Soar into After Results and discover ways to create stunning cinematic results on any footage. Find out about depth, texture, and motivation, and uncover the right way to create new lighting or improve the prevailing lighting.
Watch the Full Course on Cinematic Lighting in After Results
Which facet of cinematic lighting do you wish to study? Soar straight to the part that pursuits you essentially the most:
What You may Be taught
- How you can create depth and texture with lighting
- Motivated vs. non-motivated gentle
- Creating texture utilizing After Results animation presets
- Relighting a scene in After Results
- Creating volumetric lighting in After Results
About Your Teacher
I am a multi-skilled content material creator with a background in business filmmaking. I’ve labored as a Director, DoP, Producer, Editor, and Artistic Director throughout tv commercials, characteristic movies, and large-scale company video occasions. I deliver this expertise to Tuts+ by creating post-production and filmmaking content material for the Envato Tuts+ YouTube Channel.
1. Introduction to Cinematic Lighting
On this first a part of the course, I will clarify what the course covers and what you’ll be able to anticipate to study. I will give a fast overview of all of the chapters within the course and the important thing abilities you may choose up.
If you wish to comply with alongside, click on the hyperlink under to obtain all of the supply information and different belongings used within the course.
1.1 What Do the Gaffer and Cinematographer Do on Set?
If you’re working in post-production, you may have to know the completely different roles of the movie crew on set, in order that when you have to make adjustments, you perceive who to speak to.
The gaffer is the top of the lighting division and works instantly with the cinematographer, also referred to as the director of images (DOP).
On this lesson, I’m going by precisely what these two individuals do on set, in addition to protecting a variety of different necessary roles and explaining the hierarchy inside every division.
2. What Makes an Picture Cinematic?
On this course, we’ll take a look at the three fundamentals of cinematic lighting:
- Depth
- Texture
- Motivation
This primary lesson is all about depth.
“Depth is about creating the phantasm of a three-dimensional house within the 2D picture introduced to us.”
An effective way of making depth in cinematography is by utilizing a shallow depth of discipline. That is when the foreground and background parts are blurred out, leaving the topic sharply in focus. Use the thumbnails under the picture to match the way it seems with and with out a shallow depth of discipline.
Watch the video to discover ways to create depth of discipline in cinematography. Then within the subsequent lesson, we’ll see how one can create depth in After Results.
2.1 How you can Create Depth in After Results
Watch video lesson (14 mins) ↗
On this lesson, we’ll take a look at the right way to create depth in After Results. I will take you thru all of the settings, step-by-step, utilizing some pattern footage:
I will present you the right way to add depth by bringing the girl into full focus and blurring out the person and among the background parts. We’ll do that by creating some masks, including a Gaussian Blur to the foreground and background, and cropping the picture to take away among the superfluous objects. We’ll additionally add a colour grade and do some fundamental colour correction.
This video exhibits you intimately the right way to use the Pen Software to create masks and apply results to particular areas of the picture.
You may additionally study so much about working with the Colour settings in After Results:
The end result might be footage that actually makes the girl the focal point. Right here it’s with all the consequences utilized:
2.2 How you can Create a “Soiled Foreground”
Now let us take a look at one other approach for creating depth in After Results: the “soiled foreground”.
A unclean foreground means having gentle, out-of-focus parts within the foreground of the shot—one other wonderful means of making depth!
Here is the footage we’ll work with this time. It is a good shot of a girl throwing an apple within the air, however there’s a number of empty house by the window on the left.
We will make it look extra attention-grabbing by downloading some 3D elements from Envato Parts and positioning them within the body.
Explore 3D Assets on Envato Elements
On this case, we’ll add a potted plant and a espresso machine:
After which we’ll place them in a practical method and apply a Gaussian Blur and different results to create a grimy foreground.
However wait! When the digital camera tracks throughout the scene, will not the plant and low machine keep in place? We will repair that by including Movement Monitoring. Merely go to your layer and right-click > Monitor & Stabilize > Monitor Movement. I will present you the right way to do movement monitoring in After Results on this video, in order that every thing seems very practical.
