After Effects Master Class: The 3D Camera Explained

1. Promo: hi there. And welcome to the after effects masterclass, the three D camera explained. My name is Ed Patton, and I'm the creative director for a three D software solutions company I have been using after effects on a daily basis for nearly 20 years, creating projects for Disney salon centric ESPN, just to name a few. Although there is a lot of great after effects training out there, I find that when it comes to very specific items such as the three D camera, you really have to search all over the Internet to try and find out the information that you're looking for. That's the reason I decided to start the after effects masterclass Siri's. I wanted to give the kind of in depth training that I would have died for when I was first . Starting out. Let me help you take your three D compositions to the next level. With a firm understanding of what the three D camera is capable of. I'll show you why it behaves the way it does what this graphic is all about. All of the individual settings that you can enemy and finally give you some of my best tips and tricks that I have learned along the way to help you with your aftereffects projects. Don't just use a three D camera become a master of it. Sign up today for the after effects masterclass, the three D camera explained. 2. Course Breakdown: I have designed this course to be as thorough as possible so that by the time you're finished with it, you will have all the information I have on the after effects three D camera. But like anything else in life, the more time and effort that you put into using that knowledge will greatly accelerate your mastery of this subject. The course is broken down into five main sections. All three D cameras are not created equal under the covers. How to animate the three D camera tips and tricks and the project. Let's take a look at what is involved with each section. All three D cameras are not created equal goes over how to create a three D camera and the camera settings window itself. This single screen is responsible for more confusion on this subject than anything else, and it is directly tied to the fact that most people just don't understand what they're looking at. I break down the camera settings window into three easy to digest parts top, middle and bottom. By the time you are done with this section, you should not be confused about the camera settings window any longer. Under the covers goes over the different ways that you can manipulate the three D camera timeline settings. We cover the regular setting throughout the course, but spend a bit of time in the extra settings, such as iris and highlight depth of field. I explained how aftereffects creates this effect, how to adjust the settings and show you the simplest breakdown of it working. Once you go through this lesson, you will never have a problem with depth of field again. And finally, the different ways to view your aftereffects screen in order to take full advantage of the space that you're three D camera is operating in. How to animate the three D camera looks at your camera tools available to you to move your camera motion paths, what they are and how to manipulate them. Animating key frames knows how to use them effectively and rove across time. I explain what it is, why you need it and how to use it. Next is tips and tricks where I teach you some of the things that I have learned in my 20 plus years of working in after effects items such as layer ordering. I cover Z positions as well as the layer order in the timeline itself. Active camera. I explain what this is and how to use it to your best advantage. Pre comp three D layers. Understanding this functionality will change how you use after effects from here on out. Boomerang effect. This one problem has been the plague of more aftereffects users than any other issue I have ever seen. I'll show you why it happens and how to easily fix it in under 10 seconds. Flat separate dimensions. A nifty little trick to give you even more control over your three d camera. The wiggle expression. Give your project that handheld look without the time and tediousness of actually animating key frames. Options available for the camera, such as linking Focus distance two point of interest link focus distance to another layer and set focused distance toe layer. And finally, we have our project where I give you a homework assignment that utilizes everything you have learned in this course. This entire course was designed with you in mind, created by someone who has been in your shoes. I wanted to make sure that you have a firm understanding of the three D camera so that your aftereffects projects are able to take full advantage of that knowledge. If you see anything that you are still confused by and when, like more clarification, please leave me a message in the comments section. I'll answer as best as I can. Also, if you have any ideas on how to make the course better, I would be very interested to hear that feedback as well. 3. Skill Level Required: although I have done my best to make this course as simple as possible to help you focus only on the three D camera, you will still need to have a basic understanding of after effects. I do not cover setting up a project, Newcomb's importing files or any of the normal things that go into using the after effects software. However, with only a very basic understanding of how to use after effects, you should have no problem whatsoever keeping up with the instruction of this course. 