Alight Motion · 3D Video Edit · Part 2
Alight Motion Camera Layer Tutorial: Move & Transform, Camera Options Explained
Open the camera layer you will see a menu with icons for speed, split and mute and below that four larger sections: Move & Transform Camera Options, Presets and Effects. Move & Transform is where the camera movement lives and Camera Options is where you control how the camera behaves, such as the camera focus the camera view angle and the camera distance settings. Let us go through both one by one.
1. Transform
Tap on Move & Transform and you will see a rotation dial in the center of the screen showing 0 degrees. On the side you will notice a small toggle between position and scale along with an aspect ratio lock icon.
If you tap the icon for width and height you will see two number fields, one for width and one for height linked together with a small chain icon. Below them it shows the camera Zoom value and the camera View Angle for example Zoom 1662.8 and View Angle 60 degrees. This tells you that the width and height values are directly connected to how the camera has zoomed in.
Now if you swipe on the preview area, where it says "Swipe here to move layer " you will see three values appear, X, Y and Z. X and Y control the camera position left, right up or down just like moving a normal layer.. The Z value is what makes this a true camera layer. Moving Z pushes the camera forward or backward in space, which means the layer visually gets bigger or smaller depending on how close or far the camera is from it. This is very different from scaling a layer because it creates real depth and objects at different Z positions move past each other naturally when the camera moves just like in real life.
Every one of these adjustments, position, rotation, width, height can be keyframed. You will notice diamond shapes on the Camera 1 timeline. Each diamond is a keyframe, a saved value at a point in time. To create natural motion instead of a sudden jump tap on the curve icon on the left side, which opens the Cubic Bezier Easing screen. Here you get a graph with two handles you can drag. Pulling the handle down and the second one up creates that gentle smooth acceleration and deceleration we see in camera movements. There are also presets for linear ease in ease out and stepped motion. The cubic bezier gives you the most control if you want a very specific feel.
2. Camera Options
Now let us move to Camera Options, which you will find represented by the shaped icon on the right panel. The first tool here is Camera View. It shows a visual diagram with two lines forming a cone shape representing exactly what the camera lens can see. In the middle you will find the camera view angle value, around 60 degrees and below it the camera Zoom value.
Next to Camera View is Focus Blur. This is where the real camera magic happens. Toggle it on. You get three controls, Focus Distance, Depth of Field and Blur Strength. Focus Distance decides how far from the camera the sharp clear point is. Anything closer or farther than that distance starts to blur. Depth of Field controls how wide that sharp zone is; a small depth of field gives you that dreamy background blur you see in professional photos while a large depth of field keeps most of the camera scene sharp. Blur Strength simply controls how intense that blur looks and keeping it around 0.3 to 0.5 usually gives a believable result rather, than an exaggerated one.
The last option in this section is Fog. Fog might sound like a detail but Fog adds a huge amount of atmosphere. Turn Fog on. You can set a Color along with a Near Distance and a Far Distance. Everything closer than the Near Distance stays completely clear. Everything beyond the Far Distance fades fully into the fog color. Between the Near Distance and the Far Distance Fog gradually increases. This is how real atmospheric haze behaves in the distance. A soft white fog can make an edit feel like a misty morning while a dark or colored fog can create a cinematic depth especially in a background layer that sits far behind your main subject.