3. What Does Texture Imply When Speaking About Mild?
On this chapter, we’ll take a look at the second of our three parts of cinematic lighting: texture. I will begin by explaining what texture is.
“Texture is possibly not one thing you affiliate with gentle, however there’s actually a solution to create texture with gentle—in truth, it is typically concerning the absence of sunshine, i.e. shadows.”
In motion pictures, cinematographers typically use dappled gentle or attention-grabbing shadows to create texture on an in any other case clean wall. Listed below are some examples:
“A motivated gentle supply is one which has a logical place inside the world of the topic or object being captured.”
For instance, the sunshine may very well be coming from a window, a lamp, an illuminated display, or inside room lighting. These gentle sources do not essentially have to be proven within the shot, however the viewer ought to consider that the sunshine is coming from a sensible lamp, i.e. a lightweight supply that is an actual a part of the scene. Listed below are some examples:
Unmotivated gentle, then again, is lighting that’s purely there for illumination, and there isn’t any sensible cause for the sunshine to be falling the way in which it’s.
4.1 Relighting a Scene in After Results
Watch video lesson (22 mins) ↗
Now let us take a look at the right way to relight a scene in After Results.
How you can Relight a Scene
1
Analyze the Current Footage
Perceive the motivated and unmotivated gentle sources, and determine the right way to enhance them.
2
Add New Lights
You may add new lights by right-clicking and going to New > Mild.
3
Work With the Mild Settings
You may select between Parallel, Spot, Level, and Ambient lights, and you may tweak much more settings too. We’ll take a look at all of that on this video.
4
Create Masks
Use the Pen Software to create masks to use lighting results to explicit areas of the scene.
That is only a fast overview—there are a great deal of subtle instruments you should use in After Results to regulate the precise sort and route of the lighting.
We’ll undergo all of them on this video, so comply with alongside to study every thing you have to know!
4.2 How you can Create Shadows With Solids and Masks
Now let’s examine the right way to create shadows to make a scene extra dramatic and provides it a cinematic look. On this instance, we’re taking some footage with a plain white background and including shadows to provide extra of a way of directional gentle and add some visible curiosity.
We’ll do that by including Solids and utilizing some Masks in After Results, together with some Feathering, Opacity, and Movement Monitoring.
5. Clear Plates! How you can Mild Your Scenes on a Finances
On this part of the course, we’ll discuss clear plates.
A clear plate is a shot with the topic and any lighting parts eliminated, in order that solely the background stays.
You can too seize a number of clear plates at completely different publicity settings to be able to mix them later in After Results.
“It is value taking the additional effort and time to seize a clear plate of your shot as a way to use this to your benefit in post-production.”
“Volumetric lighting is the rays of sunshine that we would see coming by a window, typically referred to in cinematography as ‘god rays’ or ‘gentle beams’.”
6.1 Creating Volumetric Lighting in After Results
Watch video lesson (13 mins) ↗
OK, for the ultimate a part of this cinematic lighting tutorial, let us take a look at creating volumetric lighting in After Results.
How you can Create Volumetric Lighting
1
Use a Mild Ray Preset
Go to the Results & Presets panel and select CC Mild Rays.
2
Alter the Brightness and Distinction
Deliver the brightness down and the distinction as much as intensify the sunshine rays.
3
Add a Lens Flare
Go to the Results & Presets panel and select Lens Flare.
4
Add a Stable
Simply right-click and select New > Stable to create a strong form that you should use as a lightweight beam.
5
Alter the Settings
You may have to make a number of changes to the settings to make the scene look practical. I will stroll you thru that within the video.
7. The Finish: Thanks So A lot for Watching!
We have made it to the tip of the course. On this last quick video, I will wrap issues up and discuss what you’ll be able to study subsequent.
Be taught Extra About Adobe After Results
We’ve a lot extra movies that will help you study extra about After Results. So should you loved this one, you should definitely take a look at these subsequent:
We even have a whole bunch of free After Effects tutorials right here on Envato Tuts+. Here is a variety to get you began:
