Replying to Special effects (learning and teaching)

I know theres allready some threads in M&A about specific effects, but I think it would be cool to have a place where you can learn and teach people about all sorts of different cool effects


Courtesy of Newschoolers.com

I just did this last night, its turning a still frame into 2.5D
How I did it:
First I imported the clip I wanted to use into Adobe After Effects, and found the frame that I wanted to use. I went to composition; save frame as; photoshop layers
Then I opened up the photoshop file in CS5, but anything under that will work fine, it will just takes more time. You eventually need to make a multiple layer photoshop file with each /object/person/thing you want to move as its own layer.
For my video I had two layers, the skier and the background. In the background layer I used content aware fill where the skier would be so theres no empty space, but on photoshop CS4 and older you can use the clone stamp and other tools to fill in the space.
After I made the photoshop project I imported it (still as a photoshop file) into after effects and made each photoshop layer into a layer in my AE comp. To make the layers 3D and motion blur layers, click the checkbox icons next to them that say 3d and motion blur.
Now that your layers are 3D you are going to see the 3D control that looks like this (what is it actually called? I couldnt find a bigger picture then this) http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/images/AxisModeLocal_N.png
Use that controller on the Z axis (blue cone thing) and move the background backwards in 3D space, like you pushed it away from you directly in front of you. Once you do that it should much look smaller, and be surrounded by black, so just as you would in photoshop, grab a corner of it and click and drag + shift to make it fill the screen again
What you just did is move it back in 3D, so the skier is actually floating closer than the background is, and thats how the perspective effect is achieved.
After you make your background layer (or more if you have more than 2 layers, play around with it :)) sit in the right place in 3D space, make a new camera under layer; new; camera. Make the camera whatever focal lenth you want in the pop up settings and turn on depth of field for the blur effect. Then using keyframing, animate the camera zooming into the skier and then move it however else you want (I made it "swing" around the skier in my video)
then when you bring the camera back out you can pick back up where the clip ended and finish the trick with the original video.
If you want to use audio and make it slow down for the freeze frame part, import the audio into AE then drag it into your comp. drag the slider to the point where time freezes then right click on the audio in the timeline and go to time; enable time remapping. once you do that you will see a keyframe got dropped where time stops. Next place a keyframe roughly half way through the time freeze portion of the video, and then finally a keyframe at the end of the video. Shift + click on the last 2 keyframes and drag them so the one that was placed in the middle of the freeze is now at the end. That makes it so the song in between the beginning keyframe and the previously middle key gets stretched to fit the freeze portion, but only at the freeze part, because there was a key place on the end of the video to preserve it.
Other things you can add to it are a "wiggle" on the camera
Reedskis~$ suggested that to me, and it makes the camera look more natural/handheld because it shakes it a little.
What you do for a wiggle is go to the camera, click the arrow on the left side of it so the options appear and then do the same for "transform". then alt+click on the stopwatch next to position. a text box should appear next to it with the text selected, ready to type. Type in "wiggle(x number,x number)" The first number is wiggles per second and the second number is how far it wiggles (measured by pixels)
Thanks again to Reedskis~$ for the wiggle advice

thats it, if you have and questions, critiques of the video or advice post them!

what I would love to learn:

Magic flashlights light trails. I know how to mask the rider, how to motion track the hand, how to keyframe the size of the beam so it looks 3D, but what I need help with is the plugin used to make the light streaks, trapcode particular. All I can do on it is make a random mess of particles, not a nice light beam. Can anyone help me with what settings to adjust after I apply trapcode to make it look more like a beam and less like an explosion? that would be great!

If anyone tries any effects or all ready have some made post them in here! Or if you have any advice to give or need help on an effect post that too! I am a beginner but I'll help anyone if I know how to do it, because after effects takes a lot of practice.