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We can use the blur effects inside After Effects 
in some really unexpected ways. We can use them  

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to manipulate shapes to create depth to create 
some reactive shadows and even some cool looking  

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

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

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first we should add the blur effect now any blur 
will do gaussian is the safest and easiest Carl  

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Friedrich Gauss would never lead as astray so 
let's add that to our layer and let's blur it  

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by around 20 pixels which blurs out the shape but 
in doing so completely destroys our pointy corners  

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and now we can do something a little clever by 
clamping down on the alpha Channel we can do  

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that with a few effects but the simplest one is 
levels so let's add the levels effect and choose  

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the alpha Channel now at the moment we have a 
nice soft blurred Edge but if we move in these  

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triangles in this histogram towards the middle it 
will clamp or crush or squeeze the alpha channel  

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so the pixels that are kinda transparent will 
become fully transparent and the pixel is kind of  

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opaque will become fully opaque and once they're 
close enough there will be nothing in between it  

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is good to leave a slight Gap here though because 
because if you get too close the edge just becomes  

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a little too harsh and Jagged and just to just do 
crusty to be enjoyable so let's leave a slide Gap  

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here and that's barely noticeable even at 800 and 
now we've got nice round corners and now we can  

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increase the blurriness to increase the radius and 
the roundness of those Corners we might need to  

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tighten up the levels a bit if we blow it a little 
further and we can also just whereabouts on the  

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histogram these triangles meet in order to expand 
the edge or bring it in closer this effect is  

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also really helpful for shapes like this where we 
might want rounded inner Corners now you can use  

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a rounded cap on its stroke but the insides are 
still pointy and even if we play with the inner  

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

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paste that blur and levels effect onto the shape 
that blur is far too much so let's reduce that  

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and move these triangles back to the middle and 
now we've got consistent straight lines down the  

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star and a nice rounded end on the inside and the 
outside and that roundness will stay consistent if  

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we scale it up or if we adjust the path in any 
way which does come in handy next is using the  

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same effect stack of blurring levels but this time 
applied to an adjustment layer for a quick Blobby  

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liquid look so let's create a new adjustment layer 
on top of everything and let's rename it effects  

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because we always label our layers and we're going 
to paste on those same effects again and now when  

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

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slimy but you know a nice slimy this happens 
again because without this levels effect the  

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

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they are separate shapes it will just round the 
edges of them both together once they are close  

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enough that their blurs overlap we can push that 
blur really far to get some way more interesting  

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Blobby results and even when we change the color 
of one of the shapes we get this nice gradient  

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

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method to achieve a completely different look 
but still using the blur to degrade our image  

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and then trying to salvage it back with another 
effect and getting some marvelous artifacts in  

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the process so let's again create another 
adjustment layer add our gaussian blur and  

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

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add a sharpening effect regular sharpen is fine 
unsharp mask if you're feeling fancy and let's  

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

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we can see the effect it's creating the sharpen 
is essentially undoing the blur creating more  

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contrast and defined edges where we just remove 
them but it's having to work harder and over  

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compensate for that blur and we get this kind of 
nice sort of halo effect where our edges now have  

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a dark and a light side and that gets more obvious 
the more contrast there is between those colors  

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

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up footage and you can use this really subtly to 
just remove that clean digital Sheen if you're  

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going for a more gritty style or you can increase 
them both to make it really obvious at a certain  

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point if you increase the sharpen too much it 
will kind of break around some of these areas  

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though or you can approach it really subtly 
but then copy and paste those effects and add  

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the blur and sharpen again and again and again 
and again and again and it can also be a really  

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good compositing technique to unify everything 
underneath it with that same depravity in this  

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project I've got some stock footage and textures 
and they just don't quite look cohesive these  

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astronauts look pretty obviously like 3D models 
and they just look a bit out of place with  

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these textures and that smooth gradient in the 
background but adding that blur and sharpen over  

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the top puts them in a more similar World it gives 
them a consistency which just makes it a little  

