Aetuts+ Hollywood Movie Titles Series: Harry Potter
Tutorial Details
- Program: After Effects
- Difficulty: Intermediate
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
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You don’t have to be a graduate of Hogwarts to create cool titles! In this tutorial you will learn the simplicity of creating an amazing looking Harry Potter “The Half-Blood Prince” introduction, using only four photographs and the power of After Effects. So quit your Quidditch and have a seat. It’s gonna be magical!
Tutorial
Before You Begin
We are going to start by making the text. Firstly download the “Harry Potter Cover Font”
from
HERE.
Once you have downloaded and installed the font we can begin.
The photographs I have used I have taken myself, you should be able to find suitable images from a reputable stock site.
Step 1
Make a new composition with your desired aspect ratio and 1 frame duration ( as we’re creating a still image ). However, the width will need to be around or
larger than 3000 pixels (so that when the text comes past the camera some of the quality is maintained)
Step 2
In this new composition create a new text layer and type in your desired text. Make this text grey and large enough to fill the entire composition.
Step 3
Select the Text layer and go to LAYER – LAYER STYLES – BEVEL AND EMBOSS. Change the “Technique” to “Chisel Hard”. The “Depth” to 150, or whatever looks best.
Change the “Size” to 50 (or again, whatever looks best for you) and then Soften it between 1 and 2.
Step 4
Now it’s time to add the texture, for this you will need a “grunge” texture (you can use any you have on your computer), which is easily obtained through a stock image site such as SXC Stock Images.
Once you have downloaded the texture that you like, import it into after effects.
Step 5
Duplicate the text layer, and insert the grunge texture between the two(if the texture is too small, scale it up until it fits), change the TRKMAT of the texture to the duplicated text layer ALPHA. Then set the
Texture layer to OVERLAY.
Step 6
Now select your Grunge texture layer and choose EFFECT – COLOUR CORRECTION – HUE/SATURATION and reduce the saturation of the texture by 100. Also add EFFECT – COLOUR CORRECTION – LEVELS and adjust the levels until your
texture has a deeper contrast to it.
Step 7
At this point, your text should look something similar to this. Which means you are now ready to save. Go to COMPOSITION – ADD TO RENDER QUEUE.
Click “Output Module” and change the format to “PNG Sequence” and change the “Channels” to “RGB+Alpha”. Choose “OK” and render this file out. Then we can begin to create the background!
Step 8
Make a new composition at your desired resolution and make the duration 15 seconds.
Step 9
Create a new camera by going to LAYER – NEW – CAMERA and apply these settings;
Step 10
Import the picture that you want to use for your main background into the composition (ill be using a mainly overcast sky to create a solid background), make it a 3d layer and make the position 320, 180, 20000 and then scale it until it fills the entire composition.
Step 11
Now we’re ready to import our main clouds, the ones that are going to add detail and movement to the background, for this i’ve used clouds which are being hit from the side by the sun.
Once you have imported them, mask out the undesired areas and feather the mask to a level of 200+. Set this to a 3D layer and set the position to somewhere similar to the example image.
Step 12
Now duplicate this cloud layer and rotate it aboout 180 degrees on the Z axis and move to the Right side of the screen. Place this slightly closer to the camera this time as outlined in the image(s).
Step 13
Once again you must duplicate this layer and rotate it till it is flat against the bottom of the composition, this time, like last, move it even closer to the camera, this time, scale the image down slightly, as outlined in the image(s)
Step 14
Now repeat this process until you’re happy with how it looks. (Remember the more you add, the longer the rendering time will be! But the better it will look!). I’ve added one more layer of clouds to the top and left it there. Your composition and timeline should now look similar to mine.
Step 15
This is an optional stage. At this point you may be looking at your composition and thinking “it doesn’t really blend together as well as the example looks”
so Don’t be afraid to add “Brightness and Contrast” or “Levels” adjustments to the cloud layers to make them blend better. I can’t tell you what
settings to use, because everyones clouds will be different. But please take this opportunity to play around and change the settings to make it look better.
Step 16
We’re now at the point to start animating the camera, this is a relatively simple and quick stage, so lets get on with it!
