How to Create a Depth Map & 3D Fog in After Effects

[Music] there's an easy way now to create depth of  field and 3D fog using the advanced 3D renderer in   after effect I'll use the beta version of after  effect as these options are now available there   for the advanced 3D renderer in the same way  they are working with the classic 3D and Cinema   4D renderers to demonstrate it I've opened  this project where I'm animating another movie   poster this time for Metropolis a 1927 German  expressionist science fiction silent film directed   by Fritz Lang this movie is widely regarded as one  of the greatest and most influential films ever   made in this almost final state of the poster we  can see Maria which plays a critical and central   symbolic role she portrayed as a compassionate  and charismatic figure who Works to bridge the   gap between the working class and the elite her  role in the movie is complicated by a double robot   created to incite chaos among the workers anyway  if you haven't watched this movie yet you still   have 3 years before we'll celebrate 100 years for  this masterpiece work I know most of you don't   care about it so let me cut down to the Chase  and quickly show you that this comp consist of   a cutout of Maria the robot and circling around  her are six shape layer rings for each one I   applied the spin Loop preset from the relatively  new Adobe Express looping category and then spice   it up with a turbulent displays fast box blur  and optical glow from Red Giant VFX collection   each revolving layer is is also animated up and  down to create this simple yet effective look the   more interesting part I suppose is the city comp  and this is using the advanced 3D renderer as you   can see I have a 3D model of metropolis cityscape  courtesy of janitor that posted on sketchfab.com   the link is down below in the description if you  want to investigate it yourself the camera that   I've placed here is doing slowly towards buildings  while the title that I've modified is slowly   appearing through the dark clouds I've covered  all of these techniques in previous tutorials   like this one for example as well as this one so  feel free to go deeper by watching them if you   haven't yet and while you are on it why don't  you like those videos as well as this one and   maybe also subscribe to the channel this will make  it your channel as well and will encourage me and   the YouTube algorithm to become better thank you  all right moving on back in the main comp level   we have both comps one on top of the other and  I've also applied the Tritone effect to the city   comp to make it more bluish however the scene  looks quite flat even with the Parallax motion   of the camera we can now make it more realistic  by a applying a few effects from the 3D channel   category and those effects can reference the depth  data directly from the comp now the rule is that   this comp must stay a 2d layer so don't enable  the 3D switch or collapse its transformation   just leave it as is then I suggest to start with  the depth of field effect I'll apply it and set   the maximum radius to 20 and then tab to the  focal plane thickness and see this is a quite   deep scene I'll set this value to 2,000 then I can  play with the focal plan and as I move it we can   see the depth of field effect in its full glory  to see it better I'll turn off the Maria comp   momentarily and continue to push those values now  feel free to play with all four sliders until you   land on the look that you like of course you you  can also animate the focal plane to create a rock   Focus effect now the main issue that I have with  this effect is that it doesn't offer the repeat   Edge pixels option so the blare doesn't calculate  Beyond the Edge of the layer and this may break   the illusion and may not work for you so I'll show  you a better workflow in a moment but before doing   so I quickly want to demonstrate the depth map  effect because I really love it I'll apply to   the layer and this effect will mat a layer by the  overall 3D depth of the scene by moving the depth   slider you can see how this works in combination  with the feather slider you can expose just the   parts that you need from the 3D comp you can also  invert those parts and combine it with a depth of   field effect to achieve this unique look all  right I'll switch both of them off and apply   now the 3D channel extract effect which displays  auxiliary 3D data so you can play with the black   and white points to determine the dispersement  amount of black and white levels and then use   these values as a depth map so to demonstrate it  I'll duplicate the CT comp and for the upper copy   I'll remove all effects except of the Triton  and add to it the camera lens blare effect   for the blur map I'll select the copy underneath  making sure to take under account the effects and   masks so it can reference the 3D channel extract  effect then I'll set the Blair radius to a higher   value such as 25 and notice that this effect  has a better edge behavior and by default the   repeat Edge pixel's checkbox is checked meaning  the Blair is rendered beyond the layer's edges   which looks much better you can now animate the  Blair focal distance to move the focus across   the 3D depth and create a rock Focus effect that  looks even more realistic you can also top it up   with some 3D Fog by adding the effect that goes  by the same name then sample a color from the   comp and move the fog start depth until you feel  it's enough and customize the fog appearance by   changing the other parameters for example you  can use a gradient layer that determine the   fog influence in this case I'll un-shy my layers  and show you that I have a shape layer that I've   placed named gradient map just to show you this  is just a simple ramp from black to white and it   can assist us to finesse the look of the Fog by  playing with its layer contribution slid after   defining it of course as the map for the 3D fog  okay I think this is looking much better compared   to our starting point let me just turn off all  the effects so you can judge for yourself and   now I'll turn them back on as well as the Maria  comp and enable the cloud layer which is a copy   of the clouds that I'm using for the background  accompanied with the extract and glow effect   and I'll drag this layer above everything  to add some mist and fog to the entire   comp especially the Maria Robot Layer I'll  also turn on the speaker for the audio that   I've created especially for you and then  maximize the frame and preview the result [Music] I'm so glad that we can now create depth  effect using the build-in tools in After Effects   remember that at the time of this recording  these options are only available in the beta   version so go ahead and test it yourself and if  you have any feedback please add a comment down   below or even better click on this little bubble  to provide the feedback directly from the app to   Adobe thank you so much for watching and I I will  see you again in the next one [Applause] [Music]

Channel: SternFX

Views: 2,497

Keywords:

Id: huxh1Vd3Q5w

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024