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Create an Elegant Concentric Rings Animation

on Aug 5th 2011 with 57 comments

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 an amazing post from Satya Meka. This tutorial was published in June 2009 and is inspired by the work of Mark Coleran.

Satya shows us how to use iterations of simple shape layers to create some beautiful procedural art. Satya also recreated the effect in Cinema 4D and has create a bonus addendum tutorial which in true Satya style is full of XPresso goodness.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .flv

File size 144MB

Cinema 4D Addendum Tutorial

As a bonus, learn how to create the same effect using Xpresso in 3D using Cinema 4D

Download C4D Addendum Tutorial .flv

File size 98MB

 
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By

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

I am an aspiring Motion Designer influenced by Generative Art. I am always willing to work with interesting people and you can follow me on twitter @gutsblow.  

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  • http://www.cdkstudios.co.nr David Kwasnik

    NICE!! i like it alot.

  • Martijn

    Hey that’s cool.

  • Lyndon

    cool cool, a nice element to add

  • http://www.coleran.com Mark Coleran

    Lovely little piece.

    The one that inspired it was done in Cinema 4D. It was however originally created in After Effects but they decided they wanted some depth and a metallic finish to it. It was a great testament to C4D and it’s ease of use as I had never used it before and managed to reproduce an expression based copy of the AE project in half a day.

    Nice Work

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
      Author

      Thank you Mark. I love your stuff and your piece done in Cinema 4D is really amazing.

    • Justin

      Would love to know how to do this in cinema 4d…. is there a tutoriaol somewhere?

      also could this not be done using trapcode form?

      great stuff otherewise and love this site!

      • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
        Author

        Hey, I just made an update which deals with making the same effect in Cinema 4D and I am sending it to the editor.

  • Shadowzproductions

    Wow, thanks for this.. Looks nice.

  • casdullometro

    always the same works from u

  • http://wori.dyndns.org Rik

    Wow, looks cool

  • nikon

    downloading tutorial but i have question can it be looped ?

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
      Author

      Yes. As the piece uses only one set of wiggle values it can be looped using a wonderful expression written by Dan Ebberts. Refer http://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/looping-wiggle.html . Just apply the expression to the main circle that rotates based on the wiggle.

      • nikon

        nice thx fot link to that expresion and great tutorial

  • http://www.arcapnd.com Fernando Araya

    Really, and actually without know, it gave the fix for a problem I was having with moving only on Z space with Expressions… thanks

  • Nym

    Great Effect, love it.

  • vasu

    kewl tutorial dude thanks a lot

  • tnvfx

    i actually like the music too – where did that come from?

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
      Author

      I think it is the “End Credits” composed by James Horner from the movie “A Beautiful Mind”.

  • Dave B

    Now all you need is russel crowe twitching and acting weird and the video can be complete lol =) … sweet music

  • ALJ

    nice one i really like it

  • Ksquareddesign

    Question….. haven’t yet finished downloading the tutorial, but is it possible to make that form into text……………..

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
      Author

      I am sure you can, but requires modifications to the expressions.

    • Nym

      Shouldn’t be too difficult.
      Try a text, center layer normal text, all the others just the stroke around.
      Adjust the expression for the ringscale to the textsize (make sure the Center Point is centered) and then it should work.

  • mike

    cool!!!

  • shiguang Fu

    好好好

  • symbiosis

    Thanks Satya…..cool effect….and informative tutorial…thanks for sharing the knowledge…..its inspiring….cheers mate

  • Seim

    thank you man. Very well explained

  • Loay

    Looks Awesome !

  • http://d-os.org harry

    hey mr. Coleran ! wassup with the “LAYERLAB” ??? is it completely abandoned ? i’d purchased most of your stuff back in the day but one day, it suddenly disappeared ….

    • http://www.coleran.com Mark Coleran

      It went on hiatus whilst I was doing production work and a few other companies appeared meanwhile. The great Andrew Kramer with Videocopilot and places like Revostock. Despite being first out the gate there is no point and going back to do the same stuff or competing with these guys.