4. Rate this Course: why not take a second to rate this course and let me know what you think? Obviously, I would love it if you rated it five stars. But at the same time, I am here to try and make this the best possible course that I can. If you have an idea for what would make this course really stand down, I would love to know what you think in the comments section below. 5. Create a 3d Camera: Okay, so the first thing you need to learn how to do is to actually create a new camera. And there are several ways to do this. Number one. After selecting your timeline, you can go up to layer new camera. This opens up the camera settings window. Now this looks confusing and probably intimidating, however, will get into this in the next lesson. Close out of that, the second most popular way is Number two, which is to right click on the timeline, go to new camera again and opens up the camera settings window. And the third most popular way is to use the shortcuts. The shortcut for creating a new camera on a PC is control Ault shift see, and on a Mac, it is a command option shift see? 6. Camera Settings Window: each time that you create a new camera, The first thing that you will always see is the camera settings window. Now there's a lot of information here, and sometimes it is a bit much for people who don't really know what they're looking at. I've seen plenty of people who just click OK in a hurry without really knowing what kind of camera they just selected. The key to understanding this window lies in the fact that it is trying to replicate riel world cameras. And although the graphic and the settings might seem a bit dense, it really boils down to three main sections the top, the middle and the bottom. We'll go into specific settings for each section in more detail in later lessons. However, as a broad overview, the top section contains the type of camera that you'll be creating either a one note or two as well as the name of the camera. So here you can name it whatever you'd like new camera, and then when you create it, it will actually be the name of the camera. In the middle section, we have the presets dropped down everything from 15 millimetre, all the way down to 200 millimeters. We also have zoom, film size, angle of view, comp size, focal length, enabling depth of field and focus distance. And in the bottom section, we have the units drop down, which is in either pixels, inches or millimeters, as well as measure film size horizontally, vertically or diagonally, as well as locked a zoom aperture F stop and blur level. Finally, wrapping it up at the very bottom is the preview check box. 7. Top Section: the top section of the camera settings window consists of really only two main options. The first is the camera type. From this drop down menu. There are only two choices. A one note camera or a two node camera. In all regards. There is absolutely no difference between these two choices, with the exception of how the camera orbits around the three D space. The one note camera orbits around itself. However, the two node camera has a point of view property that can be animated. This allows you to set the X, Y and Z position that the camera will now orbit around. There are good uses for either camera. If I am using a camera that needs to give me the greatest amount of maneuverability, then I will choose the one note camera. However, if I need to focus on a single object and maneuver around it, then the two note camera is typically the one I will choose. The good thing to note is that you can change your camera type by simply double clicking on the camera, which will bring up the camera settings window again and then changing the type to whichever one you feel is the best fit for your project at that time. The other part of the top section of the camera settings window is the name of the camera. This is very simply, exactly what it sounds like. The name that you want to give to this particular camera. You can change the name at any time by doing one of two things. You can select the camera and then hit the enter key on a PC or a return key on a Mac. Then rename as you wish or you may right, click the camera and at the very bottom of the choices, select rename and then rename as you wish. 8. Middle Section: the middle section of the camera settings window is where the majority of the confusion seems to take place. The problem usually lies in the fact that most people do not understand what they're looking at because they really don't understand exactly how a camera works. The most important thing to remember about the middle section is the preset dropped down. Clicking on this menu will give presets that range from 15 millimetre all the way to 200 millimeter. As you select a preset, the options for zoom, angle of view, focal length, focus, distance, aperture and the F stop will all change to match a re a world camera with that particular preset. So a 15 millimeter camera will have a very wide angle of view and smaller zoom. However, a 200 millimeter camera, we'll have a very narrow angle of view, but a lengthy zoom to match each of the subsequent settings in between will just be differing variations. I look at the middle section as simply a starting point for my three D camera because as I am creating my project, I know that the camera will