How To Make a Zoom Blur Transition in After Effects

In this video we show you How To Make a Zoom Blur Transition in After Effects. You may have seen this effect before from YouTubers like Sam Kolder and TaylorCutFilms as well as prominent filmmakers such as Leonardo Dalessandri. These filmmakers have popularized the highly effective zoom blur transition and have perfected the ways to use it for maximum visual impact.

This effect is achieved by creating an adjustment layer over two clips and keyframing an increased scale. By removing the compositions natural shutter angle and manually setting it to 180, you tell After Effects to give automated motion realistic motion blur. Finally, using the motion tile effect can help to get rid of any black boarders around your footage.

Music in this video was from Motion Array:

[kongorodickens]

Got the advert of youtube...straight away your channel is right up ma alley

[jackjmccarthy]

I've seen 1000s of zoom transitions on YouTube YOURS is honestly ONE of the best dude!!! Very clean, precise + GREAT tutorial.

[BenSullinsOfficial]

Love this, in an animation I'm working on I get the 2nd clip coming in and it is really blurry, maybe something to do with the adjustment layer and the scale of the 2nd clip conflicting? any thoughts on that?

[mohsenrazaviz]

thanks for the tutorial . I had searched a lot for this tutorial before I saw this video . but when I tried this for 4 picture s, I had a problem . the problem was the low quality of the second picture . would you please make a tutorial and try to use more pictures ?

[chevrotain]

The issue with this method is the fact that the second clip will be a lower resolution. This is not an issue that only a few people experience, EVERYONE will have a reduction in quality, it just may not be as noticeable.


I highly recommend you instead parent the videos to a null object, and change the scale of the null object instead. If you apply motion blurring to all of the clips (look it up if you don't know how), you'll get the same results in the video but with no loss of quality!

[steveloudon]

At 2:44 of this you say there is black around the second clip "because we shrunk it at the start of the zoom." I don't get that. Is there a step missing? I don't recall you shrinking the scale of the second clip. Also I don't see any black showing around the second clip. After all you said to increase it's size so that it will be the required dimensions after the transition. What am I missing? Thanks

[lokigom]

This is such a great tut - explained exactly how AE videos should be done. THANKS!!!!

[pauljamhouri]

Thank you for your tutorial, it's really what I needed. God bless you.

[mostafaelnaggar]

I'm starting to learn after effects, and I'd like to know what devices do you recommend to to start with while learning after effects?
also do i need to learn other use other programs other than after effects and premiere pro to be a professional?

[mikeburke]

Cool. A little fast in the beginning. But can watch this video over and over. Cool beans.

[XXchillpanda]

Great job! This tutorial is just what I needed!

[rahulsonwanshi]

WoW Awesome Thanks Got It Earlier I got confused

[XainesWorld]

Fantastic guide thank you! just made something look so much better with this transition <3

[visualsbywlroo]

for those of you whose second clip is blurry, set the sampling to bicubic rather than bilinear and you gain some quality

[uNknownrMx]

Nice, Bro keep up the speed, it's not a Toturial but it's a speed challenge!

[LeonardoBrandaoLima]

Thank you so much! How do I save this preset ? I Tried but didnt work on anothoer workflow

Excellent ! The only thing that maked it complicate for me is that there is no name for the different layers. I know it's more work for you but I really think it could make your totorials even better :)
Thanks again !

[sdk]

I've did this a few times where it is working well, but sometimtes my second clip is loosing resolution and I don't know why. Even if I am in a small comp with 4K footage that's already been scaled down over 50%, it still comes out pixelated after the transform zoom. When I go before the zoom and scale it up to what it should be, it's fine. As soon as the scale effect from the adjustment layer comes in. it gets pixelated.

EDIT: Somewhat the problem seems to be coming up if they original clip size does not match the comp size. 1920x1080 clip on a 1920x1080 comp is working fine. As soon as I take the same steps in a 50% smaller comp, pixelation occurs. So workaround is to make the effect in a sub comp that matches your second clips size.

[ejlloyd]

Using this technique, is there a way to change where the anchor point goes?

[tiara-gp]

Hi! thankyou for the tutorials. My image is getting pixelated if I do this with multiple layers in one composition. Is there any way to make it hing resolution again? Thankyou