Hot After Effects How-Tos — Page 2 of 16 « After Effects

How To: Create a 3-D stereoscopic rig entirely in Adobe After Effects

This tutorial shows you a great rigging tutorial you can use with Adobe After Effects. Create an animation or clip that looks like you've got stereoscoping rigging. This is an easy tutorial anyone familiar with the basics of Adobe After Effects will be able to do.

How To: Create a 3-D text effect in Adobe After Effects

This is an easy technique that even beginners can master. Start with some basic text, like a logo or a title, and then use a few simple techniques in Adobe After Effects to give it the look of 3-D animated text. Create a 3-D text effect in Adobe After Effects.

How To: Create a complex animation quickly in After Effects by using precomping

Start a complex animation that only has a few keyframes by using precomping! This is a simple yet powerful technique that can really open up your ability to get the most out of creating fun animations using Adobe After Effects.

How To: Composit realistic and effective shadows in Adobe After Effects

This is a quick and easy tutorial that shows you how to add better looking shadows to your projects in After Effects. The video takes two basic spheres and shows you how to alter Drop Shadow to make it look exactly how you want it.

How To: Use the Puppet Tool and DuIK Tools in After Effects

This is a quick little tutorial for someone who wants to learn how to do better puppetry or puppet effects in Adobe After Effects. Use the Puppet Tool and the DuIK Tools on your next animation project using inverse kinematics.

How To: Use the Falloff Lighting tutorial in After Effects to illuminate a corner

So you've mastered the basics of using the Falloff Lighting plugin for Adobe After Effects, and now you're ready for some of the more advanced concepts. This tutorial shows you how to illuminate an object in a corner using this plugin.

How To: Use the Camera Mapper function in After Effects

Camera mapper is a function in Adobe After Effects that lets you take a static, 2-D image and turn into a dynamic 3-D shot. Create a zoom feature and make it look like you have a camera panning through the picture!

How To: Use the Aged Film plugin for After Effects to give an antique feel to film

You can take a piece of completely modern digital footage and give it an aged, antique feel! You will need the Aged Film plugin for Adobe After Effects, which lets you create the sepia tone and flickering, variable speed look of antique film clips.

How To: Use the Depth Cue in Adobe After Effects

Upload your footage to Adobe After Effects (make sure it has been set to 3-D), and then apply the effects you want, such as fog. Then, you can use the Depth Cue setting to change the depth of your picture to really make it look 3-D.

How To: Make your film look like it was taken using a Super 8 in After Effects

Take a thoroughly modern clip of digital film, and then send it back in time! This tutorial shows you how to use the Aged Film plugin for Adobe After Effects to make your clip look like it comes stright from the 1970s.

How To: Create a dynamic, 3-D moving filmstrip in Adobe After Effects

Love the look of animated 35mm film? It can be tricky to really replicate this effect, but it's nevertheless possible. This tutorial shows you how to use Adobe After Effects to create your own clip of 3-D animated film footage.

How To: Use the FreeForm plugin for Adobe After Effects to create a liquid pour effect

You can simulate the look of fluids using the FreeForm plugin for Adobe After Effects. Play around with the color, viscosity and opacity of your liquid, and animate a container filling up as well. This tutorial covers everything you'll need to know!

How To: Use displacement maps to create a staircase in Adobe After Effecs

This tutorial shows you how to take a 2-D image of a Persian rug and turn it into a fully 3-D staircase using the displacement mapper in Adobe After Effects. Displacement mapping is a versatile, helpful tool for any 3-D animator.

How To: Create a freeform terrain to fly over in Adobe After Effects

This tutorial shows you first how to create some basic outdoor terrain in Adobe After Effects. Then, create a camera effect which makes it look like your camera is slowly flying over the terrain using the FreeForm plugin for After Effects.

How To: Create retro-style motion graphics for a sweet 1960's look with After Effects

Yeah baby! That's right, 1960's, retro style motion graphics. You want em, you need em and this tutorial with Angie Taylor of Red Giant TV shows YOU how to get them by using PlaneSpace, Text Anarchy, Trapcode Echospace and Warp! Shagadelic baby! Create retro-style motion graphics for a sweet 1960's look with After Effects.

How To: Simulate handwriting in After Effects

Learn to animate text in Adobe After Effects CS3 with this video tutorial so that it looks like it is being handwritten. This video tutorial from Matthew Butler shows three different methods of animating in After Effects CS3, the techniques can also be used in CS4 and CS5.

How To: Track a simple object in After Effects

Learn the fundamentals of position tracking in After Effects in this informative 5 minute tutorial from Patrick Carter. This video lesson involves attaching a text object to a moving cowboy on screen to demonstrate the basic transform tracking function.

How To: Take B&W snapshots with the Hold & Resume Spy Photo preset in After Effects

Create an effect in your video where the video footage is converted to black & white, pauses, and resumes playback in regular color. This effect is demonstrated by Aharon Rabinowitz with Spy Photo, a brand new set of free presets for Adobe After Effects.

How To: Simulate snapshots in After Effects with free Spy Photo presets

Simulate the look of snapshots in your After Effects video footage with Spy Photo, a free set of presets that dynamically automate and generate the effect. This 17-minute tutorial from Aharon Rabinowitz of All Bets Are Off demonstrates the features of this cool new addition, which includes camera sound effects and viewfinder overlays.

