To sum it all up in a few words, the biggest advantage Nuke and Blender have over After Effects is the control and freedom. After Effects is fantastic and very efficient for Commercials, youtube videos, fast clean-ups etc. Shortly after many developers took up the cause, incorporating the auto-matte support into renderers, 3D applications, and compositors. It wasn’t until recently however that After Effects has bolstered with Cryptomatte support through the release of ProEXR 2 from Fnord. Hi BlenderNation! In this video I share seven ways to realistic composite CGI layers together to create a more realistic live action final shot. To create this shot I used Blender 3d for creating the computer generated imagery and I composited all of the layers inside of Adobe After Effects. I also used 3d models from these amazing 3d artists.

Tutorial Files
Barrel drop.mp4

Time Stamps
00:00 Introduction
01:25 Tutorial Start
02:01 Things to Keep in Mind
03:06 Assigning a Video Clip to the Background
04:57 Aligning the 3D Scene with the Footage
07:38 Shadows & Modeling the Scene Geometry
13:12 Lighting & Shadow Catchers
14:28 Environment Maps
21:06 Adding Physics & Collisions
24:27 Configuring the Output Settings

In this 2 part series we will look at how to add realistic looking 3D objects to your videos using Blender and Adobe After Effects.

In the first part we will work in Blender. You will learn how to set up your 3D scene and set up your lights and environment maps. We will cover how to use Shadow Catchers to create transparent surface areas that capture the shadow of our 3D objects.

Blender Vs Adobe After Effects

We will then add some physics to our scene to make it feel a little bit more interactive. Finally, I will cover the render settings you need to render out the final image sequence.

Blender For After Effects

In part 2 we will cover how to composite these rendered elements back onto your video using Adobe After Effects. Stay tuned, I hope to release the second part within a week or two :)