Easy Camera Mapping VFX with After Effects | Tutorial 

Wow, I found this in my "Watch Later" playlist and I had no idea that this was Wren from Corridor Digital!

Just completed. Still relevant in mid 2019! I hope Jenna is okay after falling from the sky so many times...

BTW, Instead of using "Corner pin" for align you can parent your 3D plane to the 3D Camera and make layer's orientation to [0,0,0]. And then just scale it to perfectly fit composition (for maximum presise you can use formula: ("Layer Z position" / "Camera Zoom value" * 100). Don't forget to unparent your layer after this.

You are my hero.

Wren, I'm reminded of an old saying. "Those who cant do, teach". That saying is completely disproven thanks to you. You've proven that not only can you walk the walk, but you still spend the time and effort to teach everyone else. They have a word for people like you. It's Master.

4 years later, I can say this video is pure gold. Thanks for taking the time and make the tutorial.

Not quite the first to say this: You are very good at making a tutorial. You are polished, interesting, and clear. Thank you for joining the VFX teachers of the internet.

I want to thank you for this tutorial. Using the methods of this tutorial I was able to remove a light panel and stand from a shot. It's such a necessary skill in modern film making, and yet was never taught in my college courses. Thanks so much for this.

I'm loving the comments about how complicated this is. This is actually AMAZING because of the simplicity involved! Guys, It's mostly just a bunch of copy/pasta pre-comp layers with tiny tweaks in between, it's not the typical layer Hell you might run into for a single shot with After Effects. This is an incredibly easy way to do something I've always seen done in stupidly complicated ways! Thanks for sharing this No more frame by frame masking nonsense.

I cannot believe you have just uploaded this! I am working on a shot as we speak inspired by your breakdown omen video to see if I can achieve the same effects as you did and I was running into some problems with creating the projection maps. Luckily I was still able to do it without the parallax effect because I didn't move forward as much as you did but it was still bothering me all day because I still wanted to get the concept down to use on future projects. Then you uploaded this beauty! :) Thank you Wren!

i kind of worked around that for a long time i think this tutorial was neat it has a few points its like connecting a few dots. can only recommend it even if you already know how to acomplish it this way was an old way ive never used because i didnt used all tricks .. this video uses a few tricks ive never thought about making the old way the actual cleaner way of doing it. will take some time of getting it into the work flow of thought process but im confidant this method will turn out to be one of the major tools for this in the future

this is one of my favorite tutorials on the internet

I haven't seen ALL the tutorials on this, that are available... but seriously, dude... this is the best of all the tutorials on this.

Great Work man, in a long time I didnt got to see a tuturial where I actually get to learn something new . Well done and thnak so much ;)

Probably my favorite VFX Artist to date simply because of his character and really simple teaching style :D

Dude, you saved my life with this on an object removal job I was doing. Appreciate all the work you do for Corridor now, I'd love to see more of this direct tutorial stuff on your channel.

"Oh hey internet" made me laugh :D

wow this is seems super complicated. just gained a whole lot of respect for VFX artists

If anyone else is having trouble, go take a look at Andrew Kramer's camera mapping tutorial. He uses the same technique, but you may pick up a few extra things. Great tutorial Wren, look forward to more!!! :D

8 years later, I love you man

What's really crazy to think about is that at the big studios they actually accomplish effects like this (more advanced ones) by having a camera attached to a machine and a computer and having the camera move through the same motion over and over while adding new live footage each pass.

Love your videos man! And this tutorial was super helpful!

omg Wren, so awesome! this is the exact effect i wanted to learn, a long side fumeFx effects too, but this one first. U rock! thank you for doing this.

My brain hurts from exploding. Thanks Wren!

This was entertaining/educational and I have no real desire to use this tutorial. Just cool to see how stuff works.

there is so much stuff i want to learn before i get too old. like glass blowing, gymnastics, parkour, and make my cat love me (irrelevant). now i got something else to add. THANKS WREN

This is amazing! I'm a novice at VFX but I've been doing projection mapping as a live VJ and I would have never thought of this. Excellent tutorial :D

Don't know if anyone is still looking at this but I had to make sure the Shadow Diffusion on my light was set to 0 pixels. Thanks Wren from 7 years ago :)

This is great info even tho I don't have any of the equipment to do it and have no interest in doing this it was still great to see how you work on the footage behind the scenes style but also very informative. Keep up the great work!!!

