Aetuts+ » Motion Graphics

Excellent Explosions and Extreme Extrusions in C4D

Carlos Galvez — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:00:13 +0000

In this tutorial, Carlos will teach us how to create extruding text exploding out of a box using C4D. We’ll then bring it into After Effects to add more particles and a background. This is excellent effect to go through if you’ve been wanting to try a 3d program.

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Tutorial

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Get Your Disco Groove On

Ramesh Rao — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:01 +0000

I hope you got the funk in your trousers!… ok, that sounded better in my head. Today we are going to create a full disco club scene. There are a number of elements involved so hopefully you can moonwalk away with something groovy!

Requirements

Trapcode Particular You can download a trial version here.
Trapcode Lux You can download a trial version here.

Preview

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Tutorial

Step 1

At first we are going to create disco floor. Make a new composition by clicking Composition -> New Composition or ctrl + N . Name : "disco floor comp", Make it comp size (1000*1000) pixel aspect radio D1/DV pal 1.07, frame rate : 25 and 10 sec duration long.

Step 2

Create new solid clicking by Layer -> New -> Solid or Ctrl + y. Color doesn’t matter. Name it floor circle. Same as comp size. Make a larger sized floor. With solid layer selected, apply Effects -> Render -> Radio waves. Change a stroke -> color to white stroke. Set the start width to 25

Step 3

Create new solid clicking by Layer -> New -> Solid or Ctrl + y. Color doesn’t matter. Name it floor waveform. same as comp size. Make a larger size floor.

Step 4

Add a music bar effect in the floor. With solid layer selected, apply Effects -> Render -> Audio Waveform.You could use any music track to show the music bar. So import your favorite song. Bring it to disco floor comp. Change the below settings in audio waveform.audio Layer : music track that you have track in timeline , Start point : (0, 500), End point : (1000, 500), Display Sample : 40, Maximum height : 1200, Thickness : 10, Softness : 0, display option : digital.

Step 5

Add a glow to floor waveform layer by selecting the floor waveform layer click Effects -> Stylize -> Glow. Leave it as default settings.

Step 6

Create new adjustment layer by clicking Layer -> New -> Adjustment layer. To make like disco floor blocks, add mosaic on adjustment layer clicking by Effect -> Stylize -> Mosaic. Change the mosaic setting horizontal block : 50 & vertical block : 50.

Step 7

We have to make a blocks more effective so I’ve added effects -> render -> grid. Change the grid effect setting corner : 520,520, border : 7, feather: width : 1.5 height : 1.5, invert grid : on, bleanding mode : stencil alpha. It helps to make like small boxs.

Step 8

Make a new composition, Composition -> New Composition or ctrl + n. name : main comp, size width : 720 height : 411, pixel ratio : DV pal 1.07, frame rate : 25, duration : 10 sec. In this comp, we are going to make all the disco scene.

Create a new black solid, Layer -> New -> solid or Ctrl + y. name : Bg, same as comp size.

Step 9

Bring the disco floor comp to main comp timeline. Make it a 3d layer by clicking 3d switch on switches. Change the X rotation it to 90 degree. In the material opition make a accept light : off To make more of an extension on the floor, add motion tile effect on disco floor comp and change the output width : 250 & output height : 250.

Step 10

Create a new solid, Layer -> new -> solid or Ctrl + y, Name : floor light same as comp size colour medium gray (#949494). Make it as 3d layer by clicking 3D switch, rotate : 90 degree, make a blending mode : add.

After turning x rotation 90 degree it should look like this. Now we are going to create new camera in the comp.

Step 11

Create a new camera by clicking Layer -> New -> Camera or Ctrl + Alt + Shift + c . and use these settings. Select preset to 28 mm camera, enable the depth of field, aperture : 25 and make the position : 360, 90, -740, point of interest : 360, 180, 0.

Step 12

To make an additional extension of the floor, add motion tile effect on floor light and change the output width : 250 &; output height : 250.

Add Effects -> render -> grid Change the grid 1 effect setting corner : 503, 503, border : 3.5, feather: width : 1.5 height : 1.5, invert grid : on, bleanding mode : stencil alpha. It helps to make like small led boxs, we have to make some more bigger blocks that matches to disco floor comp layer. so add effects -> render -> grid to floor light layer make a grid 2 effect setting corner : 520, 520, border : 5, feather: width : 2, height : 2, invert grid : on, bleanding mode : stencil alpha.

Step 13

Now we are going to make a disco ball. Create a new solid, Layer -> new -> solid or Ctrl + y, Name : disco ball same as comp size. Add a fractural noise effect, Effect -> noise -> fractral noise. Change the below setting fractal type : Basic, noise type : block, contrast : 100, Brightness : 0, drop down the transform Scale : 40.

Add an expression in evolution make a Alt + click on keyframe and type time*200.

Step 14

To make a sphere look add CC Sphere effect on clicking Effects -> perspective -> cc sphere . To make a disco ball rotate drop down the rotation. We want the ball rotate on y axis so add an expression on Y rotation. Alt + Click on Rotation Y in timeline layer, type time*50. make a keyframe on start radius : 15 move the 7th frame in timeline make a another keyframe set radius : 45, change the light properties in cc sphere, drop down the light and change the light intensity : 150, light : 70, light direction : 180 degree, offset : 360, 45. We made a nice disco ball and i think some rays makes it better feel.

Step 15

Add a shine effect to make disco ball more effective. Effect -> trapcode -> shine . Change these settings Source point : 360, 45 same as cc sphere offset , drop down the shimmer , Amount : 100, Detail : 40, Boost light : 0, change the colourize : one colour, colour : white same as the disco ball, Transfer mode : Screen.change the position : 360, 130, 0.take it ot the top of the screen, switch the layer to 3D and make a accept light : off.

Step 16

Now we are going to create a laser effect. Create a new point light, Layer -> New -> Light Name it laser light , setting a light type : point, intensity : 200 , colour : green (#87FE52), then light cast shadow : turn off . Make a Position : 360, 145, 300 . Now we can see the light effect on the scene.

After adding the light i may look like this.

