A wedding slide show can be a celebration of the cherished moments during a relationship. Although the traditional slide show is good, using After Effects to create stunning visual effects can create a slide show that people will be talking about for years to come. With Adobe After Effects, a single, flat two-dimensional picture gives way to the three-dimensional depth that picture originally captured.

Photoshop Preparation.

1. Step 1

   Drag a picture into Photoshop. Pick one object or person you want to highlight. For simplicity of explanation, imagine a portrait of a bride.

2. Step 2

   Make a selection around the bride with the Lasso tool.

3. Step 3

   Copy and paste the selection. This should automatically create another layer above your original one for you, but with the highlighted bride image alone. For future use, call this layer “Bride” and the original layer “Background” by clicking on the layers in the Layer Panel.

4. Step 4

   Select and use the Clone stamp tool to erase the object from the original layer. Make sure Background layer is highlighted on the Layers Panel.

5. Step 5

   Hold down the Option or Alt button and select an area from which you can copy. Now paint over the original bride image that you have just made a copy of. You are “erasing” the original bride from the Background layer. It is better to do it in small strokes and constantly reselect new areas to copy from. Save the image once you are done as a .PSD file.

   After Effects Wedding Slideshow

6. Step 1

   Open After Effects. Go to File>Import>File, then find the PSD file you saved in step 5. Click on it and press “OK.”

7. Step 2

   Select composition-cropped layers from the Import Kind scroll down menu from this new window.

8. Step 3

   Select the Editable Layer Styles, then press OK. This will create a composition in your Project panel with a folder.

9. Step 4

   Double-click on the composition in your Project panel. This will open the composition in the time line.

10. Step 5

    Make both layers 3D by highlighting the first (“Bride”) and shift-clicking the second (“Background”). Right-click the layers. A floating window should pop up. Select 3D Layer. The layers now can be moved in 3D space.

11. Step 6

    Select the Bride layer and twirl down the scroll down menu by clicking on the white triangle next to the Bride layer name. Twirl down the Transform menu as well.

12. Step 7

    Find Position and notice three coordinates. The last one is the z-space coordinate. Type in “-100″ here so that it is farther away from the original layer. This will move the bride image away from the picture, giving the image depth. The next few steps, if performed correctly, can give the image movement. Once you learn how to do the next steps, play with them until you are satisfied with the outcome.

13. Step 8

    Go to Layer>New>Camera. Press OK when the Camera Settings window appears.

14. Step 9

    Move the camera back in z-space as well. This is easier if you change the one-view mode in the composition window to a two-view mode. Select one of the windows and change the Active Camera mode to top view.

15. Step 10

    Select the Camera layer again and move the camera back in the top-view window.

16. Step 11

    Move the Camera on its x-axis to the left.

17. Step 12

    Click on both the Position and Point of Interest stopwatch icons to the left of these. This should add a key frame.

18. Step 13

    Move the Current Time Indicator to the right 2 seconds.

19. Step 14

    Move the Camera to the right on its x-axis. A key frame should appear.

20. Step 15

    Press the spacebar to see this animate. Do the same for the other photos. Each will be in its own composition, and these can be faded out by using the Opacity stopwatch icons.