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Bringing Photographs to Life with 3D Layering in After Effects

by Laura Hawk

In this series of After Effects tutorials, we will learn how to create a 3D fly-through effect in After Effects with assets created from images broken down in Photoshop. Software required: Photoshop CS5, After Effects CS6, Knoll Light Factory.

What you'll learn

In this series of After Effects tutorials, we will learn how to create a 3D fly-through effect in After Effects with assets created from images that we break down in Photoshop. We begin in Photoshop with the images and start to dissect the photos to get the parts we need for building our shot. We learn a few masking and painting techniques to fill in the gaps for some of the areas that are covered up in the photos. Then, we dive into After Effects and start building our scene by laying the ground, sky, and tree layers. After we've added and built the assets we need, we start to layer on the atmosphere effects. We create dust and fog particle systems using Trapcode's Particular plugin. We also add a few lens effects to make the whole shot feel more realistic. We finish off the tutorial with two lessons on sound design to make your entire video a truly immersive experience. This training is perfect for the intermediate After Effects user who wants to learn how to create a motion design project using realistic looking assets and sound to bring it to life. By the end of this training, you'll have created your own scary forest scene complete with a seamless camera transition from one composition to the next. You'll have also learned some of the basics for creating a project that uses sound in After Effects. Software required: Photoshop CS5, After Effects CS6, Knoll Light Factory.

Table of contents

Introduction and Project Overview
1min

About the author

Laura is a passionate visual effects and motion graphics author at Pluralsight. Ever since her first exposure to After Effects in college, Laura has had an eternal drive to learn more about motion graphics, and teach others what she has discovered. Laura began working at Digital-Tutors (now a Pluralsight company) as a motion graphics artist, creating visually-appealing advertisements and informative art for the site. Throughout her time at Digital-Tutors, Laura contributed greatly to both the ... more

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