change and morph as I see fit. Zoom distance will go up or down. My angle of view will expand or decrease etcetera, but you need to start somewhere, so I usually choose either the 35 millimeter or 24 millimeter preset to start with and then see what happens as the project progresses. If you find that after you have made changes to your camera that you know you will use in the future, you can simply hit the Save preset icon, which will allow you to name and save the preset. This preset will remain even after you quit out of after effects and restart into a brand new project at any time. You have the option of deleting any of the presets if you wish, by clicking on the delete presets icon. But don't worry. If you accidentally throw away one of the factory default camera presets, you can simply all click on a PC or option. Click on a Mac on the Delete Presets icon and all of the originals will be restored. The last check box toe look at for the middle section of labelled enable depth of field. We'll get into this functionality later in greater detail. However, I want to call out that you have several ways to activate or deactivate this. You can click the check box to enable or disable it, as well as turning it on or off in the camera properties itself. 9. Bottom Section: the bottom section of the camera settings window typically gets forgotten about, due in part to the confusion given by the middle section. However, keeping in mind, too that all of these settings air here to replicate riel world cameras, the bottom section simply does more of the same. The units dropped down has choices for pixels, inches or millimeters. This has a direct impact on what you will see reflected in the comp size on the right side of the middle section. Notice that the comp size is showing now the vertical pixel count choosing millimeters or inches. We'll change how the values are expressed. However, the distance will be the same. Measuring film size allows you to choose from horizontally, vertically or diagonally again. This preset allows you to see how the film is measuring the distance from one end of the camera to the other. If you have a comp that is 1920 by 10 80 choosing unit size pixels then measure film size horizontally. It will show the comp size as 1920. If you choose vertically, it will choose the comp size as 10 80 and if you choose diagonally, it gives the distance from the bottom left corner to the top right corner, which in this case would be 22 2.9. No moving over to the right side of the bottom section, we have the lock to zoom check box. This does exactly as it sounds. It locks the focus distance to the zoom of the camera. The aperture setting affects depth of field. Increasing the aperture increases the depth of field blur. Notice that when you modify the aperture, the values for F stop changes. Well. This is because in real world cameras, the F stop represents the ratio of the focal length as it relates to aperture will get into more detail for the depth of field settings. In another lesson, blur level is default at 100%. Which is to say that for the preset you have chosen when enabled depth of field is selected , the amount of blur that will take place is accurate. According to the specs of that preset increasing or decreasing this percentage, we'll have the same level of change on the blur itself. I typically leave this at 100% when I start and change it during the course of the project as I see fit. As I mentioned in the video for the middle section, the most important thing to note about this entire window is the preset drop down. Adobe has done most of the really hard work for you in terms of setting up the starting points for your three D camera, understanding that these presets are just the beginning and can be modified as you please allows for you to quickly create a camera and then change it as the project necessitates. 10. How to Manipulate the Camera: As with all adobe programs, there are usually several different ways to do the same thing. Manipulating the camera and after effects is no exception. There are three main ways to do this. Number one double clicking on the camera itself in the timeline will open up the camera settings window. Any changes that you have already made to the camera in the timeline will be represented in the new window settings. Number two right clicking on the camera itself will bring up a drop down menu with several items related to the camera, such as resetting the camera back to its default state point of interest, position, scale, orientation, rotation, opacity, center and view, and auto orient. If you select any of these options, a dialog window will appear, allowing you to input the values you would like to change. Also down below, you have the camera sub menu, which has several items that we will be discussing in a later lesson, such as create orbit. No link Focus. Distance two point of interest link focus, distance to layer and set focused distance to layer number three. The last way to manipulate the camera is by flipping the triangle switches on the camera itself. Both the transform switch and the camera options switch have options that we will go over and future lessons. 