Ultimate Guide to Drone Graphics VFX (After Effects)

[Music] [Music] amigos will be using this drone footage this is from pexels.com i'm going to include a link in the description in case you want to follow along okay let's go back to the composition we'll drag it to this button this icon and let's rename it to clip and this is a pretty long clip it's almost 17 seconds so for the purposes of this tutorial what i'm going to do is simply trim it we'll start at 4 seconds let's go to four seconds hit b for bravo to set the end point of the work area and let's go to seven seconds hit the letter n for november to set the out point right click and go to trim comp to work area ctrl k command k to go to the comp settings and for the start time code let's change it to zero and what we'll do is let's track it in mocha make sure that the clip is selected go to effect boris fx mocha and go to mocha ae and in the effect controls window let's launch mocha the golden rule when you're tracking in mocha is to go through your footage and try to find the best frame to start tracking sometimes it could be in the beginning the middle or the end now for this shot it seems like any frame will work so for the purposes of this tutorial let's simply start at one second now remember that mocha is a planar tracking software that means that it looks for patterns in a plane now we want to track all this this loop of highways all coming together and we're going to trick mocha into thinking that this is a plane it looks pretty flat so i think we can get away with it let's go to the x spline tool and let's draw the shape and hit ctrl a command a to select all the points and using this blue handle let's round it and let's readjust the points now for the track motion options this will depend on your footage but definitely you'll need translation skill rotation skew and depending on your shot you might need perspective as well if you don't get satisfactory results then try it without perspective now for this one we'll turn on perspective and let's begin by tracking backwards so let's go ahead and hit the track backwards button and let's go back to our starting point and let's track forward let's check our track what we can do is we can go to the surface tool and let's try to align this and let's align it to the same plane of this loop and then we can go to the grid tool and what we can do is we can hit play and let's check it out if your plane is drifting too much that means that your tracking is not working you need to retract now let's turn off the grid and the next step amigos is we need to select a reference frame now this reference frame should be the widest angle possible and in this case it's right at the beginning at zero and what we need to do is this surface tool we need to match it to the size of our composition or our clip our footage and to do that we'll go to the align surface tool click on it and there you go we're done now let's rename this layer to loop and we'll disable tracking we'll lock it and let's hide it now let's do one more what we want to do is we want to track this highway now there's a lot of cars that are going through and it can mess up our tracker remember that mocha works by tracking patterns in a plane what we can do instead is track this patch of grass because it's on the same plane of our road our highway so let's go ahead and find the best frame to start tracking in this case let's go to the very beginning let's zoom in let's go to the x spline tool let's try shape we'll hide the surface tool for now and we'll also track perspective and let's go ahead make sure that all these are selected and let's track forward let's go back let's check it out let's go to our surface tool let's align this to the surface so we can check it out let's go to the grid tool and let's hit play okay there's a little drift but it should be okay let's turn off the grid and now we need to select our reference frame and again this should be the widest angle possible it'll be at the very beginning and we need to make this surface tool the size of our clip let's go to the align surface tool click on it there you go and let's label this highway and let's disable tracking let's lock it and now let's exit mocha go to exit and let's hit save we're back in after effects now before we do anything else i like to add a marker where our reference frame is located and let's add a marker for this tutorial it's pretty easy we know it's at the very beginning but in some cases it could be in the middle of your clip for example it could be at 124. now what we can do is we can label this ref so we know that it's our reference frame let's make a copy of this clip ctrl d command d and this will be our reference and what we need to do is freeze this image right here at zero seconds so let's right click go to time and let's go to freeze time it's frozen now let's pre-compose and what we'll do is we'll call this lines and let's move all attributes perfect now let's jump into this comp double click and what we'll do is let's draw our lines and we'll be using shape layers to draw our lines now make sure that all the layers are deselected click outside and let's go to the pen tool let's make this bigger and let's draw a line for this bridge this highway bridge right here so let's click we'll click and drag click and drag let's add one more point and what we can do is we can adjust these handles perfect now let's go down let's select it make sure that the fill is set to none and for the stroke what we can do is give it a color and let's make it let's make it 50 pixels for the width now let's taper the lines what we'll do is let me zoom out so you can see this let's drill down to contents drill down to shape one and let's go to the stroke drill down and we have this option taper now this option comes with after effects cc 2020 and above we're using 2022 so we're all good if you're using a lower version of after effects cs6 or cs5 or cc 