Projection is a script that makes light work of camera projection mapping onto 3D planes in After Effects CS5 and above. It’s released with the introduction of a native match-mover in After Effects CS6 in mind - 3D Camera Tracker, as it’s known. But Projection also works in CS5 and CS5.5 with imported match-move data.

Projection is great for a variety of tasks. In particular, VFX and compositing tasks such as floor/wall clean-up and replacement, roto-matte creation and tracking mark removal are often made relatively quick and easy tasks, instead of the laborious and time-consuming ones we’re used to. Projection is also great for other motion graphic orientated tasks. For instance, creating funky parallax tricks, making floor reflections on reflective match-move objects or creating convincing tilt-shift effects.

To install, drop the file BR_Projection.jsxbin into the ScriptUI Panels folder of your After Effects install. Program Files/After Effects CSX/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels or Applications/After Effects CSX/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels (Mac)

To run the script, select it from the Window menu inside After Effects. This will open the script in a panel in the After Effects interface. After installing Projection, the script will run in trial mode for seven days. There are however, a couple of limitations.

• Projection can only be used in compositions whose dimensions are 1024x576 or smaller. To test the script, you’ll need to precompose your footage into a 1024x576 composition. (There is a test project included in the download )

• Projection will only let you project onto one surface at a time in trial mode. These limitations do not apply to the full version of Projection.

How to use:This section doesn’t go into details about using the 3D Camera Tracker in After Effects or how to import a match-moved scene from other programs. We’ll assume that we’re starting with a match-moved scene, whether created in After Effects or elsewhere. If you’re testing out the trial version of Projection, there is a limit to the size of composition you can use. If your footage is bigger, the best way to start is as follows: Drop your footage into a 1024x576 compositon and resize it to fit that comp - (Ctrl-Option-F / Cmd-Alt-F). Then precompose the layer (Ctrl-Shift-C / Cmd-Shift-C) making sure that move all attributes into the new composition is checked. Then 3D Camera Track the pre-composed layer (Menu: Animation -> Track Camera). There’s also a 1024x576 test project in the download.

Step 2 - Project onto the projection surface

In the Projection interface, select a 2D layer to project from the drop-down menu. You will be shown a list of 2D layers that have the same dimensions as the composition. Then, making sure that you have your 3D Solid layer selected, click the Go button at the top of the Projection interface.

Step 1 - Create a projection surface:

In a 3D Camera tracked composition, select some solved 3D tracking points, right-click and choose Create Solid. Note: if you are not using the Ae built in 3D Camera Tracker, this step is best achieved inside your match-move program.

This creates a Solid surface match-moved into the scene. I like to make the surface translucent, so I can better fine tune its position to the underlying scene if needs be.

Step 3 - Projection Created

Once projected, the scene should look like it originally did, only now you have a part of the scene projected onto your 3D plane. (We’ll call it the projection surface)

In standard definition compositions, you may sometimes notice that the projection is very slightly softer than the original. This is to do with After Effects’ internal anti-aliasing. In HD compositions, the difference is generally unnoticeable. If needs be, some mild sharpening can balance out any perceptual difference. If the pro-jection appears much softer than the original, it’s probably because the projection surface’s source is too small. Use undo, and try making the source bigger (Layer -> Solid Settings), adjusting the Scale property in the comp to compensate, then projecting again.

In CS5, there is sometimes a very slight positional shift -(about a quarter pixel) that may become noticeable in smaller comps. Again this appears to be down to internal anti-aliasing and is more difficult to deal with. The shift is generally not a problem though and again, it’s pretty much unnoticeable in HD compositions.

Step 5 - Inside the Projection Composition

Step 4 - PR Lock Projection effect

There are several effects created on the projection surface. Only the first one, PR Lock Projection is interesting (the others are used internally). Rotating the projection surface with the effect PR Lock Projection set to On allows you to literally pick it up and spin it round to look at it from any angle.

If you set the effect PR Lock Projection to Off, the projection surface will rotate, but the scene remains visually unaltered. If you switch PR Lock Projection back on, you will revert back to the locked projection, as in the image above left, but...

