Design Rhythmic Motion Typography in After Effects
Tutorial Details
- Requirements: After Effects
- Difficulty: Intermediate
- Run Time: 15:09 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 an amazing post from Markus Gustafsson. This was the first tutorial Markus did for Aetuts+ published back in January 2009 talking about typography… enjoy!
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create animated typography synchronized with musical events (lyrics). You’ll learn how to fit your typography to a rhythm, add dynamic animations and use the camera and motion blur to create a high-end final effect. This tutorial showcases a technique that is highly sought after in motion graphics today.
We love to see what you do with the techniques taught at Aetuts+. We encourage you to create your own motion typography videos in this style and post a link to your video in the comments below. Most of all, we hope you enjoy the tut!
Tutorial
Download Tutorial .mp4
File size 65 MB
Enjoyed this Post?
Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
Join our newsletter!
Create a Tutorial, Get Paid!
Have something to teach the world? Want to earn money doing it? Tutorials, screencasts, and articles published here on Aetuts+ are largely contributed by readers just like you! We'll pay you great money for good content. Find Out More
Help please. I’m using the After Effects CS5. Everytime I try to control Null object, the camera doesnt move. I did everything you did. When i change the position of the Null object, some unknown white box just moves outside my comp. Is this a CS5 thing or what? I did this before on CS4 with no problem. Now that I’m trying CS5, I feel like there’s a difference.
Changing the position of the Null object doesn’t do anything with the camera or the text.
As you move your null object, the camera zooms in the text and moves, correct, for me it doesnt do anything. A white box outside my screen just moves and I dont know what it means.
Can someone please help me?
Firstly, make sure you’ve linked the camera to the null object (drag spiral on cam layer to null layer).
If that doesn’t work, you need to make layers “1″ and “2″ (or your equivalent) 3D
Did that too, still doesn’t work? Any suggestions?
Using CS5
I have the exact same problem. I did everything I was supposed to, layer 1 and 2 are in 3D, the camera is linked to Null 1, but still, nothing moves except for a white square around the composition screen… help, I’m on CS4
Was there ever a solution to this problem? I looked at the comments before I made my own using the tutorial and I knew that this would happen to me, anything that can go wrong always does go wrong for me. I don’t understand, the box in the background seems to be the camera but its not moving the image around with it. PLEASE HELP..
same problem , it was going so well for me up to that stage, did you ever fix the node controller to camra , and make the text move instead of the box on the out side of the screen
FINALLY I FOUND THE SOLUTION , CLICK YOUR TEXT LAYER , SO YOU GO INSIDE THAT CLIP , THEN YOU CAN SEE WORD BY WORD IN LAYERS ,, THE RED BARS .. SELECT THEM ALL AND TURN THEM ALL INTO 3D LAYERS , NOT JUST THE ONE HE DID ON HIS TUT …. NOT SURE WHY WE HAD THIS PROBLEM BUT SEEMS ALOT OF US DID ….. SO GLAD IVE FIXED IT , NEARLY CHUCKED MY LAPTOP OUT OF THE WINDOW
My hero thanks
DUDE YOU ARE THE MAN!!!
thank you so much….i actually had a head ache because of such a silly thing. youre a life saver truly.now ill go for a hot bath to cure my headache :(. but thanks a lot mate…reallly!!!
Great work and amazing skills, this is my first run or the prog. and i actually was able to pull it together.
many thanks =)
Was wondering if there is any tutorial out there for the epic intro !
Thanks
Just wanted to say thanks, a lot. From someone who has never used AE yet, that was an awesome tutorial that has made me very excited to get in and learn… even though I wished some steps were a bit more detailed – some of the shortcuts used, etc. – I appreciate the incredible amount of great and accessible concepts in these mere 15 minutes, so slowing it down more is probably not worth it; us beginners can surely figure the minutiae it out…
Awesome.
Thanks.
Nice and simple!
Thanks for this tutorial.