2018 you won't have this option so it won't work what you need to do amigos unfortunately you will need to upgrade okay let's drill down and what we can do is for the start length we can make it let's make it 40 and we'll do the same thing for the end length 40 so this is what we have so you can see that we just tapered the lines pretty easy and now let's add a trim path let's go to shape one go to add and let's go to trim path and we'll place this after the stroke and what we'll do is we'll work with the end and the start so let's make the end zero make sure that your cti is at the very beginning and what we'll do is actually hit ctrl k command k for the start time code let's change it to zero there we go and let's go to the end property for the trim path click on the stopwatch to add a keyframe let's go forward to frame 15. we'll make this 100 and then now for the start let's add a keyframe and let's move forward to one second and we'll make this 100 so let's select the keyframes hit f9 and let's check it out let's see what we have all right it's looking pretty good there's one thing that we need to fix and let's go frame by frame you see when we start we have a taper and the stroke is pretty thick so let's animate the width of the stroke go to stroke one go to the width and click on the stopwatch we'll make it zero at the very beginning and what we'll do is hit you to reveal all the keyframes we want to see the keyframes for the start and the end and at 15 we'll increase this to 50 and then we'll go back to zero and then let's add easy ease f9 so let's check it out nice so you can see that it's a lot nicer and we can trim this layer we can trim this right here and what we'll do is we'll color code it now from here amigos you can add more by simply making copies we can make a copy ctrl d command d let's move it over let's move it at 15 and what we'll do is we'll change the color and then this one will also change the color we'll sample this color and let's go to the contents let's go to shape one path and with a path selected we can go to the selection tool and now let's draw for example let's do this one this highway and what we'll do is we'll move these points that's all you need to do just move the points okay let's check it out let's zoom out so we can see this perfect now there's one thing for this one and this one should go underneath the bridge so what we'll do is we'll create a mask so make sure that this shape layer is selected let's go to the pen tool now right now we are in the option where it creates the shape what we need to do is click on this one which will create a mask so let's click on this icon and now what we can do is we can draw let's draw this area and i know this yellow color doesn't really help hit m for mask what i'll do is i'll change the color so we can see this and now let's go back and we want to mask out this area and let's do one more okay now what we need to do is let's zoom out so you can see they're all in add so let's subtract it hit subtract for mask 2 subtract and mask 3. let's change the color so you can see it as well and this one let's make it orange and we'll hit subtract there you go perfect and you can continue with this process the same technique just make a copy what i'll do is let's hide the reference layer so all we have is this and remember that this is on a transparent background and now let's go to our clip and what we need to do is we need to apply the tracking data from mocha so let's go to clip and let's go to tracking data go to create track data and we'll select loop hit ok and then we'll go and select corner pin you can also select corner pin with motion blur for this one we'll make it easy corner pin and the layer will go to lines and then hit apply export and if we go to lines you can see that it added the corner pin now let's go ahead and let's check this out perfect and the cool thing is we can go back to our lines and we can just move these over and it should still work it doesn't matter where it is now if you want to give it a glow what i do is i have deep glow which is an awesome plug-in it's a paid plug-in but it gives you really nice glow right off the bat now if you don't have deep glow what you can do is this is what i suggest but it'll take a hit with your render time what you need to do is you need to bump it up from eight bits to 32 bits and then you can go ahead and let's apply go to stylize let's go down to glow and here we can increase the radius so that is your option just increase it to 32 bits okay now what we'll do is for this tutorial we'll take out the glow to make it to make it go faster let's go back to 8-bit and let's do one more let's do the one right here for the highway so we'll make a copy of this lines ctrl d command-d we'll just call it lines two let's double click to jump in let's unhide our reference and we'll delete these two layers and let's go to the rectangle tool make sure all your layers are deselected because we want to create a shape layer rectangle and what i'll do is we'll create a rectangle and we'll make sure that the stroke is set to none and for the fill we'll make it green and then let's drill down to rectangle path one and for the size let's make it 150 by 25 let me zoom out and let me bring this higher now let's add a repeater go to repeater and for copies let's say 60 copies let's go to the transform properties for the repeater drill down and for the position this is the x and the y for the x let's make it zero however for the y we'll bump it up so this is what we have so we'll bump it up to minus 40 and what we'll do is we'll animate the copies so let's bring our cti to the beginning let's add a keyframe let's go to 15 let's add a keyframe go back to the first one we'll make this zero so this is what we have we can add easy ease it's a little too fast let's slow it down let's move this keyframe that seems better so this is something that you definitely should experiment with