Welcome to part two of “The Trailer” tutorial, today we will take a look at how to really enhance and polish off our Cinema 4D render from part one.

In After Effects, we’re going to do some color correction and grading to set the mood of our animation and add some color to our flat render. We’ll then add some motion blur using ReelSmart Motion Blur, but you can use CC Force Motion Blur as a alternative. The motion blur will blend things in more naturally and ease up the sharpness of our text.

We’ll add some lighting using Trapcode Shine, you can use CC Light Burst as a alternative, and Optical Flares for the top ambient light. The goal is to make the lighting seem natural and subtle.

Finally, we’ll finish things off with optional letterboxing, a subtle out of focus blur (I used Frischluft’s Out of Focus, but you can use Lens Blur), some volumetric smoke, and a grain to soften the animation up and add some organic-ness to the whole thing.

Tips

When adding letterboxing, you may want to adjust the position of your top light so it’s visible and lights enough of the top portion of your animation. Remember, keep it subtle and soft.

You also may want to adjust your light rays pointing slightly down since the light is up top. Something I definitely forgot to do was to add shadows behind the text on the texture wall. It will help add depth with the smoke and add realism.

That pretty much covers it all! Play around, experiment, and have fun. I truly believe the post production After Effects part is the most fun as you can really twist your renders any way you want. Hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these types of tutorial formats!