I combined the basic camera animation of this tutorial with the Adobe Illustrator setup in the crooked gremlin’ tutorial here: http://bit.ly/ajdA
Here’s my result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv9SlRmmoDU
how do you get the sound to play when you move the cursor? please answer
Hold Ctrl or command on mac
Did you downloaded Wikileaks docs? Give me link plz
Hope for answer
I need to contact site admin urgently. Can you understand me?
Hope for no silence
bye bye ;))
whats up?
Wow Markus, Thanks for this easy to follow tutorial! I used a lot of these techniques in creating my first kinetic type music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6awFBbaw0oE
P3p0
Great tut!
Just wondering however, when you were adding all the text word by word, how did you close each text box without clicking? Is there a hotkey you can press to exit typing mode?
just press ctrl + enter, that will take back to type tool.
Control + Enter will get you out of the typing mode, then after that use Control + Alt + Shift + T to create a new text layer ready for typing.
AMAZING !!! you have combined my two favorite things in the world linkin park and after effects and for that you are awesome
very nice…………..
this is easier if you just make the design in illustrator so all of the text is on one layer and use a mask tool to reveal all of the words or letters one by one. If you use the hold toggle setting for the key frame of the masks you wont have to worry about mask shapes auto tweening.
the advantage is you only have to deal with one layer.. if for some reason you need two layers just duplicate the layer and add another mask to cover up the word you dont need. that way everything is registered.
designing everything layer by layer in AE is extremely tedious and time consuming.
Really neat, but I’d love to have seen how to do the rest of the video, especially how the “it in” grows up and pushes the other text up, and how the text swings ( I guess it’s rotation but it’d be cool to have it explained anyways).
Still really good help though!
Hi everyone! I made my first kinetic typography video. Please check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks for this wonderful tutorial!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCzWX8DdzAg
- Carla
i have a doubt, how can i repeat the verses that are told more than once, how can I clone a comp or I need to type the all again???
You went WAY too fast. Impossible for me to follow. Too many assumptions. This is very very advanced only. Useless.
hey ,
when i made a null and parented it to the camera then i try to change it’s position the text stay without changing , only a square behind the screen changes its transforms
awesome tutorial! ^^ i really appreciate it >3< but i'm stuck at 10:31, when i zoom into "here" and move the position of the null object, all the words go everywhere D: i don't know what to do, somebody please help me T.T
sorry for my bad english ._.
great effects and tutorial, thanks!!
don’t give up the editor job for the musician one yet though ;-)
I love your process and approach. I’m going to try this asap :D
I need help on what seems to be a detail.
When I made the kinetic on AE, my text was black but after render some of the text lacks full opacity (not including the text in white of course) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNScU1zn0U
do you know what could be the reason of this default ?
check this guy out, i believe he stole your videos and upload as his own.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Sterioxx
i watched both videos at the same time and it is exactly the same.
yeah, he definitely stole my videos from my site, I have sent a message to him to delete those videos. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Just to defend myself here – I didn’t steal any of your movies. I’m impressed with your work – I admit that. Of course they look exactly like yours because since I made them from your tutorial.
I removed the videos now, but you should really don’t accuse me for stealing anything when you made a video of how to do.
By the way: I uploaded my AE since I still have it here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DV4HIYZF
If I copied the videos from you, I wouldn’t have the original file, would I?
Dude, I know you are lying, you stole my videos from my site, uploaded them on youtube . You cant find the graphic that I have in my “Bleed it out in Typography” anywhere! Because I made them myself and it’s stored locally on my computer!
Same thing with the Bruce Lee – Be Watere video, it was the exact same video that I made, sure you can replicate my video with the help of my tutorial. But if you did, you made the same mistakes that I made in my video that I didn’t bother to fix. Unless you have a super good eye and intendedly wanted to make the same mistakes that I made. And you don’t even know what font that I used! I use another font in the Bruce Lee tutorial
So stop lying, you are making a fool out of yourself
Well, I already said whats on my heart. Did you even bother to check out the link that I send you? It’s the complete AE work file. If its rendered, you have my video – if you have the effects installed of course. Again – I didn’t steal anything. If you’re talking about the effects in the start (the blood and smoke) then I bought mine from videocopilot.net.
