Fly around CC Sphere in After Effects

As noted by Andrew Devis, "cameras are notoriously difficult to get to grips with in After Effects." Once example is trying to fly a camera around a CC Sphere layer, which isn't really 3D.

An updated post on the topic was posted on PVC, Fly around CC Sphere in After Effect.

CS Next is CS 5.5

CS Next is CS 5.5 at PVC has details and links to videos and more. New features include Warp Stabilizer, Camera Lens Blur, stereoscopic 3D camera rig, light fall-off, source timecode, & more!

 Continuing updates on CS 5.5 will be available at AE Portal on PVC.

Good sources of news on NAB include ProVideo Coalition. PVC authors like Alex Lindsay, Adam Wilt. and FreshDV are doing video reports.

Hidden Gems: 3D, Cameras, Lights, Photo Filter

Chris and Trish Meyer recently posted some tips on orienting yourself in After Effects 3D. Advanced users (aren't we all) be warned, you're entering known space on 3D Space, Cameras, and Lighting in 3D (and the Photo Filter effect).

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 13 - 3D Space covers the basics of working with 3D layers in After Effects and includes moving, rotating and animating layers in 3D space, offsetting their anchor point in Z, as well as auto-orientating layers along a 3D path. Also covered is using the Composition’s 3D Views, View Layouts, and Axis Modes, along with the rendering order when mixing 2D and 3D layers.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 14 - Camera covers creating and animating a camera, including creating camera rigs and taking advantage of auto orientation, as well as showing how to cut between multiple cameras. They conclude by discussing the camera’s parameters in more detail, including how to fake focus and depth of field effects.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 15 - Lighting in 3D discusses the different types of lights and their parameters, how lights interact with layers and their Material Options, the many secrets of shadows, creating gels and gobos, faking reflections, adjustment lights, projection lights, and using 3D lights to re-illuminate already-shot 2D footage.

This last article has a bonus movie on the Photo Filter effect (more in AE Help).

Are After Effects cameras difficult to use?

Referring to recent videos and a mini-roundup, Quba asks, Are After Effects cameras difficult to use?

He's got a short poll for feedback, with viewable results. Comments from Motion users and 3D artists might be interesting.

Camera difficulties and rigs in After Effects

Andrew Devis has 2 more tutorials, this time on some AE camera basics, Animating a Camera 1: Camera Difficulties and Animating a Camera 2: Simple Rig:

“Cameras are notoriously difficult to get to grips with in After Effects. In this tutorial, Andrew Devis explains some of the behaviors and problems that are common to camera animation and then shows how … to create a simple camera rig, and why it is important to get the order of the layers correct to achieve predictable results.”

[update: Andrew later added Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View.]

Here's a few more resources on the AE camera:

• AE Camera Basics links to tutorials from Chris & Trish Meyer, Motionworks, Aaharon Rabinowitz and others.
• Camera and 3D view improvements in After Effects CS5
• Rotate AE camera around point of interest
• Sure Target 2 from Video Copilot is a free AE plug-in (with tutorial) that offers advanced control over the After Effects camera. An older version, Sure Target 1.5 comes as a preset that works with the VC 3D Falloff preset.
• Pixel-Perfect Camera Move Transitions from Greyscale Gorilla
• Simple Camera Rig tutorial and script from Maltaannon
• Simple Camera Rig Script and tutorial free from Hypoly
• Pro Training for the After Effects Camera is a video training set by Rob Birnholz sold at Toolfarm.
• There's a good number of handy scripts at AE Scripts that make working with 3D and the AE camera easier.

There's much more in the AE Help page Adjust a 3D view or move a camera, light, or point of interest and in many AE Portal posts tagged AE camera.

Update: see also After Effects Camera "Target Object" Tutorial by David Biederbeck,

AE scripts to distribute layers in 3D space

Lost in the excitement over version 2 of BDRenderer was an update to DistributeLayers by nab Scripts (Charles Bordenave):

This script allows you to distribute the selected layers in 3D space. In addition to offset position, you can offset rotation/scale/opacity and adds some randomness. The “Factor” parameter allows non-linear offset between layers.

