Hot After Effects How-Tos

How To: Turn a sunny day into a cloudy day using After Effects

In this three part After Effects tutorial, Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to change the weather from a sunny day at the beach to a very cloudy day, with a chance of showers. Part one goes over color correction and compositing, part two covers how to add rain to your shot, as well as drops of water on the camera, and part three shows how to add realistic lightning to the shot. Turn a sunny day into a cloudy day using After Effects - Part 1 of 3.

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: Make a talking animals effect using After Effects

A LOT of movies have featured talking animals. Especially now that the technology is readily available to even low-budget filmmakers to make animals appear to be talking very realistically. If you've wanted to make your own talking-animal film, this video is here to help. It wills show you how to make animals talk using After Effects, creating and syncing mouth movements to fit your sound and leaving you with one charismatic cat, dog, fish, or marmoset.

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: Make a moving curtain animation within After Effects

Check out this tutorial of how to create moving curtains in After Effects. You create a set of curtains that opens up to reveal footage placed behind it. You can render the clip out with an alpha channel and always have a curtains clip ready to reveal some footage. 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 ...

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: 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 simple scrolling LED display in After Effects

This simple After Effects tutorial from Laurence Grayson will show you how to use CC Ball Action effect in AE to create a realistic scrolling LED signboard effect, like the ones you see at conference centers and football stadiums. Then end result can be altered to suit your project, and corner-pinned into a scene. There are no plug-ins required, and this method uses the standard toolset in CS3, CS4, and CS5.

How To: Animate text along the x axis in Adobe After Effects

Want to create simple animated text within Adobe After Effects but aren't quite sure how to go about doing it? You're in luck. This clip will show you how to animate text along the x position. 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, ...

How To: Create an animated spider web with Adobe After Effects

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Illustrator and After Effects to create a spider web that animates on and catches some text that flies into it. 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...

How To: Create a 3D glow text stroke effect in After Effects

This tutorial uses After Effects to design a quick animation that looks like several light streaks form the letters of a word. The letters burst from the light streaks with a particle explosion. This tutorial uses Trapcode 3D Stroke and 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 vi...

How To: Create a gradient wipe effect in Premiere Pro CS4/CS5

Learn how to create an eye-catching gradient wipe transition effect within Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 or CS5. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular non-linear editor 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: Work with numeric text in After Effects

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Aharon Rabinowitz gives you some cool tips for working with Numeric Text, for things like video game scores and other digital readouts. No third-party Plug-ins are used in this tutorial. 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 After Effects, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-...

How To: Create a 1980s retro video game look in After Effects

In this clip, Aharon Rabinowitz walks you through the process of creating the look of a vector style arcade game from the early 1980's. He'll use PlaneSpace, Particular, & Text Anarchy, as well as expressions and other techniques. 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 ...

How To: Make a globe and radio wave animation in After Effects

See how to make a Radio Wave animation that encircles a 3D sphere. First, the clip demonstrates how to achieve this effect using After Effects. Next, it offers instructions on how to do the same thing within Cinema 4D. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started creating your own custom radio wave animation, watch this free video software tutorial.

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: Add camera movement to a still image in After Effects

In this video, viewers learn how to add realistic camera movement to a still image using Adobe After Effects CS4. Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software. This tutorial will go over how to add realistic camera movement to a still image or photo and make it seem that it is an actually video. This tutorial will also teach viewers about motion tracking and basic chroma keying. This video will benefit viewers who enjoy producing videos and creating special effects.

How To: Create 3D text with Boris FX for After Effects

Check out this CreativeCow video on creating extruded or 3D text using After Effects. This new video tutorial from Paul Ezzy shows you the basics of using BCC Extruded Text in Adobe After Effects. BCC Extruded Text belongs to the 3D Objects category of filters which is new to Boris Continuum Complete 6. These stunning OpenGL-based filters use vertex and pixel shaders that enable the generation of animated 3D shatter, bulge, bend, taper, twist, ripple, and wave effects. You can also create ref...

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 realistic animated smoke in After Effects

This video editing software tutorial shows you how to create animated smoke in After Effects. You will learn how to create authentic smoke for any special effects purpose such as fires and action sequences. See how you can use After Effects CS3 filters to create animated smoke. The tutorial is best viewed full screen and you will need Particle Playground plug-in.

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