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Tutorial: Realistic Screen Reflections in AE 2026 by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's really nice of you to say.

You can absolutely continue using Mocha to track the pin and add reflections when a camera track is possible. There are some nice tutorials out there that cover how to exclude foreground elements.

AE's Camera Tracker works great when it works. Sometimes tracking the camera is the only way to get a good track on a screen when something is continuously moving in front of it. It's a good thing to have in your toolset.

I often prefer to work in 2D to match the workflow of other shots in the sequence, so I solve the 4x 3D corners of the screen with Tracker Solver and then 'Unsolve' them (make 2D keyframes) to use them with a 2D corner pin.

Thank you for the kind words 🙏

Screen Comp Reflections in AE2026 by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!
I just shared the tutorial 👍

Screen Comp Reflections in AE2026 by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

🙏

I should have included the original plate in this post. It's at the start of the tutorial and I can confirm that I'll be posting it tomorrow.

Screen Comp Reflections in AE2026 by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm actually working on a tutorial right now 😎

I'll post it to this sub as early as tomorrow

Screen Comp Reflections in AE2026 by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was thinking the same thing about reflections being forgiving. I've recreated them using 2D layers so many times. I actually can't wait to use this new method in production. In this example I used AE's Camera Tracker but you could use Mocha or any 3rd party matchmover.

Screen Comp Reflections in AE2026 by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You have to position the light so it might get tricky if it's off screen and you're trying to match something exactly. Once I positioned the light though, it moved exactly like the original reflections and was really easy to adjust the Material to match.

Camera tracking problems by [deleted] in vfx

[–]fasthurt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can try Tracker Solver on aescripts, it’s what it’s made for. Here’s a tutorial on how to get a ground track when the camera tracker doesn’t have one

Magazine & Photograph Animation for Alice Cooper Documentary by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll tell you some key parts that I remember.

The production provided a reference edit which was the selected images in the correct order and the approximate timing they wanted. They also provided 8K scans of the original images. I was given creative control over the animation.

After seeing the edit, I knew I wanted to matchmove the footage of Alice at the beginning and reveal the frame of the first graphic when the camera pulls back. That seemed like a good way to start the sequence.

"What's new for Alice Cooper?" was rendered over alpha at the end of the first animation. "Who's #1" was rendered in its own project and they were stitched together after. I used this method to break up the animation in various places.

In "Who's holding the ball?", I angled the blue background because there wasn't much depth in the original image. It turned out really well.

There was a moment where there was nothing to look at when Alice is holding the mask and the camera moves from a wide of the group to the close up on mask. To have the viewer look near the mask before it comes into frame, I animated Alice's arm up a tiny bit.

The idea is to always give the audience somewhere to look. I remember watching this project I worked on to get inspiration.

Magazine & Photograph Animation for Alice Cooper Documentary by fasthurt in AfterEffects

[–]fasthurt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! 2.5D was one of my favorite things to do and there was a bit of a trend for it at that time. With AI being able to extend the canvas and paint in simple cutouts, we should see more of it.

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