Layers TV: Episode 47

Corey creates some shapes in Illustrator and turns them into a motion background using After Effects.

• Open Illustrator and draw two small circles with the ellipse tool
• Use the rotate tool to create a pattern with the shapes
• Remove the stroke and keep the circle pattern white
• Jump over to After Effects and create a new composition
• Create a new background in After Effects using the new solid command and then apply a ramp and blend it with the background
• Import the circles ai file and place it in the document
• Give the layer 3D properties so you can animate them
• Animate the rotation in the timeline. Adjust the 3D settings to give the pattern some depth. Adjust the size with the scale settings
• Create a duplicate and adjust the opacity of both patterns
• Add some text and apply one of After Effect’s text effects to finish the project

Rich Harrington is back to show Corey how to use green screen technology with panorama shots in After Effects.

• Open the pano photos and use Photomerge to put them together
• Save the pano as a tiff file and bring that file into After Effects along with the green screen background footage
• Use the keylight effect to remove the green color
• Look at the screen matte to see what’s going on with the color replacement. Clip the grays and spotty colors in the matte
• Put the matted image in front of the panorama and you now have replaced the background
• Use an adjustment layer to add a photo filter to match your subject to the new background
• To learn more from Richard Harrington, visit RhedPixel.com

Contest Winner
RC and Corey have decided that the weekly contest winner from Layers TV will be announced in RC’s blog post. Remember when you submit your answer in the contact form to choose Layers Blog from the drop-down menu. Be sure to check the front page post for the name of this week’s winner and tune in to this week’s episode to find out what the contest question and prizes are.