Hot After Effects How-Tos

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: Use FreeForm to simulate flowing cloth or ribbon in After Effects

You can use the FreeForm plugin to create the look of cloth blowing in the wind - like an animated ribbon, or a banner waving in the wind. The key is in designing the displacement map to get a truly realistic effect.

How To: Make an energy ball in Adobe After Effects

In this tutorial, we learn how to make an energy ball in Adobe After Effects. First, load a movie of someone pretending to hold an energy ball in their hands. After you do this, you will select a new setting and change the color. From here, you will select a round circle tool and add it where the hand looks like it's holding it. Then, change the effect to make the ball move around with the hand. After this, add the tracker to the hand and position it with the hand. After this, change the cont...

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: Get started with Trapcode Particular in After Effects

This software tutorial shows you how to get started using Trapcode Particular particle plug-in for After Effects. Particular is a powerful 3D particle system that creates a wide range of effects — from natural smoke and explosions to geometric or organic abstract elements. If you've never used it before, see how easy it is to integrate into your After Effects projects in this tutorial. Get started with Trapcode Particular in After Effects.

How To: Get started with Trapcode Lux After Effects plugin

Lux is an After Effects plug-in that simulates the "visible light" phenomenon of light in a dark or foggy environment. Use Lux to create incredibly realistic visible light sources for spotlights, flashlights, headlights, or stage lighting of all kinds within After Effects. This tutorial will show you how to get started with Trapcode Lux in After Effects. Get started with Trapcode Lux After Effects plugin.

How To: Use Trapcode Starglow After Effects plugin

This software tutorial shows you how to use the Trapcode Starglow plugin for After Effects. Add Hollywood glamour to text or shapes with the fast-rendering Starglow plug-in. With multiple colors and point and shimmer controls, the star power is all at your fingertips. If you have never used Starglow in After Effects, this tutorial will get you started. Use Trapcode Starglow After Effects plugin.

How To: Import images with transparency into After Effects

In this software tutorial you will learn how to manipulate images in Photoshop to remove the background and then bring that transparent background image into After Effects without loosing the transparency. The Photoshop section covers the use of the Magnetic Lasso tool and Quick Mask to remove a background. With the image adjusted, you will learn how to import your new image into After Effects with preserved transparency.

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 fancy title plate in After Effects CS3

This After Effects tutorial from Andrew Kramer shows you how to create a 3D title plate with growing elements. You'll be using Evolution to enhance this simple design and control the growth effects. Create a fancy title plate in After Effects CS3.

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: Create animated frozen titles in After Effects

This After Effects tutorial will show how to create a nice, smooth animated text effect, which turns your icy font into a frozen font. This is a great animation that can be easily learned, whether you're an AE pro or novice. Laurence Grayson chills out as he shows you how to create this ice texture effect, glassy text and a frozen text animation - all using just the standard effects that come in CS3, CS4 or CS5.

How To: Create custom particles in After Effects

Are you getting better at using After Effects and finding that you want to create your own custom particles instead of using the default ones? Then this video is for you. It will show you how to create custom animated particles which can be used to create all manner of cool effects like the one created as an example for this video. Don't keep using clublets of particles, make them do what you want them to do.

How To: Make a pulse or pulsating wave effect in After Effects

Making really attractive titles for your films is just one of the way that you can dramatically improve them using After Effects. This video will help you make them by showing you how to create a pulse or pulsating wave effect from whence your titles can emerge. They look great, and will make your movie (especially horror or sci-fi movie) look much more professional right from the beginning.

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 RGB split effect in After Effects

In case the name didn't give it away, After Effects has all kinds of... effects... that can be applied to your video... after... you've shot it. This video will teach you how to create and use an RGB split in a video. The RGB split causes the colors in the video to separate and shift, giving it a nightmare / drug-trip-like quality.

How To: Build an animated vehicle rig in Adobe After Affects

In this tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Carl Larsen shows you how to build an expression-based vehicle rig that automatically calculates the rotation of its wheels based on the movement of the vehicle chassis.

How To: Create the Droste Effect with Adobe After Effects

In this tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Carl Larsen shows you how to use the Pixel Bender Toolkit to create a recursive image set in Adobe After Effects CS4.

How To: Create a Bourne Ultimatum flashback in After Effects

In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create the flashback look as seen in the film The Bourne Ultimatum with some extra touches and hints in Adobe after Effects. Sooner or later, you're going to need to be able to make that flashback film look, so pay attention. Create a Bourne Ultimatum flashback in After Effects.

How To: Use the XML project file format in After Effects CS4

After Effects CS4 allows you to save any After Effects project in an editable text format known as XML. This tutorial will show you how to use the XML file format to modify and dynamically update an After Effects project without having to run the After Effects CS4 application. Using XML format After Effects files is a great way to save time and maintain flexibility by using a simple text editor to make changes. Use the XML project file format in After Effects CS4.

How To: Create the jumbotron look in After Effects

It's game time baby! In this After Effects tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create the look of a giant monitor, such as the kind you might see at a stadium or concert. Create jumbotron animations in this After Effects tutorial. Create the jumbotron look 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: 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 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 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: 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: 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...

How To: Add Kato-Vision to Your Movies with After Effects (As Seen in "The Green Hornet")

Pulp heroism rules! And everyone's favorite masked vigilante hits the big screen tomorrow night, thanks to fantastical filmmaker Michel Gondry and his new superhero movie, The Green Hornet.

How To: Recreate the Kick Ass title in Adobe After Effects

This tutorial uses a title screen from the Kick Ass trailer as its inspiration. Learn how many of the tools, functions and processes work within Adobe After Effects by completing this tutorial. You'll be an AE master by the time you're done.

How To: Use displacement mapping to create a stereoscopic animation in After Effects

This tutorial covers one of the basic attributes of Adobe After Effects - displacement mapping. You can use a displacement map to create a stereoscopic effect for your next animation. It's quite easy, and only requires a basic familiarity with the program.