Create a magnifying glass effect

In this free video tutorial, we'll learn how to create a magnifying glass effect in After Effects, without loss of quality.

We'll start by creating our own magnifying glass design, metalized and minimalist, using shape layers. Our lens will be completely vectorial and all its elements are editable with a few clicks (colors, reflections, etc. ..).

And finally we will see how to configure our magnifying glass to display inside a zoomed version of our main composition, without loss of quality.

Caution: you must use high-quality images (above 2000px wide) or vector illustrations in order to enjoy this tutorial.

Bonus Expression

Here's a tip to make your zoomed composition moves proportionally with the magnifying glass to display the image even at the edges, without manually move the composition.

Here's the expression to add on the position property of your 100% layer. You must change the name of the layer in the first line with the one that you use for your magnifying glass, and make sure that the position of the composition are reset to its original values (eg 640.360 in a 720p composition) .

loupe=thisComp.layer("Loupe");  
big=thisLayer;  
bigS=transform.scale;  
small=thisComp;  
ratioW=(big.width/(100/bigS[0]))/small.width;  
ratioH=(big.height/(100/bigS[1]))/small.height;  
p=loupe.transform.position-[thisComp.width,thisComp.height]/2;  
value-[p[0]*ratioW,p[1]*ratioH]+p

This should work regardless of the lens size, regardless of the zoom level, and regardless of the composition size. When the lens will move on the edge of the composition, the zoomed comp will follow accordingly!