After Effects to Unreal Engine 5 (THE EASY WAY)

This is the easiest method I can find for getting 3D Camera Tracker animations from After Effects to Unreal Engine 5.
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Now while the quality of the tracking is all dependent on the individual shot (and there may be more precise ways to do this), If you're doing some mixed reality virtual productions and want to try and create a matchmove shot quickly then this works well.
I didn't spend as much time as usual on the final result in this video, it is more of a way to demonstrate that the camera tracking works.
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[@MattJackson_YouTube]

Incredibly concise and helpful. Thank you so much for videos like this!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Glad to be helpful. I thought it was a useful one.

[@ANIM_SHORTS24]

The Tutorial I have been waiting for🔥

[@davemacomber1035]

A suggestion: bring your footage into the produced C4D project, and apply it to a background object. If there is something in the scene that you can use for scale, do that in Cinema: for example, if you know the width of the car, place a plane there in AE before export. Then in Cinema, place a cube in that location and size it to match the car in the video. Check the size, and use Edit > Scale project to bring the cube to real-world scale. Save, and then import to UE.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Good suggestion for getting a sense of scale. I don't have C4D in order to do this but good for anyone who can add this step. This is not my preferred method for footage tracking due to accuracy, Im just treating it as quick and dirty.

[@Billary]

Thank you so much! I was having so much trouble getting things aligned in my scene because I didn't fix the scaling

[@MiDaY_i]

Now waaay you’re finally back!!!!🔥🔥🔥

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Oh im not going anywhere haha

[@MiDaY_i]

@@JoshuaMKerr no like there was a time you didn’t post for a bit after the octane in unreal engine videos you made and said you had to deal with family stuff but I just realized that you posted recently and I didn’t get notifications or see it from KZbin which is weird cause I have it on maybe I wasn’t active when you posted but amazing video you’ve got here!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Ah yes, I moved house and had a kid in the last few months...so a bit mad. The last couple of videos im really quite proud of. Would love to know what you make of them.

[@vonkvisuals7405]

Amazing, thanks for the video! Can't wait to try this.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Have fun :)

[@TheDigiVault]

Great tutorial. Thank you

[@AzaradoFPS1]

So I went into soft soft and tried to intuitively grasp the basic fundantals. And now listening back I feel like I'm one step ahead of Nice tutorialm.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Sounds like a good approach. Good luck with your creations.

[@passion_proh-jects]

beautiful audio-visual experience... all 3 seconds of it... I'd live in that world... prolly in the dumpster around the corner, but ya... STARS

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Youre very kind. Maybe we could have neighbouring dumpsters! Really glad you liked it...I wish I had more time to refine. Loads of room for improvement.

[@3dystopia606]

Great tutorial, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks 🙏

[@JoshuaMKerr]

You are very welcome. Glad to be useful

[@TonysMind]

Very interesting. Keep pumping good contents!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Cheers!

[@oemresagir]

Hey thanks a lot for the tutorial really appreciate it, I just have one question, Im trying to place some animated characters on a of a table that I've tracked but its really hard to add them perfectly without seeing the main video, is there any way to add the tracked video to the background in unreal viewport ?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

100 percent. You can import your media into unreal engine. So far I have done this by placing it on a plane and plugging a screen position node into the UV slot. Take a look toward the end of my blender tracking video or at ayound 3 mins into my Unreal Engine Lighting and compositing video...you can see my material setup there

[@strucccy4605]

Any recommendations for camera settings when getting tracking footage? Film in 30 fps vs 60fps? Motion stablization and resolution etc?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Most important thing is to reduce motion blur so a high shutter can help a lot. Make sure shots are in focus and try to keep your iso low to keep noise to a minimum.

[@cruciblemeditations2058]

great video thanks

[@JoshuaMKerr]

No bother ;)

[@simonflash_edit]

Thanks for the cool video. I also enjoyed your demo scene. If we'd only knew how to get the camera scaled accurately, this would be even more powerful in a Vfx-pipeline. Keep up with the great content, i really enjoy it :)

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Glad you enjoyed it. I imagine there are workflows that go through C4D that can give better accuracy but Im not very familiar with that software.

[@CineWorldvfx]

Good Tutorial!!!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Glad it was useful

[@gmuk]

Hi Josh, hope you are well. I have some issues to import tracking data to UE. For some reason when importing it just keep freezing. Do you have any suggestions please?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Tricky as I haven't experienced that problem. At what point does the freezing occur?

[@YTJRBC2]

thank you for that, fun fact, youtube Red giant Normalizer, it's a free plugin that might fix the size issue.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Interesting. Ill have a look into that

[@lanaonfit]

Hi, Josh! Thanks for the video! Can I ask you: is it possible to add the video itself to UE5 and then add vfx there via the camera as it is done in blender?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

That is exactly how the final shot was made ;) I have some videos on the channel showing how this is done.

