Cinematic Opening Title Redux – Day 2

Jan 28th in Motion Graphics by Lloyd

In day 2 Lloyd finishes the tutorial and shows how to use scripts to split up and animate a logo into hundreds of pieces. He also adds the finishing touches including an alternate ending not shown in the preview. Even though scripts might be perceived as advanced tools, this tutorial aims to shatter this myth and guarantees you will feel comfortable using scripts to help automate and improve the speed of your work.

PG

Author: Lloyd

I run AESCRIPTS.com which provides useful scripts for Adobe After Effects. You can follow me on Twitter @aescripts

You can watch Day 1 of this tutorial here

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Tutorial

Music and Images used in the final piece


Extraterrestrial from AUDIO JUNGLE
Reflection Nebulas in Orion from NASA
In the Center of Reflection Nebula NGC 1333 from NASA

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User Comments

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  1. PG

    DKumar M. January 28th

    One more addition to my to do list… Thanks Lloyd for sharing such a easy tutorial.

    ( Reply )
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    sbalanko January 28th

    yehaaa i need this

    great tut

    i love aetuts

    ( Reply )
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    Trevor McPherson January 28th

    This is so cool Lloyd. Such an elegant use of scripts and expressions. I’m loving it. Thank you very much for all the effort!

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    Kid January 28th

    Wow…..this is great!!!

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    keys January 28th

    wow this is awesome thanks so much….

    ( Reply )
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    Van Tremo January 28th

    Great job Lloyd… ! Thanks
    How difficult is to make the project file shareware ?
    Just asking….

    ( Reply )
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    Ahmed Mohsen January 28th

    Well done Lloyd
    great tutorial . . . thanks a lot

    ( Reply )
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    perry January 28th

    I really love this one.thank you very Cinematic and would ask you to do more like this but i love everyhting you do.lol. dont want to disturb your motivation or artisticness lol. once again thank you.

    ( Reply )
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    illd January 28th

    Hi Loyd,
    now that was a great Turorial-series. I learned so much, I enjoyed every second. I even liked seeing an AE-pro like you fighting the same problems I often have, like multiple keyframe selection only possible by scrolling down about a minute or getting nearly lost in the viewers, seems I am not the only one :)

    But I also have two questions:
    1) Is there a special reason you didnt use the Carddance- or even the Shatterplugin to simulate the Logo splitting up in chunks? I mean they are able use the AE cam too, and splitting would be easy. I assume you wanted to have the control over every single chunk…

    2) In part2 you are doing an Cameraedit at the end and then you copy that keyframe to all the other Cameras in the subcompositions. Now what I am not shure about is, if this is only for reference purposes in all comps, so that the cameras are “in sync”, or did you that because the “Maincamera” in your Workcomp was no longer controlling the subcomps. I mean, if you got all subcomps anyway synced by strictly copying, is there a need for a “MainCamera” in the Worckomp?

    That collapsetransformation hierarchy thing makes me often lost in AE – sometimes it works as aspected sometimes it messes up a lot like blendmodes, transparency or even flickering and intersecting – can you confirm that?

    ( Reply )
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    tom January 29th

    well *thumbs up*

    Very nice tut, thx for sharing your knowledge.
    I really like the workflow and organisation …

    keep up with the good work :)

    ( Reply )
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    tillimanjaro January 29th

    Super nice cinematic tutorial using all that scripts i never realy used.
    The dramatic music makes me wanna try it out :)

    tillimanjaro

    ( Reply )
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    Lloyd Alvarez January 29th

    @illd – 1. You are correct, by using the script I have control over every single chunk. Since computers are so fast now, I can handle hundreds of layers without much of a problem so I like to have complete control if possible. Same for the text in part 1.
    2. If the pre-comp has collapse transmations on then the camera from the main comp controls the scene but if you don’t then you need a camera in the pre-comp which is why i had those cameras in there and needed to keep them in sync.

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    illd January 29th

    @ Lloyd,

    ok, during the tutorial you turned the collapse transformation in your maincomp off. Did you then turn it on for the final render? I mean had you ever had some disadvantages (blendmodes wrong displayed, transparency issues ect.) using it?
    Sorry to bore you with that, but its important to me understanding an apropriate workflow with the AE cameras and precomps – I often got rendererrors with collapse transformation, like I said before and I am not shure if its AE or my machine causing this.

    ( Reply )
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    Lloyd Alvarez January 29th

    @illd – Since I had a copy of my camera in the pre-comp I did not need to turn on collapse transforms at any point, preview or render. Collapse Transformations is a very powerful feature of AE and I use it all the time I just didn’t think it was necessary for this project and I agree that it’s one of the more confusing aspects of using AE. So now you know a way to avoid using it (by having a copy of your main cam in the pre-comp).

    ( Reply )
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    Steve Forbes January 30th

    I don’t even know how to use AE at all, but watching this tut makes me want to get into it! :D

    Awesome tutorial man! Great effects! :)

    ( Reply )
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    insic January 30th

    wow! following this tutorial is so awesome. i love my result.

    ( Reply )
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    Joe Clay January 30th

    For realism, I’d probably darken the faces of the aetuts layers until they formed the logo and I’d probably set shine up to cast shadows. But, that’s my opinion. It might not look as good.

    You could use card dance as well, but it’s not as easy as this method, since you have to make an animated displacement map. It might render quicker though.

    Overall, nice tutorial. It’s a little more advanced than the previous ones, so hopefully it’ll quiet the complainers—though I must say I’m glad for more advanced tutorials. I generally only watch tutorials to see how other animators work. Occasionally I pick up a new trick. It’s lonely being a freelancer, lol.

    ( Reply )
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    James February 2nd

    Lloyd,
    Great Tut.
    But where exactly do we put the scripts?
    Do they all go in the UI Panels folder?

