This video is brought to you by Storyblocks Video.
[Jazz guitar music]
-Hey Yannick, catch!
-Lorenzo, catch! -Jordy, catch!
-Stop!
-We need to clean, guys…not play!
-…Okay.
[Cinecom's intro music]
Hey Guys, it's Jordy here for cinecom.net and welcome to Copy Cat Friday.
It's not the first time that we got inspiration from Dude Perfect.
Last time we threw a basketball from a large distance into the hoop.
And although some people believed that we exposed Dude Perfect, well, no worries.
What those guys do is 100% real.
The reason that we’re going to fake their trick shots
is simple because we don't have the patience, so, we use editing tricks!
But first, a big shout out to our sponsor Storyblocks video.
The number one tool that every filmmaker should have.
It's an online library packed with high quality stock clips, you can find effects,
there're title animations or logo intros,
video effects like sparks and muzzle flashes and so much more.
I can just download as much as I want from this library without additional costs,
which makes it so incredibly awesome!
I can highly recommend to check it out too,
which you can do by clicking on the first link in the description below!
[upbeat electronic music]
-Instead of helping me, Lorenzo is just filming me.
Lesson 1: never tuck the lift away before you're done with everything.
I forgot the filters.
[Music fades back in]
If you've been following us on Instagram
you know that we've been upgrading our studio lately.
We're now able to control a bunch of lights on a ceiling system through a panel.
It's all brand new, so we're still figuring out how it all works, but it's super awesome!
Anyways, to pull off the effect that you saw in the intro, you don't anything of that.
Simply place your camera on a tripod and film yourself throwing an actual box.
You can throw that box behind some other object, which will make it easier in post.
Then step away from the shot to take an empty,
and finally throw that box the place you want it to land on.
In Adobe After Effects, we're going to create a 3D model of that box.
Now don't get scared, it's actually super easy!
As we're going to create a fake 3D model,
also referred to as a 2 1/2 D element.
Here's how it goes: for starters, we need to takes photos from our original box.
You have to capture every side separately
and make sure you're at the same height as the box, so that there's no perspective.
Same goes for the lighting, make sure that it is flat.
This means no shadows and no gradations.
Now that you have shots of all of the sides of the box, it's time to open up After Effects.
Drag all the six pictures into a new composition.
Then select the layer on top and take the Rectangle Masking tool.
It's important as you need a rectangle with perfect straight lines.
Otherwise you'll have gaps in the end of the 3D box.
Okay, now that you have created your first mask on a side of the box,
you go and search for the side that is parallel
with the one you already masked out.
You can then copy the mask you already made and paste it onto the parallel side.
Normally, if you made your pictures correctly, the mask will fit perfectly.
Now do the same for the other two pair.
First create your mask on one side using the Rectangle Mask tool
and then copy and paste it to the parallel side.
If you have a perfect squared box, then you are lucky,
as you can copy and paste it 5 times.
But with a long box you have three pairs of different sides.
So you'll need to create 3 different masks.
When everything is masked out, select all the layers
and turn them into 3D layers from the layer options.
And now it's time to make your box.
With the X, Y and Z controls you can start rotating one layer 90 degrees.
Hold down the shift key while doing so to make them snap.
Then you can push the layer on the X, Y or Z axis,
depending on which side you're working on.
Do this for every layer and try to create your box again.
Never just move a layer around in that 3D space that we're working in right now.
Always use the X, Y and Z tools to do so.
If you have trouble matching the different sides,
you can set the view right here to 4 Views.
This will give you a clear look on every side of the box
and makes it much easier to match everything together.
When you're done, we're going to select all the layers,
right click and chose Pre-Compose.
Call it ‘Box’, select ‘move all attributes into the new composition’ and press OK.
Now you have a box layer in your composition.
Turn this also into a 3D layer, and enable the Star icon left to it from that 3D option.
This will help After Effect remember that it needs to take over the properties
of the layers inside that pre-comp layer.
And that is all!
Now you have yourself a nice looking 3D box,
which you can rotate and move around in the scene.
If it's all too much though, no worries!
If you're new to Adobe After Effects,
then definitely make sure to check out our beginners class.
About 86% of the students told us that the class exceeded their expectations.
Which is truly awesome!
I'll leave a link to the class in the description below.
Now, let's continue with the second half of the tutorial.
We're going to start off with the animation of the box.
Trim that layer on to the point where you throw the real box.
At that point create a keyframe for the position, scale and all the rotation axes.
Position your 3D box the same way as the real box at this point.
When that sits in place, move forward in time
and use the real box to determine the change in rotation, position and scale.
Of course, we're going to define a new path, which is to Yannick in this case.
Then move forward in time and move the box over to the next target.
If you click on the keyframe point in the composition window,
you can also pull on a lever next to it.
This allows you to create an arc in the animation.
We added a little break in the animation by just letting the box float,
but you can also just let it go directly to the final destination.
When you're done, make sure to play your animation back a couple of times
and adjust where needed.
You wanna try and make it appear as realistic as possible, of course.
Alright, now let's remove the real box.
Take your empty shot and lay it on top of the normal shot.
Disable the output of the empty shot for a moment
and then take the Pen tool and draw a mask around the area
where the real box should appear.
After that, you can enable the layer back.
You might wanna create an animation for the mask path that you've just created.
At the point where you decide to cut off the real box, you enlarge it there.
This way the real box is gone immediately,
instead that it would fade away behind the mask.
Where the box falls, it kinda works the exact same way.
You take the shot of the real box falling, place that on top of the normal shot,
take the Mask tool and draw around it.
We don't need to animate the mask this time.
Simply trim the 3D box and the real falling box,
so that you have a hard cut between them.
Do make sure that their movement matches.
And if everything went well, this is the result we already have right now.
But there's one last thing missing, which is light.
The virtual box does not reflect the light from our studio.
So we're going to have to recreate these lights in the virtual world as well.
Now, don't worry too much, we’re only going to create two lights,
which is already going to give us a natural look.
Definitely for a box that is flying through the air.
Head over to the Menu, select Layer, New and click on Light.
For the light type, chose Spot, and then change the color to white,
unless your actual light source also has a different color.
And then hit OK.
Since the biggest intensity of light comes from the top,
we're also going to place that light over there.
To do so, I'm going to change the view of the monitor again
from 1 view to 4 views.
This will give me a top, front and right view, which helps me to position the spot light
where I want it to be.
Use the axis points that we’ve seen before to put it in place.
Chances are that your box is gonna stay dark,
even though that the light does shine onto it.
So, dive into the layer's options of the light
and start off with increasing the fallout distance,
which essentially means how far the light should cast.
Increasing that should reveal your box.
Furthermore, you can also change the cone size of the light,
the feather of the edge of the light and the intensity.
Try to match those settings with the real lights from the shot.
When you're done with that, we're going to go back to the menu, Layer, New, Light.
This time, choose Ambient under Light Type
and change the color to white as well.
Then hit OK.
The ambient is going to take care for a global light.
The only thing you have to do here is change the intensity accordingly.
The spot light should be more intense than the ambient light.
And now the final touch!
Since the box is flying through the air,
I'm going to enable motion blur for the box layer by checking this box right here
and also enabling the global motion blur through this button.
Now just render it out and enjoy the result!
-Hey Yannick, catch!
-Lorenzo, catch! -Jordy, catch!
-Stop!
-We need to clean, guys…not play!
As you all know, I love to throw stuff at Yannick.
So that's why I had to make a 'Yannick, Catch!' T-shirt,
which you can find below the video.
Thank you so much for watching, thank you Storyblocks for the support
and like always:
Stay Creative!