Step 17

Create a new solid, Layer -> new -> solid same as comp size and name it "laser light beam". Add trapcode particle by selecting the laser light beam layer, Effect -> trapcode -> particular. Change the Emitter and particle settings as follows :

Step 18

Create the laser effect by changing values on physics turbulence field & aux effect only. Change the Gravity : 0, Physics Time Factor : 1 Change all air values to 0 . Drop down the turbulence field change these settings Affect size : 0, Affect Position : 1000, Scale : 700, Ocatave Scale : 2, Evolution Speed : 20 . affect position & scale values Make a beam effect that randomly turns on. Change the aux values as follows :

Step 19

We are going to create a focus lights to the floor. Before that we have to make a light visible on the scene so Create a new solid layer, Layer -> New -> Solid or Ctrl + y name it "Lux". Add Trapcode Lux to the solid by selecting the Lux layer on timeline Effect -> trapcode -> Lux. It makes a laser light is visible. Make a Lux settings as follows :

Step 20

Now we make a focus light, Create a new spot light Layer -> New -> Light Name it "Top light 01" Setting a light type : spot, intensity : 100, Cone angle : 30, Cone feather : 30%, make a brighter color as your wish but i made colour : blue (#52B7FE), cast shadow : off click ok. Change the light position to back of the stage, position : 0, -100, 400, face the light to the stage change the point of interest : 0, 200, -150. Disco focus light should move randomly so i made a experession to the Top light 01 . Alt + click on point of interest keyframe type wiggle(1,200).

Step 21

Duplicate the focus light another one by selecting Top light 01, Edit -> Duplicate and change the colour as your wish. Change the point of interest : 250, 200, -150 and position : 200, -100, 400. Again, we duplicate another one. Change point of interest : 450, 200, -150 and position : 500, -100, 400. and again we duplicate one more light change the point of interest : 720, 200, -150 and position : 720, -100, 400. Make the focus light in different colours.

Step 22

Now, its time to make logo appearance. Create new composition, composition -> new composition or Ctrl + n. Name it "aetuts+_logo Comp" make a setings ad follows :

Step 23

Bring the aetuts+_logo to the comp, scale : 40 To make suitable to the composition switch it to a 3D layer. Divide the logo image to 3 separate slices as shown by the ruler on the screen by pressing Ctrl + r and aligning the guides where to separate.

Step 24

Duplicate the aetuts+_logo layer another 2 times by selecting the layer Edit -> duplicate or Ctrl + d. Move the first layer to 1 sec 15 frame in the timeline, and second layer 1 sec. set a anchor point as follows.

Step 25

Select the third layer with retangular tool mask the ae into 1 slice, select the second layer mask the tuts, and select the first layer mask the + in the logo.

Step 26

We are going to animate the layer make a keyframe in y rotaion as follows:

Step 27

Have to make a reflection in same method so duplicate all three layer bring it down in the comp.

Step 28

Set the opacity to 30, make the negative scale in y axis and set the position as follows:

It will look like this:

Step 29

After animating the logo, I think light reflection makes a better feel. Create new adjustment layer Layer -> New -> Adjustment layer, add Effect -> Generate -> CC light sweep and make a below setting :

Step 30

Bring the aetuts+_logo comp to the main timeline move the start point to 3 sec, switch it to 3D layer by clicking 3d switch in switches and keyframe the position keyframe it as follows:

Step 31

Add a lens flare to the comp it makes feel better output .Create a new adjustment layer Layer -> New -> Adjustment layer, add Render -> lensflare and key frame the flare center on 1st frame make a position : 8,-44 and take the time indicator to 8th sec set a position : 700,0.

Step 32

Finally, we are going to animate the camera in the scene. keyframe the camera position, set camera position 1 sec -> position :0, 0, 0. , move the time indicator to 1 sec 8 frame -> position :215, -6, -635, move the time indicator to 5 sec -> position :365, 90, -740 and move the time indicator to 8 sec -> position :630, 165, -425.

Move the marker to 1 sec in the timeline ruler. Render it and enjoy the disco floor.

I hope guys you guys enjoyed this tutorial.

Use Lights To Project Your Logo

Eddie Bogdanov — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:36 +0000

This tutorial basically involves three things that could be useful – Use of Light Projections (text projected onto white solids), Text Writing with particular and Use of Exported Camera from cinema 4d. There are some good principles you can take from this example.

Requirements

Trapcode Particular 2 You can download a trial version here.

CS Tools For Cinema 4d, you can download them here.

Preview

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Tutorial

Step 1

Start by making a new composition with whatever settings you prefer. Call it Main_Comp.

Step 2

Next, make a new Text Layer and type in anything you want to. I’ll use Arial Black but use of other, more funky fonts can result some cool looking outcome.
After that, right click onto that Text Layer and choose Create Masks from Text. At once, Outlines layer will be created and Text Layer’s visibility turned off.
Save.

Step 3

The idea is to use those masks as paths for emitting particles. We’ll not use Null Objects but rather Lights to avoid unnecessary actions.
Create a new Light leaving its Light Type to Point. Call it Emitter.
Now, you want every letter to animate separately so you’ll need a separate emitter for each one of them. It’s 6 letters for me so obviously I’ll need 6 emitters but since letter A contains two masks I’ll create an additional one.
Duplicate them and call them so the name wouldn’t reapeat except for letters that contains 2 or more masks.
Save.

Step 4

Now select AETUTS Outlines layer and press M to reveal only Mask Path properties. Then highlight all the Light layers and press P to reveal their Position properties.

Step 5

You’ll be creating Position path’s from those Mask Path’s now. To do that, just select one Mask Path and copy it by pressing Ctrl+C.
Next, highligh the desired Position option and paste by pressing Ctrl+V. Do it for every letter.
After that, you can turn off the visibility of AETUTS Outlines.
Scrub through timeline to see how they animate.
Save.

Step 6

Further, make a new Solid (A Particles)and apply Particular to it.
Open Emitter submenu and change Emitter Type to Light.
Then, open Settings and change Light name starts with under Light Emitters to A.
This will tell particular to search any light in composition that starts with letter A and set it/them as emitters- thats why you don’t want names to repeat.
In this case, Particular will set up both A layers as two emitters but with the same settings.
Save.