Some similar and not so similar 3D scripts from AE Scripts have been noted (eg, Trajectory, Multiplane, Matrix, 3D Layer Distributor, Create3DShapes), but DistributeLayers has not been mentioned here previously. Here's the demo:

"The Shot You Can Make" simulations

Stu Maschwitz is introducing a new Prolost "feature" designed to help you determine The Shot You Can Make, something needed because of the burgeoning options in new cameras. "It’s called the Shot You Can Make (SYCM) Simulator, and it’s sort of a 3D 'Marcie' for focal length and depth of field."

The simulator's "engine" seems to be the After Effects camera (controls and resources for it can be found in AE Help), souped up with some extras:

"Using a lens blur plug-in rigged with expressions, each 3D layer gets the correct amount of defocus for its distance from camera. The result is a simulation of the shot with accurate angle of view and depth of field."

Rotoscoping Depth Mattes With CameraTracker

Jorrit Schulte posted Rotoscoping Depth Mattes With CameraTracker last month on AEtuts:

"In this tutorial, we’re going to look at creating a 3D depth matte from Real footage. We’ll matchmove the footage with The Foundry’s plug-in CameraTracker, and create 3D layers that match the Footage to get a '3D model' of the scene. Then you will learn what you can do with this depth matte after you create it; create realistic fog, fake DOF and a rotoscoped matte."

Related techniques can be found in After Effects Rack Focus: tutorial and preset and with the Digieffects Depth Cue plug-ins and tutorials noted in Sharpen Depth of Field with One Click (there's many more at Digieffects). Here's a preview Jorrit's work:

30% off Digieffects Megasuite + Toolfarm

The Red Giant sale is over but Digieffects' 30% off holiday sale on their Megasuite is good through Friday. The Megasuite is Damage v2 (7 filters), Delirium v2 (45 filters), and Buena Depth Cue v2 (6 filters extending 3D functions of After Effects). On Monday, some individual Digieffects filters will start to become available ala carte.

Note: Toolfarm is also having sales this month, for example Video Copilot stuff is 25% off through Friday!

Here's an example tutorial for Falloff Lighting, part of the Depth Cue package:

Falloff Lighting Basic Training from digieffects on Vimeo.

Rotate AE camera around point of interest

Here's 2 responses to a question on the the AE-List, "is there a way to make an AE camera rotate around its point of interest?"

Chris Meyer, coauthor of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, wrote:

"Create a Layer > New > Null Object. Enable its 3D Layer switch. Copy the coordinates of the camera's Point of Interest, and paste to the Position of the null. Then parent the camera to the null. Rotating the null will now swing the camera around, as if it was at the end of a pole. Admittedly not as easy as Motion's 3D camera, but it's the trick many use to create perfect orbit animations.

Here's more on the orbit camera rig, Camera Control, Part 1: Auto-Orient & Orbit, (Some basic 3D camera control tricks in Adobe After Effects) by Chris and Trish Meyer.

And while we're at it, here's a bit on a dolly rig (although the new Separate Dimensions option allows you to perform many of these moves with just the camera layer now), Camera Control, Part 2: Graph Editor & Dolly Rigs (Using parenting, expressions, and the new After Effects 7.0 Graph Editor to better control a 3D camera) by Chris and Trish Meyer." [reformatted for blog]

Rob Birnholz, author of the video set Pro Training for the After Effects Camera, added:

"To easily rotate the camera 360º, place a null object where you want the camera to look at. Make the null 3D, then link your camera to the null. Rotating the null on the Y axis will swing the camera around without having to draw a messy path. Auto orient your layers to always face the camera if applicable to your scene. ... that's covered in chapter 13 of my AE Camera training from Toolfarm."

