After Effects 3D for beginners: camera in-out-spin

In After Effects CS5, we'll make a solid, two layers of type and a 3D camera, then we'll push in and out of the type (while spinning). The type will change when in extreme closeup. Basic stuff.

[@Della624]

Subscribed purely on this tutorial because not only do you show a noob (such as myself) how to do something but you explain the physics of say x, y & z and so on. Very professional, but not because you don't stutter, it's because you give so much more info than just what to do, which is exactly how I like to learn. It means I can envision something that is completely different to what you're showing me and yet still be able to produce what I've envisioned. Hope this makes sense :-)

[@thomaswong8105]

Thank you for a simple, succinctly explained camera tutorial. Prior to now, the camera seemed a complete mystery that I couldn't crack on my own. And like almost everyone else who commented, I too enjoyed the straightforward, helpful teaching style! Excellent job!

[@GDM223SR]

I'm working on some new tutorials. Please let me know what you'd like to see, and I'll try to work it in. Upvotes will influence me … if I feel I can do the topic justice.

[@JCatara]

Thank you for the tutorials you post. You teach both the how and especially the why. The tutorials I watch on your site allows me to learn the basics. You have really helped me in building a strong foundation for my projects. Thanks again.

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@pokieydamnit]

I had to watch due to your voice and attitude. Greatness...

[@thecaveman123]

best after effects tut I've ever seen

[@HarshVardhanArt]

Thank you for easily explaining camera moves!

[@GDM223SR]

You're welcome!

[@sophie22518]

Excellent tutorial Sir! One the best I have ever seen ;) You have a gift of teaching. Good job. Thank you!!

[@clariebelle13]

Very good teacher !!!! I'm a total begginer at this so thank you very much!! I'd like to see everything about 3D Camera cause I'm learning that at college! Great job man! Take care!

[@GDM223SR]

+Clarie Swagga Thanks. One thing: use "one-node" most of the time. Only use "two-node" when you want to aim the camera at something specific, and when that "aiming" is important to your camera's motion. Yep, we need to plan ahead. :)

[@clariebelle13]

+Steve Roberts thank you so much!!!

[@fernandobattle9345]

easy to follow, simple and useful for ae beginners. keep posting. thanks

[@SevereRacing]

Very nice style of tutorial. clear and professional. Has anyone ever told you sound like batman?

[@williamryu2312]

Thanks!Very good tutorial! Learn so much as a beginner of after effect!

[@GDM223SR]

Glad you liked it!

[@flyinhiigh]

really simple but excellent tutorial

[@monafathallah3753]

Good job keep it up , it's very useful tutorial I really loved it. Thank you so much

[@overclockrl2485]

I'm from Brazil and I really liked your channel :)

[@GDM223SR]

OverClock RL Thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

Hey, thanks, Alex. I did a bit of voiceover a while back, but found I needed a bit more than a good voice to be able to sustain a character. I might go back into it with a bit more training, though.

[@GDM223SR]

@StarliteProduction Thanks. Being able to select camera nodes that way is a new thing -- you used to have to go into layer>transform for the camera to mess with that sort of thing.

[@musicbanghang0012]

Thanks for sharing the knowledge. You are very good in explanation.

[@GDM223SR]

Yep, that person used Shatter. It is an effect that comes with AE: it makes a wall with thickness that you can blow away in parts, and you tell Shatter which parts you want to go away and which parts you want to stick around. To make text with thickness, you tell Shatter to blow away everything but the text. You use a separate image as a "shatter map" to tell AE what stays and what goes away. For more details, look up "shatter" "after effects" "type" and "tutorial".

[@VideoGP4]

Thank you. Finnaly found a great Tutorial.

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks! I find beginner instruction very interesting, in any field. There's an opportunity to create a firm foundation for future learning, and the challenge to overcome previous mindsets and paradigms is strongest at the beginning.

[@shurchenko]

thanks , it was fun to make staff with your help !

[@EvilDogMedia]

Excellent tutorial. Clear and easy to follow. I've been looking at other beginner tutorials but yours are the easiest to follow thus far (even Andrew Kramer's stuff is a bit too rapid for my liking). Thanks for making this. :-)

[@TamannaAf]

Thanks. Really helpful tutorial.

[@malikirum2491]

this is great - for some reasons im still havign trouble following you - but you are awesome !!!

[@twopax17]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Well worth the time for me to watch,

[@GDM223SR]

You're welcome! Thanks for the compliment!

