Lens Distortion for After Effects

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‌Lens Distortion for After Effects

For After Effects, we supply native After Effects Effects (see below for installation). Be sure to set the After Effects version as appropriate when exporting.

You can use the After Effects exporter and distortion effect in the following situations:

1) After doing a solve that calculates distortion, then immediately exporting. This is permitted for quick testing but has many drawbacks. The result is not equivalent to a “zero-pass” workflow for Nuke or Fusion, due to After Effects limitations. A warning message will be generated each time this is done.

2) After solving and then clicking the Lens Workflow button on the Summary Panel, using the 1-pass deliver-undistorted method.

3) After solving and then clicking the Lens Workflow button on the Summary Panel, using the 2-pass deliver-distorted method.

In each case, when you do the export, a matching SynthEyes Advanced Distortion effect will be created, so that the raw footage will be undistorted within After Effects, and you can add effects in its 3D environment that line up with the undistorted imagery.

To help out in case #3 above, the export script produces an additional comp that redistorts the 3D environment back to match the original distorted imagery. This comp is named ReCamera01 for the usual Camera01; the 3D environment is Camera01_3D.

To use this 2-pass setup, add your 3D elements inside the Camera01_3D environment. Turn off visibility for the original footage layer within Camera01_3D, so that its output is only the added elements. The added elements get redistorted then overlaid onto the original distorted imagery within ReCamera01.

Note: When the source imagery does not have square pixels, an additional intermediate composite will be generated to create a square-pixel version, which is required for After Effects’ 3-D system to work properly.

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