Create a Rhythmic ‘Beat-shake’ Effect
Tutorial Details
- Requirements: After Effects
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Run Time: 23:51 min
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
Twice a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from back in the archives of Aetuts+. Today we’ll look at a tutorial from John Schlemmer that was first published in Feb 2009. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to make moving geometric shapes shake and shudder as if they’ve been moved by the vibrations of a beat. You’ll learn how to sync this effect to music and create the building blocks of a stunning and futuristic music video.
Make sure to watch the addendum posted below the tutorial where John explains how he used Photoshop and After Effects to create the organic background that is used throughout the piece.
John Schlemmer’s ‘Untitled’ Piece
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RSS readers: click post title to view preview video at AETUTS.
Instructions: Click ‘View Full-screen’ button (bottom right corner) to see this HD tutorial at maximum size. Click screen to pause, click again to play.
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Tutorial
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Background Addendum
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The two comments above me…
Replace the asterisks with double-quotes:
* –> ”
The expression should be:
shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(15,shakeyCam)
Didn’t work for me in windows,
but change it to (“) and it is fine now
shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(15,shakeyCam)
Sorry for double posting, but there is no edit function.
As said earlier, you can simplify the expression by pickwhiping the second part for the wiggle which will get you the following:
wiggle(15,effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”))
thanks
what song was used in the full video
wow .. this is a great tutorial
Awsome tutorial. I am going to try that variable out soon.
Thanks man!
I’m getting an error…
After Effects warning: Syntax error
Experession disabled.
Error occurred at line 1.
Comp: ‘shakeythinger’
Layer: 1 (‘shaker’)
Property: ‘Position’
Whats up with that?
anjeeng keren banget…fiuuuhhhh
thats meaning, oh my good veryveryvery impressive,interesting,inspiration, very good,great tutorial, thanks
i agree with petter, 21 minutes and the only thing in the tutorial is the camera shake… sorry but i don’t think its’ a good tutorial..
awsome
tutorial
realy nice one
Hey John, whats the song in your untitled piece called?
Project file?
I liked the tut and the concept is amazing.
Only wish he would pull through with the files.
I honestly think this tutorial is just a waste a time. I think the actual project is pretty cool but the tutorial is just too simple and it deals with only one effect and the background creation. Its just to show off his piece. John, I applause your wonderful piece but will appreciate more if you explained a little bit more and didnt waste 20 min to explain one little effect.
Where’s the audio from?
I thought this was a great tutorial! He took it nice and slow and I was actually able to understand exactly what he was clicking and why. Okay, while he could have shown us tons of other elements seen in his ‘untitled’ film, I think the purpose of this tutorial was only to show the camera shake effect really. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see how you brough together all the other elements too, but I certainly learned quite a bit just from the wiggle technique (including how scripting is applied!) Great work! Thanks!
Where is the star key???
if i press * the music just stops, and nothing happens
plz help me!!
press * on the number keypad (not the one above the 8 )
yes i like it this tutorials is to good
Great Tutorial. Thanks! Really well explained too John. Keep up the good work!
what the heck is the star key! when his demonstrating how to place a marker on the beat of a song he says to simply press the star key to mark a certain part of the song. what the heck is a star key! I have an iMac with AE 9….can someone clear this up for me please. it’s driving me crazy! I’ve tried press 8 key and shift + 8…but it doesn’t do anything.
it’s the star (asterisk) key on the number pad
woops…i’m actually doing this tutorial on a mac book i don’t have the number pad so what do i use instead?
I had the same issue, but found this in the documentation:
Mac: * (multiply) on numeric keypad or Control+8 on main keyboard
So use Ctrl+8!
Cheers
pls tell me how to make looking like smoke line~ pls
thankyou~
Great Tut. Thanks a lot
As to the song you can download the (John Schlemmer’s ‘Untitled’ Piece) Video from this very page and then with premiere you can isolate the song in an MP3 form
Thanks again
Great tutorial thanks
Los tutoriales son increíbles…saludos desde Argentina!
Awesome tutorial, thanks for the expression help!
I used the techniques you taught in this to create my own version:
http://vimeo.com/5242026
Thanks again!
really awesome
hi john! thank for your tutorial
thanks im happy that you liked it .
would there be a chance of posting or creating a tutorial on how to make the audio file?
Hi, can u send me the project plz? I want to use this for my fragmovie on warrock
This is the real expression
or
basically rename the shakerCam by highlighting the name and pick whip the slider
temp = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(15,effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”))
This is a great looking tutorial and I can’t wait to get stuck into it!!!
but….I can’t hear the guy’s voice in the tutorial but can hear the music…. is there something I’m doing wrong? Have I downloaded the wrong one? Has the guy removed his voice??
John
Just realised my heaphone jack is broken…… Bu88er!
very frustrating.
i’m getting the same error as mbergstrom:
February 20, 2009 at 7:06 am
I’m getting an error…
After Effects warning: Syntax error
Experession disabled.
Error occurred at line 1.
Comp: ’shakeythinger’
Layer: 1 (’shaker’)
Property: ‘Position’
nobody answered him so i’m not sure how to resolve this.
Hey sent this the effect people use in their music videos like the black eyed peas and Brittany Spears
After you enter the shaky cam code :
shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(15,shakeyCam)
don’t forget to change the slider value to 15 in the panel on the upper lefthand side of the screen!
i tried that and it finally stopped giving me the error alert and started to work!
Hi,
I’m getting
Error occurred at line 1.
Comp: ‘bg’
Layer: 2 (‘shaker’)
Property: ‘Position’
when I apply
shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(15,shakeyCam)
What is wrong?
Tutorial is awesome!!!!
Whats the name of the song????
If you get syntax error, try replacing the ” with ‘
shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
wiggle(15,shakeyCam)
Try, the problem was in “ symbol