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Simulate a Realistic Sniper Scope Perspective – AE Premium

on Oct 16th 2009 with 74 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: After Effects, Photoshop or Illustrator
  • Difficulty: Beginner

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

We have another AE Premium tutorial exclusively available to
Plus members today. If you want to take your Photoshop and After Effects integration skills to the next level, then line up your cross hair, we have an exciting tutorial in sight for you.


My tutorial deals with a VFX shot that’s easy to attempt but hard to master: A convincing looking sniper scope view.
I will outline the assets that I provide in Photoshop and the principles of accomplishing the intended outcome. In After Effects I’ll make use of pre-compositions, motion tracking and some easy expressions. For clarity’s purpose I’ll get into details about optical phenomena when necessary.

Additionally I mention and highlight keyboard shortcuts I use to speed up the work, so this tutorial is not intended for absolute beginners who still struggle with the interface but for users already somewhat familiar with getting around, although I mention every step clearly and make it easy to follow.

Requirements are:
After Effects CS3

And for custom made assets, additionally:
Photoshop or Illustrator
A photo camera
A small video camera

This is a Premium Tutorial. To view you must Join Premium.

Once you’ve joined, log-in to the Tuts+ Dashboard with your username and password to immediately access your Premium Content. Navigate to Ae Premium via ‘Premium Categories’ in the sidebar. You’ll be able to grab the tutorial videos, project files and assets in the members’ area.

Tags: Premium
 
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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I am a Digital Compositor with a passion for Visual Effects. I experienced work in many projects, from being a roto-monkey to Head of VFX and I am always looking for new interesting ways to tackle problems and like sharing my knowledge. And I come from Austria, isn't that weird? You can even follow me if you're really bored.  

Plus Premium
 
 
  • sMiter911

    I think I’ll pay for that membership now.

  • http://www.royhuetink.nl Roy

    Very well done!

  • http://www.keyframekid.com Youssef Sarhan

    Looks nice, I may have opted to make the scope bigger so that you see less of the view from outside of the scope! Also, nice job on over exposing the area outside of the scope.

  • V

    I really don’t like the idea of paying for memebership. The new AE users usually do not have enough money for monthly subscriptions, and this will really lag in our learning capabilities. If we had to pay for products, that’s fine. But for tutorials??

    • Matt

      I agree with you. But prepare yourselves as the wealthy elite will be bashing you for complaining about paying. I still have not paid for a membership and I don’t plan on it anytime soon.

      • Matt

        Please note I am not ruling out paying. I would rather just wait until I see a tutorial that has information that I can’t find elsewhere for free.

      • http://youtube.com/LxrKan LxrKan

        but dont forget they give you access to all other envato sites… i think

        i may be signing up… any feedback from members would be great to see if its really worth it! THANKS!

    • http://www.philohermans.com Philo

      I think the Plus membership is great, it only costs $9! (Whats $9 a month?)
      And it’s worth paying for :) incredible tutorials! Keep them coming!

      • Anthony

        I a gree With Topher!! i’ll wait a few months then do it haha

      • morsjie

        ehhhhhhh mathematic…

        9 monthly = 108 dollars x 1 year

        u still think its not much?

    • naimalwan

      they have to find some way of paying the tutorial makers. this site is a business and to ask somebody not to make money from their business is naive. everybody has to pay the bills some how.

      instead of moaning about the plus membership be grateful that they also provide ones for free. $9 that’s the price of a coffee right? come on guys let give them a hand. the more people that will pay for membership will mean the better for us viewers. also the plus membership is for ALL the plus sites.

      Hope some of you are ashamed and sign up.

      • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

        Do you drink a 5 shot, white coffee, soy, white chocolate-vanilla-almond-caramel, blended 32 ounce coffee? Cuz, I have never spent nine bucks on coffee… hahahaha

      • naimalwan

        two super duppa, extra large coffees then. lol

    • Nate

      Dude…jeez… “lag learning capabilities”….??? WTF. With that mentality – why do we have to pay for college? What about the people that can’t afford college?

      What is with people bitching about $9/month? That is not gonna break anyone’s bank. I hate it so much when people feel entitled to free stuff.

      • LD

        “That is not gonna break anyone’s bank…”

        You obviously haven’t seen my bank lol.

    • Dustin

      I buy a crap gas station coffee on the way to work every morning, it cost $1.50. That is roughly $30 a month and around $360 a year.

      It is all relative.

      • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

        yeah if you really wanna budget for buying this… cut out your morning coffee, or your beer drinking for one night every weekend. Its simple.

  • Al Capwn

    Slick. I’ve thought about doing something similar but never could get it to look right.

  • Marshall

    very cool!

  • umer

    nothing plus about this one… infact very very simple

    • Matt

      I think what makes it Plus is that it ideals with that nasty word to beginners “expressions”

      • http://mcclanegames.com/ ev149

        The only problem with that to me is that this can all be replicated without using expressions.

      • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

        But, its all about learning new techniques, not always the final product. Learning is learning, copying is copying. People need to stop focusing on the end product and see that you will be learning useful techniques, the effect you create is just the gateway for those techniques to be taught.

  • Abojung

    “This is so disqualified to be a plus tuts “. And the easiest of all the tuts i have seen till now in aetuts :-p

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller

      Though this effect may come across as just being some simple animation of still elements, there’s a lot to it. If you were to actually view the tutorial, you’d find it stocked full of incredibly helpful content and. Not me mention the presentation is quite entertaining.

      • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

        not to mention you get the project file if you are lazy… haha

    • versusINK

      if you think THIS is the easiest tutorial, you obviously haven’t seen the jib-jab puppet mouth tutorial. it’s easy as al hell. I love it, but it’s still easy. this one doesn’t even look all that great…

  • Rev65

    Nicely done, Phil!

    Remember, gang, your $9 a month is for the ENTIRE tuts+ network, not just aetuts+.

  • http://www.behance.net/Modisana Modisana

    its hard to get used to aetuts going plus

  • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller

    One more thing that I probably should have mentioned in the description is that with what Phil created, you can change out the footage instantly to anything you want and generate the same zoomed effect. It’s not just a “one shot” specific example.

  • your name

    Take Kramer’s business model. Free tutorials, get a ton of people to your site, then make content, plug-ins, effects for people to buy that are actually good and are relatively inexpensive. $9/month isn’t a lot, but it can add up.

    • Dustin

      The vast majority of people whining about $9 a month are not buying products.

      Also just because a business model works for someone, does not mean everyone should do things the same way. The price of one Video Copilot product can get you all the tutorials and other bonuses from 9 sites covering 3d work, AE, photoshop, webpages, etc…

      The internet has almost completely destroyed a generations concept of value and trade.

  • http://methodd.com Evangelos Methodd

    WOW a PLUS tutorial for this one ??? How could anybody need a tutorial for such a simple task ?
    I guess next tutorial will be how to move a layer from point A to point B…

    • Mark

      Seriously? You are talking about the quality? Look at your website…puahhahhahha… and the portfolio..buahhaaha…You just used various stock graphics to make your website and your portfolio looks like student projects.

      • http://www.methodd.com Vag

        student projects that grant me 60.000 euros a year for the past 6 years in my country (Greece)

      • versusINK

        really… try not to be such an ass. it’s completely unnecessary.

    • TheCheeze

      We are not all pro like you. I have only these tuts to teach me everything about AE as a hobbie. This tut is more about the creativity more then the skill of it. Lets see you pump more tuts on here that are “hardcore” put in some time and teach us what a real tut is. blow our socks off.

  • Håvard Fandrem

    Why can’t we just pay for one and one tutorial instead of paying on monthly bases?

  • Freezo

    This one seems fun, and its probably packed with lots of info (the tutorial). But the sniper effects lacks something…

    I think its the movement which is not correct (sorry if I am picky).

    A sniper doesnt shake that much and doesnt move this way (not exactly). I think its the wiggle, perhaps too much. Just a suggestion.

    • http://blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      true. i opted for clarity’s sake for a rather fidgety movement so one can see the effects in both the scope and the background.

      fear not: it is easily possible to change the movement to anyone’s personal needs for a good shot (pun intended).

      • Freezo

        hehe, true you are totally right. I kinda forgot the idea of a tutorial doh! You set up the method and people should use their own ideas and creativity to change it.

        Nice tut :)

  • Billy

    This tutorial is even less likely to get people to join tuts than Lloyd’s tutorial. Is an OK tutorial….but to pay for it? Hardly…

  • Zuyva

    Well, I think I’m getting Plus now =D

  • http://frontiers-game.com frontiers-tobi

    i wont hang out at the puch-trainstation anymore! seems dangerous :S

  • http://youtube.com/effectsgroup EffectsGroup

    You have to admit, that was actually really good. I think I might just join PLUS now! (or at least soon)

  • Allen

    Looks pretty cool and game-like…maybe some day you’d want to create a game yourself!!!

  • Robin Hood

    There is nothing one can say really if a tut maker wants to attempt to sell his tutorial. I commend you as it is something you can do.

    There is also nothing one can say if those of us choose to file share all the tuts they attmept to sell that other cretors offer for free. As there are those who comend us – and is something we can do.

    And to those elite tut makers that complain about us file sharers
    eh eh eeeh… now – What’s that you downloaded on “your” HD?

  • http://craigps.info Craigsnedeker

    thats awesome!

  • Un

    9$/ month and i can see the tutorial ?

    my last visit here i guess ;)

  • morsjie

    about the coffee…

    if u drink it sitting in p.zza S. marco in venice, u spend around 12 euros for a single coffee :P

  • Lost for words!

    For all you cheapskates that moan about possibly having to pay for a tutorial check out this conversation on Motionworks between John Dickinson and Aharon Rabinowitz. 11.30mins onwards.

    http://www.motionworks.com.au/2009/10/unplugged-10-aharon-rabinowitz/

    Lot’s of other stuff for you to think about as well!

  • Loay Emad

    The most thing that attracted me to AE Tuts that it makes AWESOME tutorials for free but sure if I got the money to support it of course I will.
    I think that the idea of downloading the tutorials every 6 months us a cheap way to be grateful to AETuts for all the great tutorials that made.

    Finally Thanks for the great free tutorials and I believe that you guys at AETuts Deserve the Support !

  • Karen

    Looks like the real thing… its like your’re holding one in your own hands… very very impressive.

  • eric

    There is so much work behind a good tutorial. And there is so much work running a site. If u rather spend $9 on a trip to McDonalds that is your choice, but dont expect every good thing in life to be free. You will be very disappointed. $9 a month….uhuuuuu. Also please lose that attitude that the tuts sites owe you something. They dont.

  • abullett

    Uhm, just to distract you guys from your ProPlus/AntiPlus argument for one moment…

    I hope I’m not about to be burned for missing something obvious, but I can’t find the tutorial file to download. I have the preview demo and the project files, but I’m missing the tut itself!

    Am I just not looking hard enough?

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller

      Under the plus content there is a post for project files and another post for viewing the tut itself. You can download it from there. Just make sure you’re on the right tab while on the plus side.

      • abullett

        D’oh! Tabs…
        Ta.

  • Waugh

    This stuff is great, and with a little bit of tweaking, can be a part of a good first-person shooter game.

  • luantran

    I can’t watch video tutorial. Help me, huhuhu…..
    AEtuts Help

  • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

    Just got Plus… just watched this tutorial… man, this is AWESOME! To all those saying this is easy, this is possibly my favorite tutorial on the site. So well produced, heavily explained theory, and TONS of techniques that I didn’t know… Minor knowledge of expressions needed… this is absolutely an amazing tutorial, and a must see!

    Phil… you have to make more tutorials. Seriously.

    • http:blog.philstrahl.com Phil
      Author

      yay — thanks for the nice words, topher! and no worries, i will create a new one as soon as i have some more time on my hands. glad you like it.

      any requests?

  • GiX

    My monthly income is 150$ in Serbia, 9$ monthly is to match for me, sorry :(

  • Smithy

    Video Co Pilot is still free this is a massive fail IMHO

  • Zuyva

    The decision accepted by you about payment will ruin your fine resource…

    IMHO

  • Ben

    Awesome stuff keep updating :D

  • Zuyva

    For a payment it would be possible to download files of projects and additional
    Materials to a lesson, instead of lessons… Lessons Should be free!
    So it will be fair…

    IMHO

    • Max

      That’s like saying you should only pay for the books when you go to college. The people who make the tutorials get paid, so tutsplus has every right to offer paid premium content – they don’t owe us anything.

  • Ramzes

    Come on guys!Because of this tutorial you now talking about membership:)We should be grateful that they make tutorials for us.With all respect to tutorial makers, thanks for your time doing this tutorials for us:)

  • http://ads asd

    gotta pay?
    lame, this starts the downfall of this site…

  • http://spotdex.com David Moreen

    Now that’s realistic!

  • http://youtube.com/LxrKan LxrKan

    lol… i figured out how to do this just by looking at the preview :)

    quite easy really…
    heres my atempt:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ3ESnJjDgM

  • http://youtube.com/LxrKan LxrKan

    for you cheapskates who dont want plus…
    here is my tutorial for this effect:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydgAlh_iRL4

  • webber

    i hope to see more tutorials from phil he REALLY knows whats going on and it shows

  • alejoparry

    Where are the files? And the tutorial???