      I have a few new ideas and might bring it back at some point in the near future. Just chasing that mythical work/life balance to see if it is possible.

  • Rev65

    Thanks, Satya! I’m hooking up expression sliders to some of the variables for making changes on the fly.

    The only problem with changing the layer name to its index number in the expression is that if you add other layers (ie. adjustment, lights, etc.) later it breaks the expression to the other layers. =(

    • http://aescripts.com Lloyd

      You can subtract any layers that are above, so for example if you have an adjustment layer as the first layer you would do index-1.

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
      Author

      Yes. As Lloyd said just subtract the number of layers above the first circle layer. In this case just replace ‘index-1′ in the expression with ‘index-1-numoflayers’, where numoflayers is a number indicating the the no. of layers above the main circle. Alternatively, if you just want to add lights and cameras just add them before you create the circles and make sure they are in the bottom of the comp, so that it doesn’t effect the design.

      • Rev65

        Yes, I though about and did add additional layers (lights, etc) before creating the circles, but only after breaking the expressions and starting over. I like the “index-1″ or”index-1-numoflayers” options, but don’t both require establishing how many “other” layers you’re going to use BEFORE creating the circle layers and expressions? Else upon creating a new layer you still wind up breaking the expressions again. So in the spirit of creative workflow, if I suddenly want to add new layers for lights, adjustment, etc. AFTER creating the circles, is there a way to do that without breaking and resetting the expressions? Not complaining… just trying to understand more. =)

      • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
        Author

        A better way to do this is, instead of adding layers to that comp, create a new comp and import the circles comp and then collapse its transformations. That way you can use lights, camera and any adjustment layers without disturbing the expressions.

      • Rev65

        Yes, now that’s the answer I was looking for! I knew that whole nested comp thing would come in handy sometime. Thanks, Satya!

  • http://www.myspace.com/greezeone L1

    It Looks Like a Windows Screensaver

  • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
    Author

    You are amazing ^_^

    • http://www.gutsblow.com/ Satya Meka
      Author

      oops! that was supposed to be for the war piece..lol makes me look retarded!

      • http://www.arnodotcom.com dotcom

        personal promo ! you’re amazing too thanks for the tut

  • Ravi chandra

    Nice work yaar …

  • cameradan

    you can use the free sinedots plugin that’s out there on the net and save yourself some trouble.

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

    Great outcome thanks

  • Khurram

    nice & cool

  • Rev65

    Thanks for the C4D update using Expresso!!!

  • http://www.dsaportfolio.com.br Diego SA

    Am I under drugs effects? Just kidding! This effect is awesome and it would be excellent as a presentation background or a fullscreen flash website. I haven’t watched it yet, but certainly I will try this one! Thank you!

  • http://chuckberry2008@hotmail.com jacobvon

    cool works

  • pei

    好啊。。。VER：Y GOOD：

  • chuck

    cooooooooooooool works

  • Anthony

    This was great many thanks!

  • http://nosuchthing.nl blipp

    Not only an aspiring, but also an inspiring motion designer! Keep up the great work!

  • rs

    This expression causes error in After effects:

    x = index*20;
    (x,x);

    AE error is “Expression must bo of 2 dimension, not 1″

  • Tracey

    Really nice effect, will give the tutorial a go :-)

  • http://www.aedaddy.com MiselD

    Great tutorial Satya Meka

  • Veli

    Very nice tutorial! Keep up the great work!
    Thanks

  • David

    I have a question. It would be the greatest of help if any could answer it. You know in the beginning how you centered the stroke to the comp with the values of, 0.0. How do you set up a composition so that the center of the comp is, 0.0. instead of half the rez of the comp? You know what I mean?

  • Rossy

    LOVE IT! looks like the effect used in Kasabian’s music video Days are forgotten!