For those more inclined to read. Here’s the video transcription.

Hey there. My name is Thien A. Pham and in this tutorial, I will show you how to add life to a 2D image using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. There are a few techniques that we can use but first let me show you the end results.

So here is a pretty cool 2D image of Wonder Woman and by adding some subtle movements, it gives the photo a 3D look. And as you may already know, Deadpool is opening this weekend and I thought it is fitting we do something to celebrate that. So here’s an awesome photo of him diving to grab a taco. And here is how it will look like at the end after we apply some After Effects techniques to it.

Now, let’s get started.

The first technique is using Displacement Map and for that we need to create a Depth Map. A depth map is a black and white presentation of the depth of your image. In this case, we will paint the part that is the furthest away from the camera with black and the part that is the closest to the camera with white.

Let’s open the Wonder Woman image in Photoshop.

Double click on this layer and rename it to Wonder Woman.

First, create a new layer and fill it with black. Let’s call it DisMap.

We’re going to lower the opacity of this new layer to about 75 percent so we can see the image underneath.

Then switch to the Paint Brush tool and lower the opacity to about 15 percent. For the size, let’s make it around 100 pixels and set the foreground color to white.

Remember the furthest away from the camera is black and the closest to the camera is white. So let’s paint her entire face with 15 percent white. Keep holding down the mouse as we paint. Looking good.

Next, we’re going to paint the closer parts to the camera, so in this case, her front hair and her neck. And fill in these areas.

OK, now we’re going to paint her face. Remember, with each new layer of paint, the color gets whiter, indicating the part that is closer to the camera.

Let’s reduce the size of the brush to about 40 pixels and paint her facial structure.

We can reduce the brush size a little more by hitting the open bracket keyboard shortcut and paint her lips.

Since the tip of her nose is probably the closest to the camera, we should give it another layer of paint.

As well as these strands of hair.

OK, last thing we need to paint are her eyes. Since it is further away from the camera, let’s switch the Brush color to black before painting them. Try to avoid the hair as we paint.

Now, if we increase the opacity of this layer back to 100 percent, we can see our artwork. Not the greatest piece of art but it will work just fine.

Let’s save this file in the Photoshop folder and call it Wonder Woman 2016. Hit OK.

Let’s switch to After Effects and import the Photoshop file we just saved.

Import it as a Composition and leave everything at default.

Double click on the composition we just imported to open it. Here, we can see that each layer in Photoshop is imported as a separate layer in After Effects. So far so good.

Now, we’re going to select the Displacement Map layer, go to Effect -> Blur & Sharpen, and apply a Fast Blur effect. Let’s increase the amount to about 10 and check Repeat Edge Pixels.

Then, we’re going to turn off the Displacement Map layer and apply the Displacement Map filter to the Wonder Woman layer by going to Effect -> Distort -> Displacement Map.

As you can see, it looks a bit strange and that is because the effect uses the same layer as the displacement map layer. Let’s go here and change it to the layer that we created. That will turn the image back to normal.

Since we are using black to white information, let’s change these values to Luminance.

And if we play around with the Vertical and Horizontal Displacement value, we can start to move her face as if she is in a 3D space. Pretty cool, right?

Let’s animate it by adding a few keyframes. We’re going to move the time indicator back to the beginning of the timeline and turn on these stopwatches. Let’s start these values around these amounts.

Then we can move the time indicator to around here and adjust these values again. Remember, the trick here is to give it a very subtle movement and not to go too far as it will start looking unrealistic. I think it’s looking good with these values here.

Let’s preview this by hitting the space bar.

Not too shabby.

Another thing that we can do is to give her a little smile using the Puppet Pin Tool.

To do that, let’s select these layers and go to Layer and choose Pre-compose or hit Command + Shift C. Choose to Move all attributes into the new composition and hit OK.

Select the Puppet Pin Tool here or using the keyboard shortcut Command P. Make sure that the time indicator is at the beginning of the timeline because each time you add a pin, it will automatically add a keyframe wherever the time indicator is.

Let’s add three pins here around her mouth. The thing about the Puppet Pin tool is that it can move the image in a strange way as you can see here. To avoid this problem, we can add more pins around the image to act as anchor points.

Okay. A couple more around her face. Looking good.

Now, let’s move the time indicator towards the end of the timeline and start keyframing.

Make sure you’re still on the Puppet Pin Tool, then select this pin and move it up a little bit to create a smile.

We can also play around with these pins to enhance it.

OK. Let’s preview it.

If you’re not happy with it, you can always go back and readjust these pins to your liking.

There you have it. Adding motion to an otherwise static image using Displacement Map and Puppet Pin Tool.

The next thing I’d like to show you is separating layers into Z spaces and adding a camera move.

Let’s open the Deadpool photo in Photoshop. Duplicate the background layer and turn it off.

Basically, what we need to do is separate each element into different layers: one with just the background, one with Deadpool himself, one with these bubbles, and one with this taco on the hook.

