Create a Rhythmic ‘Beat-shake’ Effect

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.

Preview

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Preview

John Schlemmer’s ‘Untitled’ Piece

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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

View Background Addendum

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Background Addendum

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Discussion 85 Comments

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  1. SPU says:

    The two comments above me…
    Replace the asterisks with double-quotes:
    * –> ”

    The expression should be:
    shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
    wiggle(15,shakeyCam)

    • Wailo says:

      Didn’t work for me in windows,
      but change it to (“) and it is fine now

      shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
      wiggle(15,shakeyCam)

  2. SPU says:

    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”))

  3. shachar says:

    thanks

  4. brian says:

    what song was used in the full video

  5. wow .. this is a great tutorial

  6. Brandon says:

    Awsome tutorial. I am going to try that variable out soon.

    Thanks man!

  7. mbergstrom says:

    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?

  8. udin says:

    anjeeng keren banget…fiuuuhhhh
    thats meaning, oh my good veryveryvery impressive,interesting,inspiration, very good,great tutorial, thanks

  9. klo says:

    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..

  10. hking says:

    awsome
    tutorial

    realy nice one

  11. Tony says:

    Hey John, whats the song in your untitled piece called?

  12. Vishal says:

    Project file?

  13. Andrew T.F. says:

    I liked the tut and the concept is amazing.

    Only wish he would pull through with the files.

  14. Bie Lee says:

    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.

  15. Luke says:

    Where’s the audio from?

  16. coolboarder44 says:

    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!

  17. NYY says:

    Where is the star key???
    if i press * the music just stops, and nothing happens
    plz help me!!

  18. hammd says:

    yes i like it this tutorials is to good

  19. Great Tutorial. Thanks! Really well explained too John. Keep up the good work!

  20. izzyQ says:

    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.

  21. pix says:

    pls tell me how to make looking like smoke line~ pls
    thankyou~

  22. Muhammad Fikry says:

    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

  23. CgBaran Tuts says:

    Great tutorial thanks

  24. Los tutoriales son increíbles…saludos desde Argentina!

  25. Chaske says:

    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!

  26. Mike says:

    really awesome

  27. htasinhtoo says:

    hi john! thank for your tutorial

  28. lex says:

    thanks im happy that you liked it .

  29. andy says:

    would there be a chance of posting or creating a tutorial on how to make the audio file?

  30. Filippo says:

    Hi, can u send me the project plz? I want to use this for my fragmovie on warrock :P

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