Welcome back to another HitFilm tutorial. Today we're taking a look at how to create
a 3D scene out of a 2D picture, which you can find in the description. This effect works
in both HitFilm Pro and Express, and just a reminder we are still running our January
Sale which is 25% off storewide. Let's go ahead and get started.
We'll begin in a new composite shot with our image in the timeline. The comp has been set
to 1920 by 1080. Our picture isn't exactly those dimensions, but that's okay. To keep
track of the images we're going to make, I'll rename this first layer Foreground.
Come up and select the Freehand Mask tool. I'm going to draw a shape around the house,
to isolate it from the background. The mask for this has to be pretty exact- a rough shape
will make it obvious that it's a cutout.
There isn't really a good spot for me to end the line, so just bring it back around out
of frame. Now I'll select the Rectangular mask tool and create another shape on the
left side, overlapping the one I already made.
You might ask why I have two shapes, when I could have just done it all in one. This
is so that I can vary the feathering. Search for Feather in the bar up top. I want the
edge around the house to be more defined, so I'll keep the feather low. But for the
water mask, I want it to fade much more drastically.
With those two shapes done, I'll draw one more Ellipse mask on the right side, for the
tree. Increase the feather on this one as well.
With the foreground isolated, duplicate the layer and rename it Midground. Delete all
of the masks. For now I'll turn off the Foreground layer, so that we can see the masks we draw.
Once again, select the Freehand mask tool. I'll draw my shape around the scene, including
this mountain and treeline. Bring the mask around to close it.
Duplicate the image once more and remove the masks. This will be our background layer.
If I turn each of the layers on, you can see that we've separated the different areas.
The next step is to position each layer in 3D space. Highlight the three picture layers
and change them from 2D to 3D. This will automatically create a new Camera, or you might get a popup
asking if that's what you want to do.
The foreground layer will stay where it is. Select the midground layer and go into the
Controls panel. Under Transform, set the Position to something negative, like 500. The exact
number depends on the picture you use, and how far it should appear from the camera.
Because it's been pushed back in space, the image doesn't fill up the screen anymore.
Increase the Scale until it looks like it did before.
Now move on to the background layer, doing the same thing but increasing how far back
it is in Z space. In this case, I'll set it to -1000. Raise the Scale to bring it back
to the right size.
If I come up and select the Orbit Camera tool, I can swing around the scene. The single image
has been masked into 3 different layers, which are all sitting in 3D space. When I move the
camera, the position of these layers causes parallax, which is what happens in real life.
In the Controls panel, activate keyframes for Position. I'll have it start in one position,
and by the end of the composite it'll have moved to a different spot. You don't want
to go overboard with how much movement the camera does- too much will start to show that's
just a few flat picture layers.
For a more advanced tutorial on creating 3D scenes out of 2D pictures using projection,
check out the card onscreen. Thanks for watching and I'll see you all in the next video.