11. Timeline Settings: as we discussed during the back half of the last lesson. The camera options are divided into two main sections. Transform and camera options. I will be dealing with the transform settings in Section four, titled How to Animate the three D Camera. I will also be dealing with the zoom depth of field focus, distance, aperture and blur level in the next lesson, since they all pertain to using depth of field. What I wanted to focus on for this lesson was the extra settings that you will find in the camera options. These air separated into two groupings. Iris and highlight. Keeping in mind that the after effects three D camera is trying to mimic a real world camera means that the settings for iris and highlight are more options. To help you fine tune those attributes on a real world camera, The iris is an adjustable opening, which controls the amount of light coming through the lens. In our three D camera, you have the ability to change the Irish shape iris rotation, iris roundness aspect ratio and the iris diffraction fringe, which is a fancy way of saying that it creates a halo around the edge of the iris that help simulate light. Blending something to keep in mind, however, is that any of the shapes other than fast rectangle increases the render time dramatically . I almost never change this away from the default state of fast rectangle for that reason alone, the other shapes have some very interesting looks and feels to them. But in my opinion, they are not worth the expensive render time that comes along with them. The highlight grouping allows you to effect the highlight game highlight threshold and the highlight saturation. Each of these attributes gives you the ability to fine tune the luminosity of out of focus pixels. 12. Depth of Field: depth of field inside of after effects is one of the most awesome ways to achieve realism within your composition. But to the beginning user, it can also be very intimidating and confusing if you do not know what you are looking at. The first thing to understand, regardless of the project you were working on, is that if you turn on depth of field, it will give you a drastic increase in rendered time both and pre renders as well as your final render. This is because the math that aftereffects is having to compute to achieve these effects multiplied by the number of key frames you were using it on is a good bit more intensive than if you simply left it unchecked. So always remember to turn depth of field off if you do not intend to actually use it. As I stated in a previous lesson, you can turn on the depth of field check box in the camera settings window, but you can also turn it on or off in the timeline controls for the camera itself. There are really only four things that go into depth of field in the after effects program , Zoom focus, distance, aperture and blur level zoom and focus distance go hand in hand. I look at focus distance as how far away that I want my camera toe actually focus on the zoom, however, is how close to the object that I want to see an example of this can be seen on the screen . I have a comp where I have placed a camera and several objects changing the view to top. I can see the zoom and the focus distance are identical, and they are both the exact same distance from the photo. Let's change the aperture to 1500. Nothing happens, right? That's because we have told after effects that it needs to apply an aperture of 1500 pixels to anything that is out of range. Growing is that photo gets more and more out of range from our focus distance. However, our focus distance is perfectly aligned to our photo, so it cannot show us anything other than a perfectly in focus photo. But if we adjust our focus distance to be less than the distance of the photo, we begin to see the desired effect we're looking for. The photo went from being in focus to out of focus. Now, if we move the focus distance to the other side of the photo, we watch as a photo gets more and more clear, then begins to lose focus again as we pass to the other side. Changing the zoom to go closer to the object has no effect on the aperture or the fact that the object is blurry and out of focus. However, Zoom allows us to get closer or farther away from the object. The aperture serves to increase or decrease the blur caused by depth of field. An aperture setting of zero is the same as if you had depth of field turned off. Another way to handle aperture blur is to set it to 100 and increase or decrease the blur level percentage as it goes well beyond 100%. I find this useful if some people have trouble understanding aperture, but they do understand percentages 13. Different Views: So now that we have a camera created, let's get into the different ways that we can see what the camera sees as well as what is around the camera itself. Having the ability to see things from all perspectives becomes more and more important when you could have hundreds, possibly thousands of items in a comp, and you need the camera to be a very specific places at specific times. Luckily after effects, makes is very easy for you. In the select view layout drop down. We have the ability to choose how we want the layout of our aftereffect screen to be. The choices we have available are one view two views. Horizontal, two views. Vertical four views, four views left, four views Right four views Top and four views Bottom. The three D View Pop up allows you to choose which view that you want to see in the view port that you chose from the select view layout. Drop down the choices you have available here are active camera, front left, top back, right bottom and custom view one, which is a bird's eye view to the left custom view, too. A bird's eye view slightly back and custom view three a bird's eye view to the right. So with this kind of flexibility, I can create the layout that feels the most comfortable to me for the project that I am working in. So if I want to have to views horizontal, then I can keep the first camera set toe active and then make the second view top or front or left. It all boils down to what you need to see in order to help you animate the camera for your project. 