Adding Motion Blur to a 3D Render using After Effects

Created with a trial version of ScreenSteps

3D renders look way better with motion blur, but raytraced motion blur takes a long time to render and often only looks marginally better than a free 2D effect that comes with After Effects. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to add Motion Blur to your footage using the Time Warp effect in AE.

1. Double click in your project bin to import your footage.

2. Import your footage file.

3. Drag your footage onto the New Comp icon.

4. In the effects panel, search for "timewarp"

5. Drag the Timewarp effect onto your footage file.

6. Update the effect settings

1. Change speed to 100.

2. Enable Motion Blur

3. Change Shutter Control to Manual

7. Play back a RAM Preview.

8. If it looks good, you're done, but if you can clearly see multiple copies of your subject...

9. ...increase the shutter sample setting until that's gone on most frames.

16 samples works pretty well for me. Note that you can keyframe this parameter - to cut down on render time, only crank this up for the sections of your animation where there is fast motion.

10. Other methods of adding Motion Blur.

I recommend this method as it's free. But if you can afford the purchase, I can't recommend Reel Smart's Motion Blur plugin highly enough.