Step 7

Change Veocity, Velocity Random and Velocity from Motion to 0. Also Change Emitter Size X, Y and Z to 0.
Scrube through timeline and you’ll notice that the animation stops in 2 seconds. To fix this, you’ll need to add this loop expression to every Light layer’s Position: loopOut(type="Cycle")

Step 8

Select A Particles layer and find Turbulence Field under Physics>Air. Change Affect Size to 15 and Affect Position to 35.
This will make particles to randomly move around after they’re born.
Change particle Size to 3.
Save.

Step 9

Under Emitter, change Particles/sec to 300.
Next, duplicate A Partilces layer five times and change their names accordingly to letters. Then, do the same thing with them as in Step 6 where you have to open Particular Settings and change Light name starts with to whatever emitter you need. Also, you’ll have to rename T layer to T1 otherwise you may experience some glitches.
Save.

Step 10

We have done with particle animations so now we have to add those reflection planes. Star by making a new white Solid and duplicating it as many times as needed. Then change their transformations and distribute them similarly as in screenshot. I lowered the opacity to see the text.
Save.

Step 11

Make all the Plane layers 3d as we’ll need them to move in 3d space. Solids will turn black but thats okay. Don’t forget to crank up their opacity back if neccesarry.
Now, select all the Light and Particles layer and precompose them. Call the composition Title.

Step 12

Turn Title composition into 3d layer.
Next, add a new Light with Light Type set to Point and Casts Shadows checked.
Open Material Options under Title and triple click on Casts Shadows value to set it on Only.

Step 13

Open Title’s Transform properties and change Z Position to -50. You’ll see how the Light projects a shadow from our Title.
Now you can start to arrange those solids in 3d space to make them look better. See the screenshot on how i did it.
Save.

Step 14

It’s time to make a camera animation but won’t be doing it inside After Effects because I want to show you an easy technique that can turn out to be very handy in future. We’ll use Cinema 4d and object library called CStools for this matter.
If you haven’t downloaded CStools yet, do it now.
Inside Cinema 4d, go to File > Open, find CStools directory and open CS_DocuCam.c4d.
(If you want to integrate those tools in C4D, watch this excellent tutorial by Grayscalegorilla’s Nick Campbell.)

Step 15

Then, create any primitive object to help you see how camera acctualy moves.
Select DocuCam in Objects panel and see its settings under User Data.
First change Base Zoom to 20%, then, under Snap Zooms, set Probability to 25% and Complexity under Organic Motion – to 20%.

Step 16

Open Render Settings (Render > Render Settings).
First, go to Output and set Frame Range to All frames.

Then, select Save and set Path for output.
Open Compositing Project File pulldown. Set Target Application to After Effects, tick Include 3D Data checkbox and press Save Project File…
Save it wherever you like.

Important: For this to work you have to have a Cinema 4D to After Effects plugin (If you don’t have it, open this tutorial and follow through Step 10)

Switch to After Effects.

Step 17

Now import the file you just saved to After Effects.
New folder called CINEMA 4D Composition should be created. Open the composition in it and see that there’s a camera called DocuCam.
Copy and paste it inside Main_Comp. Because of the offset, you’ll have to move every layer manualy back to necessary position.

Step 18

To make everything look a bit better, i moved the objects closer to camera.
Next, we’ll make a floor layer. Create a new, white solid wtih size of your composition. Call it Floor.
Turn it into 3d layer. Using position controls, move it back to its original position.
Then, open Rotation properties and rotate X Rotation to around -70 degrees. After that, grab Z axis on pivot and lower the layer so it would be located under our titles. Lastsly, scale Floor’s width in the lentgh of your composition. See the screenshot.

Step 19

Select Floor and make a mask around it by double-clicking Rectangle Tool. Change Mask Feather to 420 and Mask Expansion to -55.
Create a new solid with comp size, call it Background. Put it in bottom of your layer structure. Apply Ramp effect on the layer.
Leave its Start Color black but change End Color to dark grey (#575757).

Step 20

To make the scene more dynamic, let’s add some expressions. Create a new Null object and call it Control. Add a slider to it by Effect > Expression Controls> Slider Control. Open Position properties for one of Plane layers and alt+click on the stopwatch to add expression.
Type in wiggle(Pick whip Slider here,5) It should looke like this – wiggle(thisComp.layer("Control").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"),5)
Copy&paste this to
rest of Plane layers.
Save.

Step 21

Go to Control layer and animate its slider by placing keyframe with value 25 on 01:10 and keyframe with value 0 on 02:00. Easy ease keyframes by pressing F9 on them.
Now, open Light layer’s Position properties. Set keyframes on 00:00 and 02:00. Select first keyframe and highligh Position’s X value. Add 300 pixels to it so the light would move 300 pixels to the left over those 2 seconds. Easy ease those keyframes too.

Step 22

Turn on the motion blur for all the layers. Create an Adjustment Layer and add Curve effect to it. Draw a contrast curve.
Next, add Noise effect. Set Amount of Noise to 5% and untick Use Color Noise.

Open Floor’s Material Options and bring down Specular to
20% so the floor wouldn’t reflect as much light. Also open Light’s Light Options and change Color to light grey (#B5B5B5).
Change project’s Color Depth to 16 bits per channel by Shift+clicking on bpc button in Project panel to stop color banding from happening.
Save. You’re done.

Step 23

You can also project pictures this way. All you have to do, is import the image, turn it into a 3D layer and position it correctly. Then, under its Material Options, change Casts Shadows to Only and Light Transmission to 100%.

Map Your Destination in AE

Jorrit Schulte — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:46 +0000

If you’re planning a trip and need to set up a visual location overview, you’re in luck! If you pretty much never even leave your room accept for class, work, and meals, you’re still in luck! With some expressions, good technique, and a little treasure hunting instinct, Jorrit Schulte guides us through the process of this animation journey.

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Tutorial

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Writing with Colored Sand

Ganesh Narwane — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:00:42 +0000

We are going to make this writing with sand sort of effect. The story behind this tutorial is; One day my manager asked me for spray or sand kind of effect. First I googled on the internet but I never found any kind of tutorial, After one hour of RnD, I came up with this effect which I felt was looking great, so I figured I would share it with you guys.