If you double-click the projection surface to go into the projection composition - you’ll see a compositor’s dream - a static birds eye shot of the table surface. By default, Projection projects a static freeze-frame at the point where you ran the script. But you can easily change this to a moving projection - while keeping all salient features pinned to the same point (depending on the quality of your match-move of course!). You can even combine moving projection and freeze-frame in the same shot... more on that coming up.

Note: If the z-axis of your projection surface is facing away from camera at the point you project, the projection inside the comp will appear the wrong way round. If you do get it wrong - no problem. Just set PR Lock Projection to Off. Rotate the layer 180 degrees in the y-plane, then hit Lock this Position.

...if you click the Lock this Position button in the Projection interface, then the new position will be locked. The image immediately above shows how the image top right looks after clicking Lock this Position, then rotating the projection layer 30 degrees or so in the z-plane.

Step 6 - Still projection vs. moving projection

Step 7 - The nudge panel

Sometimes you can achieve everything you need to with a freeze-frame projection of a particular frame. Sometimes you need a moving projection. Sometimes, only a combination will do. When you create your projection surface, a marker with the letter “F” appears on the layer. This indicates a freeze-frame at that point in time. You can drag this marker around and the freeze frame that Projection projects will change accordingly. If you delete the marker, or change its name to something other than “F”, Projection will project a moving image. Basically, an “F” marker means a freeze-frame projection and any other marker (or no markers at all) means a moving projection.

The example timeline above mixes the two together. The first marker is an “F” so from 0-15 frames, Projection will project a freeze frame of frame 15. At frame 16 is a marker with no name, so from this point Projection will project a moving image until it reaches the “F” marker at 2 seconds. From 2:00 until 2:14, Projection will project a freeze-frame of the frame at 2:00. At 2:15 where we meet another unnamed marker, the projection will become a moving image again. There’ll be a jump (maybe not a visible one) from 2:14 to 2:15 as Projection takes us from a freeze frame of 2:00 to 2:15. Since the last marker is an unnamed marker, Projection will project a moving image from that point on.

The nudge panel in the Projection interface provides a way to fine tune the placement of your projection surface. There are three modes.

• Layer moves the projection surface while keeping the projection still. The projection surface needs to have PR Lock Projection set to Off and the nudge panel will ask you if you want to do this before proceeeding. The projection surface is nudged in its own layer space.

• Projection moves the projection underneath the projection surface. The projection surface stays still, but the projection moves in screen space. • Both nudges both projection surface and projection together in the projections surface’s layer space. Holding down the shift key moves the nudge by a 10x

smaller increment.

Step 8 - Organisation in the project windowProjection organises all this stuff in the After Effects project in folders, based on composition. All the new comps that Projection creates inside a given composition... for instance My Comp will be put together in a folder called My Comp | Projection. The new composition themselves are named based on the layers that were projected onto, again with the pattern Layer Name | Projection or Layer Name | Projection Base.

Regarding naming, Projection uses expressions to react to what you do. You can rename layers and comps, but if you create a layer inside a comp that has the same name as a projection surface in that comp - or if you make a comp in the project that has the same name as a comp you’ve already created a projection surface in, there’s a good chance that Projection will stop working. In the example to the left, creating a second composition called My Comp or in the example at the top of this page, creating another layer called Track Solid 1 | Projection might cause trouble. It’s always good practice in After Effects to give things unique names, anyway.

I hope this guide has been useful. There’s a 30 minute video demo of Projection, in two parts, that offers some more insight into what you can do with this script. And hopefully I’ll be producing some more tutorials and guides for Projection in the near future. Watch this space!

License agreement:

Projection is licensed to you (according to the terms of the licence you have purchased) by the author via aescripts.com. The author retains title to the software and it remains the author’s intellectual property.

Projection comes with no warranty and you use it at your own risk. The author assumes no responsibility for any adverse effects on your computer. The 7 day trial version is offered for you to be able to test the software.

This software is provided “as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall the copyright owner or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or conse-quential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.

Any rights not expressly granted in this License are reserved.

Copyright © 2012 Ben Rollason - ben@benrollason.com