the timing of your animation now what we'll do is right around here right around 20 we'll go to the offset we'll add a keyframe click on the stopwatch and let's go to two seconds and what we'll do is we'll move the offset so we can animate it off we'll make this we'll make this 60. let's check it out okay this looks okay definitely experiment more and what we'll do is now let's activate the 3d switch and before we do amigos let's move the anchor point down to the bottom hit y for the pan behind tool and let's move it down right here now let's activate the 3d switch and we're going to do is we're going to rotate it hit off rotation and let's move this down let's rotate it in the correct perspective and then now let's go back go back to your contents rectangle go down to the repeater and what we'll do is we'll adjust go to the transform repeater and instead of minus 40 let's make it minus 70. so it's more spaced apart and this is something that you you know definitely you'll have to experiment with let's go back to the rotation you can see that it's slightly off and let's rotate this right in place all right let's check it out just kind of put it in the right place perfect okay i know it's a little hard to see what we can do is maybe we can give it a different color let's make it let's see yellow yellow is kind of hard too let's make it see orange we can also play around with this shape again instead of 25 we can make it 40 so it's a little thicker and instead of 150 we can make it 125. let's make it 125. so definitely play around with this now we need to mask it out what we can do is again go to the pen tool we'll go to this icon where it creates a mask and we want to mask out this area and let's hit subtract go to m for mask subtract and we'll want to subtract this area as well actually once it gets here we want it to disappear so what we'll do is let's go ahead and just do this so once it gets beyond this point it just goes away so let's check this out perfect so this is looking pretty good and we can tweak it more but let's just leave it like this now let's hide the reference layer remember that this is on a transparent background now let's go back to our drone footage let's go to lines two go to clip now go back to mocha go to create track data and now we need to select the highway layer so let's go to highway hit okay and we'll go to corner pin and then this time lines two apply the export which will apply the corner pin effect and there you go amigos and what we can do for lines two we can you know let's say we want it to start at one second let's just shift it over and there you go that is how you can create these cool lines on your drone footage let's do one more what we'll do is let's make a copy of this lines and we'll call this pin and double click and what we'll do is we'll delete this layer and make sure that all your layers are deselected go to the pen tool and then down here let's create a line and then click and then click and we'll take out the fill go to the stroke and we'll make it we'll make it black and we'll make it about and then what we'll do is we'll drill down to the stroke and for the line cap we'll make it round and let's add a trim path let's add a trim path and then we'll animate the end property let's go to one second let's animate it we'll just add easy ease actually let's make this linear there you go and then go back to the rectangle tool again make sure that all your layers are deselected and then what we'll do is we'll go ahead and draw a rectangle like this and make sure that the stroke is set to none and we'll give it a fill color green and then for the pan behind tool y for the pan behind tool let's move it let's move the anchor point we can snap it and hit s for scale and let's unlink it and for the x let's make it zero and when this comes right here right at frame 11. what we'll do is trim it add a keyframe and then right around 105 let's make this 100 f9 and let's check it out perfect add text let's say los angeles [Music] and we'll make it black and then we'll click on this little icon the transparency preserve underline transparency so when this animates on this shape layer the green one our text will also animate on perfect now let's go back to our clip and what we'll do is let's hide mocha and we'll right click we'll go to track and stabilize track camera and this will track it in 3d okay once it's tracked let's go to the point size we'll make it bigger so we can see this and then for the target we can increase the target size as well and let's try to create a target parallel to our floor and it's a little hard you can click on the points click again to deselect anyways what we'll do this is close enough we can adjust it what we need to do is now right click and we'll go to create null and camera and we have a 3d camera we have a null object now let's go down and find our pin and let's bring it in and for the null hit p4 position and what we'll do is we'll copy the position properties we'll go to the pin we'll activate the 3d switch and actually let's before we do that let's go back we want to move the anchor point down to the bottom hit y and let's move the anchor point right here so it'll be easier for us now let's activate the 3d switch and let's go to the position properties and let's paste it and you can see that it's right there hit s for scale we'll scale it up and we can readjust if we need to rotate it we can rotate it if you want just a little bit depends let's rotate it just for the fun of it and now let's check it out let's see it hopefully this gives you several ideas of what you can do for your very own drone footage you're not only limited to these lines be creative amigos and remember that life is truly a gift make it count you

Channel: C.M. de la VEGA

Views: 112,510

Keywords: drone tutorial, after effects tutorial

Id: ntwmk1bzcFQ

Length: 25min 15sec (1515 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 21 2022