Create a Rhythmic ‘Beat-shake’ Effect

on Oct 7th 2011 with 96 comments
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

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

View Tutorial

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.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Download

Tutorial

View Background Addendum

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Download

Background Addendum

 
Enjoyed this Post?

Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!

By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

John loves making things move. Inspired by musical artists such as BT and Hecq, he constantly continues to try out new styles of animation. When he's not messing around with After Effects or Flash, he loves sitting down to watch a good episode of The Office, or trying to figure out which new electronic gadget he should buy. Oh, and Legos. He loves Legos.  

Plus Premium
 
 
← Older Comments
  • SPU

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

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

    • Wailo

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

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

  • SPU

    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”))

  • shachar

    thanks

  • http://thegatheringconnection.com brian

    what song was used in the full video

  • http://www.weisgerber.co.uk Roman Weisgerber

    wow .. this is a great tutorial

  • Brandon

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

    Thanks man!

  • http://mbergstrom.1free.ws mbergstrom

    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?

  • udin

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

  • klo

    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..

  • http://hking hking

    awsome
    tutorial

    realy nice one

  • Tony

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

  • Vishal

    Project file?

  • Andrew T.F.

    I liked the tut and the concept is amazing.

    Only wish he would pull through with the files.

  • Bie Lee

    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.

  • Luke

    Where’s the audio from?

  • coolboarder44

    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!

  • Pingback: Best of Tuts+ in February | PbP Tutorials

  • NYY

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

    • http://aescripts.com Lloyd Alvarez

      press * on the number keypad (not the one above the 8 )

  • hammd

    yes i like it this tutorials is to good

  • http://www.davidhendersondesign.com David Henderson

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

  • izzyQ

    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.

    • http://aescripts.com Lloyd

      it’s the star (asterisk) key on the number pad

      • izzyQ

        woops…i’m actually doing this tutorial on a mac book i don’t have the number pad so what do i use instead?

    • http://www.bartolsthoorn.nl Bart

      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

  • pix

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

  • Muhammad Fikry

    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

  • Pingback: Create a Rhythmic ‘Beat-shake’ Effect | CgBaran Tuts

  • http://tuts.cgbaran.com/ CgBaran Tuts

    Great tutorial thanks

  • http://www.2d3d.com.ar José Antonio

    Los tutoriales son increíbles…saludos desde Argentina!

  • http://www.chaske.com Chaske

    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!

  • Mike

    really awesome

  • htasinhtoo

    hi john! thank for your tutorial

  • lex

    thanks im happy that you liked it .

  • andy

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

  • Filippo

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

  • Blondell

    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”))

  • John

    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

    • John

      Just realised my heaphone jack is broken…… Bu88er!

  • thpriest

    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.

  • http://supahfilms.co.tv Anthony

    Hey sent this the effect people use in their music videos like the black eyed peas and Brittany Spears

  • Pingback: Rhythmic ‘Beat-shake’ Effect - GFX WARRIOR / GFX WARRIOR

  • prairie dawn

    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!

  • Nektooo

    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?

  • terry

    Tutorial is awesome!!!!
    Whats the name of the song????

  • Fredrik

    If you get syntax error, try replacing the ” with ‘

  • startello

    shakeyCam = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
    wiggle(15,shakeyCam)
    Try, the problem was in “ symbol

← Older Comments