(upbeat music)
- Hello, and welcome to the 44th video
in this beginner's guide to Adobe After Effects.
In this tutorial,
I'm going to demonstrate how to easily
color enhance your video footage in After Effects.
Now, working with video you will always
want to make sure it looks the best it can.
Sometimes, when we bring video into After Effects
it can look a little flat.
Now, After Effects is really good
at color grading and adding
color enhancements to video footage.
In this video,
we are going to look back over the video presentation
we have been working on up until this point.
We are going to look at some of the video
we have placed in the video presentation so far
and use some of the helpful effects and presets
in After Effects to enhance the color and quality.
And in this video,
I'm going to demonstrate just how easy
this could be done in After Effects.
So, in this video we are going to be covering
the following topics
using the auto contrast preset,
using the edit levels preset,
and using the edit curves preset.
So, let's get into it.
So here I am where we left off in the previous episode
where we completed these five sections.
Up until this point on the project,
we have mainly been focusing on the structure
of the presentation and getting all
the animated sequences right.
Now before we start working on the last section to finish,
I want to reflect back on what we have done so far.
So let's take a look.
Now if you're watching for the first time
and wish to follow along
you can find this document in the project folder
which you can download.
Link is in the description.
The download folder comes with lots of exercise documents
we will be using on this course
that have been carefully developed
to aid your learning experience.
The folder also comes with document resources
such as videos, graphics, and images
you can use to build your first video presentation
from scratch later on in this course.
To get the full learning experience,
I recommend you get the project folder.
Download link with instructions is in the description.
With the project folder open,
click into folder S3 create the project
then click into folder 44 color enhancing footage
and open the color enhancing document.
Now if you're continuing on from the last episode,
make sure you have your document open and ready.
So with our document open, let's proceed.
So right now I have the main comp open
and we can see we have our six sections.
If I click and drag the time indicator
right back to the start
and slowly scrub along the timeline,
here we can see our intro sequence
section one which plays out
and leads nicely into section two.
We have section two with the video and typed transitions
and this leads into section three the aquarium.
Now looking at some of the video in this sequence,
it's nice but it does look a little flat in parts.
So what I want to do here is quickly enhance the video.
So to do this,
I'll double click into the aquarium composition.
Now if we look towards the bottom
of the timeline panel
we can see the video layers we placed in the comp
in a previous video.
So I'll click and drag my time indicator
towards the start of the comp
so I can see the first video in my composition panel above.
So the first video is the underwater scene
and what I want to do is make the blacks a little darker
to punch out the blues.
So I'll start by selecting the video layer
in the timeline panel.
Next, I'll come over to the right hand side
of the interface and click on the effects and presets panel.
This will reveal all the effects and presets we can use.
Now if for whatever reason you cannot see
the effects presets panel,
you can come up to window, scroll down,
and click effect and presets.
So in this panel I will come and toggle down
the color correct category
and at the top you will see three really useful presets.
Auto color, auto contrast, and auto levels.
Now we could use these to apply simple
and immediate effects to our video.
On this occasion I'm going to use the auto contrast.
So with my video selected in the timeline panel
I'll click and drag the auto contrast preset
across and out of the effects and presets panel
and onto my selected video layer.
Upon release, we will see a subtle change to the video
as the auto contrast is applied.
Now upon release we should now also see the effects controls
appear where the project panel is on the left.
In this effects controls we can see
that as well as the linear wipe transition effect
we applied earlier we now have an auto contrast effect.
Now if I come and click the effects icon,
we can turn the effect on and off
and see a before and after.
So when you apply an auto contrast,
it will apply contrast to your video
but if you want to tweak this further,
you can come up to the effects control panel
and tweak the settings.
So here I'll come down and drag the black clip
over to 5% and if I click the effects button
we can toggle it on and off
and see the before and after effect.
Now, should you tweak the effect
and feel you have overdone it or it's not to your liking,
we can come to the top of the auto contrast settings
and simply click the reset button.
That will put the settings back to what they were
at the start but right now I'm pretty happy with this
so I'll just leave it for now and move on.
So I'll drag my time indicator further right
along the timeline to see my next video.
So again I want to boost the contrast here
to make the blacks darker to make the colors pop.
So I'll select the video layer,
come over to the effects and presets panel,
and again drag the auto contrast preset out
and drop it onto my selected video layer.
Upon release I can see that has had the effect I want.
In the effects and controls panel to the left,
if I click the effects button,
we can see the before and after effect.
So moving on,
I'll drag my time indicator further along the timeline
to see my next video.
Again, I want to boost the contrast here
to make the blacks darker and make the colors pop.
So I'll select the video layer,
come over to the effects and presets panel
and again drag the auto contrast preset out
and drop it onto the selected video layer.
Upon release, I can see that has had the effect I want.
And again, in the effects and controls panel to the left
if I click the effects button
we can see the before and after effect.
So for this aquarium sequence,
I'm going to apply the auto contrast to each video layer.
So moving on,
I'll drag my time indicator further right
to my next video.
