How to create a similar effect?

[Chris Smith]

Background: leave it 2D. Create a solid. Add a ramp. Make it radial so it’s light in the middle then dark on the outside of the screen. Add “Colorama” to this. Set the Colorama color wheel to what looks like the 3 blue hues seen here till you get a similar vibe.

Pictures: Select a handful of photos. Mask some of them to outline the people’s heads. Add hue/sat and remove the color. Maybe do a diffusion look first in PS on them. Lay them out in AE 3D space. Obviously in X and Y but also depth (Z space). so some are closer, other’s further away. Create a camera. Turn on the DOF. Make it very light though, not heavy handed. Shadows: Those shadows aren’t true 3D shadows because despite their depth they are always the same. So just add good ol’ fashinoed “Drop Shadow” to each photo.

Movement: Normally I would say just parent everything to a null and animate the null in front of the camera (which is locked off). But it appears they used Trapcode’s 3D Stroke set to black for the lines and text. So you will need the camera to move through space for 3D stroke to travel with the pics.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Steve Morris]

The first picture is going to take some real skill to accomplish as you see it in thier clip. I think a full 3D program was used to create that picture. It does not appear to be a simple AE cutout 3D effect. It looks like they used something like 3DS Max to render the moving footage within the first picture, then the last frame was make a still, and then put into AE as 3D. You could accomplish something similar in AE by cutting out various layers in Photosop and importing them into AE on layers with the closest objects on the top of the stack. Add some Z depth, and pan the camera.

[Chris Smith]

Yeah, I assume he didn’t have that in the scope of the question. You would have to be nuts to try and replicate that in a 2.5D program. The easiest way would be to use camera mapping (Photogrammetry) techniques in true 3D. But it would be a skillset required many times higher than laying out a few pictures in AE of course.

But if interested, photogrammetry all started here:

https://www.debevec.org/Campanile/

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Steve Morris]

Thanks for the link Chris. I can use that info.

[Jmillz1]

Thanks for all the info. guys…

[Dwaynne]

just a quick aside, chris, but what do you mean by diffusion look in photoshop?

[Chris Smith]

Meaning the way you duplicate a layer. On the top copy add a guass blur (like around 6). Then drop the opacity (usually to around 30 – 40) to get a soft effect like in the example he asked about. I only say do it in PS so the effect is in the stills themselves. No need to render that effect for every frame in AE if it’s not going to animate.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Jmillz1]

how can I get the other layers (images) to follow the first image in a snake like motion. not really familiar with expressions.

[Criis Daw]

“Looking for something cool to do with some photos?”

call me cynical but where is the “cool” bit ???