In this 2 part tutorial we get our hands dirty with a little expression math to create some beautifully organic light streaks that are used to reveal the AETUTS logo. In part 1 Lloyd breaks down the science behind creating a simple expression that drives the light streak emitter and shows you how easy it is to create infinite variations with ease.
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Requirements: Trapcode Particular (download the trial version here)
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Modisana February 11th
NIce effect…basic but kick ass….
( )Yeah! First one to comment (Hopefully)
Joe February 11th
Basic? Maybe in looks but that’s a lot of expressions!
( )luantran February 11th
Good AEtus.con Number One…….
( )Have fun. please Up tut AE more….. Thank
Zee February 11th
i luv this place. so many things to learn and its rocks! keep em coming :]
( )mamjed February 11th
nice! Lloyd, keep up these great tuts!
( )McH February 11th
…great tut! But are there comparable FREE plugins to do that? A lot of people are volunteer like me and would love to work with it if reachable for long time.
( )Mark Bowen February 11th
Very nice tutorial. Can’t wait for the sexiness to be added in
Best wishes,
Mark
( )Ahmed Mohsen February 11th
great tutorial
thanks
My Blog
( )http://MotionSociety.com/blog
James Wicks February 11th
Hey Lloyd,
Great tutorial.
What if I want to have the light emitter travel along a path like a circle, or donut instead of linear?
How do I augment the expressions to accomplish that?
Very cool!
( )Jordan Wollman February 11th
Great tutorial! Love the site, and can’t wait for part two.
( )NAIM February 11th
Love it
( )Emin February 11th
Great Tutorial and to say in geek style: Math is sexy.
but, after sizing up the amplitude the circle doesnt look perfect. kind of angled.
( )Andrus February 11th
to get rid of this edgeness (corner, angled)…. just increase frequency… about 155 or so…
( )yuri fedorov February 11th
cool!
( )Rafael February 11th
sexy tutorial….lol
( )Very nice tutorial. I never though the trigonometry course i took in High School would be useful one day. Just wondering…What does the tangent function do in AE then?
Billy February 11th
Lloyd…seriously….your tutorials are ABSOLUTELY THE BEST!!!! No offense to any of the other contributors but their work is NOTHING compared to the stuff you come up with. Thanks a TON! You are THE MAN!!!!!
( )illd February 11th
Hi Lloyd,
. I use the mathfunctions rightaway in my next project. Theres a little trick you can do if you´re anoyed by the AE-lights turning on and off because of its motion:
( )thats the first time in my live I liked listening to maths
Just set the light to an adjustmentlayer and, then it will only affect the layer bellow it. So put it as last one if it shouldnt affect anything. Thanks for the reminder of separating 2d and 3d layers in AE, thats the reason why I ran in so much problems…
Billy February 11th
Just got done with part 1….seriously….Lloyd Alvarez is the AE KING! So freakin’ sweet! As Lloyd would say….this tutorial is “DOPE!” LOL! Cannot wait for part 2!!!!!!!
( )kamal98 February 11th
hmmm….let me see now simple but very effective
( )perry February 12th
crazy! made me upset I skipped math class in high school.can you make the tuts downloadable plzzzzzzzzzz
( )luis February 12th
If I had to choose one cause to fight for in my life, I would choose to eradicate people who comment “first” on blogs…
ANYWAY
great tut, as always!
( )Kid February 12th
What about when people say NOICE!!!!!
No seriously this is womp
Thanks
( )illd February 12th
@ luis: I would hold him while you punch em
( )David February 14th
thats a really good tutorial
I finally know why I needed to Take Trigonometry and precalc
( )crumpy crimpets February 14th
thanks Lloyd. this really helped me conquer some of my expression demons and gave me a much better understanding of the possibilities.
( )Kc February 14th
Help , Whats wrong ?
how come i dont get the WIGGLE – WIGGLE CIRCLE Movement
with the same exact Expression
x = Math.sin(time * 10) *50;
y = Math.cos(time * 10 ) *50;
z = time * 10;
(x,y,z) + value
its just move foward toward the Z value
( )Abdullah February 14th
Sorry but its not amazing we looking for new idea and new tools.
( )Anyway thank you pro.
I looking for another tutorial.
Kc February 14th
Opps my Mistake , it works fine now.
( )thanks you for this good tutorial.
Billy February 14th
Abdullah….it wasn’t amazing? If it wasn’t amazing, dude….come up with your own tutorials. I’m sure we’d all find them “enlightening.” Lloyd’s tutorials are the best on the internet.