Do the smoke tutorial! PLEASE?!

Wow, you're so patient and very talented; wish I could do all that! I procrastinate so much, when it comes to video editing, it really does take a love for the process and incredible patience! Kudos to you! ^_^

honest i must confess u are great n talented, pls do more tutorial for a beginner like me. Godwin

Great vid Wren. Always wanted to learn projection mapping so thank you so much for this.

OMG! *_* Wren is solving two of the most common problems of VFX of ALL TIME! Camera Mapping and Rotoscoping. THANKS A BILLION!

If you hold down shift and press any of the numbers along the top row, you can have markers labeled 0 - 9 instead of only the one from the asterisk

Great tutorial, Wren! My mind was kind of blown with the whole difference matte technique.

Wow! This is awesome! You make it look so easy. If the footage was 360° panoramic footage, would you still be able to do this? To start with just masking out the camera man as they walk with a camera. Using the ground shots a few seconds before or after each frame. Then do it all in 3D. :)

in the details. when you get stuck, roll back to the beginning and start over. The other weay is to focus entirely on one set of commands

My god wren…did not expect to watch such an old video of yours for a tutorial that saves my life 🥹 thank you so much ♥️🙏🏻

Congratulations +wrenthereaper and Jenna on your wedding!

YES YES YES Finaly someone show how to do this effect!!! Thank you Wren!

This is the best AE tutorial on you tube. Could you do a more complex version showing how you used this technique on less polygonal surfaces like the bushes on your Omen Chronicles short? We would all be eternally grateful for this.

this is pretty advanced stuff.....please do more tutorials very helpful for people like is who learn everything from RU-vid.

wren your awesome. you have taught me 99% of what i know

Absolutely fantastic Wren! My method was to use 3ds max which is little more time-consuming and sometimes can't guarantee great results like this. Definitely adding this one to my tool belt! I also I learned a thing or two about making a well paced tutorial :) Thanks dude!

I just found out you had a channel, I'm so stoked to learn some new stuff

Great Tut! Hope to see more Wren. Honestly was on the level of videocopilot, from the effect to the walk through commentary!

Great tutorial!! I have searched for such a tut for months now! So, thank you soo much!

thanks for the tutorial! this comes in handy especially when trying to paint out tracking markers for compositing or camera mapping.

This was exactly what i was looking for, and i thought... hm, mayve wren from corridor has sth like this on his own channel, and here it is... Thanks a lot!

This was a great tutorial! One point though. You need to have that light setting set to point. I had it set to spot and it didn't work. Thank you so much for teaching us! (and the smoke tutorial would be soo nice) :)

This is a fantastic trick for easy projection mapping. Thanks, Wren!

The very last thing you said solved my problem. Such a good tutorial.

I was just about to attempt this in 3ds Max which Im not as fluent in....Then you take Andrew Kramers Tutorial and amped it up! Thanks dude!!!!!!

Thanks so much for this Wren. I'm just starting to learn vfx and post work and this looks to be an incredibly useful tool.

One word for this. EPIC.

Aren't you a freakin hero?! This is INCREDIBLE!!!!

I noticed a mistake that I had. And after looking at your product I had this problem too, the bush on the right side was small than large due to masking over. so make sure to pay attention to that when practicing guys! Go the extra mile, little details matter.

For those of you getting a blurry image projected on the wall and ground please note the settings of the light source: It must be a Point Light, Color must be white, Intensity must be 100%, Falloff must be set to None, Cast Shadows needs to be on, Shadow Darkness must be 100% and Shadow Diffusion must be Zero. | The last part diffusion set to zero is the most critical.

Very interesting to see 'behind the scenes'. Thanks for showing us some of your magic!

