Without a doubt, the best new feature in After Effects CS3 is the Vanishing Point Exchange with Adobe

Photoshop CS3 Extended. Creating very believable 3D movements from quite simple 2D digital photographs has to be seen to be believed, and the best thing is its a pretty easy process. However, there are a few caveats to keep an eye out for, so lets take a trip into the world of two-dee three-dee!

The specs for this project are arbitrary and will depend entirely on the original image you choose to work with (unless you follow along with the download), but requires that you have Photoshop CS3 Extended and After Effects CS3 to make use of the new Vanishing Point Exchange features.

[If youd like to download the project file used here to follow along with this tutorial (as well as preview the final effect), click here or visit http://layersmagazine.com/downloads.html. All files are for personal use only.]

STEP 1 Select High-Res Image By far the most important step in this process is selecting the right image. Choose one with clean, sharp perspective angles and edges, but also ensure the image is as high resolution as possible. The Vanishing Point Exchange (VPE) process will bend and distort sections of your image to make 3D panels, so the higher the image resolution, the less tearing youll notice, especially when reducing it down to video resolution at the end. For this tutorial, Ive chosen an image I took with a Canon EOS 5D in Brussels, which is 20481365 pixels at 240ppi.

STEVE HOLMES

STEP 2 Open Image in Vanishing Point Open your image in Photoshop CS3 Extended, then choose Filter>Vanishing Point to open the Vanishing Point dialog. Determine which area

of the image contains the most promising section to build a perspective grid from, then zoom in to 100% on that area. Here, the central wall between the two turrets on the right is the perfect area to start. Choose the Create Plane tool (C) and, beginning with the top-left corner of the wall, click on all the four corners in a clockwise direction to create the basic perspective grid angles.

STEP 3 Adjust Panel Dimensions Zoom back out so you can see the whole image, then using the Edit Plane tool (which should be selected by default when you click the fourth grid point), adjust the width and height of the new grid panel to cover the boundaries of that section (e.g., the sky, edge, etc.). Were building a 3D image from this but a simple grid is faster, and most times better because too many perspective grids in one image can yield strange results. Note: Were putting the left edge on the side of the turret where it bends backward at 45.

STEP 4 Create Angled Panel Now lets create our second panel angle. Hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) then click-and-drag the left-center control handle to the left to create a new panel in perfect perspective (at 90 to the first one). In this case, we need a 45 panel to match the edge of the turret, so hold down Option (PC: Alt) and drag the left-center control handle of the new panel to the left to rotate it to the correct angle. You can also enter 135 in the Angle field at the top of the dialog. Adjust the width again if necessary.

STEP 5 Create Third Panel Now we can reuse these techniques to finish the grid easily. Command-drag (PC: Ctrl-drag) the new left-center handle to create the third panel, which again will come in at 90 to the previous one. Rotate it back round to 135 by either Option-dragging (PC: Alt-dragging) the left handle again, or entering the value at the top of the dialog. Then adjust the width and height of the panel to be sure to cover the height of the image.

STEP 6 Create Final Panel Finally, Command-drag (PC: Ctrl-drag) the left-center handle of the last panel to the left to create the final panel at 90, which for this image is just the right angle. Again, be sure to extend the panel to reach the edge of the image, and adjust the height accordingly. Its not important that all the grids are the same height, just as long as they cover the available pixels in the image.

STEP 7 Export VPE The hard work is done! Click the rather obscure right-facing triangle at the top of the Vanishing Point dialog, to the left of Grid Size, and choose Export to After Effects CS3 (.vpe). Select your destination, but I do recommend creating a new folder and exporting into it. The VPE export doesnt create one file, but many: one VPE construction file, one 3D data file, and one image file for each of the panels you created. Naturally, its better to keep all of these in one snug location. [

STEP 8 Import VPE to After Effects Now click OK in the Vanishing Point dialog and save the file as a PSD, because the 3D grids will be saved with it in case you need them again in the future.

Now switch to After Effects CS3, create a new, empty project, then go to File>Import>Vanishing Point (.vpe). Locate the folder that you saved the VPE into, and select the file with the VPE extension (ours is Cathedral.vpe). Click OK, and youll see a new folder and composition appear in the Project panel.

STEP 9 Open Comp; Adjust Camera Double-click the new composition to open it, and press , (Comma) a couple of times to reduce the preview size to see the entire image. Looks just like the photo, doesnt it? Well, hit C on the keyboard to access the Orbit Camera tool and now drag around inside the Comp window. Thats not simply a photograph anymore! Note: This is one of those instances where an up-to-date video card with at least 256 MB VRAM and support for OpenGL 2.0 comes in very useful.

STEP 10 Keyframe Camera Movement Select the Camera in the Timeline, and press P then Shift-R to reveal its Position and Rotation properties, respectively. Making sure youre at 0 seconds in the Timeline, click the Stopwatches next to Position and Orientation to add a keyframe for each. Now drag the Time Indicator as far down the Timeline as you want the animation to take (we chose 5 seconds), then drag on the Position and Orientation values until you reach the final view angle you desire.

STEP 11 Ease Keyframes; Import Logo File Select the last two keyframes and press Shift-F9 (Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In) to ease the motion into the end. So now that we have a 2D/3D environment, we should be able to insert any new 3D items directly into the scene, right? Yes, but with care.

In After Effects, import an Illustrator file of a logo or something similar to be inserted into the scene by going to File>Import>File. Then drag the file (here, Lion of Flanders.ai) into the Timeline, and hit Option-Home (PC: Alt-Home) to ensure it starts at 0 seconds.

STEP 12 Create 3D Layer Now, under the Switches panel in the Timeline, click the 3D Layer icon for the new logo. Chances are your logo doesnt align at 0 or 90 to the part of the image you expect, such as our case with the left-edge panel. You can adjust, position, and rotate the logo to match if you like, but its probably going to take time and still not matchso lets use a workaround.

STEP 13 Duplicate and Replace Panel Delete the logo layer, then in the Timeline select the panel image you want the logo to be parallel to (such as the main left background panel here), and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it (with all its rotation and position settings). Keeping it selected, go to the Project panel, select your logo file, hold down Option (PC: Alt), and drag it directly onto the duplicated 3D panel to replace it. Youll see its top-left corner align with the old panels corner.

STEP 14 Reposition Logo; Animate Now you can click-and-drag on any of the three colored axis arrows in the Comp window to reposition the logo in a 3D space, which perfectly matches the rest of the image! Hit 0 on the keypad to render a RAM preview and youll see your logo moving in perfect perspective with your imagewhich, remember, started out as just a digital photo! And this is only the very tip of the iceberg. As I said, this is the best new feature in After Effects CS3. Believe it now? Enjoy, my friends!