MonkeyCam Pro

© Copyright 2016 Dan Ebberts and Orrin Zucker

All rights reserved
www.typemonkey.net

Welcome to the first official MonkeyCam Pro User Manual.

MonkeyCam Pro is a procedural camera system designed to create

complex camera moves in 3D space quickly and easily.

It will target any unlocked, 3D layer with its video switch (eyeball)
turned on. Once the build is done, all layers that MonkeyCam Pro
targets will be labeled yellow and tagged as shy.

There are two phases to a MonkeyCam Pro project, the pre-build

and the post-build. Pre-build is controlled by the User Interface
(or UI), which can be launched from the After Effects Windows menu.
This is also where the main structure of the camera motion is
specified. The post-build includes a set of effects controls found on
the Master Control Layer (which also contains the camera's timing
markers). This is where all the bells and whistles are applied and
where you can fine-tune and embellish the camera movement.

UI Breakdown

There are three basic parts to the MonkeyCam Pro UI, the Layer
section, the Markers section and finally the Camera section.

Layer Section:
The dropdown control in this section is where you specify in which
order the layers will be targeted by the camera. There are three
options, Top, Bottom and Random.

This will not physically change the order of the layers in the timeline,
but rather it dictates the order in which the camera will move.

Conversely, once a build is complete, changing the order of the

layers in the timeline will not affect the order in which the camera
targets them.

Marker Section:
Markers are used by MonkeyCam Pro to mark the midpoint of the
camera’s transition from one layer to the next. Timing adjustments
can easily be made by sliding a marker along the Master Control
Layer.

Time Span:
This control is used to specify the duration over which MonkeyCam
Pro will evenly distribute the markers. The choices are Work Area
and Comp Duration. Work Area is particularly convenient for pad at
the end and ensures a camera move completes without being cut off.

Marker Sync:
When this control is turned on, MonkeyCam Pro will sync the markers
of the new build to an existing guide layer that has markers already
applied.

Camera Section:
This part of the script UI controls the camera's movement and other
attributes.

Movement:
There are nine basic motions types, or interpolations to choose from.

The various eases are listed at the top of the dropdown. These ease
types are roughly equivalent to ease names you may be more familiar
with, as follows:

Extreme = Exponential
Large = Quintic
Medium = Circular
Small = Cubic ( Easy Ease)
Extra Small = Sine

Next are the physics-based moves, Inertia and Anticipate, then

Linear, and lastly, Cut, which is a simple cut from one camera
position to the next.
When Cut is selected, many of the options in the UI are disabled
(Crash, Ease Type, Continuity and Transition Speed), since they
deal with motion characteristics and cuts have no motion.

Crash:
Turn this control on if you want the camera to come crashing to a
stop at the end of a move. The amount of crash can be controlled
post-build in the Master Control effects area. The physics of Crash
only works with Ease In, so the Ease Type dropdown (see below)
is defaulted to that setting and deactivated.

Ease Type:
This dropdown controls when during the camera transition from
one layer to the next the selected Movement interpolation will
occur: at the start of the camera move (In), at the end (Out),
or both (In & Out).

Continuity:
This dropdown controls whether the camera moves continuously
from one layer to the next, or if pauses at each layer.

The default setting is Pause, meaning the camera will automatically

pause at each layer.

The amount of pause is determined by the length of time between

markers, as well as the settings in the Transition Speed dropdown
in the script UI. (see below)

Visually, if there is a more extreme ease selected, the length of the

pause will appear to increase, even though it's being triggered at the
same time as other ease types.

The other setting is Continuous, which will create a constant

move between layers. Keep in mind that Movement type affects
this setting as well, so a camera can appear to pause even when
set on Continuous if an ease is selected.
Transition Speed:
This sets the amount of time it takes for the camera to move from
one layer to the next and only applies to the Pause setting of the
Continuity dropdown. If Continuous is selected this section will be
deactivated since the speed is determined by of the amount of time
between markers.

The available speeds are not based on hard frame counts. The timing
isn’t exact, but basically amounts to:

Fast: .3 Sec
Med: .5 Sec
Slow: 1 Sec
Sloth: 3 Sec

MonkeyCam Pro will adapt the speed of the move to the time
between markers. For example, if Sloth is selected and only 10
frames exist between markers, MonkeyCam Pro will adjust to make
the move as slow as possible within the time allotted.

Auto Frame:
Auto Frame will cause the camera to move closer or farther away
in order to consistently frame each target layer. There are five basic
settings: Off, Loose, Medium, Tight, and Best Fit, which will fit the
layer to the height of the raster.

Note: Full Frame will fill the frame either horizontally or vertically
(or both if the aspect ratio matches the comp), depending on which
choice doesn't clip the other dimension.

Include Camera Light:

This checkbox will create a light and parent it to the camera. It also
creates an effects control that allows you to select from several post-
build lighting effects, such as flash and light leak simulations.

Motion Blur:
This control will activate the Motion Blur checkbox on each of the
layers that MonkeyCam Pro recognizes. It will not affect non-Monkey
layers; those will have to be done manually if needed.

DO IT! / UNDO IT!

See below

Master Control Layer:

This layer is created during the building process and is the only
MonkeyCam Pro layer that isn’t shy’d automatically. It is also the
only layer labeled with an orange color. It houses the markers
as well as all the effects controls.

