Smooth Camera Movement in After Effects

Let’s face it. Swooping camera movements in After Effects can be a real pain if you are just using the camera itself. It is nearly impossible to get the point of interest and the camera to move in such a way that creates a smooth and fluid effect. Not to mention it can eat up your time faster than Rosanne eats up a buffet.

The above picture is a typical 35mm setup. You get this by right-clicking in the layers pallet and selecting New > Camera… In our theoretical example we will pretend that we are tracking, from behind, a car that is traveling down a windy road. Initially we know that we are going to have lots of s-turns to deal with.

The camera setup we have right now requires at least two keyframes for every s-turn we make. We will have to keyframe both the camera and the point of interest to make sure that our speeding car is in the field of view. This process can take some time and rarely results in a realistic camera movement.

The Solution

Null Objects

In short, we are going to solve all of our problems using null objects. Then through the process or parenting we will create a rig that lets us do everything we want with much more ease.

First things first. Create a camera with any settings you like. You can always go back later and change them if you want to. To create a camera you need to right click in the layers palette and choose New > Camera…

The second thing you need to do is create two null objects. Doing this is similar to creating a camera, right click in the layers palette and choose New > Null Object. You’ll need to name one of these “Camera Movement” and the other “Camera Master.” Before moving on, you also want to check the 3D box to make sure these null objects are moving around in 3D space. The box looks like this:

At this point we’re almost done. We just need to parent things in the correct order. First, you need to parent the camera itself to “Camera Movement.” Then parent the “Camera Movement” to “Camera Master.” In a hierarchy it looks like this:

Camera Master

^

Camera Movement

^

Camera

Now, here are the rules for movement and rotation:

• Camera Master – Reserved for last minute adjustments (camera shakes, small adjustments)
• Camera Movement – Responsible for all major movement of the camera, sans rotation
• Camera – Reserved just for the rotation of the camera itself.

With those rule established you should have no problem flying your camera around succesfully inside of After Effects. Gone are the days of trying to sync the position of interest and camera. It takes about 15 extra seconds to setup initially, but the results are definitely worth it. Have fun!