How to Make a 360 Video Using 2D Footage | After Effects

How to Make a 360 Video Using 2D Footage | After Effects

Charles Yeager (yeagerfilm.com) shows how to create a 360 video in After Effects with SkyBox Studio. He uses 2D keyed footage of himself and composites it within different 360 scenes created entirely in After Effects. He composites his “2D” self within an Element 3D cityscape, and into different virtual 360 rooms built from flat images. He also replicates a weapon scene from the Matrix in 360.

The creative possibilities are endless, and as Charles says, “It’s a great way to start producing 360 content”. There are lots of 360 production tips throughout the tutorial as well.

How to Make a 360 Video Using 2D Footage | After Effects

Charles shoots himself against a portable greenscreen, using a Panasonic GH4.

Charles shows how to builds a 360 scene in After Effects.

Custom view in After Effects shows the same scene.

The keyed 2D footage is placed on top of an E3D Cityscape, and turned into a 360 scene with SkyBox Studio.

Charles breaks down his technique, using a multi-colored 360 cube/scene.

Duran Duran 360 video is built with 2D assets in Ae, using the same technique.

Charles creates a futuristic 360 scene with simple E3D shapes.

Recreates a weapon scene in 360, from The Matrix 1999.

The Matrix Stockroom weapon scene

Charles Yeager is a Filmmaker & Motion Graphics Artist currently residing in Arkansas. His projects have been recognized by Canon, Video Copilot, Vimeo, Filmmaker IQ, No Film School, Film Convert, BOOM Library & Filminute. See his portfolio at yeagerfilm.com.

Mettle Skybox Suite has joined Adobe.

Mettle Skybox Suite of plugins will be exclusively available as part of your Creative Cloud membership through deep, native integration with Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC. Adobe Creative Cloud will offer an end to end experience for crafting rich and compelling VR/360 experiences.  

 Learn more – Adobe and Mettle VR: 360 degrees better

4 thoughts on “How to Make a 360 Video Using 2D Footage | After Effects

  1. Hi,

    I wanted to know if it’s possible to accomplish this with the integration of Mettle in AE. It looks like there is no possibility to convert 2D videos arranged in a cube into a 360 anymore… Do you have a solution ?

    Thank you so much !

  2. I think you need to re-select which comp you want to refresh, like I do at 4:06 on the tutorial. Skybox Creator may default to the last comp you had open, so you need to re-select your original 360 comp from the list, when you do, the Refresh Button should return.

  3. Thanks for the great tutorial Charles, I am having issues with refreshing the skybox output.

    When I import my edited green screen footage, the option to refresh the skybox output turns back to the generate skybox output button and I am now unable to refresh the skybox output.

    Have you encountered this before?

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