14. Camera Tools: so the best way to begin animating your camera is to fully understand the tools you have available to you. There are four tools available to you at the top, depending on the kind of mouse that you have. If you go up to the top, there's an icon that looks like a small camera clicking on this. You will get your four choices unified camera tool orbit, camera tool track, X Y camera tool and track Z tool. In reality after effects on, Lee has three tools for you to use orbit Track X, Y and Track Z. However, if you have a mouse that has a left and right click as well as a center click, then you have the ability to use all three of these camera tools without having to switch between the three. Let me explain what each of the tools does separately, and then I will explain the unified camera tool. The orbit camera tool allows you toe orbit in three D space in all three axes X, y and Z. If you created a one note camera, then you are orbiting around yourself. If you created a two node camera, then you are orbiting around the point of interest coordinates. The track X Y camera tool allows you to move your camera left and right, which are the X coordinates as well as up and down, which are the Y coordinates. The Track Z camera tool Onley allows you to move forwards and backwards, which are the Z coordinates. Between those three tools, you can maneuver your three D camera anywhere in three D space. Now, if you have a mouse with a left right and center button, click, then utilizing the unified camera tool. You get everything all in one without having to switch between the different camera tools left, click and drag utilizes three. Orbit tool right click and drag utilises the Z Tool center. Click and drag utilizes the track X Y tool. The shortcut to cycle through the different camera tools is the letter C. This won't let you go to the next tool in the list. 15. Motion Paths: in after effects, you can see the path that a three D camera takes by looking at its motion path. Emotion Path is the animated properties for X, y and Z of the cameras, position and anchor point. The path shows as a sequence of small dots where each dot is the position of the camera at that particular key frame. When you see a square, it is showing you the corresponding key frame in the timeline. You have several ways to adjust the motion path number one, adjusting the key frames in the timeline, and number two selecting the X Y Z handles of the three D camera itself. You also have the ability to tweak the busy a handles of each key frame by choosing the selection tool or using the shortcut V, then selecting the square key frame in the composition window on a straight line. You will not immediately see the busy a handles, so choose the pen tool from the top menu, then select Convert Vertex Tool Now left. Click on the square key frame again and notice that you can see a new circle appear. Click and drag this new handle to the position that you like this will now change the motion path to a more organic arc. By changing the motion path of your three d camera, you have the ability to create some very dynamic looks for your project. 16. Animating Keyframes: now that we have our three D camera created, the next step of the process is to begin setting key frame so we can animate our three D camera. When looking at all of the possibilities that can be animated, it's easy to feel a bit overwhelmed, but as we have discussed in previous lessons, the three D camera is easy as long as you separate what you want to do. The transformed properties physically move the camera in three D. The camera options make adjustments to the camera itself, such as depth of field etcetera. Since we've already covered the camera options in previous lessons, I want to spend some time on the transform properties. The transform properties are made up of point of interest, position orientation, ex rotation. Why rotation and Z rotation? The point of interest property affects the position in three D space that you want your camera to aim at. This property only becomes available if you have a two node camera. However, a one note camera rotates around itself, so you do not have the ability to have a separate point of interest. The position property allows you to move your camera using the X, Y or Z axis. Notice that with a two node camera. When you move the camera around, it remains fixed at the point of interest coordinates you have set. Regardless, If I move left or right, the camera always looks at the same place. If I move forward along the Z axis, the camera will eventually have to turn around because you have passed the point of interest coordinates. Next are the orientation and rotation properties. Now a lot of people think that these two attributes are identical and don't understand why Adobe put both of them in. However, that is a common misconception. Orientation rotates the camera in