Take your Camera Layer
and press “P” and make sure you’re at frame 0. Next to where it says Position there should be a clock symbol, click that, then go to the last frame of the composition, and move your camera towards the background layer
either by typing in the position value directly, or using the camera tool with the mouse (By Pressing C) (Track Z camera tool). Don’t forget, my examples are a guideline, dont forget to do what looks best for your individual scene.
MAKE SURE YOUR CAMERAS POINT OF INTEREST IS SET TO AROUND 20000
Step 17
Now we have the basic composition ready. So it’s time to create the lightning. For this section, you’ll need a photograph of sun behind clouds, giving an illuminated edge to them. Make this composition as large
as your photograph is and about one second in duration. Once you’ve imported the photo to this comp, you need to mask out the undesired areas, and you’ll be left with an image like this.
Step 18
The next step is to animate the opacity of this layer. This is straghtforward. Open the opacity tab of the layer (Press “T”) Next to where it says Opacity, press the clock symbol. At frame 0 set the opacity to 0, go forward 4 frames, and set the opacity to 50, forward another 3 frames, and set the opacity to 20, forward 6 frames and set the opacity to 90. then go to the last frame of the comp (1 second) and set the opacity to 0 again.
This should create a nice lightning esque effect. However this is not strict and you can time this to behave however you like.
Step 19
This step will require you to use your imagination. You now have the composition with your background and the composition with your lightning, drag the lightning composition into your background composition and make it a 3d layer.
Now you can duplicate this as many times as you like and place it wherever you like to in the composition and choose the time the lightning strikes. This part
is entirely your descicion, so have fun with it! You may want to change the blending mode to “add” or “screen”.
At this point i’ve also added an adjustment layer with a “levels” modifier to make the scene a bit darker.
Step 20
At this point you’re probably thinking, “theres something missing!” Well you’re right, now we’re going to use the text we made right at the beginning of this tutorial.
So import that into after effects and drag it into your background composition, then turn it to a 3d layer and place it about halfway between your camera start point and the furthest image (on the Z axis).
Scrub through your video and make sure the logo is aligned correctly with the camera to pass through in between the two words.
Step 21
Now we are nearly at the final stage. Up to this point, you should have created the Text, the 3d environment with a camera, and included the lightning and text into the scene.
All this leaves is the colour correction! So make a new adjustment layer and add EFFECTS – COLOUR CORRECTION – HUE/SATURATION. Reduce the saturation to about -75 or lower.
Step 22
Using the same adjustment layer that you just created add EFFECTS – COLOUR CORRECTION – COLOUR BALANCE. Now once again let your creativity take over and you decide the best colour for your personal use.
I’d personally increase the blue shadows and the blue midtones.
Step 23
Finally add another adjustment layer and add EFFECT – COLOUR CORRECTION – LEVELS. After you’ve added this, either lighten or darken it until it looks right for you.
At this point you’ll have a result something like this.
Step 24
Now all there is left to do is to render and amaze your friends!
Finally! Well done if you stuck through this tutorial, as it is my first!
I hope you’ve enjoyed it and found it helpful. I hope that some of the tips and creative ideas i’ve shown you help you in future projects of your own.
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By Robert Holtby
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Ooh, will be having a look.
Hope it’s realistic.
nice one i really like it ,,,,, assume one :P
These are my personal results after I spent more time on it. http://www.vimeo.com/6169841
Great execution and super simple. Way to show those high end effects houses!
thanks God, finally i’ll enjoy myself today! =D
You would also could make the titles in 3ds max than it will be more realistic and u also 3d cam with it.
But in any case it looks great nice work.
I original made my “Harry Potter” titles in 3ds Max, however getting the 3D bevel to work as good as the 2D bevel was near impossible. Doing it entirely in After Effects also gave me the freedom to make changed to the speed, position, scale of the text without having to re-render it after each adjustment.
I hope this justifies my reason to work solely in After Effects on this occasion!
cool
thanks’
looking great
nice tut
thanks
nice….texture link?
I would have liked it more if it was a movie like the others do to get a better understanding of it! But nicely done…
Still i do have to say i respect that you have learned everything by your self! Do you have a website or something?