Again, I want to boost the contrast
so I'll select the video layer
come over to the effects and presets panel
and drag the auto contrast preset
onto my selected video layer.
Next, I'll drag my time indicator further right
to see my last video in the sequence.
I'll select the video layer,
come over to the effects and presets panel
and drag the auto contrast preset out
and onto the selected video layer.
Nice!
So just like that I suddenly enhanced
the contrast of each video clip in this sequence.
Overall, this makes the underwater video
look more rich and vibrant in the background.
So once I'm happy,
I can click back into the main comp tab
in the top left of my timeline panel
and I'm back to my main comp.
So I'll drag the time indicator
over the next section, the Shoreditch section,
and I can see that the videos
and images here are looking fine
so I'm not going to apply any color effects to these.
Now if I drag over to the Camden section,
I can see that there are some clips in here
that could do with a little enhancing
so I'll double click into the Camden composition
and it will open up in its own tab.
If we look towards the bottom of the timeline panel,
we can again see the video layers we placed
into the comp in a previous video.
So I'll click and drag my time indicator
towards the start of the comp
so I can see the first video in my composition panel above.
So what I want to do here
is again make the blacks a little darker
to punch out the colors.
So I'll start by selecting the video layer
in the timeline panel
and I'll come back over to the effects and presets panel
and this time instead of using
one of the auto correct presets,
I'm going to come down the panel
about three thirds of the way and select levels.
This time I'm gonna click and drag levels
out from the effects and presets panel
and drop it onto the video layer.
Now, upon release nothing will happen
because what we have to do now
is come to the effects controls
over on the left and tweak the settings.
So here, I'm going to come and focus
on the input black.
So I'll come and drag this in a little to around 15.
Next, I'll come and tweak the gamma
and push this up a little to around 1.3.
And if I come and click the effects button
for the levels effect,
we can see the before and after effect.
So using the levels has allowed me
to manually tweak the input black and gamma
to enhance the video clip.
So I'll continue to drag my time indicator
over the remaining video clips
and these are looking okay
but when I get to the fourth clip here
we can see it looks a little flat.
So I'll start by selecting the video layer
and I'll come back over to the effects and presets panel
and this time instead of using the levels preset,
I'm going to come and select curves.
This time, I'm going to click and drag curves
out from the effects and presets panel
and drop it onto my video layer.
Now, upon release nothing will happen
because we will have to now
come into the effects and controls
over on the left and tweak the settings.
Now for any of you that are familiar
with using curves in Photoshop,
you will understand how it works here.
So over in the effects and controls panel
we will see our grid and the curve.
Now I'm going to drop three points on the curve here,
one in the middle, one towards the bottom left,
and one towards the top right.
I'll start by clicking and dragging
the far right point up
and I'll drag down the far left point a little
and drag the center point up a little.
By doing that, we have boosted the colors
and made the blacks deeper.
This has created a more dynamic effect.
Now, if I come and click the effects button for curves
we can see the before and after effect.
So using the curves has allowed me to create
a more dynamic effect to the video.
Now with curves applied,
you can come into the effects controls
and change the channel.
For example, I'll click the dropdown
and change the tab to blue.
I'll click to dropdown three points
like I did a second ago,
one in the middle, one towards the bottom left
and one towards the top right.
Now if I start to click and drag these,
we can change the channel of specific colors
and change the color effect of the video.
For now though,
I only want to boost the blacks
so I'll hit the reset button at the top of the setting,
I'll make sure the tab is set back to RGB
and I'll click my three points,
one in the middle,
one towards the bottom left,
and one towards the top right.
And I'll click and drag the left one down a little,
the far right up, and the center one up just a little
again to enhance the video.
Perfect!
So looking at the next video,
this is looking okay.
So that finishes the Camden section
so now I can click back into the main comp
by clicking on the top left tab
and now I am back to my main comp.
So I'll click just after marker seven
and press end, clip the end of the workspace,
I'll drag my time indicator
back to the start of the comp
and I'll click on the resolution factor
at the bottom of the composition panel
and set this to half.
Now on this occasion,
I don't want to hear the music
so I'm going to come down and click on the second icon
on the audio layer to toggle this off.
For now, this will mute the audio layer.
But if you were following along,
I recommend you leave this on.
So with my time indicator at the start,
I'll press space bar to activate the preview.
So now I can preview
the entire video presentation in real time.
As it previews, I can see my intro
which leads into the video sections.
Now if you're following along
you should also hear the music
and see how the sections cut nicely to the music.
Also, we can now see the enhancements we have just made
to some of the video clips in the aquarium section
and the Camden section.
So this is all looking good.
So that completes the six sections.
We are now ready to move onto the last and final section
in this video presentation.
Now at this point,
if you are following along with your own document
I would recommend you save so we can continue on
in the next episode.
So what we are going to do next
is build the last section of our video presentation.
This is going to be similar to the intro section
where we used some simple 2D graphics.
In the next video,
we are going to create a simple 2D scene
consistent of graphics and type
where later I'll be showing you how to animate them.
So see you in the next video.
(upbeat music)