Shadowing Practice: How to actually make eye-catching 3D Scenes | After Effects - Learn English Speaking with Video

Mastering 3D camera is one of the most powerful skills a video editor can learn.

However, most editors get it wrong.

There are missing pieces that separate crappy scenes from the ones that genuinely grab attention.

You see, a perfect 3D scene starts before you even open After Effects.

Literally half of the success is to prepare great looking images.

For example, here you have the same scene but with different quality of assets.

The scene on the right is crispier, brighter and more lively.

I'll cover how to get these assets in a second.

So, once you have the images, you need to properly set up the layers to get that 3D feel.

And then make sure that there's one point of interest.

Everything around it is supposed to supplement our main subject.

These elements should be significant, but not significant enough to overshadow the main point of interest.

We don't want to cause too much destruction.

Lastly, to bring together everything and make the scene even more compelling, we can spice it up with some effects.

We'll be going through the whole process of how to create that scene inside After Effects.

But first, let's get back to images.

So here's my quick way to get them.

Let's take that Greek sculpture as an example.

So I usually go on Pinterest to find inspirations and drop them into ChatGPT.

Then I ask Chat to create a prompt describing this style.

I also add some stuff I want in particular, like confident posture or keyboard on shoulder.

With the ready prompt I bring it to Nano Banana Pro.

And after a few iterations and adjustments it eventually gets it right.

By the way this is not a promo of these models, you can use anything you want.

However, something I wanted to promote is Motion Essence.

It includes 100 pre -built animations for After Effects

that save a ton of time and I use them in all my videos.

For more info you can find them in the description below.

So now we're gonna get into the sauce.

Alright so we are back in Adobe After Effects

and remember guys you got all the necessary assets for this tutorial in the description below.

So first things first I'm gonna show you the comp settings.

Today we're gonna be working with 1920x1080 then the primary is gonna be set to 30 and duration to 10 seconds.

Let's hit okay.

Alright so now we're gonna head over to the project panel

and what I'm gonna do is grab some of the assets onto the timeline line.

So let's select these three and we're just going to drop them here.

So what you want to do is have the sky on

the bottom then metal is going to be in the middle and figure on top.

So right off the bat what we need to do is introduce the 3D camera.

So for this I'm going to right click go over to new camera

and here what you want to do is pick the preset

of 35 millimeters then the type is going to be set to tunnel camera and we're going to hit okay.

I preferably like to keep my camera on the bottom

so I'm going to drop it here and I'm going to create a new null object.

So let's right click go over to new null object and let's call it cam control one.

Now I'm going to parent the camera to the null

and then what we're going to do is select both layers and I'm going to change the color to cyan.

So cyan is going to be responsible for controlling the movement that way we know what we have here.

The next step will be turning on the 3D

so I'm going to do it here

and now we need to create the distance between the layers to actually get that 3D feel.

So for this I'm going to head over here and I'm going to pick custom view one.

So now with these tools over here you can control the view

so you are not messing up anything about the scene you can just see it from the side.

So here you have the orbit tool then you have grab tool and zoom out zoom in tool.

So what we need to do is just spread out the assets a little bit.

So here we have what the camera sees

so we go back that's exactly what we see

and then I'm going to go back to custom view one

and I'm going to start pushing these assets a little bit further away.

So now if you grab the selection tool you can actually select the layer

and then play around with the arrows to adjust the position.

But now a pro dip.

If you have After Effects 26, you can do it all at the same time.

So let me just show you it's going to be easier to understand.

So I'm going to select everything from the top to the bottom in terms of these three layers

and I'm going to hit P.

So now this third value is responsible for Z position.

So with this, I can actually kind of change that blue arrow.

So if I hold down control plus alt and I start dragging this you're gonna notice that everything is changing proportionally.

So this is an extremely cool feature that is gonna make it

so much faster but

if you don't have After Effects 26 you can just push these layers individually

but I'm just gonna keep doing it so it's in perfect proportions.

So I think something along these lines should do

and then I'm actually gonna scale down the figure because if we go back, that's how it's going to look.

So we definitely need to play around with the scale a little bit.

So let me just scale it down.

Something like that should do.

So that way I know that within that rectangle is our figure.

So we're going to be able to see it just like that.

But now the problem is that meadow and the sky are too small.

So we can't change the position, but we need to scale it up with scale.

That way it's just going to stay in the same distance.

It's just going to be bigger.