Preview

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Tutorial

Step 1

Create a new composition, go to Composition > New Composition rename it “Write with Sand” and
and make setting as shown below.

Step 2

Now go to Layer > New > Solid and rename it “Particle_Layer” and set up the size, color and
duration as shown in illustration below.

Step 3

Particle_Layer selected go to Effect > Trapcode > Particular. Now we need a wall on which particles
will collide and stick to it. So, we’ll make another solid, Layer > New > Solid. Rename it “Wall_Layer”
and make sure the setting is matching to Solid setting dialogue as shown, and click OK.

Step 4

Fine, now for our convenience put (drag) the “Wall_Layer” below the “Particle_Layer” and hide its
visibility and turn it into 3D layer.

Step 5

Select “Particle_Layer” and go to ‘Effect Control’ panel ‘Physics’ tab First change the Physics model
Air to Bounce. Collapse the bounce section within the Physics tab and change the Wall layer none to
Wall_Layer and ‘Collision Event to Stick’. Keep rest of setting as it is.

Step 6

Create Layer > New > Light name it “Emitter” and keep the setting as shown in illustration down. OK,
now and select the Particle_Layer and change the emitter type to ‘Light’. Now instead animating light
position manually, we’ll use a mask path.

Step 7

To create a mask path I am using AE TUTS+ logo. (For reference I downloaded the logo from site)

Import logo inside the After Effects using File > Import > File and create a new composition

Composition > New composition and rename it “Logo_Mask” and make setting as shown below.

Step 8

Drag the logo image inside the Logo_Mask composition and select logo layer inside composition
timeline, select Pen tool (shortcut G) and start drawing the logo. We’ll start drawing the way how
we usually write on paper. After one letter finishes, start next letter without changing mask even
when there is no connectivity between the letters. Keep drawing until the logo gets finish. Here is
what we’ll end up with.

Step 9

OK, now our mask is ready to use. Go to ‘Write with Sand’ composition and create a null object
Layer > New > Null Object. Turn it in to 3D layer and make sure that the null object is having the
same position as Emitter layer, if not select both the layer in timeline window and hit P on
keyboard to reveal position properties and change the position values of emitter layer as exactly null layer.

Step 10

Instead of animating our light layer we’ll link our Light to Null object. To do this drag the pick whip
of Emitter layer to Null object. Now Emitter layer is connected to Null object that means if we animate
null object the Emitter layer will follow exactly.

Step 11

To animate null object using mask path, go to Logo_Mask composition, Reveal the mask properties of
layer by pressing M key twice, Click on the ‘Mask path’ and Edit > Copy. Now again go to Write with
Sand composition, Select Null object and reveal its position property (by pressing P key on keyboard)
and use Edit > Paste.

Step 12

Before moving further first we’ll tweak some Particular setting. Select Particle_Layer and change the
attributes as illustrated below.

Step 13

Now our efforts getting shape slowly! But not that strong; we need lots of particles! Instead increasing
particles count we’ll increase the Physics time factor up to 10. Cool! Now it’s strong enough to see but
particles are dieing before completing the logo. To fix that go to Particle section and increase the value
of Life [sec] to around 100. Yes! Now we are able to see complete logo. Not smooth enough but OK.
We’ll fix that weirdness in next step.

Step 14

By pasting mask-path to null-object-position we got the keys. The total duration of keys is around 50
frames. We want it around 225 frames, to extend that, Select Null 1 layer, hit P on keybord to reveal
its position properties, select all keys; now hold down Alt key and drag the last key of animation till
225th frame. WOW! Very smooth!

Step 15

Hit 0 key for RAM preview to see what you got. We are almost there! Fine, Now we need to cut the
extra strokes than the letters and make our logo clean. Move your timeline indicator exactly when the
A letter gets drawing over (In my case around on 26th frame) Select Particle_Layer and go to Emitter
panel within Particular Effect and click on stopwatch to animate the Particles/sec, to reveal animated
property of Particle_Layer hit U on keyboard. Hit Page Down key on keyboard to go to next frame,
(frame 27th). And change the value of Particles/sec to ‘0’. Basically what we are doing is, we’re emitting
particles when only the logo letters are appear and when extra strokes are drawn we’re making the
emission ‘0’. Again go to the timeline when letter E is about to start (in my case frame 30th) and add a
keyframe at current time with 0 value. Press PageDown key on keyboard to go to next frame (frame 31st)
and again increase the Particles/sec value to 300. Again go to timeline where E letter gets end and set
the Particles/sec value to 300. Keep doing the same thing until end. And here is final result.

Step 16

Good! Logo-animation done but still some of particles needs to be fall and thickness of letters should
be even more. To do that, increase the value of Gravity to 2. And what?! all particles are falling down
dramatically again. Don’t worry Go to Emitter panel and change values of Velocity = 30, Velocity
Random = 95 and Velocity from motion = 1.

Step 17

Still result not that good enough. Particles are flying in space dramatically. To fix that select ‘Emitter’
layer in composition timeline, hit P on keyboard to reveal the position property and adjust the Z
position to something around -23. Awesome! Exactly, what we’re looking for. Try RAM preview.

Step 18

Hey! Time to colorize, there are two ways to change the colors of particles. One is to change the
‘Set Color’ property of Particular to ‘Over Life’ from Particle section. And second way is ‘Random
from Gradient’ from same drop down menu. But in both the case we won’t get the color per
character as well as we can’t animate the colors in particular while using light emitter.(But before
moving ahead reset the ‘Set Color’ property to ‘At Birth’ if changed)

Step 19

Don’t worry! Here is the solution. Animate the light color! So go ahead and reveal the ‘Emitter’
(light layer) properties by clicking on small triangle and again by clicking small triangle of ‘Light
option’ you’ll get ‘color’ property.

Step 20

Yes you’re right! We are going to animate the color of light according to start and end of character
letters (as we animated Particles/sec value). To animate color, move your timeline indicator till ‘A’
letter gets appeared completely and click on stopwatch of ‘color’ property and change the color to
Red. Press PageDown key and change the color of light to Green. Drag the timeline indicator till letter
E will get start and add a keyframe with same green color. Press PageDown key and change the color
of light to Blue. Keep doing same thing till the end and choose the colors which you like and there we are!