[@Conyak101]

Brilliant tutorial, cheers!

[@alanski2005]

Very good Tutorial, thanks Steve.

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks, alanski!

[@VAK996]

thanks a lot. because of u i will become a great utuber

[@PinkNapalm]

Incredible voice, great tutorial!

[@horsekiller63]

Very helpful! Thanks for sharing! Ever thought about going into radio? You just seem to have a radio voice. :)

[@gabovanlugo]

Very nice explained. Thanks a lot! :)

[@grigris11]

it was a lot of help !! i learnt a lot, thank you :D

[@master77able]

great tutorial!it helped me a lott,thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

@Thebestcounter1, pressing "end" moves the CTI (current-time indicator) to the end of the composition. If you want the *work area* to end at a specific point in time, drag the CTI to that point in time, then press N.

[@daleplay1978]

Great work steve!

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks, Andres!

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks. Are you viewing through the camera? Is the object 3D?

[@marie_of_the_lanes]

This is a great tutorial! Thank you so much!!

[@MustafaKKurd]

Good tutorial for beginners like me thank you sir :)

[@georges8408]

nice!.. this was a good beginners tutorial.!

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks. Andrew may have been trying to keep things simple -- you can choose to use two views or not. I tend to switch between double and single, depending on what I want to do. Most of the time, I work in a single, or use Cinema 4D. :)

[@vengeancia5243]

What a great voice....surely you have done radio? Thanks for the tutorial.:)

[@GDM223SR]

Thank you! I've done a couple of educational voiceovers, but they were actually character voices.

[@louie0187]

Excellent tutorial

[@lrdab1991]

Thanks for this nice explaining.Kind regards.

[@GDM223SR]

You're welcome!

[@welshdragon2008]

Steve, Thanks for this tutorial. Im pretty new to AE. So this was a great insight to the camera world. But, because i dont know the advantage, can you explain please? What is the advantage of using a camera for this whole effect (zoom in/out, pan, spin...), as opposed to using key frames directly onto the words 'art' and 'is life' (no camera)? Thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks. Glad you liked it, and glad you can take it your own way. By the way, if you're feeling Sherlockian, try to figure out what I never (as far as I know) say in a tutorial. :)

[@786Muzik]

Thank you, Great tutorial. Just a suggestion can you include commands for Windows users, not everyone owns a Mac. Thanks in advance

[@GDM223SR]

I'm not sure what you want to do, but do you mean these? a) if you want type to move into the camera, animate the Z-position of the text. ...or b) if you want type to have thickness, you need to buy Zaxwerks Invigorator, or find a tutorial that uses "shatter" to create 3D type.

[@XIIIBeatoSensei]

Awesome tutorial thank you

[@taerocs2]

Appreciate that! Hyped me up on making a few new creative titles in AE.

[@GDM223SR]

Wow, thanks. I'm glad it's useful.

[@Zeltii]

THX bro I see that you do a lot of tutorials that I need so I am subbing :3

[@Dominateus1]

Short n sweet. Thx.

[@GDM223SR]

Anytime!

[@SpaceboySixFour]

Nice tutorial! It's nice hear someone who has a good command of the English language for a change instead of these you whippersnappers with their "um yeah". Thanks!

[@werlddomination8233]

Thank you this helped a lot :D

[@chris1002clf]

good toturial sir thank you ..

[@mmanimationable]

Thanks so much for brilliant tutorial! I'm a beginner...Could you please tell us in what cases do you animate with camera? the same could have been done with scaling the "art" but there must be the reason to choose cam animation instead. Thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

Good question. Sometimes scaling 2D art is easier, and if you want to push in on somebody's face in a photo (for example), you place the layer's anchor point at the face so the layer scales up from around the face. That's how we did it before AE had 3D cameras. When to use a 3D camera? When you want to move around something in three dimensions. When you have a lot of layers that you want to fly past (slow or fast) the camera (animate the camera, not the layers). When you want things to move across the frame at different rates as if they were closer/farther from the camera, like a multiplane camera. But when you only have one layer, sure, scale it up.

[@mmanimationable]

Thank you Steve for such a quick reply. I really appreciate it!

[@Della624]

Do you mean at the beginning of a tutorial, such as "Hey guys, wasssuuuuup? So 'n' so here from such 'n such...."? The Andrew Kramer intro that's been adopted by goodness knows how many now?

