VIDEO AND MOTION • HOW-TO

How to make a prism lens effect in Adobe After Effects.

Create this unique fractal lens effect in motion.

Take a one-minute look at our technique; the steps are written out below.

Step 1: Make an eye mask.

With your footage selected in the timeline, choose the Rectangle tool in the toolbar. Press the Shift key and draw a square around the eye. This creates a mask.

Step 2: Align and rotate.

Switch to the Selection tool. In the Align panel, center your masked footage horizontally and vertically so it sits in the true center of the composition. Double-click a corner of the mask and then press Shift and rotate the mask by 45 degrees (it’ll snap in place).

Step 3: Blur the lines.

Expand the mask options in your footage layer. Change the Mask Feather values to 25 pixels.

Step 4: Duplicate the process.

Select the footage layer and press Control+D (Windows) or Command+D (macOS) eight times, so you have nine identical layers.

Step 5: Set up your prism.

Turn on Snapping in the toolbar. Select each layer and arrange them in a three-by-three, diamond-shaped grid.

Step 6: Shift your footage.

Select the Pan Behind tool in the toolbar. For each layer, drag the footage within its mask in the Composition panel. We kept the center layer as is and nudged the surrounding layers slightly inward, towards the center, to create a strong focal point.

Step 7: Add your lens.

Click the top layer and then choose Layer > New > Solid. In the Solid Settings dialog box, change the fill color to something dark. We used #151515.

Next, select the Ellipse tool (available by clicking and holding the Rectangle tool). Press Shift and draw a circle mask on your solid layer. In the timeline, expand the mask options, check Inverted, and change Mask Feather to 65 pixels.

Share your new perspective.

Now you can add a novel twist to any video clip.