Discover how to use 3D camera tracking in Adobe After Effects to insert text and graphics into your video footage with this comprehensive tutorial from Noble Desktop. Learn how to set up the tracking in your project, insert personalized graphics and texts, and use the Capture Shadows effect to create realistic shadows.
Key Insights
- Noble Desktop's tutorial provides an easy way to insert graphics and text into your footage using 3D Camera Tracking.
- The tutorial covers how to insert text with the tracker, which includes steps like setting the footage at 100% scale, tracking and stabilizing the footage, and creating a solid and camera among other steps.
- The tutorial guides you to create shadows by selecting a track point near the text, creating a shadow catcher and light, and adjusting light settings to give the graphics a realistic feel.
- The video transcription provides a step-by-step explanation of the entire process, making it easier for beginners to understand.
- 3D camera tracking is a popular technique used in ads and infographics, making it an important skill for those interested in these fields.
- Apart from inserting text, the tutorial also delves into how you can use this technique to insert signage into scenes or other pieces of footage in video content.
3D Camera Tracker Workflow
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Apply 3D Camera Tracker
Effect > Perspective > 3D Camera Tracker on the footage.
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Wait for Analysis
AE analyzes track points across the footage — takes a moment.
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Pick Track Points
Right-click solid surfaces with multiple track points.
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Create Element
Right-click > Create Solid and Camera; or Text and Camera.
Want an easy way to insert graphics and text into your footage? Learn how in this 3D Camera Tracking tutorial from Noble Desktop.
Inserting Text with the Tracker
- Make sure the footage is at 100% Scale.
- Right-click the footage and go to Track & Stabilize > Camera Tracking.
- Wait for the footage to be analyzed.
- In the Effects & Presets, change Track Point Size to 200.
- Right-click on any of the points, preferably on an upward-facing plane.
- Click on Create Solid and Camera.
- Right-click on the new Solid layer.
- Create a Precomp.
- Name it Text 1.
- Double-click on Text 1 to go inside it.
- Delete the Solid layer.
- Use the Text tool to write out some text.
- Navigate to the main Comp by clicking on the footage name in the Project window.
- If needed, resize Text 1 using the Scale tool.
- Repeat Steps 5-15 to create two more text graphics.
Creating Shadows
- On the footage layer, right-click on a track point near Text 1.
- Click Create Shadow Catcher and Light.
- Toggle open Light settings.
- Change Intensity to 900.
- Increase the Radius until it lights up the other graphics.
Video Transcription
Hi guys, this is Tziporah Zions for Noble Desktop. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to use 3D camera tracking in Adobe After Effects. First, I'll show you how to set up the tracking in your project. Then I'll take you through putting your own graphics and text inside the scene. Once that's done, we're going to use a Shadow Catcher effect along with some positioning to create some shadows.
Here's what the project looks like when it's done. You've probably seen this technique done before — it's very popular in ads and infographics. It's useful for dropping information about whatever is being displayed in the video. With some shadows and general lighting, it's also useful for inserting footage to cover up anything within the scene or to outright replace other graphics.
For this project, we're going to be using this footage of some desert park b-roll, and you can find these files in the video description below. Let's get started. As you can see, I have my composition right here, and my footage fits to my composition at 100% scale.
If the scale is off, this effect won't work. So on your footage, right-click and go to Track & Stabilize > Track Camera. Give it a moment — it's going to analyze everything. Now that's done, let's go to the Effect Controls and down to Track Point Size. You'll see all these little points here.
These are track points, and they serve as anchors where we can attach graphics to place them within the scene. I'm going to make them as big as possible — maybe not that big, but 200 ought to do it. As you can see, you can move your mouse over any of these points, and that will create a plane we want to attach stuff to.
I want a forward-facing plane right here. All right, click on those. Right-click and I want to create a solid. I'm going to repeat that with two other points in the scene. With these three solids, we're going to right-click on any of them and pre-comp them.
I'll repeat that with the other two. This lets us replace the graphics within each pre-comp. Double-click to go into Text 1 and delete that solid. We're going to make a new text layer — right-click here, New > Text — and I'm going to type in something about this place. I'll call it Garden of the Southwest.
I'll break it into two lines so it looks right. I'm going to do a little typesetting — we'll go to Effects and Presets and add a Typewriter effect. Drag that onto our text. You can see it typewriters on, but I'm going to select this layer and bring the keyframes closer together so it types on quickly.
Let's go back to our composition. You can see we replaced the graphic with a graphic of our own. I'm going to repeat these steps with Text 2 and Text 3. I'll skip ahead to that. The graphics are pretty small, so I'm going to select them.
I'll hit S for Scale and scale them up, and repeat that for Text 3. Now I'll show you how to make a shadow for this. Go back to the footage layer and over to the track points — if you don't see them, adjust their size and they'll become visible.
I'll go to where I have my first graphic and click on a plane closest to it. Right-click and Create Shadow Catcher and Light. That creates a strong light and shadow for the graphic, but I'm going to adjust the light a little. I'll open Light Options and bring the intensity up to around 900 so it also reaches the other graphics.