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more believable and of course that pairs very 
nicely with texture add noise and other effects  

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to make your work look nice and roughed up so 
by reducing the Fidelity of your image you're  

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covering your tracks and you're getting away with 
it because no one could identify you at the scene

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we can also create some really neat reactive 
Shadows so let's create a new shape layer and  

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just start drawing some arbitrary rectangles 
around the place that should be plenty and  

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to this layer we are going to add the effect 
CC radial fast blur and if we move the center  

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around it's blurring our rectangles away from 
this point let's increase it to make it more  

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obvious and let's set the zoom style from 
standard to Brightest there we are that is  

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looking nice almost looks like light leaking 
through holes in a window which you could  

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use this effect for as well and if you want a 
different color shadow to your shapes we can  

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add a fill effect and then add the effect CC 
composite back over the top as well now we've  

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got some shadows and to attach that Center 
Point to another layer all we need to do is  

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alt or option click the stopwatch next to Center 
and then drag that pick whip up to the position  

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property of that layer and when we move that 
around it looks like it is casting the Shadows  

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

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design course at the moment yeah yeah despite the 
incredible response from the students I have I've  

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seen the testimonials on bedmarriot.com yes 
yes the student collab project did come out  

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recently it was it was a lot of fun yeah really 
great work that was one of my favorites too  

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

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is the Rolls-Royce of blurs the Andrew Kramer of 
blurs it replicates the blur you get from an out  

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of focus camera much more than other blurs we 
have an absolutely wild cast of settings here  

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where we can tweak the shape of the bokeh and the 
highlights it's more realistic more pleasing just  

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more satisfying that satisfaction comes with the 
price and that's processing power and render time  

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

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that I'm excited about is the blow map a blow map 
takes some reference footage uses its black and  

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

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blur in your settings if they're black no blur at 
all and the Grays are all somewhere in between now  

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I'm going to be going through the creation of this 
whole animation during an online session at Adobe  

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

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it look like all the shapes on the outside 
are gradually going out of focus and how you  

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can create custom blow maps for your animations to 
get similar results so starting with the animation  

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already done we need a blur map so let's duplicate 
this tunnel main comp call it tunnel main blow map  

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

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it white and then the layers beneath it to get 
darker and darker and darker until they're black  

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at the very edge or we could do the opposite with 
black in the middle white on the edge as long as  

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

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simpler scene you can just grab your layers and 
change the fill color of them to between black and  

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white but because we have so many stacks on top 
of one another we can do something a bit clever  

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

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with the fill effect so it will turn that white we 
are going to copy that fill effect with controller  

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command C select all of our layers here except for 
the background and paste that white fill onto them  

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so now they are all white and now we're going to 
drag down all of their opacity properties really  

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

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middle that is lighter and they get darker towards 
the edge lovely to make that more obvious though  

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let's change the blending mode to add and to an 
adjustment layer on top of all of them let's add  

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a curves effect to really increase that contrast 
so we have full control there that is exactly what  

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

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

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

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to multiply because now we're getting some really 
nice accurate Shadows which only affect the outer  

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

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lens blur let's pump up the blur way up to around 
50 so it's very noticeable and from the blur map  

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let's select our layer tunnel main blur map and 
it is blowing the center more because our Center  

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

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blow map and now we've got really nice shallow 
depth of field effect going on and we can even  

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rack focus by changing the blur focal distance 
property so we can make the center back out of  

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focus or make somewhere in between the most out of 
focus so once you've finished animating your scene  

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you can duplicate the comp make everything black 
and white depending the depth of your scene and  

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then with camera lens blur you've got complete 
control troll over what is in Focus now the  

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compound blur effect also has a blur map feature 
but the blur doesn't look quite as good and you  

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

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

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confined to the work you produce your productivity 
or whether what you're doing makes sense to anyone  

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else at all anyway I hope these blur tricks 
help you out in some tight spaces or through  

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some tough projects and I also used a blur map in 
a bit of a different way to create this animated  

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