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Blender and After Effects VFX Masterclass (Udemy.com)

Add 3D objects and characters to any live action footage

Created by: Ruan Lotter

Last updated March 2023

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What you will learn

  • Adding 3D objects and characters into any live action scene
  • Camera Tracking or Match Moving using Blender
  • How to render an EXR Sequence containing multiple Render Passes
  • Compositing Render Passes using Adobe After Effects
  • How to use Cryptomattes when compositing
  • How to Rotoscope in After Effects
  • Basic Color Grading in After Effects

How it compares

Against the other 118 rated Udemy courses in Adobe After Effects on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 45% of them
  • Reviews224#44 of 119 by number of reviews
  • Length3.8 hourslonger than 60% of them
  • Last updatedMarch 2023more recently than 68% of them

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Course Description

Welcome to this Blender & After Effects VFX Course


What you will learn?

  • 3D Camera Tracking

  • Adding 3D objects and Animated Characters to your real world scene

  • Using Mixamo to import animated characters

  • Using Bridge to import Quixel Megascans into your scene

  • Match the lighting of the real world scene

  • Adding shadow catchers for compositing later

  • Adding an HDRI for realistic reflections and lighting

  • Using Render Passes and Cryptomattes

  • Rendering an EXR Image Sequence

  • Full Compositing workflow in After Effects

In this exciting course you will learn how to create fantastic worlds by adding 3D objects & characters into any live action scene. We will begin by going step by step through the Camera Tracking process, then we will look at how you can add 3D objects or characters to the scene. You will also learn how to add shadows and how to match the lighting in your 3D scene to the live action footage. Next we will focus on Render Passes and how to render a multilayer EXR sequence, and finally you will learn how to composite these different render passes together using Adobe After Effects.

You will also learn how to use Cryptomattes to easily mask objects to make specific adjustments without re-rendering from Blender. We will do some Rotoscoping, look at how to use TrackMattes, and finally we will color grade the shot, add some film grain to blend everything together, and render your final VFX Shot.


Here is a list of all the Lesson Topics in this course:


  1. Creating a PNG Image Sequence using After Effects

  2. Camera Tracking: Import PNG Image Sequence into Blender

  3. Camera Tracking: Setup Camera Sensor Size + Focal Length + Color Management

  4. Camera Tracking: Tracking Setup

  5. Camera Tracking: Adding Trackers and Track footage

  6. Camera Tracking: Solving the Camera Track

  7. Camera Tracking: Refining your Camera Track if needed

  8. Camera Tracking: Setup Scene, Orienting the Scene and Set Scene Scale

  9. Test Objects: Viewport Render to ensure the Camera Track is good

  10. Adding 3D Objects from Quixel to the Scene

  11. Adding a Mixamo Character to the Scene

  12. Shadow Catchers

  13. Matching the lighting using an HDRI and / or Sun

  14. Matching the Shadows

  15. Configure Render Passes + Cryptomattes

  16. Rendering EXR Sequences

  17. After Effects: Import Plate & Render Passes & Setup the correct colour space

  18. Setup Composition - The Comprehensive Way

  19. Setup Composition - The Easy Way

  20. Match and Adjust Shadows, Highlights and Reflections

  21. Blur 3D Elements to Match Footage

  22. Crytomattes and what you can do with them

  23. Rotoscoping Foreground Elements

  24. Using mist pass for adding mist / haze

  25. Final Colour Grading

  26. Matching Film Grain or Digital Noise

  27. Final Render

  28. Bonus Lesson (Adding grass around the well)

I'm including the footage and assets that you will require to follow along, but feel free to use your own footage if you wish.

I really hope that you will learn a lot during this course, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions, I will be more than happy to assist. Ready to create some amazing VFX shots? I will see you in the first lesson!

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Instructor Details

Ruan Lotter

Ruan Lotter is a VFX & 3D Artist, Online Teacher, Music Producer and Author from Cape Town, South Africa. He has worked on many short films and TV commercials for brands such as Hasbro, Lipton, RB, Ryobi and HP doing mostly camera tracking, general 3D work and compositing.

It all started in 1994 when he discovered 3dsmax for DOS! Back then it was called "3D Studio" and that changed everything... A few years later, 3dsmax for Windows was released and the world of online tutorials was born. Ruan instantly started binge watching online tutorials on a website called "3D Buzz" and dove deep into the world of 3D. Over the years he used many different VFX related software such as Adobe After Effects, Maya, Cinema4d, Modo, PFTrack, Boujou and Nuke to name a few and he fell in love with the world of Visual Effects and YouTube became his university of choice.

At the beginning of 2020, after many years of using Maya, he found Blender which quickly became his go-to application for anything 3D or VFX related. In mid 2022 he published his first book "Taking Blender to the Next Level" which is available on Amazon.

He currently works as a VFX Artist & 3D Generalist at Accenture, doing mostly 3D and VFX work on TV and Web content for well known brands.

He also runs a YouTube channel called TunnelvizionTV where he teaches VFX and Motion Graphics using a variety of applications.

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Reviews

4.5

224 ratings on Udemy

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By Pragnesh Solanki on 9/22/2025

Great skills of teaching. Loved it!

By ZulluBalti on 5/25/2025

really nice course if you want to deep dive into blender's motion tracking, the instructor explains each and every step that he does and give easy to understand explanations. Also using After Effects as compositor makes life easier.

By Sam Rao on 1/6/2025

Explained simply clearly, without rushing through, and although trainer has slight accent, not difficult to follow at all. Well worth the purchase!

By Harald Pizzinini on 9/20/2024

Interessante, potrebbe essere più tecnico, comunque da un bel po di spunti

By Aija Ulasa on 9/13/2024

Thank you! Its my second time trying VFX (first time was simple instructions from youtube video). I am glad I enrolled in your course - learned a lot! Now need to try modify some of my personal videos and lets see how much I can do now on my own :)

By Timothy Michael Brogoitti on 5/3/2024

Why are you not including the 3d assets and forcing me to go find my own? Do you have some sort of deal with Quixial? Well... their plugin won't connect to Blender for me because of a port issue and now I have to go research how to fix the port issue..to download the asset...that you should have included anyway... and its been a good 30 mins now of trying to figure this out. I'm literally done with you content for the day and likely won't come back.

By Björn Sondermann on 3/6/2024

Great Course! Thank you very much! The Camera tracking Tutorial is super! It's the first time i get a perfect result for working with the camera track in Unreal Engine. Very Happy to found this Course!

By Carlos Cárdenas on 3/5/2024

Me gustó el curso. Recomendado para quienes quieren empezar con el tracking en Blender

By Carlos Rabanal on 9/13/2023

This is sincerely the BEST COURSE I HAVE EVER TAKEN ON UDEMY! Straight to the point, you certainly explain everything in an easy, understandable way. If you want to learn how to implement 3D and reality, this is definitively the course for you! I enjoyed it from start to finish! Saludos from México!

By Peter Sundvor on 7/12/2023

This is just perfect, exactly what i was looking to learn. Concise and to the point, but with enough explanation to understand why and what you are doing. Fantastic starting point to camera tracking and composition and I feel like i am hitting the ground running.

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Overall Score : 90 / 100