La Grande After Effects Tutorial Roundup From Elsewhere

May 22nd in Roundup by Topher Welsh

It's been over a month since we did a proper After Effects tutorial roundup, and frankly, in case our name didn't give it away, we love after effects tutorials around here so without further ado...

Author: Topher Welsh

Topher Welsh is a post production artist working mainly in the fields of motion graphics and visual effects. He is a freelancer out of Tacoma, Washington, and also runs www.VisualFXtuts.com, which provides a daily fix of tutorials from any and all applications in the visual effects industry. His personal website is found here: www.Toe-Fur.com.

30 of the Most Interesting After Effects Tuts From Elsewhere

• 

  Video Copilot - Ancient Titles

  Since Andrew and the rest of the Video Copilot team have been gearing up for release of Action Essentials 2 HD, there hasn't been as much tutorial updates as of late. But Andrew just released a couple new tutorials the other day, one of which teaches you how to create a lighting effect using track mattes, and also how to create an alternative to the same old basic drop shadow. Very cool tutorial chuck full of new techniques for you to try out.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Graymachine - Reverse Shatter Effect

  Harry Frank just released this awesome tutorial on how to create an effect in which he slices up a bunch of peices of some text in Illustrator. Then, like the expresssions master he is, you use a bunch of fancy-shmancy expressions to make everything come back together, and create a sweet end product.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Aharon Rabinowitz - Force Field

  This is a pretty rad looking effect that got its inspiration from a Halo 3 spot. There is a lot to this tutorial including compositing, displacement maps, tons of precomping, and some crazy use of a ton of effects.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Aharon Rabinowitz - 3D Cloud Motion From Still Images

  Aharon has a lot of tutorials in this list, but as always the mentions are always worth it. In this tutorial he shows you how to make the clouds in a still image move, but have the clouds that are closer to the camera move faster than the clouds farther away, like they would with your perpective in real life.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Aharon Rabinowitz - More Techniques for Better Light Wraps

  You can never have enough compositing techniques up your sleeve. In this tutorial Aharon shows you how to create light wraps with layer styles, and not using any plugins at all! Gotta love that...

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Aharon & Artbeats - Track Mattes with Fire & Water

  Forging Fire also helped out with this one, provided a free smoke clip for download so that you can use these techniques as well. As the title says, you will be learning how to use track mattes in conjunction with the kind of footage you have available to create organic looking text reveals and/or motion.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Artbeats - Adding Smoke Effects

  Using some stock smoke elements (possibly the one provided for the last tutorial) and some basic pictures cut out in Photoshop, you can create a create a cool simple title screen with minimal work.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Artbeats - Adding Layers of Footage

  This tutorial uses stock footage that isn't available for download, but you can just as easily apply the techniques to anything you shoot. The tutorial shows you how to simulate a lens zooming into a deer, and seeing it breathe in the cold weather. You can simulate the breath with Video Copilot's Frosty Breath Tutorial, and create the snow with Trapcode Particular.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Artbeats - Creating Reflections

  This last Artbeats tutorial is also very heavily reliant upon stock footage, but you have to remember you can shoot your own footage and have that stuff work just as good. Just soak up the techniques. Anyways, this tutorial shows you how to use layers as reflection maps for 3D models within Zaxwerks Invigorator. Also they throw in some compositing techniques as well with some handy stock footage elements.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Carl Larsen - Simulating Whip Pans

  When you are in the field shooting, a popular in camera transition effect is the whip pan, also known as a swish pan. What you do is after you get your shot, you pan the camera to the side, creating motion blur, and then later in post, you edit together 2 pieces of footage with whip pans, and viola! You got yourself a premade transition! Sometime's you forget to do it in the field, so Carl is goign to show you how to simulate it in After Effects with the footage you end up with.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Carl Larsen - Tracking a Child Part 2

  In part 1 of this tutorial Carl had showed you how to track child layers (layers that are parented to other layers). In this part 2 tutorial, he shows you how to apply the same expressions to create a cool looking title build.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Carl Larsen - Replace Horizon with Mocha for AE

  In this last one from Carl, he takes Mocha for AE to track and replace the horizon with a group of seals sitting on some rocks. Using multple tracks for each rock, to get the correct perspective for the track, this tutorial is a must see if you want to integrate matte paintings or sky replacement into your productions.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Noise Junkies - Big Bang Explosion

  Rafael Guerra is an up and coming tutorial creator with some great tutorials in After Effects as well as Cinema 4D. In this tutorial he shows you how to create an effect similar to what people thought might happen with the Large Hadron Collider project using Trapcode Particular.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Noise Junkies - Stylish Molecule

  A lot of people have been wanting to learn to make the effects seen in the Fringe opening title sequence on FOX. Using Trapcode Form, Rafael shows you how to create the molecule, using a basis in our very own Create a Breathtakingly Awesome Rain Scene tutorial series.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Noise Junkies - Energy Flow

