VFX Techniques: Building Replacement with After Effects

Remove an unwanted building from a live-action plate and replace it with a new matte painting that is motion-tracked.

VFX Techniques with author Lee Lanier introduces common yet critical visual effects for film and television. This installment shows how to remove an unwanted building from a live-action plate and replace it with a new digital matte painting.

Learn how to track the footage with the Adobe After Effects 3D Camera Tracker, replace areas such as the sky, rotoscope moving elements such as buildings and cars, and integrate a digital matte painting so it gains appropriate shifts in perspective and scale. You'll also apply color-grading techniques and learn how to fabricate reflections. The course also covers an alternative motion-tracking workflow with the Foundry CameraTracker plugin.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Using the exercise files

1. Getting Started

• Breakdown of the final comp
• Setting up the project in After Effects

2. Using the Track Camera Feature

• Applying the 3D Camera Tracker
• Applying artwork to a tracked null
• Constructing the motion graphics
• Refining the motion graphics
• Tracking a new sky
• Tracking static foreground elements
• Tracking additional foreground elements
• Finishing tracking the foreground elements

3. Layering a Scene

• Removing an old sky
• Adding a core rotoscope
• Refining keyed edges
• Transform tracking a matte
• Restoring foreground elements

4. Using the CameraTracker Plugin

• Tracking features with the CameraTracker, from The Foundry
• Applying artwork to a tracked null
• Refining tracked artwork
• Faking reflections

5. Color Grading and Fine-Tuning

• Color grading for sunset
• Color grading matte edges
• Color grading a matte painting
• Adding motion blur and final rendering
• Looking at the final scene

Conclusion

• Next steps