( )Lloyd Alvarez February 14th
@kc – make sure you keep your () and [] straight:
( )[x,y,z] + value
Tommy February 21st
How come the text box to enter the values wont pop up?
( )Dot February 21st
Cool Tutorial and expressions
( )Thanx
g3t February 26th
hi how do i get to view this tutorial.
( )RZ.Design February 26th
Great Tutotial , thanks =D
where can I find that song ?
( )Lloyd Alvarez February 26th
@R.Z. – It’s not a song, it a bunch of SFX that I layered together.
( )Steph February 27th
Cool, this tut inspired me to do one using Particular and Lissajous figures.
( )Expressions rock!
polegop March 1st
thank you
( )Jamiez March 5th
Ok i am totally new but how do i even get the postion little bar???
( )Jamiez March 5th
I got a problem with it being that the dot don’t move in a sprial and also when i apply the expression it says: After Effects warning: is not an object exoression disabled.
Error occurred at line 4
( )comp: ‘Comp 1′
Layer: 1(‘edmitter’)
Property: ‘Position’
Lloyd Alvarez March 5th
When using expressions you need to make sure you get your spelling correct. The light needs to be called: Emitter
( )Jamiez March 6th
Done tht bit but now i am stuck on the camara bit on how to rotate it on windows….
( )Joost March 14th
Awesome!
I love the siren effect at 20:50 also
( )dsbvsdov March 20th
yeh i followed upto abot just before the sptral but it dosent work it goes in a straight line what do i do
( )Chris Kay March 21st
Haha, i just love your commentary (keep it up!) and teaching style as a young student i find your tutorial easier to comprehend versus others out there and i can see where each action is being derived from, which helps out a lot.
Thanks a bunch for putting this out there!
I just started out on After Effects and am slowly learning about the program. Are there any beginner tutorial sites anyone can suggest? Anything is helpful.
( )Lloyd Alvarez March 21st
Nick Campbell just finished a beginner series over at http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/category/visual-learning/ and there is always video copilot’s basic training http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/
( )zain March 22nd
great tutorails thanks
( )zain March 22nd
very nice tuto
( )Hamani April 2nd
great tutorial
( )thank so much
Dave April 16th
that’s the attitude how the stuff works behind, not just “hey look at my super duper expression set I made, just for 9.99 bucks you can repeat it exactly the same”… c’mon
( )CgBaran Tuts April 22nd
Nice animation thanks
( )Arthur April 23rd
Hi Lloyd . i’m a newbee to after effects, so i have a question, where do i get this grapher from..?
( )Lloyd April 23rd
Comes built-in with OSX.
( )Arthur April 27th
I’m Using a PC , what do you recommend me to do in order to get it?
Joe May 5th
Why do i keep getting ” After Effects Warning: is not an object
expression disabled
Error ocurred at line 4
Comp: “Comp 3″
Layer: 1 (“Emitter”)
Property: “Position”
Please Help!!
( )Joe May 5th
Why do i keep getting ” After Effects Warning: is not an object
expression disabled
Error ocurred at line 4
( )Comp: “Comp 3″
Layer: 1 (”Emitter”)
Property: “Position
My Expression thingy is set to
x = Math.sin (Time * 10) * 10
y = Math.cos (Time * 10) * 10
z = Time * 10
[x,y,z] + value
Lloyd May 5th
javascript is case-sensitive so you need to make sure everything is capitalized correctly and in this case time should not be capitlized. You also need to add semi-colons ; at the end of each line:
x = Math.sin (time * 10) * 10;
( )y = Math.cos (time * 10) * 10;
z = time * 10;
[x,y,z] + value
scat May 31st
hmm my trapcode particular isn’t emitting anything when i apply it. Basically i apply the effect change the type to light and nothing, still just the light operating on the script.
any ideas??
( )scat May 31st
never mind i fixed it after toggling ridiculous amounts of ae options
( )Arthur Abramov June 10th
Hey Lloyed ! i had a a problem before with AE using expressions , i fixed it somehow.
Just wanted to thank you properly!
Thank you very much for this !
Arthur.
( )Michael June 25th
Did buy and download, Trapcode Particular or does it come After Effects CS4?
( )Diamondstar October 21st
Awesome TUT AE, brings back trig flashbacks
( )marina November 18th
is ther any other way to do it without using a tripcode preset- i dont have it.
( )looney February 1st
hey great tut,
although it seems that when i go for 32b color, when i set my logo to obscuration layer, particular doesn t really go around this. Its like the same thing to put an obscuration layer or not. Please help, I cant find anyway to solve the issue.
thanks
( )looney February 1st
ok i got it. It was because of the light, makes the logo too bright…
( )