Advanced After Effects: Working with 3D Cameras

In our second Advanced after Effects induction things got really exciting, as we were introduced to 3D cameras. I really enjoyed this session and I found it really useful, as it has given me skills that I can use in my most recent project and for future projects. Having said that, the session was very packed and there was a lot to go through, but I managed to keep up and I am really pleased with how quickly I picked up on how to use the tools.

To start with we obviously had to turn our assets into 3D layers and this was really easy to do (literally it just involves pressing a button). From there we experimented with zooming in on our assets to see how the layers were separated and to get a feel for how they worked and how they appeared when you moved through the space. Once we were all comfortable with how the assets moved we introduced a 3D camera, which again was very simple to do. Similarly to how you create a normal animation in After Effects, the 3D camera can be used in the exact same way, which made it simple to get to grips with. I then went on to experiment with adding lights and parenting them to the camera. I learned that there are a number of different lights and that each light works differently to the last. And finally, I experimented with changing the blur and focus on the camera to strengthen that feeling of being in a 3D space. Overall, I really enjoyed learning how to use 3D cameras and I feel that it will be extremely beneficial to me in the near future.

To end the day we were given our boat compositions to create a simple, 3D animation from. I am really pleased with he overall outcome of this task. I was able to move the camera through the separate layers and back again and I was able to create a strong blur and adjust the focus to make the boat the main focus of the animation. I really liked that I was able to do this and I feel that I have made good progress with After Effects overall.