Hot After Effects How-Tos

How To: Use Magic Bullet Looks for color correction in After Effects

This is your video guide to the Magic Bullet Looks plugin in for Adobe After Effects. If you are looking for a color correction tool, check out this video to see what Magic Bullet Looks has to offer. Learn how to use this color correction tool.

How To: Make a CCTV monitor effect in After Effects

CCTV's (closed-circuit televisions) are more common than ever before, and have become more and more popular to depict in films and in video games like Manhunt. This video will teach you how to create a CCTV monitor effect akin to what a security guard would see on their camera monitor using After Effects. This will work great for any horror movie that you might be shooting, the effect is very creepy.

How To: Use Trapcode Echospace After Effects plugin

This software tutorial shows you how to use Trapcode Echospace, an After Effects plug-in. Trapcode Echospace speeds and automates the creation of sophisticated 3D layer effects in Adobe After Effects. Layer iterations can be controlled as a group or individually for sophisticated 'house-of-cards' or 'Cover Flow'-style animations. If you are unfamiliar with Echospace, this After Effects tutorial will get you started. Use Trapcode Echospace After Effects plugin.

How To: Use After Effects to stabilize a shaky video recording

We don't always have a tripod handy when we need to grab some footage for our latest video project, but shaky footage can ruin an otherwise great video. Thankfully, After Effects has a 'stabilize motion' tool that you can apply to your recording to prevent headaches brought on by a shaky camera.

How To: Create a twinkling star effect in Adobe After Effects

This is a great background for Christmas plays, holiday pageants or any other video you want to add a little twinkle! You can add a twinkling star quite easily in Adobe After Effects, and this tutorial shows you exactly how!

How To: Create a force field effect in Adobe After Effects CS5

Want to create a force field effect within a video project? This clip will show you how it's done using only stock After Effects CS5 plug-ins.

How To: Create a subtle ocean-like underwater scene in After Effects

This After Effects tutorial will show you a nice underwater scene, complete with light rays, rising bubbles and cloudy ocean mist. You don't have to be a professional AE user to recreate this great animated scene, either! Laurence Grayson demonstrates all the techniques for this subtle ocean-like underwater look using the standard toolkit in Adobe After Effects (CS3, CS4 & CS5). Using Fractal Noise, CC Snow and a Lens Blur with Depth Map, Laurence will have you chilling out in no time!

How To: Create a light visualization effect for music in Knoll Light Factory

In this video tutorial, we learn how to create a music visualization effect with Knoll Light Factor within Adobe After Effects. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide. Create a ...

How To: Turn a 2D still image into a 3D space using After Effects

This tutorial shows you how to replicate a popular Hollywood technique. It can be difficult to get the camera projection look with an actual camera, but Adobe After Effects has an easy alternative. Turn any 2-D still image into a dynamic 3-D clip.

How To: Create handwriting in After Effects

In this Adobe After Effects tutorial, the instructor shows how to generate a hand writing effect. First, open Adobe After Effects. To do this effect, you need to use the Pen tool, which is a very good feature. Go to File menu, select new then create a new project. Go to composition and select a new composition. Right click and fit it to 100%. Go to the text tool and select a box on the composition and write something that you want. Apply a desired color and font to it. Select the text box, go...

How To: Create a holographic interface effect with Holomatrix in Adobe After Effects

In this video tutorial, we learn how to create a sci-fi style hologram effect with After Effects and Holomatrix. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide. Create a holographic int...

How To: Make abstract waves in After Effects with the Trapcode Form plug-in

Creating an abstract wave effect in After Effects will allow you to make graphics like those in the thumbnail, basically clouds of particles with that smokey / silky effect like they used in James Bond titles. This video will show you how to make this effect yourself in After Effects in two parts. Apply this technique to your titles and they should be much, much sexier.