Let’s start with Deadpool. We’re going to use the Pen Tool to make a selection around him.

Let’s start here. Depending on the image, we might need to spend more time on it. For this particular one, it doesn’t need to be too precise.

I’m going to fast forward the video so you don’t have to watch me doing this.

OK. Now we’re done. Make sure we’re still on the Pen Tool, right click on this and select Make Selection. Leave everything at default and hit OK.

Hit Command + J to make a new layer with just the selection we just created. Let’s rename it to Deadpool.

Next, we’re going to separate the taco on a hook and for this, we’re going to use the Lasso Tool.

Make sure we’re still on the Background layer and let’s zoom in to start making our selection.

That’s looking pretty good — and again, hit Command + J to make a new layer with what we selected and name this layer: Taco.

Then we will do the same with these bubbles. We’re going to use the Lasso Tool again to make selections. Remember to hold down the Shift key to add a new selection. We’ll keep doing this until we select all the bubbles that we want.

OK. Again, Command + J to create a new layer with the selection and rename it to Bubbles.

The last thing we need to do is to create a plain background.

For this, we’re going to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool by hitting the keyboard shortcut J.

Make sure that Content-aware is selected. Then paint over anything that we want to remove. Keep holding down the mouse as we paint over this.

It does a pretty good job but if there’s anything left, paint over it again to remove it.

Keep doing that until we’re happy with the result.

I’m going to rename this layer Ocean and as you can see, we now have 4 separate layers with separate elements.

OK, let’s save this Photoshop file and put it into this folder. Let’s call it Deadpool 2.

Now we’re going to switch back to After Effects and import the file we just saved as a composition. Hit OK.

Let’s double click on this composition to open it up.

Just like before, each Photoshop layer comes in as a separate layer here. Pretty neat.

Let’s turn 3D on for these layers so we can put them on separate Z spaces.

We start with the Ocean layer by selecting it and make sure we are on the Selection Tool. When we hover our mouse over this Blue arrow, a small letter Z will pop up to indicate that we now can move this layer further away or closer to the camera. Clicking and holding this Blue arrow and pushing the mouse up will move the layer further away. And if we also hold down the shift key, it will move faster. That’s looking pretty good there.

Make sure the Ocean layer is still selected, hit S and scale up the Ocean layer to fill the entire screen.

Next, select the Taco layer and move it closer to the camera by clicking and holding this Blue arrow again but this time, pulling the mouse down. It’s looking pretty good here.

For the Bubbles layer, we’re just going to move it up a little bit by clicking and holding this Green arrow and pushing the mouse up. Maybe we can even push it back a little.

Another thing we can do is to select these layers and move them to the left.

Now we can start animating by adding a camera.

Go to Layer -> New -> Camera. Choose the 50mm Preset and leave everything else at default settings.

OK. If we select the Unified Camera Tool and click and drag this image, we can see that each layer is separated into different Z spaces. This is exactly what we want as it creates depth to the image.

If it’s not already, move the time indicator to the beginning of the timeline, then open up the Transform settings of the camera. We’re going to turn on all the stopwatches here. Next, we move the time indicator towards the end of the timeline and switch to the Unified Camera Tool. Then click and drag the image here to create the end position of the camera move. We might need to scale up the Ocean layer to fill the screen again. Feel free to play around with it to get the result you like.

Now we’re going to add a lens flare. Go to Layer -> New -> Adjustment Layer. Then go to the Effects & Presets, search for Lens Flare. Here it is. Apply it to the Adjustment Layer.

We’re going to open up the Lens Flare setting and adjust the Flare Center value. Let’s put it right around here. Move this down a little bit. There. Looking pretty good with everything else at default settings.

We can also animate this by moving the time indicator back to the beginning, turning this stopwatch on, then moving it towards the end and adjusting the Flare Center value a little bit.

Let’s preview this by hitting the space bar.

Looking pretty good.

Another thing we can do is add some subtle movements to Deadpool to make it seem as if he is about to catch the taco. And we can achieve that effect using the Puppet Pin Tool.

Again, make sure the time indicator is at the beginning of the timeline, and let’s put a few pins on his face and his arms.

Now it’s time to animate. We’re going to move this towards the end and make sure we’re still on the Puppet Pin Tool. Let’s click this pin here and move it a little to the left. We can also adjust this here a little bit.

Let’s do the same to his arms. That’s pretty good.

To complete this, we’re going to add a thought bubble. Let’s import it and this time, we’re going to import it as Footage with Merged Layers.

You can easily create this thought bubble in Photoshop with whichever dialog you like.

Let’s put it below the Bubbles layer and turn on 3D. We’ll scale it down and position it right around here.

Let’s preview it again.

There we have it. As you look at what you have, feel free to adjust things however you like.

That’s it for today. If you like the video, hit like or subscribe. Also, feel free to let me know if you have any questions in the comment area. My name is Thien A. Pham and thanks for watching.

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