So I'm going to select these two, hit S, and I'm going to bump the scale for both of them.

All right.

Then I'm gonna take sky only and I'm just gonna bump it up individually.

Then I'm gonna take our figure and I'm gonna place it a little bit lower

so we don't see this just like that.

I think this should do.

And now right off the bat I'm gonna introduce the text.

So for this I'm gonna grab the type tool and I'm just gonna type in motion.

I'm gonna scale it down by changing the font size

and then I'm gonna hit enter and we're just gonna type in design.

Now let's just select design and bump up the font size.

By the way, I'm using the left paragraph and something like that should do.

So now we need to also turn it into 3D and we need to place it in between metal and the sky.

100

So I'm just going to place it here, turn on the 3D and we can head over to our custom view one.

101

And I'm just going to make sure it's right over here.

102

So let's push it away with blue arrow.

103

And now I know that it's right in the perfect position.

104

So let's go back.

105

And now it's the same problem.

106

We need to scale it up.

107

All right movement looks kind of cool.

108

We can actually take the metal and I'm going to drag it a little bit lower.

109

Right way better.

110

And let's also take the text and have it right behind the metal.

111

All right before we add other assets what I'm going to do is actually start creating the movement for the camera.

112

So first thing I'm going to do is just set up the perfect position.

113

So I'm going to head over to the cam control one hit P

114

and I'm just going to get closer with the position.

115

Right just like that.

116

Then I'm gonna go a little bit lower with Y.

117

Okay and now let me just place a keyframe then I'm gonna move forward let's say maybe two

118

and a half seconds should do maybe a little bit less

119

and now I'm gonna play around with Y position so we kind of want to move upwards

120

and then let me just select these two right click go over to keyframe assistant

121

and we're gonna click on easy ease and now I'm gonna head over to the graph editor.

122

So what we want to do here is select the second keyframe and push the peak towards the left.

123

Now let's do the same thing with this and we're gonna have this movement.

124

We might even extend it a little bit more just like that.

125

Okay here we have the full graph.

126

Smooth and clean.

127

Alright so that's what we have so far and now we need to introduce another movement going back.

128

So we're just gonna zoom out.

129

So this is actually the reason we use the new object because now we can overlap the keyframes.

130

So if I just use the camera I wouldn't have the ability to connect the layers

131

and our movement would have to stop at one frame.

132

So let's say if I zoomed out we would have a rough stop over here and then it would start going back.

133

And with the new objects what we could do is just create another one

134

or actually let me just show you a better way.

135

We can just hit ctrl d for this one, hit you, delete the last keyframe and parent one to two.

136

So now I can also control the movement with this

137

so I'm just going to push it forward

138

and then let's say we're going to have the time indicator here and I'm just going go back with the position.

139

All right, looks cool.

140

I'm just gonna go a little bit lower, go back.

141

I actually started even earlier and then I'm gonna head over to the graph editor

142

and we're just gonna play around with the graph.

143

I would probably speed it up a bit.

144

All right, pretty cool.

145

Let's smooth it out.

146

You always need to play around with the graph, tweak the keyframes and it should be good.

147

All right.

148

I like it.

149

I'm going to go back.

150

And now when we've got the second movement, what I want to do with this is make sure to add that extra 3D feel.

151

So for this, we're going to need more assets.

152

So I'm going to take the tree.

153

I'm going to place it over here on top.

154

So what we're going to do is turn it into 3D.

155

I'm going to head over to the custom view one.

156

And now let's make sure that the tree is in front of the figure and it's more towards the right.

157

Let me just zoom in.

158

Place it right on the right side.

159

Right on the right side.

160

And I'm going to probably lift it up.

161

So I think this should be good.

162

We can actually go back and see what's going on here.

163

All right.

164

It should be more like that.

165

Okay.

166

Now I'm going to duplicate the tree.

167

Push it towards the left.

168

And we can actually play around with the Z position.

169

So it differs a little bit from this tree.

170

So I'm going to hit P.

171

Move it closer to the figure.

172

Probably have it like that maybe scale it up a bit.

173

We can scale up this one as well and let's reveal motion and I think this should do.

174

So this just adds that extra depth and now I actually prepared some of the other assets.

175

Actually we head over to icons.

176

Here you have all of them.

177

So I'm going to select them from 12 to 1 by holding shift.

178

Then I'm going to place them on top.

179

Let's maybe start them at around this time.

