The Walking Dead: Learning 3D Cameras in AE

When I was first introduced to the camera and 3D components of After Effects this past summer I watched this animation as a great reference for some of the possibilities that the program allows.

The animation was done by Daniel Kanemoto for the television series The Walking Dead. Kanemoto is also the creator of Ex Mortis Films and has done other interesting animations for well-know names such as Animal Planet and Nickelodeon.

Kanemoto's The Walking Dead opening sequence was done using 2D drawn images placed in 3D dimensional space, (X,Y, and Z axis') where the Camera moves around within this space. The animation is cinematic, clever, and captivating, and it can all be done in After Effects!

Watch The Walking Dead animation here: https://vimeo.com/15266890

You can take a look at Kanemoto's other works here.

Camera Movement Tutorial

This video might be very useful to a lot of people in the class.  I know it is something I want to incorporate in to my projects. This is a relatively short tutorial on how to have a "camera" movement incorporated into After Effects. So you can have pans, tilts, and zooms like a normal camera but all animated through after effects. It's a great  tutorial and its easy to follow.

Space Nebulas

Hey everybody. I was just browsing through After Effects tests on YouTube and I found this one. I think it's pretty neat. 

I've always been fascinated by space and the beauty of the universe. It's pretty cool if you go on NASA's website, you can look at pictures of nebulas and other crazy cosmic stuff that the Hubble Telescope has taken. You can even download some super high quality photos for use. These tests of realistic nebulas looks pretty simple. It looks like the creator downloaded some photos then used 3d cameras to give the illusion of flying in space. I'm definitely going to try and make a scene like this in After Effects, just because the universe is so amazing.

2D Image to 3D Animation

Hey guys,

So, I'm sure this is just the first of many different tutorials we'll all be posting throughout the semester. I'm also almost certain someone in past semesters has posted this exact same one, since it's such a simple concept with a great final product. A couple of months ago my friend was working on creating a reel for a documentary company he was hired by. While he had footage for many of the pieces they had produced, for some he only had images. I'm pretty sure he used this exact same tutorial to create the effect he eventually used in the reel. Even if you do have footage for a certain project, I think this is a really awesome way to incorporate your After Effects skills and introduce individual projects in your reel. The video starts off by showing you how to separate the different elements in a photo or other 2D image into layers, which we just happened to learn about on Monday. Then he pulls the whole image into After Effects to create the 3D simulation. Even though we haven't talked about using cameras in class yet he makes it seem like using them wont be that hard. Any of you who have taken topics in 3D know that controlling cameras in Maya isn't exactly easy. Don't worry, I have a feeling camera's are one of the many elements that will be much easier to use in this class than 3D. On a side note, if I could offer any advice to the rest of the class it's to follow this guys lead on naming each of your layers. If you haven't done much work with animation or Photoshop before this, trust me when I say that labeling each layer will make your life a lot easier. Especially when you're a weeks worth of work in and 100+ layers deep. Anyway hope you guys find this tutorial interesting, I know I did!

I couldn't figure out how to embed the video directly so just click on the text below. Sorry Arturo :-(.

Virtual 3D photos