It's OK as a point light — check this out. Scrub the timeline backward. With this light — and I renamed my shadow catcher SC 1 — you can see it creates a realistic shadow underneath the text.
I've gone ahead and repeated it with the other two graphics. As you can see, they're writing themselves on. This one is a little harder to see because it's kind of buried in the preexisting shadow, but you can see it under the word. The shadow catcher creates a shadow and a light that falls along your own graphic.
You can use this technique to insert signage into scenes or even other pieces of footage — think of a video within a video, like a TV screen or a video game console. Try it for infographics, writing your own custom graphics on plain footage. That's all for this tutorial — I hope you enjoyed learning how to use this tracking effect in Adobe After Effects.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future tutorials, let us know in the comments. This has been Tziporah Zions for Noble Desktop.
Video Transcription:
Full Video Transcript
Hey guys, this is Super Zyons from Noble Desktop, and in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to use 3D camera tracking in Adobe After Effects. I'm first going to show you how to set up the tracking in a project, then I'll take you through putting your own graphics and text inside the scene. Once that's done, finally we're going to be using a shadow catcher effect with some positioning to create some shadows.
Project Overview and Use Cases
Here's what the project looks like when it's done. You've probably seen this technique done before—it's very popular in ads and infographics. It's very useful for dropping information about whatever is being displayed in the video. With some shadows and general lighting, it's also useful for inserting footage to cover up anything within a scene or just to outright replace other graphics.
For this project, you can see we're going to be using this footage of some desert park brush, and that's about it for external assets. You can find these files down below in the video description. So let's get started.
Setting Up 3D Camera Tracking
As you can see, I have my composition right here. My footage fits to my composition—it's scaled to 100. If the scale is off, this effect won't work. Select your footage, right-click, go to Track and Stabilize, and hit Track Camera. Give it a moment; it's going to have to analyze everything.
Now that's done, let's go over to Effects and Controls and go down here to Track Point Size. You see all these little points here—these are track points, and these are going to serve as kind of like the anchors to where we can attach different graphics to place them within the scene. I'm going to make them as big as possible—maybe not that big, but I think 200 ought to do it for what I need.
Creating Anchor Points and Solids
As you can see, you can move your mouse over any of these little points, and that will create a plane that we want to attach stuff to. I want a bit of a forward-facing plane right here. I click on those, right-click, and I want to create a solid. I'm going to repeat that with two other points in the scene.
These three solids—we're then going to right-click on any of these solids and pre-comp them. I'll repeat that with the other two. This is so we can replace the graphics within this precomp.
Adding Text and Graphics
Double-click to go within Text 1, delete that solid, and we're going to make a new text layer here. I'm going to right-click here, New > Text, and I'm going to type in something about this place. I'm going to call it—there's a garden in the Southwest of America called Garden of the Southwest. I'm just going to break it a little bit so it looks like that.
I'm going to do a little bit of typesetting, so we're going to go to Effects and Presets over here and put in "typewriter." Drag that onto our text over here. Now you can see that it typewriters on, but I'm going to select this layer, hit U, and actually bring these keyframes closer together so it types on pretty quickly.
Now let's go back to our main composition over here, and you can see that we've replaced this graphic with a graphic of our own. I'm going to repeat these steps with Text 2 and Text 3, so I'll skip ahead to that. Now we have other graphics here, but they're pretty small, so I'm going to select them, hit S for scale, and honestly just scale it up. I'm going to repeat that for Text 3.
Creating Realistic Shadows
Now I'm going to show you how to make a shadow for this. Go back to this layer, the pathway or the footage. I'm going to go over to my track points over here—if you don't see them, you can adjust the size and they'll become visible. I'm going to go over here to where I have my first graphic, and what I'm going to be doing is clicking on a plane that is closest to my graphic over here. I'm going to right-click and create Shadow Catcher and Light.
What that does is create a realistic light and shadow for my graphic. I'm just going to adjust the light here a little bit. I'm going to open up Light Options and just bring up the intensity to maybe like 900—that way it can also touch the other graphics over here. The radius I think is okay, and it's okay as a point light.
Check this out—I'll scrub my timeline backwards so you can see it. Now you can see with this light, and I've renamed my shadow catcher SC1, it creates a realistic shadow underneath the text over here. I've gone ahead and actually repeated with the other two graphics. As you can see, they're writing themselves on. This one's a little harder to see because it's kind of buried already in the pre-existing shadow here, but you can see it under the word "creosote." The shadow catcher creates a shadow and a light that follows along your own graphic.
Additional Applications and Closing
So that's that. You can use this technique to insert signage into scenes, even other pieces of footage into your main video—like a TV screen or a video game console. Try doing this with infographics, writing your own custom graphics, or still playing footage.
That's all for this tutorial. I hope you've enjoyed learning how to use this tracking effect in Adobe After Effects. If you have any questions or suggestions for future tutorials, let us know in the comments. If you have any projects that you're working on, let us know. This has been Super Zyons for Noble Desktop.