    James Wicks
    AE CS3, Mac OS X

    ( Reply )
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    Lloyd Alvarez February 2nd

    @James – Watch the tutorial on how to install and run scripts that is linked in the post above

    ( Reply )
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    James Wicks February 2nd

    Lloyd,
    Some scripts need to be in the UI Panels folder, and some do not.
    It’s not clear which ones you used are supposed to go in which folder.

    Thanks anyway,
    J

    ( Reply )
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    Lloyd Alvarez February 2nd

    @James – If the script is run from the Window menu then it’s installed in the ScriptUI Panels folder, otherwise it is just installed in the Scripts folder and it’s from from File->Run Scripts

    ( Reply )
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    JUAN LUIS February 2nd

    HELLO IM FROM SPAIN. I THINK YOU ARE GREAT, WITH A COOL AND ELEGANT STYLE.
    I JUST WHATCHED YOUR SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OPEN AND ITS INCREDIBLE.
    CAN YOU EXPLAIN US HOW DID YOU DO IT.
    USING TRAPCODE 3D STROKE PERHAPS?
    THANKIU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TUTORIALS.

    PERPHAPS ONE DAY YOU COULD EXPLAIN US YOUR CBS PROMO TOO.
    AMAZING.

    ( Reply )
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    Steve February 4th

    Hey man, Awesome tutorial…..

    how did you create these blurry red/green/blue edges……in the corners?
    this effects is quite cool….looks like tv-signals….alpha channels….could ya explain how ya did this?

    thanks alot

    ( Reply )
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    Tyler Menezes February 4th

    Wow, really nice. You should actually include that at the beginning of your tutorials; it seems like a waste to not use it for its intended purpose.

    ( Reply )
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    Samir Graphics February 7th

    It’s nice tutorial, and wonderful output, but in my opinion: you can use more sample techniques for similar output….
    For example why u didn’t use card dance or mosaic photo instead of using 3d script and 1000 layers..!!!
    anyway gr8 job.
    thanks alot

    ( Reply )
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    Steve February 11th

    how did ya get those tv stuff….these rgb channel splitting on the edges?

    ( Reply )
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    Skylar February 17th

    This made me smile.

    ( Reply )
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    מוישלה February 19th

    i’ts eas cool!

    מאוד נהניתי.
    נראה אותך פותח בבילון לקרוא את התגובה שלי שהיא בעברית, ומחזיר לי בעברית.

    ביי, אחי.

    ( Reply )
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    yy February 19th

    thanks alot sir

    ( Reply )
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    Ricardo February 23rd

    hey i want to ask you a question. do you have the after effects file? i would like to take a look at yours

    ( Reply )
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    Oliver February 23rd

    Great Tutorial! But where’s the short RGB split tut?

    ( Reply )
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    toyBunny February 24th

    This is very cool. Nice and easy, yet very sophisticated. Keep it up!

    ( Reply )
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    Ken February 25th

    great tutorial. how can i embed this in a blog? i will give link back to here

    ( Reply )
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    da_ae March 2nd

    hey Lloyd,

    when I tray to start the 3D_layer_distributor.jsx script I get this massage:

    Unable to execute script at line 51. After Effects error: Can not call setValue() on a property with keyframes. Use setValueAtTime() or setValueAt Key() instead.
    any ideas what´s going wrong?

    thx
    da_ae

    ( Reply )
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      Lloyd Alvarez March 2nd

      @da_ae make sure you are using the latest version of the script, the latest version doesn’t have a line 51 so you must be using an older version. You can download the latest version from http://aescripts.com at the link above.

      ( Reply )
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    da_ae March 2nd

    that´s it!
    Thanks a lot.

    greetings,
    da_ae

    ( Reply )
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    Nemesis March 23rd

    Great tutorial, thank u !

    ( Reply )
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    adams April 11th

    The dude is a genius! Brill tuts. Hope oneday you do an after effect tutorial on how to build a 3d world without external plugins. Now, that be an awesome tutorial too. :)

    Love the scripts. Cheers.

    ( Reply )
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    CgBaran Tuts April 22nd

    Great tutorial thankss

    ( Reply )
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    Pixel_Junglist May 15th

    Really good tutorial! Many thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    Collin Banko June 13th

    Here is my rendition
    http://vimeo.com/5121481

    ( Reply )
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      Lloyd June 14th

      Really well done Collin! Congrats.

      ( Reply )
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    Sirwan June 18th

    the videos take too long to upload!!! please use another hoster.

    ( Reply )
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    atifqureshi June 23rd

    great tut

    ( Reply )
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    josef July 13th

    I enjoy these tuts very much but is there a problem with your video player…it is extremely slow…Surely there must be a quicker alternative

    ( Reply )
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    alex August 3rd

    wow how amazing, i came aross AE by acident, and looks for videos about it and this came up, and im suprised at how much you can do with this program and such a short amount of time

    thankyou, i will be back to see some more and will take away the skills and use them

    ( Reply )
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    IANH - BR August 25th

    anyone have this file 3d_text_creator_from_file.jsx to make a upload ?
    im from brazil, and now need to pay to make a download..

    i realllyy want to do this tut, i need the script,
    anyone con help me ?

    thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    IANH - BR September 9th

    Sorry, i already download, thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    0583257 October 21st

    Great tutorial!

    ( Reply )
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    zhangrourou December 10th

    Thanks
    This a great tutorial

    ( Reply )
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    cum December 11th

    nice

    ( Reply )
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    MARCO December 14th

    GREAT TUTORIAL VERY PROFESSIONAL ….

    Here is my rendition

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzIp96WGUA

    ( Reply )
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    December 14th