Massive Crowd : Adobe After Effects

There used to be a tutorial to create crowds using Card Dance, but i can't find it.

Basically, the approach is as follows:

Create a new large composition (labled 'crowd base' say) and create a new solid and apply grid.
Now import your greenscreen footage and isolate each person with a mask, apply your greenscreen filters and then shrink them to so that they fit into one box on your grid. Duplicate this over and over again until your grid is filled. you'll no longer need the grid solid, so you can make it invisible.

Now create a new composition (called 'crowd final') and import your background footage for it. Bring in Crowd base and apply the Card Dance filter. Match the rows and columns to the Grid settings. Now adjust the X rotation's offset and the Camera's X rotation and you'll see the whole comp break up into a 3D grid. it's a very useful technique.

The tutorial i'd seen was using it on Zena to create an army. You can also use it with stills of people and use the Wiggler to simulate movement.

via forums.creativecow.net