Advanced Stereo Workflows in After Effects: Disparity
In this series of lessons we'll learn a technique to convert a Depth pass from a 3D application into a Disparity map. Software required: After Effects CS4 for project files.
What you'll learn
In this series of lessons we'll learn a technique to convert a Depth pass from a 3D application into a Disparity map. We'll then learn how to create tools to use this map to set the zero parallax point automatically and set depth correctly on 2D layers like text. We'll begin this project by learning about what stereo disparity maps can do inside After Effects. We'll then learn what a stereo map is and how to covert a depth map into a stereo map. Then we'll dive right in and learn the mathematical relationship between depth and disparity maps and learn how to offset and multiply our depth into a pixel offset value. With our disparity map created, we will be able to create a point based depth control. We'll finish by learning how to use our disparity values to automatically update stereo offset using expressions. Software required: After Effects CS4 for project files.
Table of contents
- Overview of the Tools We Will Create in After Effects Using Disparity 3m
- Understanding What a Disparity Map Is and How It Is Generated 13m
- Using Sampleimage to Access Pixel Color Data in an Expression 7m
- 3D Depth into Disparity: Invert Depth into Correct Space 7m
- 3D Depth into Disparity: Offset Zero Parallax 6m
- 3D Depth into Disparity: Multiplier into Pixels 9m
- Using a Point Control to Choose Exact Screen Depth with Disparity 9m
- Fixing Our Multiplier for Correct Displacement 4m
- Using Disparity to Automatically Copy Left and Right Transforms 8m
- Fixing the Anchor Point and Tracking Our Depth Control Point 6m