The Most Insane Zach King Effect is finally cracked! (and it’s actually easy)

Published on August 5, 2022

Adobe After Effects Tutorials

Editing Magic, Optical Illusion, Zach King

Editing Magic

We all know that Zach is the King of editing illusions, that each time blow our mind. And we must say that his illusions get harder and harder to recreate these days. They are just getting too good! Like one of his newer ones where a car morphs into a carriage. The execution is so perfect that we can’t seem to figure out how to recreate it.

Now Zach also has this perspective illusion technique he often uses. Where everything seems perfectly normal at first, but once the camera moves the main subject sticks to the ground and gets stretched. It’s a form of project mapping.

Forced Perspective

Now there are a couple of ways to achieve a forced perspective illusion. You have the standard one where you place one talent close to the camera and another far away. Making one really big and one smaller. This technique was also used in the movie Lord of the Rings.

Now another way is to use optical illusion attributes to force perspective. Like in one of Zach’s videos he is sitting on a chair. But the chair is actually a bench placed in a certain way to hide parts of that bench. But it’s revealed when the camera moves.

Now one other way to do a forced perspective is the way we are showing today in our After Effects Tutorial. We are going to create a scene where everything seems normal. But the moment we move the camera, our talent will freeze and stick to the ground. Plus the movement of the camera will completely stretch and warp our talent.

Storyblocks

Big thanks to Storyblocks for the support on this video. Their community driven library always help us to find something perfect every VFX shot. They really help us to bring our Visual effects to life, without compromising on anything.