Hot After Effects How-Tos

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: Warp time in Adobe After Effects CS5

Want to slow down or speed up a clip after the fact? 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 manipulating time in your own AE projects, watch this free video guide.

How To: Create 3D text in After Effects without plugins

ChadandToddPodcast shows how to create 3D text in after-effects without plug-ins. This can be accomplished by an effect called shatter. First turn off the text layer, then apply shadow to your text image. Change your pattern to custom; it will go blank. Take the custom to text layer then increase extrusion depth. If you take up extrusion you can play with the style of the text. If you play around with fronts your whole image can also be 3-D.

How To: Scrub audio in After Effects & more

Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to scrub the audio with the program After Effects. You can go about performing this by simply holding the command key and scrubbing the timeline, then that will scrub the audio and render the video. If you hold the option key and scrub nothing will be rendered. But if you hold both the command and the option keys, no video will be rendered but you can scrub through the audio without waiting for the video to render.

How To: Lip-sync in After Effects

In this video tutorial, CreativeCOW leader Aharon Rabinowitz shares some animation techniques for character lip-syncing in Adobe After Effects. This is not just the simple method of using open- and closed-mouths -- rather, Aharon covers the more advanced use of phonemes, which are the different mouth shapes formed by a person when making various sounds in a spoken language. Lip-sync in After Effects.

How To: Create particle effects with the Aux Particle function in Trapcode Particular

Using Trapcode Particular, Harry Frank teaches us how to create subtle unusual particle effects using the Aux Particle function in Trapcode Particular. 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 fre...

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: 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: Make someone burst into flames with After Effects

In this video, we learn how to make someone burst into flames with After Effects. You will first need Fire Assets from Action Essentials 2 or from somewhere online. Know which you are going to use before you shoot so you can get the right angle. Then, bring your shots into your software and position the fire above your character. Change the size and shape the match your actor. Then, track your footage by clicking on track motion and continuing forward. To make this look more realistic, change...

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: Create a peel-away vortex transition in After Effects

In this clip, Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create a fun peel-away vortex transition for text and other elements. 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 peel-away...

How To: Write with water using Adobe After Effects

In this tutorial, learn how to create the appearance of text being written with a liquid using Adobe After Effects. This clip will show you how to use CC Glue Gun, Fractal Noise, CC Toner, Turbulent Displace and CC Mr. Mercury effects to create this cool illusion. This video is very detailed and comes straight from the experts at Motion Graphics Lab. Enjoy!

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 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...

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