Thank you, I don’t currently have a website, I have a YouTube and a Vimeo page, but that’s about it. At the moment I don’t really have enough free time to maintain my own website, or update it as frequently as i’d like to. However it just goes to show that if you’re determined, anyone can do it!
very nice, clever usage of stills!!
Really cool tutorial, really got me thinking about making the lightning for an example in different ways, either this way or maybe you could use video copilots twitch to get an similar result.
That’s most why i liked the tutorial, it inspired to try solving a problem in more than one way which I really like :D
keep it up!
Duddy .. make a video for us!
Good work man,
thanks for the lightning technique.. love mind tricks
That is brilliant, I’m DEFINITELY going to start learning Adobe After Effects, it’s clearly a very powerful tool!
Wicked mate !
Cool, nice use of the bevel and emboss style.
However, the lighting is inconsistent between the elements.
Holy crap. Harry Potter Titles… you just blew my mind dude.
You are officially one of my fave tut creators.
little known fact: my obsession of Harry Potter stuff is ridiculous.
LOL…then I am pretty sure you hate all the HP movies like me.
Cool tut, by the way.
…compared to the books, of course.
Seconded. Compared to the books, such disappointments. I feel bad for the people who only watch the movies and don’t read the books. The movies really suck compared to the novels.
Yes, the same way that all the rich people pity us poor commoners for eating burgers when we could be having kobe beef.
Or all the people with time to cook elaborate dinners every night look down on the people who order in.
Guess what, I’m way happier only seeing the movies, enjoying them, and NOT being disappointed, than spending 20 hours of my life reading something just so I can be cool enough to complain about how the movies sucked.
There’s nothing wrong with getting a good fast food burger instead of cooking yourself lobsters every night.
Uhm yeah, might have some plagiarism issues:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/park_michael/Bessie_Potter.php
Yeah, I saw that and wrote to Creative Cow, but never got a response…
Oh thats lame, I know AE tuts has had this problem before..
Yeah, it’s frustrating to see people copy stuff we have here on aetuts
I am the author of that tutorial…Bessie Potter. Today is the first time I ever had knowledge of another Harry Potter title after effects tutorial. I still have not watched this one, so I don’t know whether or not we did anything similar. However, it would have to be pretty similar to achieve the same look. All it is is a camera push, some text some clouds and some color correction. I am the author of plenty of other tutorials on Creative Cow, Digital Juice TV and Red Giant TV. I have never copied anyone’s work. Please verify your comments before you call anyone a cheat.
Michael Park
Awesome, very nice look.
Yet another beginners tutorial. Seems that this is all we are getting anymore…
your in a great minority
I agree to a point, if I saw this video, I wouldn’t need a tutorial to tell me how to make it, it’s glaringly obvious, however to some people it isn’t, and i’ve left this tutorial very basic so it can be open to interpretation from each viewer. I would hate people to make a pure “carbon-copy” of this tutorial. It was more of a nudge in the right direction.
hello
i just LOVE your tutorial..
unfortunately i do not have after effects,
but i was wondering if it were anyway possible for you to ANYWAY send me the actual background for this video.. like the cloud work you did without the text if possible..
i am using this for my new harry potter podcast i am making with my friends..called scarcast..
it seems that the GRUNGE texture isnt working at the moment,, but i did make a very realistic title that says SCARCAST
i just would ABSOLUTELY LOVE it if i could have an amazing video for behind it..
so i think i said enough.. if you are interested.. please email me at staff.scarcast@hotmail.com
and i will give you all of your work CREDIT in each episodes credits..
thanks so much!! have a great day!
Looks nice, I would have liked to see a little bit of color cast on there, and you need to manually kern the type to have better letter spacing. The tracking is WAY too wide. But the clouds, and movement all look nice. Good job.
All you needed to do was decrease the letting and it would be perfect!!
Sry my bad…tracking..
I agree! I’d left the font settings from a previous project. I made this version in about five minutes, and to be fair, it’s nowhere near as good as my original version, which can be found here :
http://www.vimeo.com/6169841
ha, that’s really cool man. I went a bit further by adding the background clouds image some > turbulent display > size 6 > evolution expression “time*50″
so the background cloud image now kinda moves a bit further creating the illusion of moving clouds… here’s my final render:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVIAEeG8opQ&hd=1
Sorry but this is supposed to be a tutorial?????