  In this tutorial, Rafael shows you how to create a cool looking energy flow effect, similar to Video Copilot's but with Trapcode Particular, and this effect actually leaves some "residue" for lack of a better word, behind after the energy passes.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  GreyScaleGorilla - Pixel Perfect Camera Moves

  I hate it when I am trying to line the camera up with something I have created in After Effects, and it always seems like it is a couple pixels off, and its always a chore to get it just right. With this sweet little technique from Nick Campbell, aka the Gorilla, he shows you how to use duplicate cameras and switch between them to get a perfect camera move transition.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  RGTV 18 - Composting Tips From Green Screen Made Easy

  Michele Yamazaki and Jeremy Hanke have a new book out, called Green Screen Made Easy, which is a great read if you work with chroma key sets, or are looking to create your own on the cheap. In this episode of Red Giant TV, Michele takes you through a bunch of great tips for getting your keys to look fantastic.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  RGTV 19 - Creating a Transporter Effect

  In this very entertaining tutorial, Eran Stern takes you through the steps to recreate the transporter effects seen in the new Star Trek movie. This tutorial uses Trapcode Particular, Knoll Light Factory, MBLooks, and Key Correct Pro. You can get all these plugins as trials at the RGTV website.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Motion Graphics Lab - Writing With Water

  Dean Velez doesn't make tutorials that often, but when he does, they are worth it, especially this one. This tutorial makes use of a couple plugins that aren't very widely used... CC Glue Gun, CC Toner, and CC Mr Mercury, to create a simulation of water writing some words onto the screen.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Layers Magazine - Creating an Eclipse

  J. Schuh has this awesome 2 part tutorial on creating a fiery glowing sun with an eclipse in After Effects. The first part deals with making the actual sun, and then the second part teaches you how to create the eclipse.

  Part 1 Part 2

• 

  CGswot.com - Futuristic Sniper Scope

  Dave Scotland also has a cool new tutorial site on the horizon with tutorials dabbling in 3ds Max, Photoshop, and of course After Effects. In this 2 parter, Dave shows you how to make those sweet looking sniper scopes with all the thermal readings, distance calculators, and all the other bells and whistles those FBI gadgets have built into them.

  Part 1 Part 2

• 

  CGswot.com - Missile Trails in Clouds

  This is a great technique to keep in mind if you are creating or compositing anything that has to do with fire, or jet propulsion or things like that. I remember seeing this effect in the previews for Trapcode Horizon. Using Horizon, Particular, and some expressions you create a very realistic looking missle smoke trail in the clouds.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  CGSwot.com - Puppet Animation

  There aren't too many tutorials on using the puppet tool, so a lot of us forget how versatile the tool really can be. In this last one from Dave, he show us how he make a worm inch across the floor, with its antennas moving and some clever lighting to make everything really pop.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Projuice.org - Energy Ball

  In this tutorial, Nick Calpakdjian takes a look at creating a unique version of a Kamehameha Dragon Ball Z effect. There are tons of these online, but this one from Projuice.org is awesome. It uses a stock smoke image, some particle filters, and a few other effects, to create a great looking end product.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Projuice.org - Building Effects From The Ground Up

  Sometimes you just can't afford plugins. When that happens you have to find other alternatives, like this. This tutorial shows you how to create Video Copilot's Twitch effect from the ground up, using only After Effects' built in effects.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  After Effects Apprentice - Intro to Expressions

  I reported on Trish and Chris Meyer's book, After Effects Apprentice a bit ago, with some of their free tutorials, but they have another out which gives you an easy holding-your-hand guide into the world of expressions. Expressions can be scary if you failed math in college like me, but once you get the basics down, they are something that your never going to want to forget.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Forging Fire - Swallowed By Light

  Rick Janusz recently redesigned his site, and it looks pretty killer. Anyways, Rick is going to show you how to how to use lens flares, some blur, glow, and Trapcode Starglow to make a text logo appear to be "swallowed by light" and dissapear.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  Pascal Verstegen @Abduzeedo - Starting with After Effects

  Pascal has a nice little written introduction article at Abduzeedo.com on creating a cute little studio's identity open. You will first create the logo with layers in Photoshop, then bring that into After Effect for the title build.

  Visit Tutorial

• 

  FXGuide TV - Preview of Particular 2.0

  Fxguide TV has an awesome video with Peder Norrby of Trapcode demonstrating the new features of the highly anticipated Particular 2.0. After the jump, make sure you watch Epidode 55, and if you skip to about a third of the way through, that is where the Particular 2.0 coverage begins.

  Visit Feature New Features Document

• 

  Maltaannon - Zaxwerks Serpentine Preview

  Another preview thrown into the mix! This one is for Zaxwerks Serpentine that is going to be released very soon. Maltaannon shows you the features of the new plugin and the basics of how to use it. Below are demo versions for both Mac and PC

  Visit Feature Mac Download PC Download