[@dcamlin]

Great tutorial, Steve. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Also, hit the keys as hard as you damn well please.

[@GDM223SR]

Hah! Thanks!

[@NewlightRinoa]

this is so helpful ,thanks so much =)

[@luankadishani4221]

great work man tx ^^

[@GDM223SR]

Excellent!

[@M0ELgendy]

thanks for this tutorial

[@OzgurUrhan]

great video, thanks

[@GDM223SR]

Glad you liked it!

[@Saijyothi93]

simple...and...nice.....sir

[@UltraGaivalas]

bullshitless tutorials like this are very hard to find. Liked and subscribed

[@MohammedAhmed-nq8gq]

Thank you , you have a good way to explain

[@GDM223SR]

Hey, thanks!

[@kimmedro]

you saved a life

[@zmajodpaprike]

M8, thank you a lot for this!!!

[@SamadhanKhandagle]

Awesome thanks A Lot

[@GDM223SR]

What file type are you trying to import? Are you using file>import?

[@pauliustau888]

nice video!ty!

[@luankadishani4221]

you just solved 1000 of my problem ^^

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

Ah. Of course. These tutorials were made for a course I taught in a Mac environment at a college. However, here's the conversion: mac = ctrl+click, Win = R-click mac = cmd, Win = ctrl mac = opt, Win = alt That's it! Mac and Win are pretty similar in AE.

[@evilking9661]

thank you sir steve roberts your tutorial help me alot and keep giving some more tutorials thank you very much

[@GDM223SR]

Hey, no problem!

[@oliviahess940]

how are you seeing the different 3d perspectives with the camera? when i try to use it it only transforms it on a 2d level

[@sethwoot]

Great tutorial..anyone ever tell you you sound like batman or adam west?

[@SpaceboySixFour]

How can I make layers go in front or behind another layer despite it's layer position in the composition?

[@GDM223SR]

Thank you, citizen!

[@malikirum2491]

u make it seem easy n simple :( this is the 10th time im watching and trying to follow, it falls apart right in the middle, mine doesnt look like yours :'(

[@Voolcan]

do you have any tutorials regarding cinema 4d and After effects to work together ? as in importing an effect from AE to c4d or vise versa

[@GDM223SR]

Good idea. I don't have any yet, but I'll work on that.

[@Voolcan]

good to hear that

[@chandraaweh6636]

thanks... you good, im indonesia

[@CiraxMusic]

Every now and then.. u sound like walter white from breaking bad

[@GDM223SR]

I really have to watch that show.

[@clariebelle13]

+Cirax Music Promotions 🎧 woooow!!! totally agree to that ahahahah xD!!!!

[@GDM223SR]

Great show. It frightens my elderly mother, though. Especially the bathtub-through-the-floor scene.

[@erfut]

Thanks Man; Great

[@minnie2nocky]

Hi! I watched your video and youre GOOD! But I got this problem. I made an object with a stroke effect. Now, when I try to zoom in with the Camera, my object isn't getting any bigger... Help? :(

[@Ronettaable]

Thank you

[@GDM223SR]

You're welcome!

[@GDM223SR]

@SunbeltRyders I'm Canadian, eh?

[@mdnazmul1]

Do I can make 3d game using After effect that will run in notebook or netbook?

[@GDM223SR]

No. After Effects does not create anything interactive. For that, you'd need software that creates games. Sorry, I don't know of any.

[@induranindustries706]

Brilliant simple tutorial, you American??? Noticed you said zed not zee. Hehehe Brilliant work, very helpful.

[@GDM223SR]

I'm Canadian, eh? ;) Thanks!

[@GDM223SR]

Steve Roberts And yes, you probably know who my Mayor is.

[@GDM223SR]

Thanks. I hope to imitate Agent Smith in an upcoming video.

[@trace_photography]

Great,thanks for yo kind ..

[@GDM223SR]

You're welcome!

[@fmarshall9473]

Super...+1 like

[@GDM223SR]

+F Marshall Thanks!

[@TheGedeggedeg]

thank you ucle steve! :p

[@izzuddinsapiai4993]

i would like to learn how to making 3D photo/video transition

[@GDM223SR]

Can you link to an example?

[@artsofgames]

thanks

[@cook2030]

thank u

[@GDM223SR]

Why, yes. Thank you citizen!

[@Thebestcounter1]

Why when i press "End" it goes to the end of the Seconds,Not there when i wanted it to end :(..plz Help!