3D Track your camera movement (13 reasons why)

Published on May 4, 2018

Adobe After Effects Tutorials

13 reasons why, 3D tracking, After Effects, LG, Mannequin Challenge

Today is a special Copy Cat Friday! I know that you are thinking “Ooh my God, what are they doing now? Every Copy Cat is special!”. Well in this Copy Cat Friday we aren’t using Premiere Pro, but instead we are using After Effects. Our beloved Special Effects program and very necessary for this tutorial video. Because today we are doing something you really can’t do in Premiere Pro. And believe us, if there was even a small chance we could make it work in Premiere Pro, we would do it. So let’s put on our Visual Effects jacket, dive in the 3D planes and do some tracking. But maybe I have to tell you guys first what we are doing. Today we are recreating the effect from the announcement trailer from 13 Reasons Why. We caught the attention of this trailer through our fans, so first of all thank you for that and keep the suggestions coming!

Another topic that we have to mention is suicide. I’m sorry, I know it’s not the most fun thing to talk about. But with the series being about suicide we can’t avoid the subject. So if you are ever in a difficult place or find yourself feeling abandoned. Always remember that someone cares for you and loves you. You will be missed, always!

Now after this serious message let’s talk film again. In the trailer you can see the actors standing still with some objects moving. This is called a Cinema-graph and we recently did a video about how you can achieve this effect in Premiere Pro in a simple way. Beside this technique they also used a robotic camera arm for their camera movements, so the movement are done perfectly and can be redone multiple times. This is of course necessary for your Cinema-graph effect, where you’re going to need a empty shot and a shot with your subject. The perfectly done camera movement also comes in handy when doing your tracking in After Effects and makes it a lot easier for the software. But instead of this robotic arm we are going to use a jib for the movement. In a previous Kendrick Lamar Copy Cat video, we explained how you can recreate those smooth camera robot movements with a jib. So definitely check that out.

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