Step 21

To match look and feel with the final video preview, use the following tricks. Double click on ‘Emitter’
(light) layer and change its intensity 100 to 250. This is good trick to increase no. of particles. Select
Paticle_Layer and make following changes, Sphere feather = 100, Opacity Random = 100 and Color
Random = 20.

After completion of tutorial keep tweaking attributes and let me see if you found something intresting.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. Keep visiting AE Tuts plus.com.

Form a Unique Transition

Stefan Surmabojov — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:00:15 +0000

In this tutorial we are going to reveal how to create a cool particle transition between 2 videos using Trapcode Form. We will cover the importance of layer maps while using this plugin as well as how to create a stylish displacement of the particles.

Requirements

Trapcode Form You can download a trial version here.
Trapcode Shine (Optional) You can download a trial version here.

Preview

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Tutorial

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The Best Sound You’ll Ever See!

Satya Meka — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:07 +0000

Satya is back with a new tutorial that will help you look as good as you sound. This technique has many options so sit back and learn how to create an attractive visual generated from your audio spectrum.

Preview 1

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Preview 2

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Tutorial

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How to Make Paper People

Brandon Ray — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:04:18 +0000

Stop-motion animation using paper cut-outs can take quite a bit of time to produce… unless you use The Paper People effect! This technique gives you similar results in a fraction of the time. With the use of a current version of AE, you’ll use the wiggle expression, hold keyframes, and the puppet tool to emulate the classic look of a beloved form of traditional animation.

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Tutorial

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Animate Your Logo Into Characters

Chaithanya Y — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:00:15 +0000

In this tutorial, we will learn some of the cool new features introduced in Trapcode Particular v2.0. Inspiration for this tutorial is from the logo reveal of the Digital Domain Animation Company. It may not be as good as that (since it had been done completely using a 3d software), but I thought to give it a try in After Effects.

Requirements

Trapcode Particular 2 You can download a trial version here.

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Tutorial

Step 1

Create a new composition named "Logo" with these settings. It is in this composition that we place our logo.

Place the logo in the composition and adjust the size of the logo to fit.

Step 2

Create a new composition with the same settings as of the original composition ‘Logo’. Place the original logo composition into this layer.

Step 3

Take a white solid with the same comp size and place it above the logo layer in the composition.

Step 4

Add "Fractal Noise" effect to the Solid and change the settings of the Effect. We do this in order to get a texture for the logo before emitting the particles from it.

Step 5

Change the track matte options of the logo layer to "Luma", which gives out this effect.

Step 6

Make a new composition for the particle layer choosing the settings as below.

Step 7

Using text tool, write "0" in a layer and reduce the time line to one frame. Using text tool again write "1" in other layer and reduce the time line of it to one frame. Arrange the two layers in sequence.

Step 8

Add a gradient to both the layers along with a drop shadow. In the Ramp effect choose the preset as Vignette lighting and slightly modify the gray levels. Have a smooth drop shodow. Duplicate the same effect for the "1" text later as well.

Step 9

Now we head for the main composition. Make a new composition with the settings. I have used a preset " NTSC D1 Widescreen Square Pixel " with frame rate as 29.97, but you can choose what ever you want.

Step 10

Drop all the comps, Logo, Logo Gradient and Particle into the main comp. Hide the Logo Gradient and Particle layers and enable 3d for the Logo Gradient.

Step 11

Now we go back to the Layer gradient composition and add 2 Linear Wipe effects to the "Logo" layer in it. Now we change these settings such that only a part of logo is visible. Change the angle of transition as given and key frame the effect at 2 sec.(0:00:02:00) as follows.

Step 12

Now move the slider to 4 sec. (0:00:04:00) and change the transition to 100% and 0% respectively.

Step 13

Now what we have in the time line is something like this.

Select the both the keyframes of the first linear wipe effect and move it a little left.

If you see, the resultant of this would be an effect like this.

If needed you can give some feather to the Linear wipe effect for smoothness.

Step 14

Now we go back to the main comp. Make a new solid "Particular" and add effect Tracode Particular v2 to the solid.

Step 15

Change the emitter settings of the particular. We should have more number of particles flying so we give 50,000 as articles/sec , if needed we can increase this as well. Change the emitter type as ‘Layer’ and in the layer emitter settings, select the layer as "Logo Gradient" and Layer sampling as " Particle Birth Time" ( This is very necessary step). Change the Layer RGB Usage as "None" since we wont be needing that as we have already have our custom particles.

Step 16

We go to particle menu and change the Life of the particle to 6 sec. The rest of the settings in the particle menu can be done later since it will be difficult to work and edit, if we change the particle type right now. So we leave it at the end.

Step 17

We move to the Physics properties of the Particular layer and change the wind in Z direction and -150, so as to make the particles come towards the screen.

We also give a little Turbulence to the particle so that they dont seem to be stationery.

Step 18

Now, we create a new camera with settings as of preset "35 mm".

Step 19

One of the new things introduced in the version 2 of Trapcode Particular is the " World Transform". This is a very good way to rotate or move the particles without actually moving the camera. Since this only moves/rotates the particles all the other elements in the scene are not affected, which is quite helpful sometimes, as of in this case. We animate the Z rotation using the World transform but not by the camera since this will also rotate the 3d layer(Layer Gradient) that the particles are emitted from.

Keyframe the Z rotation at 2 Sec(00:00:02:00) as 0 degrees and at 6sec(00:00:06:00) as 90 degrees.

Since the rotation starts from 2 Sec., we need to adjust the rotation. I use graph editor since this allows to edit the values easily and I can approximate the value at any time. The graph clearly shows that for a long time between 2 – 4 sec the value of incrementation is quite slow, but as we see their is an increase in the value and doesnt abruptly go a higher value, this ensures smooth motion.

Step 20

We will adjust the revealtion of the logo layer. Use the linear wipe effect and adjust its settings as below.

At 2 sec (00;00;02;00) Transition completion is 0% while at 4 sec(00;00;04;00) its 100%.

Also turn on visiblity of Logo Gradient Layer.

