[0:00] We can use the blur effects inside After Effects in some really unexpected ways. We can use them

[0:04] to manipulate shapes to create depth to create some reactive shadows and even some cool looking

[0:10] vintage effects let's get stuck in using blur to create uniform around edges this is perfect if you

[0:15] want to round the corners of something that you've animated as a stroke or that is an unusual shape

[0:21] first we should add the blur effect now any blur will do gaussian is the safest and easiest Carl

[0:27] Friedrich Gauss would never lead as astray so let's add that to our layer and let's blur it

[0:31] by around 20 pixels which blurs out the shape but in doing so completely destroys our pointy corners

[0:37] and now we can do something a little clever by clamping down on the alpha Channel we can do

[0:41] that with a few effects but the simplest one is levels so let's add the levels effect and choose

[0:46] the alpha Channel now at the moment we have a nice soft blurred Edge but if we move in these

[0:51] triangles in this histogram towards the middle it will clamp or crush or squeeze the alpha channel

[0:58] so the pixels that are kinda transparent will become fully transparent and the pixel is kind of

[1:03] opaque will become fully opaque and once they're close enough there will be nothing in between it

[1:09] is good to leave a slight Gap here though because because if you get too close the edge just becomes

[1:13] a little too harsh and Jagged and just to just do crusty to be enjoyable so let's leave a slide Gap

[1:18] here and that's barely noticeable even at 800 and now we've got nice round corners and now we can

[1:24] increase the blurriness to increase the radius and the roundness of those Corners we might need to

[1:29] tighten up the levels a bit if we blow it a little further and we can also just whereabouts on the

[1:33] histogram these triangles meet in order to expand the edge or bring it in closer this effect is

[1:39] also really helpful for shapes like this where we might want rounded inner Corners now you can use

[1:45] a rounded cap on its stroke but the insides are still pointy and even if we play with the inner

[1:51] roundness of the shape it doesn't give us a nice consistent look so let's remove that stroke and

[1:57] paste that blur and levels effect onto the shape that blur is far too much so let's reduce that

[2:02] and move these triangles back to the middle and now we've got consistent straight lines down the

[2:06] star and a nice rounded end on the inside and the outside and that roundness will stay consistent if

[2:12] we scale it up or if we adjust the path in any way which does come in handy next is using the

[2:19] same effect stack of blurring levels but this time applied to an adjustment layer for a quick Blobby

[2:24] liquid look so let's create a new adjustment layer on top of everything and let's rename it effects

[2:29] because we always label our layers and we're going to paste on those same effects again and now when

[2:34] our layers get close to one another they kind of melt together and it's kind of gluey a little bit

[2:39] slimy but you know a nice slimy this happens again because without this levels effect the

[2:44] edges of these shapes have been softened so much and the levels effect doesn't know or care that

[2:48] they are separate shapes it will just round the edges of them both together once they are close

[2:52] enough that their blurs overlap we can push that blur really far to get some way more interesting

[2:58] Blobby results and even when we change the color of one of the shapes we get this nice gradient

[3:03] as they're kind of mixing into one another which can be kind of cool too now we can use a similar

[3:08] method to achieve a completely different look but still using the blur to degrade our image

[3:12] and then trying to salvage it back with another effect and getting some marvelous artifacts in

[3:18] the process so let's again create another adjustment layer add our gaussian blur and

[3:22] let's start by just blowing it to 5 pixels so it's just the slightest softness and now we're going to

[3:28] add a sharpening effect regular sharpen is fine unsharp mask if you're feeling fancy and let's

[3:33] increase that sharpen amount up to 300 until it's about as clear as it was before the blur and now

[3:39] we can see the effect it's creating the sharpen is essentially undoing the blur creating more

[3:43] contrast and defined edges where we just remove them but it's having to work harder and over

[3:47] compensate for that blur and we get this kind of nice sort of halo effect where our edges now have

[3:53] a dark and a light side and that gets more obvious the more contrast there is between those colors

[3:57] and it isn't exactly like but it is reminiscent of maybe a dodgy CRT screen or just some messed

[4:02] up footage and you can use this really subtly to just remove that clean digital Sheen if you're

[4:06] going for a more gritty style or you can increase them both to make it really obvious at a certain

[4:10] point if you increase the sharpen too much it will kind of break around some of these areas

[4:14] though or you can approach it really subtly but then copy and paste those effects and add

[4:18] the blur and sharpen again and again and again and again and again and it can also be a really

[4:24] good compositing technique to unify everything underneath it with that same depravity in this

[4:29] project I've got some stock footage and textures and they just don't quite look cohesive these

[4:34] astronauts look pretty obviously like 3D models and they just look a bit out of place with

[4:39] these textures and that smooth gradient in the background but adding that blur and sharpen over

[4:44] the top puts them in a more similar World it gives them a consistency which just makes it a little

[4:49] more believable and of course that pairs very nicely with texture add noise and other effects

[4:55] to make your work look nice and roughed up so by reducing the Fidelity of your image you're

[4:59] covering your tracks and you're getting away with it because no one could identify you at the scene

[5:04] we can also create some really neat reactive Shadows so let's create a new shape layer and

