Chapter 9. The Camera and Optics

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There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.

—Ernst Haas

Visual effects might seem to be all about realism, but that’s not quite the goal; the compositor’s actual job is more precisely to simulate the real world as it appears through the lens of a camera. The distinction is critical, because the photographed world looks different from the one you see with the naked eye and consider to be reality.

An understanding of cinematography is essential to compositing, because After Effects offers the opportunity to re-create and even change essential ...

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