Step 21

Second best thing introduced in the new particular is the Shading properties for the particles. For this we make a new light. Change the settings of light as shown and name the light as "Shadow". Give the color, something from the logo.

Step 22

Go to the particular layer and switch on the shading properties of the particles.

Increase the ambient light a little to make the particles appear from the background. You get an effect like this if you move your timeline.

Step 23

Now, the best thing introduced in the new particular is the new Particle type layer. We now go back to the particle properties of the particular. Change the particle type as Textured polygon. Change the texture layer as "Particle" layer and Time sampling as "Random – Still Frame". In the rotation properties switch on the orient to motion and also increase the random rotation and random speed rotation values. Change the size settings and opactity settings as shown.

Step 24

Change the settings of the shading properties of the particular as follows in order to make the particles visible.

Step 25

Create a background for the animation. Take a new black solid with the same settings as comp and place it below all the layers. Use ramp effect to give some gradient background.

Step 26

Lastly, Switch on the Depth of field for the camera and adjust the focal length and aperture settings.

If you want a logo reveal, just put the precompose the Main comp and "Time reverse" it.

Learn to Make a Custom 3D Wall Text Reveal

Roman Komurka — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:00:08 +0000

Using basic AE tools and some expressions you will learn how to create this 3D wall made of custom shapes and a nice laser beam to reveal your text.

Preview

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Tutorial

Step 1

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “line”, set width to 600, height to 30, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 2

In this step we will be creating a base shape from which our 3D wall will be consisting of. You can of course choose any shape you want or even some text. It’s pretty much up to you. I want my 3D wall to consist of rectangles and in order to do that create a new Solid by clicking on Layer->New->Solid. Make it white, Name it “field” and set its width to 60, height to 30.

Step 3

Create new rectangular mask by double-clicking on Rectangular Mask Tool.

Step 4

Select the Field layer, press double M and change Mask Expansion to -4 px.

Step 5

Apply the Bevel Aplha effect by clicking on Effects->Perspective->Bevel Alpha.

Step 6

Change the Light Angle property to “-35°” and Light Intensity to “0,55″.

Step 7

Now we need to fill the entire composition by our shapes. Of course we could make 10 copies and change their position manually, but imagine how boring that would be if we had 100 copies. To make this easier just change the position of our Field to [30,15] by selecting the layer and hitting the letter P so it’s at the very left of our composition. Now Alt-click on the stopwatch next to “Position” to add an expression that will take care of positioning after we make another copies of this layer. Type the following into the expression area:

x=transform.position[0]+(index-1)*60;
y=transform.position[1];
[x,y]

Now what does this expression do? In order to calculate the position of our all Field layers we need to know their current position and how many layers there is and that’s exactly what “Index” does. It’s index of the layer and we can use it to offset the layer position by certain amount of pixels. Our Field layer is 60 pixels wide, thus the offset is 60px. But since we don’t want the first layer to be offset, we need to decrease the layer index – “(index-1)” should do the job. Now we only need to multiply the decreased layer index by our offset (60px) and add it to the X position.

Since there’s only room for one line of our elements, the Y position will stay the same.

Step 8

We will also want our layer to fade in, but don’t forget that we are going to make another 9 copies, thus simple animating the Opacity property wouldn’t be enough as all layers would fade in at the same time and we of course don’t want that. Let’s use simple expression to let the layers kind of randomly fade in. Click on the Field layer, press “T” to reveal the Opacity property and set it to “0″. Alt-Click on the Stopwatch and type the following into the expression box:

tm = timeToFrames();
rnd = wiggle(0,50)+20;
(tm-rnd)*10

TimeToFrames is pretty self-explanatory – it converts time to frames.
wiggle(0,50)+20 will generate just one number (due to the “0″) in an interval of 0-50. But I don’t like the fact that it it could generate “0″ or any other low number, so let’s just increment the randomly generated number (rnd variable) by “20″.

Now we are kind of set – the layer is slowly fading in and it’s offset a bit so it doesn’t start immediatelly. But I don’t want to wait 100 frames (1 frame = 1%) to fade the layer in so let’s multiply the whole thing by “10″ – this will speed up the animation 10 times.

Step 9

Select the Field layer and press Ctrl-D 9 times to duplicate the layer. All layers should be lined up perfectly thanks to the expression we applied in Step 7.

Step 10

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “fields”, set width to 600, height to 300, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 11

Put the Line composition into the Fields composition.

Step 12

Now we are going to do Step 7 again, except we are going to apply an expression that will take care of position on the Y axis, not X. I’m not going to explain the idea again, it’s all written in Step 7. To make sure that the layers will be lined up perfectly after we make some copies of them just change the position of our Line layer to [300,15] by selecting the layer and pressing the letter P so it’s at the top of our composition. Now Alt-click on the stopwatch next to “Position” to add an expression. Type the following into the expression area:

x=transform.position[0];
y=transform.position[1]+(index-1)*30;
[x,y]

Step 13

Make 9 copies of the Line layer by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-D 9 times.

Step 14

Randomly offset the layers so they don’t start at the same time.

Step 15

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “fields big”, set width to 1920, height to 1080, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 16

Put the Fields composition into the Fields big composition.

Step 17

Select the layer and apply the CC RepeTile effect by clicking on Effect->Stylize->CC RepeTile.

Step 18

Set Expand Right to “660″, Expand Left to “660″, Expand Down to “400″, Expand Up to “400″ and Tiling to “Checker 180°”.

Step 19

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “Element”, set width to 1920, height to 1080, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 20

In this step we are going to create our element which we want to be revealed by the laser. Make sure that there’s no background and the element is white as this composition will be used as alpha track matte. There’s of course a lot of ways to create our element and it pretty much depends on what you want/need. Since my element is plain text I’m going to use the Horizontal Type Tool.

Step 21

Create a new text layer and type “ae tuts”. I’m using Verdana, font size 310px and make it bold.

Step 22

Let’s create a transition which will be slowly revealing our text. So create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “transition”, set width to 1920, height to 1080, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 23

Create a new Solid by clicking on Layer->New->Solid.

Step 24

Make sure it’s white and comp size.

Step 25

Apply Linear wipe effect by selecting the layer and clicking Effect->Transition->Linear wipe.