How To: Create the Half-Life 2 Portal storm in After Effects

Half-Life 2 and it's brilliantly creative baby Portal refuse to die, offering the same great gameplay today that they did when they were released in 2004. This video will show you how to mimic, in After Effects, a very cool effect from the game called a portal storm. It basically looks like lightning on steroids, and will give any movie that you are compositing in After Effects some really legit sci-fi flair.

How To: Create light wrapping and edge blurs in After Effects

This quick AE user's guide presents a lesson in light wrapping and edge blurs in After Effects. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.

How To: Create a wipe with a mask animation in After Effects

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create a wipe by animating masks in After Effects. This tutorial is for beginners and should give you an idea of how to animate a mask and what alpha channels are. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including d...

How To: Stroke keylights in Adobe After Effects CS4 or CS5

This quick After Effects video tip will show you how to stroke a bitmap using Keylight and Solid Composite. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular vector editor or a seasoned graphic arts professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.

How To: Create fog and clouds in After Effects CS4 or CS5

This clip covers an easy method for creating semi-realistic fog inside of After Effects with nothing but a Photoshop document! Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.

How To: Use World of Warcraft model viewer with After Effects

World of Warcraft, or Wow as it is affectionately known, is the most popular MMORPG of all time. In the wake of all of this popularity, WoW characters have become a popular subject for machinima, movies made within video games. This video will teach you, the budding machinima filmmaker, to use a piece of software called WoW Modelviewer with Adobe After Effects to incorporate your favorite WoW characters into a video.

How To: Create an "Annoying Orange" in Adobe After Effects

Create an "Annoying Orange" to call your very own with this digital video guide. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.

How To: Use corner pinning in Holomatrix for After Effects

Many science fiction feature films and TV shows feature holographic communication and interfaces. Specifically, this video addresses how to use corner pinning within Holomatrix. Red Giant Holomatrix allows you to easily recreate that effect with just a few clicks. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with Red Giant Holomatrix, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial...

How To: Animate growing vines in After Effects CS5

Learn how to use After Effects CS5 to create a simple growing vine animation. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with CS5's new features, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, and to get started using this neat effect in your own AE projects, watch this free video guide.

How To: Use Knoll Light Factory Pro After Effects plugin

This software tutorial shows you how to use the Knoll Light Factory Pro plug-in for After Effects. Knoll Light Factory Pro is the industry's favorite tool for creating lens flares, sunsets, photon torpedoes, stars and other effects. It offers a custom lens editor, auto tracking, alpha channel support, and pinpoint control over dozens of settings. If you haven't used the Knoll Light Factory Pro plug-in yet, watch this After Effects tutorial and get started.

How To: Make shimmering glitter in Particular in After Effects

In this After Effects tutorial, Creative Cow leader, Michael Park, demonstrates how to simulate shimmering glitter particles using fractal noise, colorama effect and Trapcodes Particular plugin. Make shimmering glitter in Particular in After Effects.

How To: Create a ghost effect in After Effects

In this Adobe After Effects tutorial Tony Reale shows you how to create a ghost effect for your films.

How To: Create multi-color gradient ramps in After Effects

In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create simple and complex multicolored gradient ramps in After Effects. No need to open Photoshop just to do your ramps ever again! Create multi-color gradient ramps in After Effects.

How To: Make a first-person binocular effect in After Effects

In this quirky tutorial you'll learn how to make it appear that a person is looking through a pair of binoculars or through a rifle scope using After Effects 7.0. Make a first-person binocular effect in After Effects.

How To: Turn A Flat 2D Image into 3D

In this short tutorial i will show you how you can turn a flat 2D image of a room or hallway into a 3D Room using Vanishing points in Photoshop and After Effects.

How To: Smash Someone into a Million Pieces in After Effects and 3ds Max

Ever wanted to freeze someone, then smash them into a million pieces? Here is your chance! If you've got Adobe After Effects and Autodesk 3ds Max, it's pretty easy. Check out the tutorial video below to see how it's done.