[5:11] just start drawing some arbitrary rectangles around the place that should be plenty and

[5:16] to this layer we are going to add the effect CC radial fast blur and if we move the center

[5:22] around it's blurring our rectangles away from this point let's increase it to make it more

[5:26] obvious and let's set the zoom style from standard to Brightest there we are that is

[5:32] looking nice almost looks like light leaking through holes in a window which you could

[5:36] use this effect for as well and if you want a different color shadow to your shapes we can

[5:40] add a fill effect and then add the effect CC composite back over the top as well now we've

[5:46] got some shadows and to attach that Center Point to another layer all we need to do is

[5:51] alt or option click the stopwatch next to Center and then drag that pick whip up to the position

[5:55] property of that layer and when we move that around it looks like it is casting the Shadows

[6:01] yes hello sorry I'm in the middle of a tutorial now I'm afraid I can't plug my master motion

[6:06] design course at the moment yeah yeah despite the incredible response from the students I have I've

[6:11] seen the testimonials on bedmarriot.com yes yes the student collab project did come out

[6:16] recently it was it was a lot of fun yeah really great work that was one of my favorites too

[6:22] all right is that everything okay bye-bye sorry about that let's get back to the camera lens blur

[6:31] is the Rolls-Royce of blurs the Andrew Kramer of blurs it replicates the blur you get from an out

[6:37] of focus camera much more than other blurs we have an absolutely wild cast of settings here

[6:43] where we can tweak the shape of the bokeh and the highlights it's more realistic more pleasing just

[6:48] more satisfying that satisfaction comes with the price and that's processing power and render time

[6:53] so keep that in mind if you need to make haste on a project but the feature in camera lens blur

[6:58] that I'm excited about is the blow map a blow map takes some reference footage uses its black and

[7:03] white values to adjust which parts of the image are blurred or not if they're white it is the max

[7:07] blur in your settings if they're black no blur at all and the Grays are all somewhere in between now

[7:12] I'm going to be going through the creation of this whole animation during an online session at Adobe

[7:17] Max this year but I do want to show off how I used a blur map to create this focused effect and make

[7:22] it look like all the shapes on the outside are gradually going out of focus and how you

[7:26] can create custom blow maps for your animations to get similar results so starting with the animation

[7:30] already done we need a blur map so let's duplicate this tunnel main comp call it tunnel main blow map

[7:37] and go inside that duplicate so what we want is our Center layer to be one color which will make

[7:41] it white and then the layers beneath it to get darker and darker and darker until they're black

[7:45] at the very edge or we could do the opposite with black in the middle white on the edge as long as

[7:49] it's black to white it is very easy to invert later in our effect settings if you do have a

[7:54] simpler scene you can just grab your layers and change the fill color of them to between black and

[7:58] white but because we have so many stacks on top of one another we can do something a bit clever

[8:03] to cut down the time so first let's make this top layer white which we are controlling its color

[8:08] with the fill effect so it will turn that white we are going to copy that fill effect with controller

[8:12] command C select all of our layers here except for the background and paste that white fill onto them

[8:17] so now they are all white and now we're going to drag down all of their opacity properties really

[8:22] low down to about four percent and because there's more of them stacked on top of one another in the

[8:28] middle that is lighter and they get darker towards the edge lovely to make that more obvious though

[8:32] let's change the blending mode to add and to an adjustment layer on top of all of them let's add

[8:37] a curves effect to really increase that contrast so we have full control there that is exactly what

[8:43] we want we've got a perfect black and white blur map ready to use so back in our main comp let's

[8:49] drag in our blow map and we can actually hide it it doesn't need to be visible for our camera lens

[8:54] blur effect to perceive it but while we're here let's keep it visible and change its blending mode

[8:59] to multiply because now we're getting some really nice accurate Shadows which only affect the outer

[9:04] edge layers so let's keep them on and now let's add to our adjustment layer at the top camera

[9:09] lens blur let's pump up the blur way up to around 50 so it's very noticeable and from the blur map

[9:14] let's select our layer tunnel main blur map and it is blowing the center more because our Center

[9:19] was white so we can just check invert blow map so now it is blurring our edges our dark areas of the

[9:25] blow map and now we've got really nice shallow depth of field effect going on and we can even

[9:30] rack focus by changing the blur focal distance property so we can make the center back out of

[9:35] focus or make somewhere in between the most out of focus so once you've finished animating your scene

[9:40] you can duplicate the comp make everything black and white depending the depth of your scene and

[9:45] then with camera lens blur you've got complete control troll over what is in Focus now the

[9:50] compound blur effect also has a blur map feature but the blur doesn't look quite as good and you

[9:56] deserve the best so it's okay to treat yourself every now and again don't be so hard on yourself

[10:02] sometimes it's nice to step away from it all for a bit and remind yourself that your value is not

[10:07] confined to the work you produce your productivity or whether what you're doing makes sense to anyone

[10:14] else at all anyway I hope these blur tricks help you out in some tight spaces or through

[10:19] some tough projects and I also used a blur map in a bit of a different way to create this animated

[10:24] ink bleed so if you want to go deeper you can check that one out I'll see you in the next one

5 Best Ways to Use Blur Creatively in After Effects

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