Countdown In Style with Clockworks – Custom Effect

Tutorial Details
  • Requirements: After Effects
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Run Time: 21:28 min
Download Source Files

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

If you need a great video intro and have less then 24 hours to deliver, then you’re in luck! We’re going to be looking at Jorrit’s Clockworks Custom Effect and working through how to make your own intense show opener using it. You can hang up with CTU, everything you need can be found below!

Republished Tutorial

Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in November 25, 2009.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .flv

File size 196MB

  • http://www.youtube.com.br/ianhpiratao IANH – BR

    interesting, really cool.

  • Justyn Moro

    Thanks!

  • Peter B.

    nice & helpful, please update the sound layer, quality is horrible..

  • Fred

    un peu naze…

  • bruno

    mouais… bof bof…

  • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

    LOVE THIS! seriously awesome dude… helps out so much…

  • http://www.A7mads.deviantART.com Ahmad

    i like it
    thanks

  • Ivanex

    excelente look
    el contador interesante
    thanks…
    gracias….

  • Rodney

    LOL @ je engels. Je hoort zo erg dat je Nederlander bent, niet aan te horen ;)

    • Stephan

      Inderdaad! HAHA maar toch wel oke!

  • http://generalspecialist.com/ Jonas Hummelstrand

    Nice look, but I’d make the digits mono-spaced; it looks like the LED’s are changing position which is a tell-tale sign it’s faked.

    • jD

      Interesting comment. But I don’t quite understand what you mean. Could you please explain a bit more on making the digits mono-spaced and how to fix the LED’s from changing position.

      Cheers.

  • http://bestpstutorials-tr.blogspot.com Best PS Tutorials TR

    Good tut, thanks for the thanks.

  • http://www.twitter.com/foochuck Charley

    Nice tutorial..thanks.

    Was just a little hard to follow your voice.

  • kayo

    math.floor(time) Expression will not work? what am i doing wrong?

    • Jorrit Schulte

      Math.floor(time)
      Capital M ; )

  • carlitos

    hello guys from tutsplus.com

    why no stream videos from youtube? i think it will be faster , i mean at least the previews….

  • floris

    gatverdamme gast, wat is je engels slecht, maar niet veel beter dan mijn engels. goeie preset! ga zo door!!!

  • http://luckypixel.posterous.com Treisprazece

    interesting for expressions but i would doit like this:

    New solid / numbers effect/ Type – Time or date , what you whant, 4 keyframes to animate offset and finish.
    If you whant 20s make a 20s composition

    In real life time=money

  • http://www.ylchaithanya.com Y.L.Chaithanya

    Nice Use of Expressions.

  • Sarita

    Sorry guys… how can I use Twitch plug in??
    It not a custum effect isn’t it??
    please help really like it!!

  • Me

    very ‘very’ basic. Maybe this site should rename itself ‘After Effects for Dummies’!

  • mariano

    Hola estaba buscando para hacer un marcador de tantos como en los de ballon cesto si alguine puede guiarme se lo agradeceria

  • Dipset

    YOU CAN TYPE ENYTHING!!!!!!!!!

  • Philip

    Nice, but I can’t find the PresetEffects.xml on my MacBook, in fact I can’t find the whole support files folder. Does somebody know where these files are located? thanks

    • Jorrit Schulte

      On Mac you need to right-click on the After Effects application icon and choose “Show Package Contents” Then the path is “Contents/Resources/PresetEffects.xml”

      Have fun!

  • Becks

    Great tutorial! One problem though…. I downloaded the .flv file of your tutorial and I was about 16 minutes into your 21 minute tutorial and it refused to play further. I downloaded it again, although it didn’t solve my problem. I tried watching the video on this page and it will not even load. I have a brand new MacBook Pro and fast internet so i have no idea what the problem is. Help please?

  • http://contagiousmediagroup.com Jason

    This is a bit too complicated for making a countdown.

    1, Just create a solid.

    2. Go to Effects>Text>Numbers

    3. Choose your font

    4. In the effect settings, under type, choose Timecode [30]

    5. Then right-click the layer, choose Time>Time-Reverse layer

    Then scale and move to your preference within the comp.

    • Jorrit Schulte
      Author

      1. Create a text layer
      2. choose font (with full controll over style)
      3. apply the Clockworks CustomEffect.
      4. add time and check the countdown check box.

      plus there are more options to make your clock look like the way you want.
      hey, i win ;-)

      BTW, you can get a newer version of this CustomEffect here:
      http://aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1553

    • http://www.facebook.com/RaahulSaxnea Raahul Saxena

      HA HA HA HA!!! u r so right bro!! but still this style is also cool !

  • TheAltosTV
  • TheAltosTV
  • CGartdesigns

    Errors trying to access the video:

    Forbidden

    You don’t have permission to access /5670002594760/Aetutsplus-24ClockTutorial770.flv on this server.

    Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

    Plus the video comes up as unable to play. Please make sure the links still work before republishing a older tutorial. Thanks!

  • Magnus

    Very nice tutorial! Good to get a bit more in depth on the expressions.
    Just a little correction, 60 milliseconds does not equal one second.