Posted by nobody special on 10/10/06 15:47

Ptravel's descriptions are essentially correct. I think the term he was
searching for was multiplane animation camera for the Disney thing, and
yes, the effect you want is simulating that to an extent. They used
multiple sheets of glass in a stack with different animation cels on
each, and htis enables the layers to be moved at different speeds and
well as creating rack-focus efects to enhance tghe illusion of depth.
Bambi was the first movie to use this, I seem to recall, and it led to
a technical oscar.

To rotate the cut-out in three axes, enough to see the reverse side,
you can use a compositor like AfterEffects, Shake, or Combustion or
Motion to do that. Or you can map the photo elements onto planes or
extruded objects in a 3-d animation program, like applying decals to
cut-out shapes, and animate those in the 3-d program to get essentially
the same effect. The photos must first be taken apart in photoshop and
the missing bits of background substituted or synthesized, typically in
photoshop. Then the psd file "stack" of layers can be imported direct
to some compositors for layer manipulation.

And of course, you have to HAVE a reverse side to show, either made
from scratch or synthesized from the front view. At least in the
compositor, the effect becomes very obviously fake when you get too
close to the pieces being 'on-edge" tot he virtual camera, but
sometimes this is the exact look people want. i call it the '2.5-D
effect', and I personally love it. But, for something less artificial,
the 3-D CGI is the better bet, as you can create a dimensional body and
map the photos onto it as a texture map "decal", and it will look
realistic from most every angle.

[Back to original message]