Book Image

Creative Motion Mastery with Adobe After Effects

By : Vishu Aggarwal
Book Image

Creative Motion Mastery with Adobe After Effects

By: Vishu Aggarwal

Overview of this book

Visual effects and motion graphics are everywhere, shaping the film, TV, games, websites, and application landscape. Navigating a field this complex and ever-expanding demands more than mere familiarity with tools; you need to stand out to get ahead. Creative Motion Mastery with Adobe After Effects is the definitive guide that not only equips you with the essential skills to distinguish yourself, but also takes you through real projects that you can add to your portfolio. Guided by a hands-on learning approach, you'll master the UI, workflow, and diverse projects such as text animation, shape layers, and rotoscoping. With this newfound knowledge, you’ll take your graphic design and post-production skills to the next level using chroma keying, particle simulations, and 2D and 3D tracking. You’ll progress faster than someone taking a formal course in Adobe After Effects! And it’s not all about creating; you’ll import graphics from Illustrator and Photoshop and apply post-production effects to give them a new life. Finally, you’ll discover how seamlessly you can export and manage your projects, ensuring end-to-end coverage of all you need. By the end of the book, you’ll have a thorough understanding of Adobe After Effects, equipped with the skills and practice you need to propel your career in graphic design.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Working with Motion Graphics
8
Part 2: Post-Production and Visual Effects
13
Part 3: 2D and 3D Tracking, and Rendering

Using 3D camera tracking

In Adobe After Effects, 3D camera tracking is a technique used to track the motion of a camera in 2D video footage (when the motion involves changes in depth due to moving the camera) and integrate 3D elements into the scene. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to add graphics, text, or other 3D elements to your videos, making these elements appear as if they are part of the original footage.

In the 3D Track composition, we will do the camera tracking, and after that, we will add text and graphics on top of the lake footage in the 3D Track composition.

Follow these steps to do the 3D camera tracking:

  1. Select the Lake.mp4 layer in the 3D Track composition and right-click on the layer. Then, go to Track & Stabilize | Track Camera.

    After Effects will start analyzing the footage. This might take a while depending on the length and complexity of your video. Once the analysis is complete, After Effects will create track points.

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