[@VJIIY]

No boring intro, SO i gave a like

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thats what I like to hear

[@shawnxu2823]

cool stuff, thank you. however, is it better to track the footage in Blender and send it to UE? would u plz make a video of it?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

You're in luck. I already have a video of that on the channel

[@dpredie]

Nice josh

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks Duncan!

[@emarinm1]

Hello. How do I get the plugins? Is it free, paid, with which versions is it compatible? It doesn't show up in the export options :/

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Which plugin do you mean?

[@emarinm1]

@@JoshuaMKerr min 0:59, file-export-maxon cinema 4d exporter.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

What version of after effects are you using

[@blood_and_bacon1257]

does it really necessary c4d for putting movement in to unreal engine

[@JoshuaMKerr]

It is one of many methods. If you're talking about real camera movement then you could use blender or perhaps capture it in real time with a tracking setup like vive. Otherwise you can animate cameras in unreal without all that stuff.

[@bayanbayan9835]

Nice idea How you render the objects with alpha in unreal 5 ??

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I created an alpha mask in after effects and imported that as a media texture to unreal. I have a tutorial on my channel :)

[@sten-eiriksaraguttormsen8451]

I want to do this, but adding 3d into a real footage instead of render in the background. Like a building inside the footage. Is this something you gonna cover in the future?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

You mean things like using hdri lighting too?I might cover this but its not on my radar at the moment. What software would you be looking uo use?

[@sten-eirikguttormsen220]

3d tracking big things into a footage, i found small objects with photo bacground, but im not sure when it is a archviz scene with buildings and garden etc. I want to make something like this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGGxioCbh7qBrq8

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I dont think theres a lot of difference whether the object is large or small, all that matters is where you position the object in 3D space to create the illusion. Its completely possible to do using the same method. Although your preferred workflow matters. If you want to end back in After Effects for detailed compositing or whether you want to do it all in unreal.

[@sten-eiriksaraguttormsen8451]

Thanks for you reply! I don't understand how to align the plate and the distance between the plate and camera. With small objects there is less distance between, if i understand that right? Also i wonder if i can use the composure plugin with media plate background instead of making a plate with a mesh and material like you did? I think what's confusing me is the aligning and distance. In your tutorial you use video without background, so i don't see how i can do the same with a video that is filling the whole camera screen. I found a tutorial on the composure plugin with media plate btw, but i didn't mention camera distance and bigger objects.

[@VishnuRanjidas]

Hi Joshua.. please do a tutorial on exporting shadows from UE5 for CGI compositing into real footage.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Its deffinitely on the list. Dou have a certain shot in mind? Perhaps give me a bit of deatil on what you're hoping to acheive, that would help me make a tutorial as useful as possible.

[@VishnuRanjidas]

@@JoshuaMKerr yeah.. I tried to do a sample project in which a an android (paragon Murdock from unreal marketplace) doing push ups inside my office. ie, need to place a cgi character in a real footage. Shot the background with a handheld camera and tracked it with AE, exported the camera data into unreal, and made the animation and lighting according to the tracked camera in sequencer. Rendered the character layer out. It fits perfectly with the background layer., lighting was matching and looked so realistic -except there was no shadows. Checked some shadow catcher tuts later, but it wasn't working for me. If you could do one video on it, that would be really helpful. Love your method of explaining things.

[@gauravkumar-bu6xo]

whenever i repostion the instance and play the video , the values reset ot original values automatically help pleasse

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Did you change the values in sequencer?

[@gauravkumar-bu6xo]

@@JoshuaMKerr yes brother i changes it but the value gets changing automatically to original values , is this because i am using two solids ?

[@gauravkumar-bu6xo]

@@JoshuaMKerr help please

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Might need a bit more info to help you mate. What values are changing to original values? Is it the screen the camera scale. Can you pop some details down and I can try my best.

[@gauravkumar-bu6xo]

@@JoshuaMKerr brother i solved it but on putting my scene in render it showing a blank preview and the the one which i am seeing in my engine through my 3d camera , can we connect somewhere please 🥺

[@dobnik1204]

And how can you then bring the video and the tracked camera together so you can make cgi?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Not covered in this video but I do in quite a few other vids on the channel.

[@Grigga]

Will you release this tut soon?!

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Which part are you not sure about?

[@henri4491]

thank you for good contents! how can i combine movie unreal with real movie? 4:36

[@JoshuaMKerr]

There are many ways to do this but for this result I exported the footage from after effects and brought it into unreal then aligned it with the tracked camera.

[@kingd8155]

I guess the scale should be 0.1, that can be explained by mm->cm convertion. Also 0.07 seems pretty low by the eye level. 0.1 should make sense.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

It was quite a low angle shot so I felt 0.07 looked right. But yes you're right it wa probably 0.1

[@morecarstuff]

"there are no prizes" ahhh this is life.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

So true

[@StoriesOfSunnah]

at the end you forgot to show how you added the objects and in which way. camera movements getting in and out to add objects non that was shown, important stepps missed.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

The tutorial was just about getting tracking info from AE to Unreal. Adding objects and building scenes, I cover in other videos.

