Rig Removal and Compositing Basics in After Effects
Check out this video tutorial demonstrating how to levitate an object using After Effects wizardry. In the process you’ll learn fundamental compositing techniques such as rig removal and keying.
Interested in learning fundamental compositing techniques in After Effects? This video tutorial by Zach King (of FinalCutKing.com) shows you how to ‘magically’ levitate objects in your videos using the tools in AE. The techniques used in the video can be applied to any After Effects compositing project – really useful info to know.
In the video Zach levitates a coffee cup using his hands (before the cup comes crashing to the ground). For a short, simple clip there is actually quite a bit of compositing necessary to pull off this effect.
To achieve a natural floating effect he first dangled the coffee cup from a string on a blue screen background. After Effects rig removal techniques are used to remove the string from the final shot – first by tracking the motion and then keying out the blue screen background using AE’s built-in Keylight tool.
Next you’ll see how to adjust the scale of the foreground image (cup) and keyframe natural looking motion for the levitation. This is an easy to understand simple demonstration of After Effects techniques that can be applied to much more complicated compositing projects. Thanks for sharing Zach!
For more free tutorials and to download the project footage for this exercise check out FinalCutKing.com (FCP & Motion)
