3D Camera Tracking In Adobe After Effects

3D camera tracking is so much fun! It allows you to place any object into a video clip as if it were there physically when the footage was shot. It seems like a really complicated subject, but After Effects has a really powerful camera tracker that can make it a completely painless process.

In this class I’ll teach you how to shoot your own footage and what to look out for to get a good track. Then we’ll go over using the 3D Camera Tracker in-depth in After Effects. I’ll cover lots of different issues that you might run into when tracking footage. You’ll learn how to place an object onto a flat surface, insert a graphic into any part of your scene, and even how to composite 3D objects through Cinema 4D Lite realistically.

This is the second part of a collaborative class series with my brother Aaron. In his class, Cinema 4D Basics: Model & Animate A 3D Robot, you’ll learn how to create your very own customized robot. I’ll then show you how to use that robot as the main object to track into your footage in this class.

You’ll need After Effects CC or higher to use Cinema 4D Lite and the Cineware plguin. If you have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you have acces to Cinema 4D Lite.

If you’re not interested in learning Cinema 4D, you can still take this class. All of the principles of 3D Camera Tracking are universal, regardless of what you’re tracking into any footage. So if you want to skip around the Cinema 4D sections and just follow along with your own project, that’s completely acceptable.

3D Camera Tracking is a BIG topic, plus we’re going to spend a good amount of time in Cinema 4D Lite, so there is a whole lot to take in. 3D Camera Tracking doesn’t really limit what you can put into your scene; the biggest limitation is based on the type of footage you’re trying to track.