Hi welcome to the tutorial on how to create
2.5D Parallax Effect in adobe after effects
for This tutorial You Will Need adobe after effects and Photoshop
so you don't Need any external Plugins
Optionally Maybe optical Flares If You like to add some light to it but Basically Only  adobe after effects and photoshop
So let's see what we Will be creating
 
Okay here we are in adobe photoshop i'm using version CS6 and i
found this photo on Photodune, that Is one of the Envato's Marketplaces
 
If you like There Will be a link in the description so you can Go and see if you like this Photo
AnyWay
What we Need to do first is
Separate the Layers we want to
Use in adobe after effects so
in this Example i'm going to extract This man on dirt motorbike and
Maybe This Layer Here
This Road so basically, to have?
Three Layers
In the scene?
What i'd like to do is When selecting in adobe photoshop i found that a quick Selection tool is the best method
and to go
so quick selection Tool
Shortcut Is W on your Keyboard and
Just Start Selecting
you can zoom in and out With Holding Alt or option Key and scrolling on your mouse
So you can zoom Exactly Where you want to Select Just
grab and hold Your mouse key when you want to deselect something hold Alt or option Key and then Click With your mouse
And When you do that Go to refine edge it's in the upper
corner of Photoshop
Refine edge Tool and
What i like to use is you have multiple view modes if you click on the dual effect Here
I
Mostly use Overlay But You can use some Other Ones you can also have Black and White
with Transparency and so on i like to use overlay and
I see here that i Missed some spots so i'll Just hit cancel and
Go to
Readjust This
By The Way if you want to quickly increase or decrease
Brush size you can do that With Left and right Bracket on your Keyboard
And Now we Will go to refine edge and
Start Increasing The Radius
you can Also Select option Smart Radius
It automatically Detects The Edges and
Optionally You can increase contrast and
I also like to use option decontaminate colors and
Come play with the amount?
Be sure you don't crush anything. Too much
Maybe i will increase the contrast a Little Bit
so
When You are done with That
Make sure That output is set to new Layer with Layer Mask Because we Will Need this on separate Layer and
Click ok so Now we have this Selection on
on its own separate Layer and
We have the background so we'll Turn This off for a moment and Turn back Background again and Select it
What we also want to do is Select
This as We Said This Layer Here this
Dirt Road i
Can increase My Brush size with right Bracket Key
blue key on the Keyboard
okay this is too much
We'll also Select Part of The tire here we'll fix that Later?
In this case i also want to Select This Wooden piece Here and this Yellow?
How do you call It in english i don't know
Check
Never Mind
for This Whole Just Use
Polygonal Lasso Tool i think That's easier to Select This oops
So i'll Just press shift to add to this Selection
Doesn't have to be Perfect
For The rest i'll Still use a quick Selection Tool
Sorry quick What's the name quick Selection tool yes
And Here i want to decrease the bracelet
and Just if i make Mistake Just use alt to deselect
With Holding Down the spacebar i can move like This
And
That Seems okay i might open Refine edge Tool again to see if i can Make
Some Adjustments This also Good is
When you go to refine edge tool you have also a tool Called Refine Radius Tool
Which is good When you have here or grass or something like that so i can
Nicely isolate
That so if you go around The Edges like This
you can See It automatically Selects fine Here or in this case grass
Doesn't Work Always But
okay maybe to create a Little Bit
This tool Is Very Good but you Need to select here on head and
When you're Satisfied with This
you can Also Set The contaminate Colors and be sure that the output is new Layer with Layer Mask and
Click ok
Now here i see a Certain
Selection That i do not want so i'll Just use eraser tool
Eraser tool is where
Sorry about That oh Here it is
so i can Remove this Unwanted Selection
And
Just before we continue i Just want to remove this part of the tyre from this Layer and
i can
Simply Go to
Clone Tool
Clone Tool
clone clone stamp Tool Has a Shortcut Keyboard Shortcut S and
Just Holding Alt or option Key Selecting Another Part Where i will copy from and Just
Start Doing This with This
okay Now i have three Layers
This dirt Road Foreground Layer I have a motorbike and
Background so now we Need to
of Course
Clone
The Background so it's without This motorbike and This Road i
Found the Best Way and quickest easiest Way to do this is to
Select a motorbike and hold Ctrl on Pc or command on Mac
you
Collection of This Layer of Course well
Modify
Expand What we want to do is Expand
This Edge of Selection By Let's Say five Pixels and
Next Go to edit fill and
Use content aware and
Photoshop will automatically fill This area With
Certain Algorithm This Doesn't Always Work Good But
Sometimes it's less and it's Very Good fast Way to do it
We also want to
Clone This one so it's gone from the background we'll do the same Thing Holding Command or control Key Double Clicking and
Go to Select Modify Expand and
Go to edit fill content-Aware
And
We have three Layers Separated
in photoshop and Next we can Move to after effects to edit This
We Saved Earlier
So go to an import file or press command or control i on Your Keyboard and
We are going to import the psD file that we created earlier
Now import can't be sure to set this to composition and
Click ok
And open This New create New Lee created composition as you can See you have three Layers?