180

So now they are kind of piled up.

181

So what I'm going to do with this is select them all, turn them into 3D, and I'm going to head over to our custom view one.

182

So I'm just going to place them somewhere here, maybe even in front of the tree, the trees.

183

And yeah, let's do it like that.

184

I'm going to go back.

185

And now I'm going to use scale in order to scale them down.

186

And now I'm going to place them, let's say, maybe here.

187

So now if you have After Effects 26 you can actually easily set them up

188

but if you don't have it you would need to go icon by icon.

189

So just place one over here then go to the third one place it here

190

and that's how we would have to do it.

191

But I'm just gonna select them from 1 to 12 hit P

192

and hold down ctrl plus alt and we're just gonna play around with x position.

193

All right that's so much faster.

194

Okay, I think this should do, and let's see how it looks.

195

Right, really cool, but I feel like it's a little bit too close to the camera, so what I'm going to do is take them all, just like that, and we're just going to push them closer to the figure.

196

So if I go back to the custom view one, we're going to see them here.

197

I think this should be the perfect position.

198

Let's go back, and here we actually need to scale them up.

199

I'm going to use the same trick as before, so select from 1 to 12, and with Ctrl plus Alt, Extend.

200

All right, let's see.

201

So they are not revealing as harshly as before.

202

I'll probably just scale them up a little bit more.

203

Hit P, Extend, Adjust.

204

So we got the fundamental setup.

205

So what we need to do is actually add a little bit of wiggle to the camera.

206

So that's the reason we picked two -node camera because otherwise if I open it up, we wouldn't have point of interest over here

207

and with an old camera you have it so what you could do is hold down alt click on the stopwatch

208

type in wiggle damn wiggle and in brackets 1 .8 let's click away

209

and that way we're just going to have a little bit of a shake especially you can see it

210

when the camera is stationary so that's pretty cool

211

so now is the time to stylize this whole scene

212

which is going to make it so much better

213

so for starters we're going to apply an adjustment layer so I'm going to right click go over to new, adjustment layer, and what do we call it?

214

Let's say effects.

215

So now the first thing we want to do is color grade our edit.

216

So I'm just going to apply Lumetri color.

217

And here we don't have to do a lot of things.

218

We just need to head over to color wheels.

219

Just take the shadows towards the blues, which is making so much difference.

220

Damn.

221

Before, after.

222

It's kind of blending everything together.

223

I really like it.

224

And then I'm going to head over to curves, and I'm just going to create a slight S -curve nothing over the top just a little bit

225

and actually you know what we're not going to apply anything else here

226

so I'm just going to rename it to color

227

and then we're going to create another adjustment layer

228

so I'm going to right click over to new adjustment layer let's call it effects this time

229

and I'm going to place them below the color

230

so what we want to do with this is apply an effect called radial blur

231

so this is going to give us this effect

232

and it's definitely a little bit too strong

233

so we're going to take it down to four and also we want to take the ellipse tool.

234

I'm gonna have the effects selected and I'm just gonna double click on this.

235

So that way we have a nice mask

236

so I'm just gonna invert it so it targets the sides and I'm gonna double click M.

237

So now I'm gonna feather it out just like that

238

so it's nicely blending together and I can just play around with the expansion.

239

Actually I think the expansion is fine so I'm gonna leave it like that.

240

I'm just gonna add a little bit of feather and also I'm gonna probably take it down to two.

241

All right this looks pretty cool already

242

but now what I'm gonna apply here as well to the sides is a little bit of chromatic aberration.

243

So you can either use VR chromatic aberration.

244

Where is it?

245

VR chromatic aberrations or you can go with the plugin which is called quick chromatic aberrations 3.

246

This is a little bit better and it's free.

247

You just need to look it up and now

248

if I just start playing around with the position you're gonna notice that RGB split over here which is looking pretty awesome.

249

I'm gonna set it up to three maybe let's set up to five.

250

And now something I would like to do is play around with the blur a little bit.

251

So you can either head over to the camera

252

and open up camera options and turn on the depth of field and then just play around with the aperture.

253

You can bump it up and make sure that the focus distance is set on our figure.

254

But the problem is that everything is blurry now so I kind of want to see what the text says.

255

Also I want to see the icons.

256

So what I'm going to do with this is actually disable it and we're going to create another adjustment layer instead.

257

So I'm going to go to new, adjustment layer and I'm going to zoom out a bit and we're going to call it blur.

