Faking Tilt Shift Tutorial

I have seen a lot of written articles on this subject, and it seems to be a hugely popular effect.  I mean some guy even did a roundup on the subject last week or so…  anyways, I am going to be putting out the first of its kind, yes, the acclaimed Tilt Shift photography technique is possible with After Effects, and there is now a video tutorial for it.  What is different about this tutorial from all the others, is they are usually trying out this effect on still images, when that really doesn’t do it justice when applying it to video.  We will be using the Posterize Time effect along with Lens Blur and some handy adjustment layer masking to create the toy, stop-motionish feel to the footage.  This kind of effect is always better when created with an actual tilt shift lens, and a DSLR camera such as the Canon 5D MK II or Panasonic GH1, but hey some of us just have a cheap Canon Vixia HV30 and a parking garage nearby… and sometimes, if you are handy with your techniques, you can very well pull it off, just as well as the pros do.

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Topher Welsh

Topher Welsh is a post production artist working mainly in the fields of motion graphics and visual effects. He is a freelancer out of Tacoma, Washington, and also runs www.VisualFXtuts.com, which provides a daily fix of tutorials from any and all applications in the visual effects industry. His personal website is found here: www.Toe-Fur.com.


  • Jon says:
    July 1, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    I was playing around a bit with this type of effect before this tutorial. I was just wondering if you thought it might sell the effect better if you increased the speed of the footage to give it not only a stop motion feel, but a time lapse feel. I need to shoot better footage to work with, as I was trying to use something shot lower to the ground, so that made it much harder to sell the effect after the fact.

    Thanks for the tutorial, man. I’ve always been kinda annoyed trying to find something that works on actual moving footage instead of a still frame, and I’m glad you addressed that.

  • Cameron says:
    July 11, 2009 at 5:34 am

    Redgiant ‘Looks’ has a tilt-shift lens built in which makes creating miniatures really easy.

  • David_97 says:
    July 11, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    Nice tut, man! Glad to see you doing some. I’ve always loved that shallow, stop-motion effect. Nice to see a tutorial!
    -David

  • Cardinal says:
    July 11, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    Such a common tutorial, everybody knows how to make this kind of stuff, don’t you have anything better to do than to explain old things to the others ?
    Old man. Move Out !

  • Cameron says:
    July 13, 2009 at 4:04 am

    there’s an Iphone app called Vint Shift which does tilt shift using the iphone camera.

  • Ehmie says:
    July 15, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    If you have enough RAM, I’ve always found it easy enough to simply pre-compose the footage, then in advanced comp setting, change the frame rate. This saves on rendering time and leaves the effects adjustable. Also, if you have a still camera, you may want to paint a depth matte and use it to assign certain things in the frame as closer and further for more authenticity….but typically the front and back masks work to sell it enough. Good job.
    Best regards.