the fastest, most efficient way it can. Rotation rotates the camera exactly as it is told to do. So let's take a look and see what this means. Orientation has three values to represent X, Y and Z. Let's set a key frame for orientation, then move ahead two seconds and move the middle orientation value, which is the Y axis to 135 degrees. Scrubbing through the timeline, we see that the camera moves as expected, it's rotating from zero to 135 degrees. However, if we change the Y value to 280 degrees and now scrub the timeline, we see that the camera has changed. It has taken the fastest, most efficient route to get to the key frame value. No, let's take a look at rotation, setting a key frame for the Y axis at zero, moving ahead two seconds and changing the value to 280 degrees. We see that this time it behaves the way that we expected it to. It rotates exactly as it was told. And if I were to change this first number to a to it will rotate two times in the exact same manner until it reaches the key frame one to and 280 degrees. With a full understanding of what all of these attributes mean. You can begin to experiment with camera movements to match the kind of after effects project that you are currently working on. 17. Nulls: sometimes animating a camera around in three D space can be tricky. So a way to help combat this is to attach a no to your camera on No is exactly as it sounds . It is nothing. However, it does have all of the same transform properties that a regular layer has both two D and three D. This means that if you need to, you can use the no for movement and your camera for rotation. There are several ways to create knows, but the easiest ways are number one with your three D camera selected in your timeline. Go to layer camera, create orbit. No. Alternatively, you can simply right click on the camera in the timeline and select camera. Create orbit. No, we have created a new three dino that has already been parented to our three D camera. Opening up the nose transform properties. We see Anchor point position in X y and Z axes scale also in X, Y and Z as well as orientation and rotation. The opacity values have no effect on a three D camera, so you can ignore this one. Notice that when I move the no, the camera now follows And if I change the anchor point for the no and then rotate the no, the camera now rotates itself based on the new anchor point. However, at the same time, I can also still move and rotate my three d camera, separate from the No. The second way to create a no for movement is right. Click on the timeline. Choose new No object. This creates a to D No, so you will need to make it a three d no before using it. Now click and drag the parent icon for the three D camera and drag it to your new three d. No. Now, if we open up the nose, transform properties, we see that we have all of the same attributes from the previous method. 18. Rove Across Time: Now we're going to discuss something called Rove across time in after effects, The distance that a three D camera travels between two key frames determines its speed. However, when we have multiple key frames and we want the camera to maintain the same speed, it can become difficult to get the right look based on key frame, distance and camera position. So on the screen we have custom view one showing us a camera where I have placed multiple random key frames, moving the camera left and right up and down across five seconds. I have set a new key frame at one second intervals, but since the distance travelled between the key frames is varied. Even though the key frames are the same distance apart, the speed of the camera goes faster or slower. However, if you want the speed of the camera to remain constant, then you have something called rove across time available to you. Simply select all of the key frames that you want to apply this to and right. Click on a key frame. Select rove across time. Notice that the motion path did not change, so the position remains the same. But the key frames have changed positions on the timeline. This will allow the camera to move from beginning to end at the same speed. If, however you choose to use, he's in or he's out on the n key frames, it will adjust the center key frames to match the new speed distance equation. 19. Layer Ordering: Okay, Now that we have a good understanding of the three D camera, let's start getting into some tips and tricks. The first tip has to do with layer. Ordering aftereffects looks at the Z position of a layer to determine which layer will be in front of another. If multiple layers have the exact same Z position, then after effects will choose the one that is on the top in the timeline. Something to understand about having multiple layers in a comp is to make sure to group your tooty items together. Andrew three D items together, if at all possible, Let's say you have a three D layer and another three D layer at a different see position. If I move the layer in front further back in Z space, then the second layer snaps into the front position exactly as you would expect. However, if I take any two D layer and place it in between the 23 D layers, even using an adjustment layer, then the three D camera breaks the relationship between the two. I can move the front layer back until infinity if I choose, and it will never snap behind the layer in the back, even though the Z position tells me that it should. Keeping your two D layers together and your three D layers together will help alleviate this sometimes annoying issue. 