How To: Create Your Own Portals (Like in the Game) Using Adobe After Effects

We've already seen how to levitate a Companion Cube using a Portal gun—now we're going to show you how to shoot your own portals! The guys at MobiusLOL give you an overview of how they created their Portal-inspired short film, "Experimental Portal Device".

How To: Create a Walking Dead Like Post-Apocalyptic World Using Time-Lapse Footage

Zombies. That's the first thing that comes to mind when I see footage of a once heavily populated area turned completely desolate. Either that or you stumbled across a Ke$ha concert...BURN.

How To: Create a lightning bolt effect using After Effects and the Trapcode Suite

The Trapcode suite is a set of plug-ins for After Effects that allow video artists to create a variety of effects for inclusion in video and film productions. This particular guide demonstrates the power of Trapcode Particular and Trapcode 3D Stroke. Specifically, Wes Ball from OddBall Animation reveals how Trapcode was used in the creation of 'Eye of the Storm' - a music video by Lovett which can be seen here.

How To: Use green screen in After Effects

Into special FX? Check out this video for a lesson in green screen. Watch and learn how to use green screen in After Effects. You can use green screen to make incredible visual effects for your videos and short films.

How To: Create your own Presets in Adobe After Effects

Make your job a little easier by setting presets in After Effects. This will allow you to save time while you add visual effects to your film. Having custom presets makes it much simpler to achieve consistency is your VFX.

How To: Change the language to English in After Effects

Have you got a copy of After Effects installed with the language set to another language? Check out this helpful video to learn how to set the language English, whatever the current language is. Maybe your film is in French, but that doesn't mean your visual effects software has to be.

How To: Disintegrate Objects at Super Speed (You Will Need: Sandpaper & After Effects)

Largely self-taught, Ryan John Kothe is an animator working out of Auckland, New Zealand. After picking up some rudimentary After Effects skills, he went on to create an impressive portfolio of beautifully rendered stop-motion animations with a distinctly tactile feel. Curious about the process behind Worn Out—Ryan's depiction of objects disintegrating in fast-forward (shown below)—we contacted him for a brief Q&A on the techniques behind his work.

How To: Create the Death Eater effect from the Harry Potter movies

You can create the magical world of Harry Potter yourself, using After Effects software. Watch these videos and learn how to make the "Death Eater" effect from the Harry Potter movies. Using After Effects, you can have the same incredible SFX as these Hollywood blockbusters.

How To: Use the Twixtor Pro plug-in to create slow motion in After Effects

This tutorial demonstrates how Twixtor Pro can be used to create slow motion special effects when editing video in After Effects. Learn beginner to intermediate VFX, specifically slowing down footage shot at a very high shutter speed. Twixtor allows the user to manage blur and warping when creating a slow motion effect.

How To: Create cartoon animation with After Effects

A lot of people use Flash for 2D cartoon animation, but Adobe After Effects is another great tool to create some very cool cartoon animation. This how to gives you a clear idea of the steps to take to use AE as a cartoon creation device. This short video tutorial will demonstrate how to properly export character animation from Flash and import it into After Effects to combine with background and foreground elements. It also gives a handy trick of how to duplicate a character animation clip to...

How To: Make a 3D holographic iPhone in After Effects

Learn how to create a video of holographic images appearing from an iPhone, using video footage and After Effects software. The basic elements used here are the built-in motion tracker (although you can also use the Mocha tracker bundled with CS4) and creating icons within After Effects with simple partially-transparent solids.

How To: Loop still images to fake a 3-dimensional movement over a surface

In this tutorial, After Effects is used in actual realtime to create a video comp that simulates a forward three-dimensional movement. Several images are arranged into a layered, three-dimensional composition, and a single image is tiled into a surface pattern that is offset tilted and scrolled forward indefinitely. Several additional elements are also mentioned to add realism and depth to the forward scrolling movement, including foreground elements, background images, camera shake, camera p...