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In this tutorial, we will learn how to enhance the realism of our ball animation by applying motion blur. This effect mimics the way a real ball would appear if captured by a camera, creating a more dynamic visual experience. Follow the steps below to implement motion blur in Autograph.

Selecting the Layer

  • Select the Ball Layer

    • Start by selecting the ball in the timeline to access its animation settings.

Accessing Motion Blur Settings

  • Locate Motion Blur Settings

    • In the properties panel or timeline, you will see the Motion Blur Settings parameter appear once the ball is selected.
  • Set to Custom Settings

    • Change the setting to Custom settings. This allows you to adjust motion blur parameters for this specific layer.

Configuring Motion Blur Quality

  • Adjust Motion Blur Quality

    • If you set Motion Blur Qualityto 0, motion blur will not be calculated.

    • Setting it to a value between 0 and 1 will compute motion blur, enhancing the animation's realism.

  • Understand Motion Blur Calculation

    • Autograph calculates motion blur by temporally diffusing the pixels of your layer along its trajectory.

    • Increasing the quality parameter will accumulate more pixels over time, resulting in a more pronounced motion blur effect.

Using Composition Settings for Global Control

  • Access Composition Settings

    • For broader control over multiple layers, select the composition itself. This grants you access to the Motion Blur Quality and Shutter Angle parameters.
  • Adjusting Global Parameters

    • By modifying these centralized values, you can assign the same motion blur settings to several layers simultaneously, streamlining your workflow.

Comparing Animation with and without Motion Blur

  • Evaluating the Effect

    • Adding motion blur significantly increases the realism of your ball animation.

    • Play the animation both with and without motion blur to observe the difference in visual quality. The change is often immediately noticeable.

  • Setting Quality Parameters

    • The quality parameter is commonly set to 0.25, but feel free to increase it for a more intense effect, keeping in mind that higher settings may result in longer render times.

Summary

In this section, we've learned how to:

  • Enable motion blur for a specific layer.

  • Switch between Custom and Composition Settings.

  • Adjust motion blur parameters for enhanced animation realism.