258

So let me just apply fast box blur to this, bump it up, actually a little bit too much and now we're going to grab the rectangle tool

259

and with this layer selected I'm just going to create a mask in the middle like that.

260

So that's what you should have.

261

Now we need to blend it together a little bit more

262

so I'm gonna hit F bump up the mask feather all right

263

and now I'm gonna place

264

that blur right on top of the meadow I believe all

265

right that's cool it's kind of blending together the horizon a little bit more

266

but I feel like the text is not visible enough

267

so I'm gonna turn it down and and and

268

and that's good also I'm gonna bump up the feather okay 200 should do

269

so this was before and after all right

270

so the only thing that's left is just adding motion blur

271

so I'm make sure to turn it on on all the layers

272

that have 3d on and now it should work beautifully all right

273

so here we have the fully loaded scene let's see it

274

all right looks really good

275

if i wanted to take it to the next level i

276

would probably just add a little bit of movement for the icons maybe the text animation for the text

277

but in general i think

278

that 3d scene is perfect i especially like the colors the colors are a game changer here all right so with

279

that being said hopefully you enjoyed this tutorial make sure to check out the video on the screen

280

and I'll see you in the next one.

281

Cheers guys!

✨ Aanbevolen Video

129 zinnen

Creating Iron Man suit. Full workflow by @AlexLab. Real life Iron Man exosuit with a box of scraps)

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

105 zinnen

Learn to Draw FASTER Than Others (SECRET Chinese Method)

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

285 zinnen

I Built a Fake Home Theater…

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

114 zinnen

ABSOLUTE Beginner Basics.. Blender For Noobs 2025

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

112 zinnen

How To Edit Videos Viewers Will Watch To The END.

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

37 zinnen

How to Create & Style Closed Captions Fast in ActivePresenter 10.5

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 281 zinnen en 3341 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 14:58. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 223 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 86% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
layer zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈleɪ̯ɚ/	laag
select werkwoord	/sɪˈlɛkt/	uitkiezen, selecteer
asset zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈæsɛt/	activa, activum
bump zelfstandig naamwoord	/bʌmp/	botsing
adjustment zelfstandig naamwoord	/əˈd͡ʒʌst.mənt/	aanpassen
custom zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈkʌstəm/	manieren, gebruiken
zoom werkwoord	/zuːm/	zoeven
blur werkwoord	/blɝ/	vervagen
icon zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈaɪ.kɑn/	icoon
graph zelfstandig naamwoord	/ɡɹæf/	grafiek
feather zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfɛðə/	veer, veder
introduce werkwoord	/ˌɪntɹəˈdus/	introduceren, voorstellen
extend werkwoord	/ɛkˈstɛnd/	uitbreiden
mask zelfstandig naamwoord	/mæsk/	masker
arrow zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈæɹəʊ/	pijl

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
go back werkwoord		teruggaan
set up werkwoord	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	bereiden, voorbereiden
check out werkwoord		onderzoeken
mess up werkwoord		verrommelen, in de war brengen
pile up werkwoord		stapelen

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 175 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, gonna, we're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: feather /ˈfɛðə/, smooth /smuːð/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, destruction /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als layer, select, asset.

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Voorwaardelijke zinnen if + zin, will/would + werkwoord — een voorwaarde en het gevolg	if I zoomed out we would have · if you don't have it you would need · if I open it up, we wouldn't have
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	be set · is just spread · is just set
Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding	blues, which is · plugin which is · here which is

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →

Shadowing Practice: How to actually make eye-catching 3D Scenes | After Effects - Learn English Speaking with Video

BEST Cartoon Effect in Photoshop

Stop chasing original ideas—here’s what actually makes you creative

7 Easy & Cinematic B-Roll Shots for YouTube Vlogs

The ULTIMATE Guide to Aesthetics

This library changes how JS and CSS work together

How A Graphic Designer MUST Think in 2026 To Survive!

Creating Iron Man suit. Full workflow by @AlexLab. Real life Iron Man exosuit with a box of scraps)

Learn to Draw FASTER Than Others (SECRET Chinese Method)

I Built a Fake Home Theater…

ABSOLUTE Beginner Basics.. Blender For Noobs 2025

How To Edit Videos Viewers Will Watch To The END.

How to Create & Style Closed Captions Fast in ActivePresenter 10.5

Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Uitspraak om op te letten

Zo oefen je met deze video

Grammatica in deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?