Still a relevant video, but dumb question. I have a shot that pulls out instead of pushing in and I can't seem to wrap my head around how to do this process but reverse it

Fantastic Tutorial. Sent here by film riot, and very glad i was. Subscribed

Worked at first try with my own composition. Helped a lot. Thank you.

This is great!! You should continue doing tutorials. Very well explained and fun to follow. Looking forward to trying out this effect!

Dude! Till now, mind mind was sooo totally blown by the how u hid them in the video till now! Well that's not try, it's sill sweet. But my friend and I are pretty good with after effects and animation programs, but with this we had no clue. We literally spent like a week trying to recreate a shot like yours where the people were in it, and without using a second camera. Thx so much and we were just wondering if you could make a tutorial for how you made the smoke and stuff. We have a way by using a shockwave effect and just rescaling it with overlays and stuff but we're not sure that it's the most efficient way of doing it. Anyways, thanks so much for the tutorial and congrats on 150k subs, u really earned them :D c ya

Awesome tutorial! I remember watching your Fireball tutorial on AE Tuts+ a couple years ago when I was just getting into AE :D

Ummm... fricken awesome!!!! Would love a tutorial on your smoke and spark effects to, if you would be so inclined! :D

Nice tut man, you are actually entertaining

Haha that's amazing, this is the greatest thing I've learnt in AE, thanks Wren.

When doing all that fancy light projection and stuff, couldn’t you have just created null objects and tracked masks of the background to those points in 3d?

BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

great tutorial ! I just thought Camera Mapping only apply for changing 2D picture into 3D movie, now you make me think again.

I really hope one day you make a tutorial this good something really really advanced like all the smoke effects ya did

This is fantastic. Awesome tutorial!

One hint: If Falloff on the light is activated the projection doesn't work. I listen to close to "all these settings doesn't matter.." and wonder why it doesn't work. So for people with "empty" (color) walls: Check your Light Falloff. :-)

Hey its too cool but I am waiting for the fume fx breakdown the way which you did in Omen chronicles. And I m very glad to thank you for this amazing video you are awesome bro......

Wren you legend, this saves so much time!

Great Tutorial. More like this would be awesome. Good Job Wren!

This is what I wanted to learn! thank you so much

It sounds like he's punching his key board when he types. Thanks for the tutorial, super helpful!

keep up your good tutorials. you will big on youtube, one day.

Awesome! Thanks for this. There's so many ways this technique can be utilized. Subscribing and binge watching haha

Great tutorial Wren!

Oh my gosh yes!! Great tutorial Wren!

Hey man cool tut. really helpful, and I love the Omen Chronicles really awesome video. I'm working on a series and was wondering if you could do a tut on how you did the smoke effects I'm trying to do an effect something similar to that and that would be a great help.

Good mapping tutorial, but wouldnt this be a lot easier with Mocha? Seems like a lot of work for an easy shot like this. Then again, every shot is different.

Hey, Wren, (new viewer here) did you work on video game high school or with rocketjump at some point because i think i remember seeing you in some of the bts's and stuff

recommending me after 6 years

thank you! i've been wanting this tutorial for a long time :3

Please do more of these tutorials! I like the way you present your tutorials and they are really helpful! What i really would like to see is, how you import your 3D Tracking shots from After effects into 3Dsmax and build up your scenes etc. When I import my 3D Tracking data into 3Dsmax i get the issue that my camera gets a wrong focal lenght which. Can you tell me how to solve this problem? Just correct the focal lenght or is this just wrong?

This is awesome. Im not new to AE but your techniques confused me. Good job brother!

Please make a smoke tutorial too

Great video, the menu works great

Excellent work, as usual!

Thank you very much. Intresting techinque and very useful.

Don't know if I would call this "projection" mapping. That would imply you're using an image to design something that will be displayed (or projected) onto a surface from a projector later, like in concerts or stadium floors. Tomato/Tomahto/Terminology. Good video though.

Dear god I needed this

Whoa... Okay... Might try this eventually...

You make it look so easy!! I can't even get my green screen chroma key working properly!! lol

Dw bro ADHD helps out so much with soft soft i find. day dreaming always gives new ideas so when i snap back i got that vision ready