Step 26

Set Wipe Angle to 90° and Feather to 300

Step 27

Now let’s animate the Transition Completion. At 00:00 create a keyframe and set it to 0%. Go to 04:00, create another keyframe and set it to 100%.

Step 28

With the layer selected click on Effect->Color Correction->Colorama to apply the effect.

Step 29

In the Input Phase section set Get Phase From to Aplha and In the Modify section tick “Modify Alpha” and “Change Empty Pixels”.

Step 30

In the Output Phase section select the Ramp Grey preset.

Step 31

Click on the circle and add another black point.

Step 32

Adjust the slider so it looks like on the picture.

Step 33

Create a new Solid by clicking Layer->New->Solid.

Step 34

Make it comp size and call it fractal.

Step 35

With the fractal layer selected click on Effect->Noise & Grain->Fractal Noise.

Step 36

Set Fractal Type to “Swirly”, Noise Type to “Soft Linear”, Contract to “150″ and Brightness to “-40″.

Step 37

Select the fractal layer, right click on it and set the Blending Mode to Color Dodge.

Step 38

Create a new Adjustment Layer by clicking on Layer->New->Adjustment Layer.

Step 39

With the Adjustment layer selected click on Effect->Color Correction->Colorama to apply the effect.

Step 40

In the Output Phase section select the Ramp Grey preset.

Step 41

Click on the circle to add one black and one white point.

Step 42

Adjust them so the circle is nearly 100% black and looks like on the picture.

Step 43

Put the Transition composition into the Element composition (above the text layer) and make it start at 03:00.

Step 44

Set track matte of the text layer to “Luma Inverted Matte”.

Step 45

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “wall”, set width to 1920, height to 1080, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 46

Put “Element” and “fields big” composition into the Wall composition.

Step 47

Select the Element layer, go to 03:00 and press Ctrl+Shift+D to split the layer. Select the middle layer (the Element layer that is active from 00:00 to 03:00) and delete it.

Step 48

Set track matte of the “fields big” layer to “Luma Inverted Matte”.

Step 49

Select the “fields big” layer and click on Effect->Noise & Grain->Fractal noise.

Step 50

Set Fractal Type to “Turbulent Smooth”, Noise Type to “Soft Linear”, Contrast to “120″ and Brightness to “-20″.

Step 51

Click on the Evolution stopwatch and type “time*200″ into the expression box.

Step 52

Select the “fields big” layer and click on Effect->Stylize->Glow.

Step 53

Set Glow Based On to “Alpha channel”, Glow Threshold to 70%, Glow Radius to “3″.

Step 54

Select the “fields big” layer and click on Effect->Color Correction->Curves.

Step 55

Create an S-shape to give our wall nice contrast.

Step 56

Select the “fields big” layer and click on Effect->Stylize->Roughen Edges.

Step 57

Set Edge Type to “Roughen”, Border to “4″, Alt+Click on Evolution stopwatch and type “time*200″ into the expression box.

Step 58

Create a new Adjustment Layer by clicking on Layer->New->Adjustment Layer.

Step 59

Select the “fields big” layer and click on Effect->Color Correction->Hue/Saturation.

Step 60

Select the “fields big” layer and click on Effect->Color Correction->Tint.

Step 61

In Hue/Saturation section turn “Colorize” On, set Colorize Hue to 212°. Go to 03:00, set keyframe for Colorize Saturation and set it to 50, set keyframe for Colorize Lightness and set it to 0. Go to Tint section, set keyframe for Amount to Tint and set it to 0%.

Step 62

Go to 06:00 and in Hue/Saturation section set Colorize Saturation to 25 and Colorize Lightness to -40. In Tint section set Amount to Tint to 20%.

Step 63

Select the Adjustment Layer and apply Curves effect by clicking on Effect->Color Correction->Curves.

Step 64

Darken the Wall by setting the Curves effect like on the picture.

Step 65

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “Element 2″, set width to 1920, height to 1080, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 66

Go to the Wall composition, select “Element” and “fields big” and copy them by clicking on Edit->Copy.

Step 67

Go to the Element 2 composition and paste the layers we’ve just copied by by clicking on Edit->Paste.

Step 68

Set Track Matte of the “fields big” layer to “Luma Matte”.

Step 69

Select “Element” and “fields big” and click on Layer->Pre-compose.

Step 70

Name the new composition “Element Pre-comp”, tick “Move all atributes into the new composition” and hit OK.

Step 71

With the “Element Pre-comp” layer selected go to Effect->Color Correction->Hue/Saturation and apply the effect.

Step 72

With the “Element Pre-comp” layer selected go to Effect->Color Correction->Curves and apply the effect.

Step 73

With the “Element Pre-comp” layer selected go to Effect->Stylize->Glow and apply the effect.

Step 74

Go to 03:00 and in the Hue/Saturation section turn Colorize On, set Colorize Hue to “212°”, set a keyframe for Colorize Saturation and make it “50″. Set a keyframe for Curves but don’t adjust them yet, leave them as they are.

In the Glow section set Glow Threshold to “10%”, “Glow radius” to 50. Set a keyframe for “Glow Intensity” and set it to “0″.

Step 75

Go to 05:00, set Colorize Saturation to “0″ and Glow Intensity to “0,5″.

Step 76

While still being at 05:00 adjust the Curves channels to give our text nice yellowish look.

Step 77

Create a new Solid by clicking Layer->New->Solid, make it comp size and name it “Particles”.

Step 78

With the “Particles” layer selected click on Effect->Simulation->CC Particle World to apply the effect.

Step 79

Click on the “Particles” layer, hit the letter P to reveal the position and change it to [545,600].

Step 80

Turn Grid Off, set Birth Rate to “1″, Longetivity to “0.35″, Velocity to “0.05″, Gravity to “0.075″, Particle Type to “Motion Polygon”, Birth Size to “0.1″ and Death Size to “0.2″.

Step 81

Move the layer so it starts at 04:02.

Step 82

With the “Particles” layer selected click on Effect->Blur & Sharpen->CC Vector Blur.

Step 83

Change the Amount to “10″.

Step 84

Make couple of copies, change their position so there are particle effects for all letters and of course make them start a little bit later so they are kind of synced with the transition.