How To: Create slick floor reflections for crowds of people in After Effects

Create simple reflections in Adobe After Effects with keyed footage. In this video tutorial, Aharon Rabinowitz of All Bets Are Off demonstrates its use with video footage of both crowd and individuals. In addition, some potential issues with Collapse Transformations are also addressed.

How To: Create realistic 3D cloud motion using a single cloud photo in After Effects

Use a 2D image of clouds to generate realistic video footage of 3D cloud motion. In this tutorial from All Bets Are Off, Aharon Rabinowitz demonstrates how to create this effect using a single 2D image of clouds and a few simple clicks.

How To: Create Poltergeist-style audio with Adobe Audition & After Effects

Recreate the scary effect in Poltergeist when the girl gets trapped inside the television using Adobe Audition, Adobe After Effects or any similar editing software. Harry Frank and Aharon Rabinowitz take you through the detailed tutorials step by step using a couple of different software methods.

How To: Fake 3D and slow time in After Effects

Use After Effects to simulate a 3D stereoscopic effect, and remap time to speed up and slow down footage (a popular video effect used throughout the 2007 movie '300'). This tutorial from motion graphics designer James Zanoni shows you how.

How To: Create a beautifully layered 3D composition with After Effects

Using a layered photograph, chroma key footage and depth of field, prolific Italian designer Juri Ciana demonstrates precisely how to create a stunningly beautiful 3D composition with After Effects. In this informative video-only tutorial, depth of field and focus is utlized as critical elements that provide the various components of this video composition with a living vibrancy and dynamism.

How To: Animate a logo in After Effects

Learn to animate a logo in this rather casual (and occasionally cryptic) video demonstration that combines After Effects with audio portions in Sony Vegas. Much of the final product has already been rendered so this tutorial is essentially a walkthrough of the various parts of the project.

How To: Add realistic camera movement and color correction with After Effects

Increase the realism of your video footage with camera movement and color correction. In this video tutorial, Adobe After Effects is used to add realistic camera wiggle and shake to video footage from Call of Duty: Black Ops, simulating a handheld camera. In addition, the video tutorial also goes over some basic curve adjustment for color correction to give the video footage a unique look.

How To: Convert 720p60 video into 24p and 24p slow motion

Evoke a dramatic effect in your 720p60 video by upsampling and converting to 24p and 24p slow motion, and adding a little bit of color grading with Adobe After Effects. This informative video shows the footage before, during and after treatment, showing the difference that this editing process can make in ordinary footage.

How To: Create "Predator"-style video camouflage in After Effects

Replicate the Predator-style video camouflage in After Effects by using displacement maps. This uniquely stunning and groundbreaking visual effect has been seen countless times in film and television to show video camouflage, invisibility, heat distortion, holograms, and static interference, among others. This video shows how to replicate this effect by using green screen footage, Fractal Noise and Displacement Maps, all within Adobe After Effects.

How To: Create visually stunning compositions from 3D renders in After Effects

Compositing and color correction are important and integral steps in processing a 3D render after it is generated in Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max or any other 3D package. Compositing transforms simple renders and provides them with life, vibrancy and atmosphere. In this demonstration, Greyscale Gorilla breaks down a 5 second project from Rich Hinchcliffe and demonstrates how Rich uses Adobe After Effects, color correction, blurs, ReelSmart Motion BLur, Frischluft Lens Care and Lens Flares to tran...

How To: Make a ring gallery of photos in Adobe After Effects

You can construct a 3-D photo gallery of rotating photographs quite easily in Adobe After Effects. The trick is to use parenting and anchor points to pull it off, and this tutorial shows you how to avoid using the cylinder effect.

How To: Lip sync your animations correctly using time remapping

Time Remapping is a feature of Adobe After Effects used for rigging your animated characters, which can be most useful when trying to make your lip syncing look realistic. This is a quick tutorial on how to use this feature for your next project.

How To: Give your architectural renderings a film look in After Effects

This tutorial shows you how to take your architectural renderings in Adobe After Effects and give them a 35mm film look. Even better, this tutorial uses only the basic program - no plugins or extra add ons to worry about.

How To: Use 3-D imaging for anaglyph animation

Here's a useful technique for any animator to be able to pick up - give your anaglyph animations a 3-D look. To replicate this, you will need Flash, After Effects and Photoshop, or programs that can accomplish similar animation tasks.

How To: Create a time lapse video in After Effects

Want to create your own time lapse video, but you don't have the right equipment? You can use Adobe After Effects to fill in the gaps. This is a quick and easy tutorial showing you how to use this program to create your own time lapse video.

How To: Turn a 25 frames per second clip into a 50 frames per second clip

Having a clip filmed at 25p can sometimes make the footage look jerky, which can distract the viewer from the content of your film. This tutorial shows you how to convert a 25p clip to 50p or 25i using Adobe After Effects.

How To: Use a lens flare in your animations with Adobe After Effects

Want to add a lens flare to your current animation or film? You can manipulate the picture using Adobe After Effects, and this tutorial shows you precisely how. Play around with the light, brightness settings and other tools to get a lens flare effect.