Expert: Joseph Silver - 5/29/2007

Question
Dear Joseph, I hope you can help me with this. My wife wants to learn how to make pictures with motion. Such as when there is a picture of a shore line and the water is moving, or a rose above water and the reflextion of the rose in the water is rippling. Can you tell me what she needs to get to do this type of stuff? I'd really appreciate it cause she's been wnating to learn for a long time.

Answer
Hi Robert - Your wife needs a 2D animation/compositing program such as Adobe After Effects, or perhaps Apple Motion. Please keep in mind that there is a bit of a learning curve for these products. If she is not familiar with graphics and animation, she may find it will take her a while to learn the skills that she will need.

After Effects has a variety of distortion filters that can be used to create some of the effects you describe. She may also want to film moving water and composite the water within her program using mattes. Also, After Effects also has a wide variety of color correction tools she can use to make her composites look real and compelling.

www.designomotion.com