Step 85

Go to 06:15 and set keyframes for Birth Rate for all particle layers. Then go to 06:20 and set the keyframes to “0″.

Step 86

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New composition. Name it “2D comp”, set width to 1920, height to 1080, pixel aspect ratio to “square pixels”, frame rate to 25 and make it 15 seconds long.

Step 87

Put Wall and Element 2 into this composition and make them both 3D. Go to 03:05 and set a keyframe for the position of “Element 2″. Go to 06:05 and change the position to [940, 520, -100] so the layers will be separated in 3D space aswell.

Step 88

Create a new Solid by clicking on Layer->New->Solid.

Step 89

Name it Flare, make it black and hit OK.

Step 90

With the Flare layer selected go to Effect->Generate->Lens Flare and apply the effect.

Step 91

Change the transfer mode of the Flare layer to “Screen”. Set a keyframe for Flare Center and change it to [925, 630]. Set a keyframe for Flare Brightness and set it to 0%.

Step 92

Go to 06:05 and change the Flare Center to [1500, 630]. Also set the Flare Brightness to 100% and move the keyframe to 05:15.

Step 93

Create a new Solid by clicking on Layer->New->Solid.

Step 94

Name it Flare 2, make it black and hit OK.

Step 95

With the Flare 2 layer selected go to Effect->Generate->Lens Flare and apply the effect.

Step 96

Change Transfer Mode of the Flare 2 layer to “Screen”. Go to 03:20, set keyframes for Flare Center and Flare Brightness. Set Flare Center to [404, 430], Flare Brightness to “0%”. Also change the Lens Type to “105mm Prime”.

Step 97

Go to 04:20 and set Flare Center to [700,440], Flare Brightness to “80%”.

Step 98

Trim the Flare layers so they start with the first Flace Center keyframe.

Step 99

Create a new composition by clicking on Composition->New Composition.

Step 100

Name it “Final comp”, make it 1280×720, 25 frames per second and 15 seconds long.

Step 101

Create a new Solid by clicking on Layer->New->Solid.

Step 102

Make it 1280×720 and name it “bg”.

Step 103

With the “bg” layer selected click on Effect->Generate->Ramp to apply the effect.

Step 104

Set Ramp Shape to “Radial Ramp”, Start of Ramp to [640,360], End of Ramp to [640,1095]. Colour code of the Start Color is #070731 so basically dark blue. The End Color is pure black.

Step 105

Put “2D comp” into this composition and make it 3D.

Step 106

Create a new Camera by clicking on Layer->New->Camera.

Step 107

Select the “35mm” preset and click OK.

Step 108

Go to the beginning, bring up Position and Point of Interest by pressing P+Shift+A and set Position to [-270.7,-231.4,-155.2] and Point of Interest to [-181.5,1009.2,-194.9]. Also use Easy Ease Out by clicking on Animation->Keyframe Assistant->Easy Ease Out

Step 109

Go to 03:21 and set Position to [-467.6,386.1,-320.9] and Point of Interest to [497.3,215.7,446.2]. Select the two keyframes you’ve just created and press F9 to apply Easy Ease.

Step 110

Go to 06:16 and set Position to [1230.6,697.1,-891.1] and Point of Interest to [691.8,322.9,166.4]. Select the two keyframes you’ve just created and press F9 to apply Easy Ease.

Step 111

Create a new Solid by clicking on Layer->New->Solid.

Step 112

Name it “beam” and make it comp size.

Step 113

Create a new Null Object by clicking on Layer->New->Null Object and rename it to “slider”.

Step 114

With the “beam” layer selected click on Effect->Generate->Beam to apply the Beam effect.

Step 115

Now select the “slider” layer and click on Effect->Expression Controls->Slider Control.

Step 116

Change the Length to 100%, Time to 50% and Ending Thickness to 400. Change the Inside Color to #FFC000.

Step 117

Here it gets a little bit tricky. If we tried to adjust our beam to follow the revealing text, it would turn into a flat layer when it would cross the camera. The trick is to transform the beam points to the 3D positions of our wall. More info about this expression can be found at http://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/lst-lens-flare.html.

So Alt+Click on the Stopwatch next to the Starting Point and type the following into the expression box:

beam = thisComp.layer(”2D comp”);
beam.toComp([960,500,-700]);

Of course that we need to change our Ending point aswell, but this time we are going to use our Slider effect, which will control the position of the Ending Point on the X axis so it can be easily animated afterwards.

beam = thisComp.layer(”2D comp”);
beam.toComp([thisComp.layer("slider").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"),500,0]);

Step 118

At 03:21 set a keyframe for Slider and make it “500″. Go to 06:06 and set it to “1450″.

Step 119

Change Transfer Mode of the Beam layer to “Linear Light”.

Step 120

Go to 03:17, set a keyframe for the Length and make it 98,9%. Go 4 frames forward to 03:21 and set it to 100%. At 06:06 make another keyframe and set it to 100%, go 4 frames forward to 06:10 and set it to 93%. You can also trim the layers so “slider” starts at 03:21 and “beam” at 03:17.

Step 121

Create a new Null Object by clicking on Layer->New->Null Object.

Step 122

Name it “shake” and trim it so it starts at 03:21.

Step 123

Apply the AfterShake preset to the “shake” layer. If you don’t have it you can get it from http://www.videocopilot.net/presets/after_shake/

Step 124

Go to 03:21, split the “2D comp” layer and parent the upper 2D layer to Shake.

Step 125

While still being at 03:21, set a keyframe for Speed, Amount and Rotation and make them 10, 70, 25.

Step 126

Go to 06:06 and set Speed, Amount and Rotation to 0. Select the 6 keyframes you’ve just created and press F9 to apply Easy Ease.

Step 127

Go to 03:21, select the Camera layer, press AA to bring up Camera Options, Enable Depth of Field, set a keyframe to Focus Distance and make it 600. Set another keyframe but this time for Aperture and make it 100.

Step 128

Go to 06:06, set Focus Distance to 1100 and Aperture to 200. Select the 4 keyframes and hit F9 to get Easy Ease again.

Step 129

Turn the Motion Blur switch on and enable it for the Beam and 2D comp layers.