Laser scan and barcode effect

[ianstark]

Hello all,

This is my first time posting although I've been lurking for a while. Looks like a great resource and a friendly bunch. Look forward to being a regular participant.

I am fairly new to After Effects although I am a reasonably experienced user of graphics and NLE software (specifically Photoshop and Sony Vegas). Having had AE since version 5, but never having done more than tinker with it, I decided that it is high time to get to grips with more than just the absolute basics. My company has just upgraded to v7 Pro on the understanding that I will put the effort in! I'm hoping they'll buy me the Total Training DVD's as well!

Stupidly, I've jumped in at the deep end and offered to create a logo sequence which at this point is somewhat ahead of me. I'm hoping that someone can point me in the direction of a tutorial that will show me the basics of what I'm trying to achieve. I'm more than happy to tinker and experiment to get exactly the look I want but I kinda need a jumping off point!

What I want to do is to have a bar code on screen which is scanned by an unseen handheld scanner (held by the viewer, for the sake of argument). As the red horizontal laser beam scans from top to bottom I want the barcode to burn away to reveal the company name/logo. I know that a barcode scanner doesn't scan from top to bottom but I'm exercising some poetic licence here!

Ideally this will all appear to be in 3d space, with the camera looking at the barcode from very slightly above and to the left.

Anyone know of a tutorial that might help me here? Or has anyone done a similar project and could let me take a peek at the project file or give me some pointers?

All help gratefully received and, once again, hello to everyone from a wet and windy southern England.

Ian . . .

[oneinfiniteloop]

This would be fairly simple to pull off in AE. First you need your elements. Obviously you'll have your barcode pic, and your logo picture. You'll need to add these to your comp, then arrange the barcode on top of the logo. Right click both and make them a 3D Layer. Next, create a new camera underneath the Layer menu.

Now, at this point you have your 2 3D layers and a camera. The composition looks pretty 2D at this point as well. You then can position the camera at whatever angle you see fit and get your shot lined up, or you can keep it as is until you finish the effects and ready for the final touches (this is what I would do).

Now you have to create the laser. I haven't created on in a while so the process escapes me, but if you do a search at http://www.creativecow.com, you'll find something usefull.

Once you have your laser you make it a 3D layer as well, then do your basic animation going down over the barcode. Once your done you have a basic idea of your whole animation. Next, select your barcode layer and you'll have to draw a mask that completely covers the layer. At the top edge you might want to make it a little jagged to simlulate the barcode burning off, but that's up to you.

Now that you have the mask, parent it to the laser animation and it should follow any keyframes you have set there. Make some adjustments and tweak accordingly and you have your animation. Adjust the camera, add some smoke/atmosphere elements, maybe some DOF, a light, drop shadow, whatever you think that will sell the shot, and voila!

[ianstark]

That's fantastic, thank you very much indeed. I'll have a play around today and I'll post my results in due course for criticism!