20. Active Camera: in your three d view pop up, drop down. You may have noticed that one of the selection is available to you is named active camera. The obvious reason for this is it allows you to see through the lens of the camera currently being used. But what if you have multiple cameras in your comp, then the active camera is the one on top of all the other ones in your after effects timeline. This could be useful when you are animating multiple cameras and you want to move to different cuts. Simply set up the different cameras. Change your three D view. Pop up, dropped down to active camera and after effects will handle the rest. 21. Pre-Compose 3d Layers: one of the most powerful ways that after effects allows you to clean up your timeline is to let you pre comp multiple layers into a single composition. This is handy for a multitude of reasons, however, When it comes to a three D camera, it is even more so. Let's say that you have several three D items in your main timeline. You want to apply an effect to some of those items, but not all, and don't want to use the exact same effect on all of the layers. So the obvious choice is to pre cop right? Of course, As soon as you do that, you lose the ability to affect the layers in three D, even if you make the pre cop three D. However, if you select the collapse transformation check box for that new pre camp, it now recognises the three D positions of each of the layers inside, even allowing them to interact in three D space with items that are not inside of the pre Cup 22. Boomerang Effect: The boomerang effect is one of the most frustrating issues that novice and even midlevel motion graphic designers deal with when dealing with animating objects and cameras in after effects, let's take a three D layer and move it along the X axis to the right for one second. Then at the five second mark, let's move it back to the left slightly. What I want to happen is to move the object right then left, however, after effects is adding this slight boomerang effect to the movement. The reason is because of how, after effects deals with distance traveled and speed. If you select all of your key frames and right click on a single key frame, you will see several options available to you. The one to note for the boomerang effect is spatial interpolation, which is default to auto busy. A auto busy A is adding a busy a curve to the motion path to account for the excess speed. If we change this to linear instead, then the excess speed is no longer factored into the equation. We can also now apply Eazy E's to the key frame to help slow it down, some for the return trip, and it will continue to work correctly. Another way to quickly handle this annoying issue is to select all of your key frames, choose the pin tool at the top and then choose convert Vertex Tool. Now click on the key frame that is having the issue. This will change the spatial interpolation of that key frame back to linear and solve this issue. 23. Separate Position Data: Sometimes when you are creating your AFTEREFFECTS project, you need to have all the control over certain layers. That after effects, will give you one such way. That, after effects helps with this is by allowing you to separate your position attributes into their own layers that you can animate. This works the same for both your three D camera as well as for any three D layer. Simply expand your transformed properties. Right click on position. Select separate dimensions. This now has different attributes for the X Y and Z properties that you can animate and set key frames for separate from one another. 24. Wiggle Expression: achieving realism and after effects is what we all try to attain as motion graphics designers to help with this. Sometimes we want to give our work that handheld look. But let's face it, the idea of hand animating a bunch of key frames to give it that look is usually quite daunting and time consuming. The wiggle expression solves that problem for us. If you all click on a PC or option, click on a Mac on the stopwatch for the position. Property of the camera. This allows you to begin entering expressions to control the camera with math instead of key frames. Simply type wiggle parentheses, five comma, five parentheses and hit Enter. Now we see that without any key frames at all, the camera is moving in a random fashion. The first number controls the amount of times per second that the wiggle expression needs to change course, and the second number controls the maximum amount of pixels. It can travel when it does, so you can experiment with these numbers until you get the look that you want for your aftereffects project 25. Class Project: Okay, Now that you have a good understanding of the three d camera, let's put that knowledge to good use. I have a project for you to work on. That should utilize a good portion of the three D cameras capabilities, create a three D video made up from photos of your family and or friends. You may include Aziz many photos, as you wish, but no less than five. You must use a combination of both text and photos. You must use depth of field and you must use a no to control the movement of one of your cameras at some point in your camp. I am very interested to hear how this comes out, so feel free to send me a link to your finished work.