The MonkeyCam Pro build will add a series of Effect Controls to the
Master Control Layer to give you control over many of the camera
behaviors. Most of these controls will be in an effect named Camera
Controls, but you may also end up with Crash Controls and Light
Controls, depending on your script UI selections.

Camera Controls
Camera Position;
The Camera Position controls allow you to adjust the global
positioning of the camera.

Camera Rotation:
These controls allow you to adjust rotation on each axis of
the camera.

Camera Wiggle:
Wiggle is a random position and rotation fluctuation applied to the
camera. The end result is like a hand-held camera effect.

Camera Drift:
Drift allows you to cause the camera to move towards or away from
the target layer at a consistent rate. It resets itself and starts again
at each marker. You can set the speed and direction of the drift by
adjusting the slider. A positive setting will move the camera towards
the layer and a negative setting will move it away.

Vertigo:
This control allows you to simulate the Zoom Dolly effect made
popular by Alfred Hitchcock. It adds a zoom component to
counteract the specified Camera Drift. This yields a weird,
compressed or expanded space effect.

Lens Controls:
These controls deal with the camera's depth of field and zoom
properties.

The Zoom Control in this section will add or subtract to the camera’s
current zoom setting. Keep in mind you can also unshy the camera
and physically change the settings there too.

Lens Jitter Controls;

Jitter adds a very quick, JJ Abrams-like random motion to the
camera's zoom and/or focus point settings. The effect occurs
at end of each move, and can be keyframed on and off. It results in
a high energy, lens-lock-up or finding-focus effect.

There are individual controls, which determine the amount and

frequency of each effect.

The Positive Zoom Only checkbox forces the camera to only zoom
in the positive direction. One use for this could be if you were using
MonkeyCam Pro as a video editor (Auto Frame: Full Screen) and
wanted to use the jitter effect without revealing the video frame.

Glitch Controls:
Glitch is a quick random X or Y slide that can occur at any point
in the timeline. Included are amount and frequency controls.

Crash Controls:
This control only appears if Crash was selected in the script UI.
The crash always occurs at the end of a move. You have control
over the intensity of the crash.

Light Controls;
This is created if Include Camera Light is selected in the script UI
and gives you the option of choosing from a variety of light effects
which will happen at the end of a move. There are strobes, flashes
and light leak effects to choose from.

DO IT!
When clicked, this sets the MonkeyCam Pro build in motion.
It will recognize all the active layers (unlocked, 3D layer with its
video eyeball switch turned on) and include them as target layers
for the MonkeyCam. Once the build is complete these will be
labeled yellow and shy’d.

Any non-recognized layers will be left untouched.

If you have Marker Sync selected in the UI, you will need to have
the layer you will be syncing to Selected.

If an old Master Control Layer (labeled grey) exists (see Undo It

below), a prompt will pop up to ask if you want to transfer the effects
control settings from the old master control layer to the new one.

Note: Only one MonkeyCam Pro build can exist within a comp.
If one already exists, you will be prompted to either unbuild it
or cancel out.

Similarly, if you are working with any other Monkey products

in the same comp, MonkeyCam Pro cannot be included.
For example, if you have a MotionMonkey build and you want
to use MonkeyCam Pro in the same comp, the only way to do it
is to bring the MotionMonkey project in as a separate comp
and turn on the collapse icon.

Undo It:
Once a build is complete, any changes to the basic UI settings will
require an unbuild and rebuild. Changes to the effects controls can
be made live. To do this, click Undo it.

During an unbuild, you will be given the opportunity to save the

existing Master Control Layer.

There are two main reasons why this might be a good idea:

1) To use as the marker sync reference layer on a rebuild if changes

were made to the marker timing.

2) To restore your effects controls settings after a rebuild. If an old

Master Control layer exists in a comp, MonkeyCam Pro will detect
the top one (if there are multiples) and ask if you want to apply the
existing effects settings to the new Master Control Layer.

We strongly suggest you save your old Master Control Layer if you
have already made adjustments to the effects controls (static settings
or keyframes), and/or you made changes to the marker timing and
will reference it as a marker sync layer in the next build.

Notes on Rotation:
MonkeyCam Pro was designed to automatically rotate to match
any X, Y or Z rotation of the target layer.

However, in the case of a layer already having a 2D rotation when

imported (i.e. as a Photoshop or Illustrator layer), or if you want to
override the camera’s rotation, we’ve created a series of key
commands that adjust the camera rotation. These commands can
be used to rotate in increments of 90 degrees on the Z-axis.

You can view these key commands by clicking the question mark
button (?) at the top of the script UI. They are as follows:

90º: >
180º: >>
270º: >>>

- 90º: <
-180º: <<
-270º: <<<

The way it works is that you would insert one of these commands at
the beginning of the layer’s name to force a camera rotation for that
layer. For example, if your layer is named “Layer 1” you can force a
90 degree clockwise rotation by changing the name to “>Layer 1” in
the timeline.

Key commands can be added to a layer's name either before or after

the build, and can be changed at any point.

General Workflow:
MonkeyCam Pro is designed to be as intuitive and easy to learn
as possible. Simple projects are very easy to create and manipulate.

However, as projects get more complex, with multiple active and

passive layers intermixed in the timeline, and numerous builds
and unbuilds are required, things can get confusing.

We recommend keeping your comp as organized as possible.

A good strategy for this is coming up with a system for tagging
and locking layers.

We will be posting more FAQs, tips and tricks on the aescripts.com

product page, so please check there for additional info.

Until then, thank you and good luck with your brand new Monkey!