[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