In this new free video tutorial on After Effects CS6, we will focus on two main new features appeared with the version 11 of the software:

  • The new native 3D tracking tool, simple and powerful
  • The extrusion of text layer with the 3D raytracing engine (optional for this tutorial)

We will see how to make a 3D tracking on a video, directly using After Effects, without any plugins or third party software. The concept of 3D tracking is explained in the tutorial.

We will also see how to create a shadow catcher, to capture the shadows and make them appear on our videos, directly using the new effect 3D tracking. With a light corresponding to the true lighting, shadows bring realism to your compositing.

Finally, we will see how to activate the new 3D raytracing engine, to give volume to our typos, and get real 3D text directly into After Effects.

It has never been easier to integrate a 3D title in a video!

List of graphics cards certified by Adobe for GPU computing.
This article details the manipulation to use a card that is not certified, but this is to use at your own risk. This can crash your system seriously, therefore caution!