2D To 3D Photo Technique Using After Effects
I think this all started from me not being satisfied... I'm too A.D.D. I can't JUST take pictures or JUST shoot videos... I have to do it all! I love special effects and devote hours every day to practicing, watching tutorials and coming up with different methods and ways of creating digital effects... SO, recently I have been experimenting and thinking about different creative ways to turn my photos into interesting videos using Adobe PhotoShop, After Effects and Premiere. What I came up with is a little more in depth different twist on the whole 2d to 3d concept. I start off with a concept, shoot the image, retouch it until it is perfect in my eyes then I separate the subjects into different layers and create a displacement map based off of painted luminosity in photoshop. I then import everything into After Effects as a PSD sequence and arrange the layer according to their respective depth in 3d space. I use the camera tool and keyframe motion, depth of field and other natural elements of motion to gain a realistic parallax motion effect, I then use the puppet to to add subtle movements such as facial expressions, trees blowing in the wind, people walking etc... Then I use the displacement map that I created in photoshop to give an even deeper 3d feel across the entire image. Finally I add light, flares, color correction and video grain. Honestly the whole process is extremely time consuming... From start to finish it could take days. Separating the layers and creating the motion and details in After Effects usually take a few hours in itself, so add in actually shooting the images and retouching... I don't even want to think about how much time has gone into making these.