There's much more in the AE Help page Adjust a 3D view or move a camera, light, or point of interest and in various posts tagged AE camera.

3D 'Cleanroom' After Effects tutorial

Artbeats has a new step-by-step written tutorial by Steve Holmes covering basics of making a 3D mograph Cleanroom:

'In this shows how he built the "clean room" for a sports channel interstitial background. Screenshots illustrate how Steve used Artbeats footage and techniques in both Adobe Illustrator and After Effects which combine to give the illusion of true 3D, beautiful lighting and depth - but at a fraction of the construction and render time. An embedded quicktime movie allows you to see the final render.'

Update: for more from Steve and Artbeats, see Steve Holmes Artbeats podcast, a guide by Todd Kopriva.

Sharpen Depth of Field with One Click [updated]

If you missed them, Digieffect released tutorials for its Depth plug-in awhile back. According to Mark Christiansen, Depth, a filter found in the old Buena Depth Cue package, "does just what the name implies, easily extracting 3D depth data for use with Digieffects plug-ins such as Camera Mapper, Atmosphere and Falloff Lighting ... I especially like it for lens effects that can use depth information to create beautiful cinematic bokeh blurs."

For other approaches, tutorials, and tools check out previous posts tagged focus and AE camera. For example, Mathew Fuller covers techniques for extracting depth from 2D still images in his video tutorial Advanced 2.5D Animation in AE.

Here are a few tutorials for Depth:

Digieffects Depth Spot from digieffects on Vimeo.

Digieffects Depth Intro Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.

Vangogh Depth+Camera Mapper Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.


Update: see these also,

• Projection is an AE script that does camera mapping onto 3D planes in AE
• Camera Projection – After Effects from VFX Bro
• Camera Mapping in After Effects from Andrew Devis (below):

After Effects Rack Focus: tutorial and preset

Michael Eggert of PixelphileTV posted a tutorial and free preset in After Effects Rack Focus (via Lester Banks):

"We take a look at how to add a digital rack focus to any existing footage. This will add production value to shots that were made on video cameras that don't have a shallow depth of field. You will also learn how to make your own custom presets.

iRack 1.0 is a Rack Focus preset for After Effects CS3/CS4/CS5. With this preset you can add the look of a professional focus pull to any existing footage."

For similar tutorials and tools check out previous posts tagged focus, blur, and AE camera.

Note: Very different approaches include the use of Lens Blur (a Video Copilot tutorial is just one of many) and related filters like the Sapphire RackDefocus effect, which defocuses using an iris shape convolution to simulate a real camera defocus,

More this week in After Effects

Here are some AE items new this week that were not already mentioned here:

• Channel effects tutorials on 'luma to alpha' (part1, part 2) from Felt Tips on Vimeo.

• Learning the After Effects Graph Editor by John Kostrzewski on Fuel Your Motionography (more in AE Help, in CMG, and from Mylenium).

• AE Quick Tips #6 Super Smooth Curve from Felt Tips, which also explains the Graph Editor (see Ease and Wiz also, especially Ease and Wizz: alternative keyframe interpolations for After Effects by Chris Meyer).

• Update (pictured) from Mike Cardeiro of his script Trajectory, which lets you align layers in a comp evenly in 3D between 2 nulls, with delay controls for animation.

• ActivateDisabledExpressions, a script by Lloyd Alvarez, will go through selected layers, an entire comp or several selected comps and activate any disabled expressions.

• DuplicateLayers-n-UpdateExpressions, another script by Lloyd Alvarez, will duplicate the selected layers and if any of the layers have expressions referencing any of the layers being duplicated it will update the expressions to point to the newly duplicated layers (watch the demo).

• Update to The LoopMaker script by Lloyd Alvarez, which "loops any layers, footage or comps with one click™."

• Several tutorials and articles on AEtuts.

• OpenEXR workflow in Maya and After Effects CS5 by Guru Vaidya

• A New Trapcode Particular Preset: “Sparkler” – Including Motion Sketch Tutorial by Nick Campbell.

