Animate a Portrait with After Effects and Photoshop

It's alive! Animate portraits using Photoshop and After Effects. Bring old paintings to life. Quickly add movement and depth to still images. I go through the most common challenges, and techniques you'll work with when animating any portrait.

If you have any questions just let me know in the comments.

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[khcstewie]

holy crap, I'm not even close to being fully familiarized with PS/AE, but you walked us through that so coherently and at a pace that seems manageable. Looking forward to the next one!

[MegaTVscreen]

Alright everyone. I found the painting used in the picture - it's " *Joseph Ducreux - Discreet Secret* ". I don't know why the hell it is such a big deal to say the name instead of " _it's wildly available on wikipedia_ ", that the author answers to everyone, but anyways, here you go!

[iamYork_]

Whispers in ear, "Starts at 2:20"

[novelafilmacademy]

Your videos never disappoint! The detailed tutorials, clear comparisons, and brilliant showcases of sound design and storytelling are incredibly helpful. Thanks for the insightful and well-explained content.

[gabrielsond]

Your face flipping, merging, blending technique was REALLY helpful! Thanks!

[kelrickds]

Hands down one of the most thorough and well organized tutorials I've watched. Thank you for creating this - I've learned a lot and I can see this being a permaent refernce as I practice w/ AE.

[cathdictube]

- hold down space to move a pen point around
- work path selected + layer selected + cmd + click mask icon to get a vector mask
- cmd E = merges selected layer with the one bellow, PRESERVING VECTOR MASK

- these are gonna save me YEARS of life, thank you <3

[DaveSpitz]

I've learnt how to use Photoshop to a pretty good standard from YouTube, I think now it's time I got into After Effects, cheers for the vid, I think you will be my go to guy for this one 👍🏻

[JoshPaulie]

I really appreciate tutorials like this. I would never search "Animate a Portrait" but the learned new tools like content fill.
edit: and the control-click the scale nodes to deform (enter to confirm)

[seggremalac]

WOW. This one was shocking. I'm - could say - pro in PS but never imagined these LOT of great tools could be used in AE! This is just brilliant!

[MasterVycen]

Damn, I feel so smart after watching this.

[MyMonty]

Glad to know that I have been using similar techniques in all my projects where I need to animate a still image. I always wonder if there is a better way to do this.

[johnlopez]

2ManyDJs did this years ago. They would perform with a huge screen displaying album covers & have the figures move around. Such a trip.

[xdsx]

awesome video!
btw for photoshop id recommend using masking layers instead of erasers and you can group multiple layers with cmd+g instead of merging them down. i always find an issue when i come back to my work and having a non destructive edits means you can keep adjusting in the future :)

[brutallyremastered]

Easily the most entertaining and informative Tut' I've seen. First rate.

[paulmitchell]

In the pen tool I suggest using the rubber band mode. It allows fewer points because you can see the curved line your are creating.

[iamtommyok]

Really excellent tutorial! The vector masks in PS are a great tip for this and the camera parallax is something I'm definitely going to use immediately. Thank you!

[janineadrianareguengagomez]

I have never used AE but you mannaged to explain it so clearly I can actually understand and have a general idea how to start practicing

[JoaoSilva]

I am a pro in AE and i know this Work Flow back and forth, and i can tell you your video is the best in explaining this!

[Rynaylorguitar]

I am SO far from being able to do any of this but was mesmerised by your skills. Great video!