Only someone who doesnt’even know the existence of After Effects wouldn’t be able to figure this out !!!
For God’s sake !!!
I’ve already mentioned this. For me, I could watch the video and know straight away how to make it. However, some people don’t. I was requested to make this tutorial, and I did =]
Great render, but it lacks color !
Great tutorial! I generally lose interest in written tuts (a.d.d.) but this kept me interested to the end. Good job!
Interesting and well done. Thanks for this.
Question: why these particular settings for the camera?
I suppose that was an error on my behalf. It’s just the generic 35mm camera setting. But i wanted people to make sure that the “Enable Depth of Field” was turned of, because when I made this for the first time, the background was always unfocussed and it took me a while to click onto the problem haha.
Hello Robert,
First of all, Great Job! You really got the feel of it. I also appreciate you for using lights/blending modes instead of plugins to get the lighting effect. But I have some suggestions for you. Firstly, I noticed in your Bio that you put you are just 19 years old. Honestly, I did the same mistake too but from my experience it didnt help much. I am not saying it is bad, but people have a tendency to ignore you just because you are younger. Also, you Bio says your ability in 3dsmax,ae and ps. Why not generalize it and say 3d design,motion design? Because programs are just tools. Just an advise from my experience if you are just starting out..
How did you make the Particle Dispersion in your other video on Vimeo?
I made a PFlow system in 3DS Max, added a simple Vortex modifier, added 2 spherical emitter objects for the arms, rendered with krakatoa and then composited in After Effects, it is very basic, it just looks complex haha
Hope this helps!
OMG…i personally think you ripped off this tutorial…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlEvWPiuNcU
ok let me start, i tried being nice on the sunset tutorial but if you go back and read my comment i wasnt..but i tried. if this is what you call an ae-tuts plus tutorial you will lose so much traffic.. please for the love of GOD do something worth looking at. at least make a beginners ae page so i dont have to look in there..this is completely ridiculous. NOT TO MENTION YOU DIDNT EVEN MAKE IT A VIDEO TUTORIAL! this is a huge step down and let down. i truely cant believe the direction the ae section is going in, which is down. this used to be my number one site to go to for ae tuts. definitely not anymore. and i really am speaking for a bunch of designers and video guys who i know and come here…i know i am not paying for these but you guys are, at least pay for some decent ones :/
that being said, i am only being negative because i dont want this site to go bad. i am never negative, i just want you guys to realize how good you were and now….well. ok. im done.
Personally, I wish I had copied that tutorial, the results are far better than mine. However they look nothing like the titles used in the actual movie itself. Not to mention this tutorial is more emphasized towards the creation of the environment. I’ll reiterate the fact that I also didn’t believe this video needed a tutorial as it is quite straightforward. However there are people who needed a nudge in the right direction, that is what i hoped to achieve.
There are several reasons why this isn’t a video tutorial, firstly, I have three monitors of which all are used in After Effects, this would have made screen capturing a nightmare. My microphone is currently 600 miles away at my friends university. It really doesn’t need to be a video tutorial as it is straightforward enough and I have a chest/throat infection, whilst this makes my voice yet more deep and attractive, the side effect of random voice loss and persistent coughing i’d deem undesirable for any video tutorial.
However the results do far excel any that I have, myself found from any beginner. http://www.vimeo.com/6169841
I hope this answers all of your questions/complaints.
Robert Holtby
so you couldnt wait to make a video tutorial? you dont have a store where you can go buy another mic? it doesnt even have to be a good one. everybody who makes video tutorials adjust there after effects to fit the screen capture crop they have set. you can do the same. i admit brandon is way to negative about this but he is completely right. sorry.. dont give excuses, just do it.
When I first saw this tutorial pop up, I worried it was going to be a rip off of the PS tutorial you link to, but I quickly realized it wasn’t. This focuses on the environment and the 3D space, however simple it may be to replicate. Some people really appreciate a tutorial like this. Of course anyone who is anywhere near fluent in AE would not need this tutorial.