Setup in after effects The Background This dirt Road and
guy with motorbike
Yeah Selection i talked i made a Mistake but no it's. Ok and what we want. To do is
first We want to
Select them all By pressing Command or control a on your Keyboard or Just go and Select them with your mouse and
Make all of Them 3d Layers
Next We also want to create a New camera so go to Layer new
camera and
This is all fine and press ok What i also like to do is
Make camera a Child of no object so we'll create a New null object and
Set This also As 3d and Just parent this to the null object so
Like It's a Little Bit Better to control it with
Another object
As you can see now
nothing Is going on but we Will fix that Soon
So we want. To move background in this pace?
Quite a Lot so we'll press P on the keyboard to get this Position
options and
Just move
Mullet in z space
Quite a Lot
Something Like
3000 or something like that and
We want to scale it back so press S on the keyboard and
Just Scaled This Layer
back to its original Position
We want to also move This
Road Dirt Road Here but
We will move This one maybe Two Two Thousand
Pixels and
Also scale It back Up and
If
We move the camera Now this piece you can see we Already have a
parallax effect created so this is basically the Main
The Main Thing
For creating The parallax Effect of Course we can Also Add Some Other Things
To make This look even more realistic
Just Set This
to fit and
Let'S set a Keyframe
For This null object and
move The Slider Up and
Just Set This Keyframe
Maybe something Like This and if we Make a Ram preview of This
And
What we also can Do This is of course optional but It will give a more Realistic look
Add Some particles to it so Let's go and make a New solid not light
and This okay and Go to effect Simulation
particle World
By These Default Settings
Its these Lines Like something Like Sparkles Going Out we Don't want that and
First Let's Go to physics and change this animation mode
20 that suits you i can set This to
Explosives is Actually fine we Will set Velocity to zero and gravity also to zero and
Next Go to the producer and
Just
Make This Part first I'm sorry i Just want to remove these Guides They're bothering me
And
As i said go to producer and Just Spread This Out a Little Bit
And
especially in Z space and
open particle
Now all these settings for me
Look a Little Bit Unrealistic
So we're Just going to create a New Shape Layer so we can Make like a custom
Particle so go to Layer New Shape Layer and
take Pen Tool and
Just solo it so you can See What you're doing and Just create something that Looks
Kind of
Organic
Maybe we Can Add Rough on Edges effect to it
and Just Play a Little Bit with these settings
and Just Turn its Visibility off and
on our let's Just name This so we know what it is it'S name This Layer particle and
In the particle Section of The effect particle World we're gonna set This Type to?
Textured no textured Try Polygons and
Open the tab texture and set The texture Layer to shape Layer One
so now as you can see we have a Layer
Shape Layer
Used as particle
What we can also do is Just Reduce its size a Little Bit and
Maybe increase Both size and
We'll Just change the color of Shape Layer to white so you can see better
And
If we Run Preview This
Maybe can Change The transfer mode of the particle to ad or something Similar and
Maybe decrease The opacity a Little Bit so it's not so obvious and
Moved move The Layer a Little Bit so it's showing the particle showing up immediately
okay our lair is mustering Up Here
and What i also want to do is increase the manga tivity a
Little Bit
Because it's Kind Unrealistic Now and i also want to
increase Rotation Speed in the particle settings and
Maybe
Tone Down the birthrate or a Little Bit and
I also want to crease the particle Bird size
or
Actually leave This at Point
Twenty or ten and
The Death size also to twenty or something like That or maybe Increased a Little Bit?
AnyWay you can Play with these settings it's up to you
Optionally What you can do is Make This guy
Look Like he's Moving a Little Bit so we can add a Puppet pin tool to it
Let'S see Just yeah This one so go to a Puppet pin tool and Just Add some Points Where you think
Like Main Poses are
something Like This on the ankles
And You don't want. To overdo it otherwise gonna look a Little Bit Unnatural and
Just move It Like This Part of it
and Just move These Keyframes on beginning and and
and if We Preview That
It's Just a subtle
Movement and It Gives a Little Bit more, to to to the looks
Maybe we Can Also
Rotate This bike a Little Bit
First i want to set Anchor point to
Somewhere Around Here and
press R on your Keyboard to bring Up rotation and
This can Be starting Position of Rotation and
Maybe something Like This and Just move it to the end
and That's Basically It If you have any questions regarding This tutorial
you can
leave a comment in the description and i will Try to help you
If i can Thank you Very Much for watching and bye Bye