[@nicholasdiudin]

well done guy!! let 's think of something ?

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks. Make something cool

[@MauroMan_]

..final result.. needs some work yet..but good job. !

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thanks. The result is just to demonstrate the technique, it took about an hour. Feel free to go and do better than me.

[@FIRSANTUY]

How DO YOU OPEN A setup ALL OF THE TUTORIALS START WITH A setup

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Sorry to dissapoint but thats not what I do. I feel like project setup has been well covered elsewhere so I get straight to the part I'm passionate about.

[@FIRSANTUY]

wait I don't comment on this video im not wacthing video like this

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Thats okay. I hope you find what you're looking for.

[@pipetequia]

Hola Joshua, sigo sin entender como escalar correctamente :/ Saludos de un suscriptor!

[@StoriesOfSunnah]

man make video how you did the end results by adding scene. can you make another video again going over tracking all the way to the end less then 5min video. just get to the point type video . how to mask in ae and track and export , and load the file on other end , load the image sequence look at the video footage and load 3d objects while working.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

I have other videos on the channel that cover those parts of the process.

[@StoriesOfSunnah]

@@JoshuaMKerr to many videos to go through. not sure which one. without the title il be looking to deep

[@gibgibGG]

Always well done Josh, thank you! So once you have the AE tracking data imported as a level you can just add anything into the scene and it will appear tracked? Nothing additional? By the way, I just finished a music video I created using UE5 and green screen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmm7oaqwrZ1gqdk Recommendation: Turn it up loud and watch it on as big a screen as you get.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Great work on the music video, very stylised. I did have to do a bit of messing around with the pisition of objwcts to get them to look right. I find foreground was trickier that background.

[@gibgibGG]

@@JoshuaMKerr Thank you very much! At least it's possible to send tracking data from AE to UE5 via the C4D exporter. I also use Syntheyes for tracking, which can also produce point clouds. I haven't attempted to export anything to UE5, but I'll have to look into it. Thanks again!

[@JohnRiversOfficial]

how do you look 12 and sound 40

[@JoshuaMKerr]

moisturise.

[@onlinerzizi240]

I highly suggest you don't do it even if it's cool to see the pipeline. If you plan on using tracked stuff like that you need to understand a lot about parrallax and how to shot for having the 3D track effect right. One stuff you can easily understand tho, is that you will need for this type of 3D tracking a real software to output decent result inside UE5. In this case i highly suggest SYNTHEYES. It's the cheapest of these software and still the easiest, you can do litterally everything with it and you can buy life license wich is rare with theses softwares. There is alternatives like PfTrack. The main reason i say that is because the method AE is using isnt accurate at all, and very hacky/impossible to tweak the result you get out of the solve. You could use the Blender tracking for getting at least decent result for free. Theses shots will come most of the time unusable like they are in the video itself because 3D tracking is way harder and complex than 2D/2.5D (planar) tracks.

[@JoshuaMKerr]

You are completely right about the fidelity of After Effects camera tracking results. I have found them to be hit and miss at best and is why I reccomend Blender in the video as an option and also have a full tutorial on the Blender 3D tracker. It gives much more control over the end result. I make these videos so people are aware of their options and whether to use them is up to them. I personally always opt to try things out so I'm educated on the pros and cons.

[@tellinefnef]

dad

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Hi

[@qusayquraishi1607]

Not good we don’t understand

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Let me know which part you're having trouble with. Maybe I can help

[@qusayquraishi1607]

I wish you had completed the work, how did you change the sky and how did you add the buildings Thanks

[@JoshuaMKerr]

@@qusayquraishi1607 Ah yes. That would be a much longer tutorial. I was just focussed on the tracking for the instructional part of this video. I will see if I can do something on this for a future video.

[@qusayquraishi1607]

@@JoshuaMKerr Thank you so much

[@Architect54]

know u are joking but still letting ya know

[@JoshuaMKerr]

Joking? About what?

[@ROSARYLIVE]

Sorry to say AI will put you out of business. :(

[@JoshuaMKerr]

What business is that?

[@valverdefighter24]

PLEASE NEED HELP WITH A PROBLEN IN UNREAL ENGINE 5 I WROTE YOU VIA INSTAGRAM I HAVE SOME TROUBLE WITH PNG SEQUENCE QUALITY RENDER AND PLAYBACK IN UE5 DE IMAGE LOOS DISTORTED PLEASE HELP

[@JoshuaMKerr]

It's quite hard to diagnose the problem without seeing it. If you're getting ghosting artifacts, which is a bug in UE5 then the only solution is to turn off motion blur (not ideal I know). We all have our fingers crossed for a fix in the next version of the software. If this isn't the problem then I'm not sure how to help.