• AE Tutorial – Rusty checkerplate from Shortformvideo

• Both parts of Automatic Animation from Motionworks are up (Auto-Keyframe mode, Motion Sketch, Wiggler and Wiggle expressions, creating motion paths from Illustrator path, Shape Layer Wiggle, Text Wiggly Selector, and various automated effects).

• Dallas AEUG member John Begg put together a few expressions and "imagery to create an easy-to-use CC Sphere project [rendering a planet Earth]. The expressions are hooked to a Comp Light so it appears that moving the light around the scene changes the lighting on the sphere." For similar projects, see AE 3D Earths with & without 'Knowing' lava and Fly around CC Sphered layer in After Effects.

3D from 2D using Freeform displacement

In 3D from 2D Image Using Displacement Maps Tudor "Ted" Jelescu shows how to create 3D movement that rotates around the subject from a 2D image using displacement maps and the FreeForm filter in After Effects. He uses similar techniques and the same image as another recent Creative Cow tutorial, Advanced 2.5D Animation in AE by Mathew Fuller. It might be good to look at that one first.

Similar work and tools (Vanishing Point, camera mapping, scripts for AE 3D, etc.) are mentioned in posts tagged multiplane animation, camera mapping, and the AE camera. See also Animate the Splash Using Photoshop and After Effects by Corey Barker (up to the end anyway).

Mostly as a note-to-self, here's the demo of a script from Paul Tuersley, pt_Multiplane:

Update: here's some of real time slices with 52 DSLRs and some Macs,

Depth with Camera Mapper tutorial

Via @lesterbanks on the Vimeo beat is a new After Effects tutorial video from Digieffects, Depth+Camera Mapper Tutorial (below).

There's more info on Depth (a newish filter) and CamerMapper on the Digieffects website, including projects and tutorials. Similar work and tools (Vanishing Point, scripts for AE 3D, etc.) are mentioned in posts tagged multiplane animation, camera mapping, and the AE camera.

Update: Mathew Fuller covers something similar, with techniques for extracting depth from 2D still images in his video tutorial Advanced 2.5D Animation in AE.

Vangogh Depth+Camera Mapper Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.

Animate a character in After Effects

This post has been updated at ProVideo Coalition,

Animate a character in After Effects: A survey of resources

Looping Particular the "right way"

A few years ago Chris Kelley posted a few After Effects tutorial videos on The Mograph Blog. Trapcode Particular expert @graymachine says one of them is the best thing since waffles: Loop Particular the Right Way.

The other video tutorials are Nesting Cameras in After Effects Using Expressions and Linking Particles to a Null with Particular; his Mastering the Render Queue was also useful, though it lacks the default Windows menu theme that maybe be not better in blogs.

Docucam, another handheld camera AE preset

motion graphics eXchange posted on Docucam from Weave Creative, an "After Effects preset loosely based on the excellent Docucam in CS Tools for C4D. The preset simulates handheld camera moves and more." An example render is below.

Docucam is part of a number tools (others are by Andrew Kramer and David Torno) and tutorials for handheld camera moves; the others can be found in Camera shake from hand held track and Realistic Camera Movement using hand held track.

DocuCam from Weave Creative on Vimeo.

Depth, a newish filter from Digieffects

[Update: Depth was launched August 31. According to Mark Christiansen, "Depth does just what the name implies, easily extracting 3D depth data for use with Digieffects plug-ins such as Camera Mapper, Atmosphere and Falloff Lighting ... I especially like it for lens effects that can use depth information to create beautiful cinematic bokeh blurs."]

Digieffects seems to be breaking off another plug-in from its legacy products with the launch of Depth, a filter found in the old Buena Depth Cue package. There's no official pricing yet, just Vimeo video partly via Lester Banks:


Digieffects Depth Spot from digieffects on Vimeo.


Digieffects Depth Intro Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.