After Effects & Blender workflow - eirisocherry/csgo-editing GitHub Wiki

Video tutorials

Perfect masks with cryptomatte & emission passes: ...
Perfect masks with z-depth: ...
CSGO map to Element 3D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCBHPktTWU

I will show the After Effects & Blender workflow by using CSGO as an example
For other games process should be similar

Getting started
  1. Record some CSGO cinematics with a z-depth and camera layer:
    https://github.com/eirisocherry/csgo-editing/wiki/How-to-make-CSGO-edit
  2. Learn how to make perfect 3d tracking in CSGO:
    https://github.com/eirisocherry/csgo-editing/wiki/Perfect-3D-tracking-for-CSGO
  3. [Optional] Relighting tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4bK-22gUEk
  4. [Optional] Camera Time Remapping tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuCIjltDq1I

AE camera to Blender 
After Effects to Blender export script: https://github.com/adroitwhiz/after-effects-to-blender-export


    

  1. Export after effects camera via after-effects-to-blender-export script
    
Screenshot_1
    
Screenshot_2

    2. 

  2. Import exported camera to blender via after-effects-to-blender-export addon
    
Screenshot_3
    
Screenshot_4

    3.

CSGO map to Blender
>>> Exporting CSGO map and importing it to Blender 
    

  1. Install Blender 4.2.2 (3d software): https://download.blender.org/release/Blender4.2/blender-4.2.2-windows-x64.msi

    2. 

  2. Download BSPSource (csgo map extractor): https://github.com/ata4/bspsrc/releases
    
Extract a CSGO map (ex: de_mirage.bsp) via BSPSource, all you need is .vmf file (mesh of the map)
    3. 

  3. Install Plumber 1.1.2 (csgo map importer for blender): https://github.com/lasa01/Plumber/releases/tag/v1.1.2
    
Screenshot_84
    
Screenshot_83

    4. 

  4. Import a CSGO map to Blender via Plumber addon:
    
image
    
image

    5. 

  5. Fix skybox:  ...
    6.

>>> Rotating the map by 90 degrees, so imported after effects camera faces the right direction 
    

  1. Move 3d cursor to the center of the world, so new objects spawn here
    
image

    2. 

  2. Add a null (empty "plain axes")
    
image
    
image

    3. 

  3. Select the map
    
image
    
3.1. Holding CTRL select the empty (the latest selected object will be the parent for all previous selections)
    
3.2. Make sure you selected everything correctly, press CTRL + P and make the empty a parent for the map
    
Be patient! The process may take a long time!
    
image

    4. 

  4. Select the empty and rotate it by 90 degrees
    
image

    5.


Passes
>>> Emission 







 >>> Cryptomatte 



With cryptomatte pass you can mask any objects in 1 click


ProEXR (ae plugin that allows you to work with .exr): https://www.fnord.com/


    

  1. Move 'Cryptomatte.aex', 'EXtractoR.aex', 'IDentifier.aex' with replacement to:
    
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC <version>\Support Files\Plug-ins\Effects

    2. 

  2. Move 'OpenEXR.aex' with replacement to:
    
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC <version>\Support Files\Plug-ins\Format

    3. 














 Rendering 



Super fast renderer settings


Best choise if you only wanna render emission + cryptomatte passes


Renderer: evee
Samples: 16
Shadows: disabled
Raytracing: disabled


Render settings


Output folder: any
File format: OpenEXR MultiLayer
Color Depth: Float (Full)
Codec: ZIP (lossless)  // if you wanna compress the size you can choose DWAA (lossy) but it may cause artifacts
image


Render


image







 Work in progress... 




 >>> Misc 

On EEVEE renderer transparent textures appear on z-depth pass incorrectly, to fix this, you need to adjust these two options:
image









 >>> Backlot 

If you want to add a backlot to the camera:

image

If you want to see the original colors of the video in a viewport:

image









 >>> Z-depth combine 



Blender z-depth + CSGO z-depth

yep


EFX Z Depth Tools (After Effects plugin): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s9RA8GCvXfkevTXd6VQoXw7LzJasvyyS/view?usp=sharing













  CSGO map to Element 3D 



After Effects plugin


Element 3d  plugin): https://www.videocopilot.net/products/element2/


Settings


Plumber scale 0.01

OBJ scale 501.78

Element 3d orientation y 180->270

Element 3d alignment from model

Element 3d group position:


x = thisComp.layer("HLAE CamIO Camera").transform.position[0]*effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
y = thisComp.layer("HLAE CamIO Camera").transform.position[1]*effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
[x, y];



z = thisComp.layer("HLAE CamIO Camera").transform.position[2]*effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
z;



Slider control value -11.545


Step by step


    

  1. Record a cinematic with camera layer enabled and import it to after effects
    2. 

  2. Extract a csgo map (ex: de_mirage.bsp) with BSPSource, all you need is .vmf file (mesh of the map)
    3. 

  3. Import a csgo map to blender via plumber addon with 0.01 scale
    4. 

  4. Export the map as .obj with 501.78 scale
    
Screenshot_85
    
Screenshot_86

    5. 

  5. Import the .obj into element 3d
    
image

    6. 

  6. Rotate the map by 90 degrees y 180->270 and set alignment (anchor point) from model
    
image

    7. 

  7. Apply expressions and add slider control with -11.545 value
    
Make sure you camera name is "HLAE CamIO Camera", otherwise expressions will not work.
    
image

    8. 

  8. If the imported map doesn't perfectly fit the footage, try different slider control values from -11.540 to -11.550
    
8.1. If the map is completely off, make sure you properly imported hlae camera:
    
Before importing the camera, composition's fps must be set to the original fps of a footage (ex: 300fps) and time remapping sholdn't be applied.
    9. 

  9. If you did everything correctly, you can enjoy your perfectly 3d tracked obj map.
    10. 







              


           
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