any position doesn't actually move it, just moves the placement of the 3D layer I guess. I've tried using the auto framing off and loose, but nothing. Obviously can move it. This is my only hindrance, other than that the plugin seems great. Just bought it last night. Any suggestions?
while technically you can change the position of the layer in 3D space, relative to the camera it won’t change (thats why it looks like nothing is happening). If you had a 3D background you’d see what I mean.
I’d recommend a few options...
1) Pre-comp each of your layers first, that way you can adjust their position within that pre-comp without messing with the camera.
2) Unshy the comp, unlock the Target layer, select it and go into the effects panel. You ‘ll see frame control slider with will individually position the camera for each target - you can zoom out there if you want.
3) Keyframe the Anchor Point of the Target Layer.
4)Keyframe the Camera Position in the effects panel of the Master Control…
I had another question: I know there are camera rotation key commands that can be summoned by adding <‘s and >’s to layers.
Is there a special super secret notation I could use in the layer name so that I can tell MCP to ignore the 3D Nulls I’m using to position and control my targets without locking them?
Locking and unlocking them between Undo It’s and Do It’s is wearing me down.
I had another question: I know there are camera rotation key commands that can be summoned by adding <‘s and >’s to layers.
Is there a special super secret notation I could use in the layer name so that I can tell MCP to ignore the 3D Nulls I’m using to position and control my targets without locking them?
Locking and unlocking them between Undo It’s and Do It’s is wearing me down.
No secret notation that I know of, but you can turn off the video switch (eyeball) to make MCp ignore them...does that help?
Is there any way to see the settings used to create a previously built move?
Hey Sam- unfortunately no, it wasn't built that way. Best I could offer is to take a frame grab of the ui if you think it might be a possibility you'll need that later.
The "target relative" movement of the camera would be useful when manually trying to FRAME the target. Sometimes you want the framing to be loose and sometimes tight. I've been able to go around this by having seperate TARGET null's that I can move further away from the target or closer to it. It's useful, until you want to use DepthOfField. Obviously the DOF is OFF if you target layer/null isnt on the same depth as the actual target.
Thx- and happy new year!
Im sure you know this, but just in case - VideoCopilot's Sure Target is a good alternative that works with earlier versions of AE...
In the mean time it's a pretty easy thing to do manually- just unshy the comp and unlock the target layer. If you select it and go into its effects panel you'll see a series of dolly settings- you can just go and adjust those to achieve similar results.
I didn't get the notification of your reply or I don't know where the notifications showup in aescripts. I had to visit this page by myself because i had trust that TeamMonkey never reply late.
I'm trying to use some images to create a sequence with MonkeyCamPro. The issue I'm running into is I can't really position my layer to fit properly with the camera. See the video of what's happening attached. In the second layer, the one of the angel, I can't move that layer down to see her face. Any position doesn't actually move it, just moves the placement of the 3D layer I guess. I've tried using the auto framing off and loose, but nothing. Obviously can move it. This is my only hindrance, other than that the plugin seems great. Just bought it last night. Any suggestions?
while technically you can change the position of the layer in 3D space, relative to the camera it won’t change (thats why it looks like nothing is happening). If you had a 3D background you’d see what I mean.
I’d recommend a few options...