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Create a camera layer and change camera settingsYou can view 3D layers from any angle and distance using camera layers. Just as it’s easier in the real world to move cameras through and around a scene than it is to move and rotate the scene itself, it’s often easiest to get different views of a composition by setting up a camera layer and moving it around in a composition. You can modify and animate camera settings to configure the camera to match the real camera and settings that were used to record footage with which you’re compositing. You can also use camera settings to add camera-like behaviors—from depth-of-field blur to pans and dolly shots—to synthetic effects and animations. Cameras affect only 3D layers and 2D layers with an effect with a Comp Camera attribute. With effects that have a Comp Camera attribute, you can use the active composition camera or lights to view or light an effect from various angles to simulate more sophisticated 3D effects. After Effects can interact with Photoshop 3D layers by means of the Live Photoshop 3D effect, which is a special example of a Comp Camera effect. You can choose to view a composition through the active
camera or through a named custom camera. The active camera is the
topmost camera in the Timeline panel at the current time for which
the Video switch All cameras are listed in the 3D View menu at the bottom of the Composition panel, where you can access them at any time. It’s often easiest to adjust a camera when using one of the custom 3D views. You can’t—of course—see the camera to manipulate it when you’re looking through the camera itself. ![]() Example of a camera
Note: If
you import or open an After Effects 5.x project containing a 3D
composition that used a default camera, After Effects adds an AE
5.x Default Camera to the composition.
Create a camera layer Choose Layer > New >
Camera, or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+C
(Mac OS). Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the
composition duration. You can instead choose to have new layers
begin at the current time by deselecting the Create Layers At Composition
Start Time preference (Edit > Preferences >
General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences >
General (Mac OS)).
Change camera settingsYou can change camera settings at any time. Double-click the camera layer in the Timeline
panel, or select the layer and then choose Layer > Camera
Settings.Camera settingsYou can change camera settings at any time by double-clicking the layer in the Timeline panel or selecting the layer and choosing Layer > Camera Settings. Note: The
three things that affect depth of field are focal length, aperture,
and focus distance. Shallow (small) depth of field is a result
of long focal length, short focus distance, and a larger aperture
(smaller F-stop). A shallower depth of field means a larger depth-of-field
blur result. The opposite of a shallow depth of field is deep focus—meaning
a smaller depth-of-field blur because more is in focus.
Online resources about camerasDale Bradshaw provides a script and sample project for automating the rigging of a camera on the Creative Workflow Hacks website. Mark Christiansen provides tips and detailed techniques for working with cameras in the “Virtual Cinematography in After Effects” chapter of After Effects Studio Techniques on the Peachpit Press website. This chapter includes information about matching lens distortion, performing camera moves, performing camera projection (camera mapping), using rack focus, creating boke blur, using grain, and choosing a frame rate to match your story-telling. Trish and Chris Meyer provide a tutorial for using 3D layers, lights, and cameras in a PDF excerpt from their book After Effects Apprentice on the Focal Press website. Richard Harrington provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to use the camera tools and camera views in After Effects to create a camera move with 3D layers. (This tutorial is the second in a two-part series. Part 1 concentrates on working with photographs to isolate and create sky in Photoshop for use in After Effects.) |