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Participating Frequently
July 23, 2023
Question

How to Edit Head rotation in 360 degree?

  • July 23, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 4041 views

Hey Guys, hope you're doing well. I'm a complete beginner in the editing world. One of the biggest issues I'm facing is I can't edit the rotation of the Head in 360 degrees. I've tried all the possible ways, used and on the whole internet there's not even a single tutorial, tried Chat GPT but failed to edit properly. I'm totally new to the after effects, if possible please explain to me in detail.

Description - I will be sitting on a chair, and my head should rotate 360 degrees and my body should be still. Help me out with the problem at the earliest. Thank you in advance!  

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1 reply

Community Expert
July 23, 2023

I call this kind of project a Process Shot. You use a process to combine two or more shots into a believable composite. They have been creating Process Shots for almost as long as they have been making movies. It only took a few weeks after the movie camera was invented for someone to paint a piece of glass with one part clear and the other black, then make an inverted painting on another piece of glass so what was black on the first one was now clear on the second. This created a Matte and an Inverted Matte. They put the Matte in front of the camera, shot a scene, then replaced the Matte with the Inverted Matte, rewound the film, and reshot the scene with something different in the frame. Here's the workflow for creating your Process Shot.

 

Put the camera on a tripod, frame up the shot with you in the chair, then shoot several seconds with you sitting in a chair, trying not to move your shoulders and neck. Then you need another shot of just the chair. You need a third shot with you at the same distance and angle from the camera, with you sitting on a chair that rotates so you can spin around completely. Removing the background will be easier if there is a green backdrop behind your head so you can key instead of rotoscope your head.

 

When you have the three shots, you stack them up in After Effects with your spinning around in Layer 1, sitting in the chair in Layer 2, and the shot with you not in the shot is on Layer 3.

 

Start with Layer 2 and 3 visible; draw a Subtracion Mask around your head so you end up with a shot where you have no head. 

 

The next step is to Key the shot and use a mask on Layer 1 so that just your head and neck are showing. You then Motion Stabilize the shot so that only your head and neck are showing. Mocha AE is the best way to Track and Stabilize your head.

 

The last step is to carefully line up the Motion Stabilized top layer with your body, carefully mask and blend where your neck and body join, and then do the final polish with color correction, feathered edges, and any distortion effects needed to make the scene believable. 

 

The project will be fairly simple if you carefully plan all three elements of your Process shot. If you hold the camera in your hand, it will be tough.

 

When you have the three shots, the Foreground, Middle Ground, and Background plates, drag some screenshots to the reply field of the forum so we can see what you are dealing with and we can give you some specific suggestions. 

 

In the meantime, search Owl Kitty on the net or on YouTube and look at a few of the behind-the-scenes videos. You'll see what can be done using a simple greenscreen, motion tracking, and color correction.

Participating Frequently
July 24, 2023

Thank you So much for the guidance, I'll surely reply to you if I need furthermore Guidance. I will post some screenshots of myself recording on a chair, sitting still, and a blank background with the chair. Proper Suggestions are needed as I'm new to the After Effects software.

Community Expert
July 24, 2023

If you start with the Learn Workspace (Window/Workspace/Learn) and spend about 20 minutes going through the exercises there, you will get a good understanding of the UI, layering, setting keyframes, and the basic workflow. You could also spend some time with the User Guide. You can also make use of the Search Help field in the top right corner of AE. That's a good place to look first when you have problems with an effect or any part of the UI.