And if you keep complaining about the quality of the tutorials, prehaps you should create one that is worth people paying for. AEtuts can only put out content that people are sending their way. So if there are no AE artists out there doing really deep new tutorials that they want to share with AEtuts, all you’re going to keep getting is shorter tutorials aimed at beginners and you should be happy you’re getting even that. So make your own tutorial, or nag your friends into making tutorials. Thats the only way AEtuts will keep them coming.
I totally agree with Aaron ;)
I definitely appreciate this tutorial. I ain’t no pro like some guys in here and this tut helped me understand a couple more things about AE i didn’t know before… bit by bit I get to know the software better and use it better. So, Robert, thanks for the tutorial man, I’m glad you posted it.
Thank’s a lot for this tutorial! Greet job! And nice result!
DAMN!!! I needed this tut 2 months ago!!! It looks great! I had to do that exact effect! here is what I got then:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8SuoVX06v4
Well, anyway really nice tut!
Thanks, nice tut. But i don’t know how to render? I’m a beginer. I did step 7. After click “OK”, I didn’t see anything.
Please,help me. Thanks so much
There should be a button labelled “Render” just to the right hand side of the screen. or if you can’t find it, just press “Enter” while on the “Render Queue” tab. That should do it. Good Luck!
Excelente, muito obrigado, por compatilhar.
dude ..one question what texture d u used? i search in the page and nothing..help me with that…thnx and great tut..always loooking for that inro..
Damn you :P
I’ve created this exact same thing for a Harry Potter fan film, and was a few weeks away from submitting the idea to aetuts haha. There’s a few parts that could use polishing, but overall you’ve done pretty well to explain the process.
Just checked out the more finished version on vimeo, absolutely beautiful!
Great work – I’ll have to give AE a bash!
Dan
Pretty sweet, can u make me this plaese??? and send it to me? we can discuss the financial stuff soon!
Thanks! This tutorial made a swell invite for my lady’s be-day party! Thank you.
I’m very happy to hear that!
Hope she has a good one!
I tried it and It works for me. Thanks Man!
Your tutorial is simple to follow, hope to expect more of your tutorials
Where download Harry Potter Text ! Thanks , Good Job . See you soon in next your tutorials .
From VIET NAM
Can you post ae files with cloud images that will be easy also.
Thanks! This tutorial made a swell invite for my lady’s be-day party! Thank you.
i do not understand how to make the main clouds
plzzzz hlp mei cant find wer to get them
Thanks For Helping . Its Really Great … NK …
This is my OUtput..
Please see this.hehe
thanks..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4CexzjdaDA
can u plzz hlp me? im confused of this whole tut after he said to add main clouds for the animation
Awesome tutorial… I learned a lot more about color correction :)
Here’s my result: http://bit.ly/H9qFc
Ok so I spent more time on it and here’s my final version [HD]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVIAEeG8opQ&hd=1
That’s very good, however either Make the text separately and save it as a PNG, or pr-compose it with the bevel and embossing layer style or you will see that flickering that you have in yours. Good luck though!
dude u gonna help me robert?
Oh that explains it… thanks man, cool stuff
can you explain this by video?
Sweet tutorial.
I was mucking around with my final comp and i found a really cool way to make it appear as though your flying through the clouds. What you do is stick a cloud image anywhere you want and make a keyframe there. Then you skip forward a couple of seconds and move the cloud, in 3D, forward so that it is just past the camera. What you end up with is the main camera flying forward into the cloud image. There’s a big problem though. What happens is that the cloud looks flat and the rest of the comp will appear very suddenly. To fix this and make it look 3D, and heres the really simple part, when the cloud is almost at the camera and fills a fair amount of space in your comp, put an OPACITY keyframe in. Zoom in on the timeline, as this will allow you to see what your doing better. Move the playhead forward until it is on the final frame of the cloud JUST BEFORE it disappears past the camera.(if you were to move the playhead forward one more frame the cloud will be off screen) set the opacity here to ZERO. What you in effect will get is the cloud approaching the camera, then it becoming slightly misty and gradually gets clearer as you travel through it.
Hope this helps
i couldnt figure out the step 11 how can you make those yellow thing? I tried look around to get mask cut out or something. I couldnt.. can anyone point that out pls