And buddy, I don’t even know how to copy a video. I watched your tutorial on this page like a year ago.
I can’t say anything else to defend myself here. I don’t get why you think I stole them, then I wouldn’t spend a second to defend myself.
As I said I admire your work, but what is the meaning of copying your videos? I spend hours and even hours of making them myself. I don’t know about the mistakes you made. I just tried to make it look the exact same way as yours. Sorry if you think thats against your Copyright, but I thought that was the meaning of a tutorial.
But …. I deleted them. Hope you’re happy now!
Right, this is your version of “Linkin Park – Bleed it out in Typography”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVAROU1xRnc
This is my version: http://ninjaeffects.com/video.php?videoID=2
This is your version of Bruce Lee – Be Water Typography:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdmnwJs43z8
This is my version: http://ninjaeffects.com/video.php?videoID=3
If you can point out one difference between your version and my version, I will apologize.
And I don´t mind if people trying to replicate my tutorials or my work, in fact; I’m honored. I have seen tons of Bleed it out in Typography videos on youtube, with their own style or just trying to replicate the tutorial for learning purposes. But I don´t appreciate stealing
Wow, no doubt that is the exact same video lol. There’s no mistake!
Great tutorial. i’m having exporting issues. When I render it the video is very shaky and doesn’t look good. Do you have suggestions for how to export the video?
Brasil!!! ;P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTiUrHYNq1I
Thanks
help! i can’t listen the music when y did the proyect,why?
My song only goes up to 30 seconds long on the audio line, how do I make it longer? I know the song is full length because I listen to it in Itunes, Please help me someone!!!
I’m using CS 5 by the way
whenever i try to preview it it says needs 2 or more frames to playback? what do i do?
I can’t add the audio t the timeline! what’s the shortcut??
Sorry i mean *to the timeline
Very nice typo!
how do you make the “get” swing down when it says so i wont get loose
great after effects tutorial! i just entered a kinetic typography video into the Safety Scholars contest. check it out, every vote helps! http://vimeo.com/26299516
Thank you so much this helped me alot in my most recent typography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeqYu9vtTKg
Everytime i make a new sentence and play it back it goes over the old words! HELP!
Very nice tutorial… I tried it, and this is my result…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws-lIxylbzk
All comments are welcome…
erm how do i get more of the song. cause i’ve only got like 30 seconds in the bar. please reply someone
it depends on how long your RAM preview can go. When you render it out, everything will be there… if that doesn’t answer your questions, shoot me an email ae@tutsplus.com and I’ll see if I can help.
Markus, what a fantastic tutorial! Thanks so much. However, there are a few text effects I would really like to understand better. For example, there is an effect that makes a text/word look like it is “growing” or emerging from the bottom.
An example is in the Cee-Lo’s recent video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAV0XrbEwNc&feature=mh_lolz&list=FLFr7QhBf9RcY
Could you briefly explain how this is done or if it is simply a transition of some sort? I’m currently working on a tight project deadline and could use that exact look
Thanks!
-Al
Gracias por compartir estos conocimientos a través de éste vídeo, mil gracias hermano. Saludos.
Thank you very much my friend, very apreciated. Cheers from Brazil.
WoW, I used AE for the first time only because of this tutorial, great job, here is my (short) output
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILZE9Qeul8M
I’M DYING here….I uploaded my music, but the music isn’t working. It’s dead silent.
Holy hell, this project is due tomorrow, I need help BAD.
O _ O
Does this work with the trial version of After Effects?
really great tutorial – its made me want to learn how AE works and create my own video rather than find someone to try and do it how I want it! thank u markus!
How did he do the beginning (title)?
hey, thanks for the tut, but when i use the camera thing, it moves over the text too fast. how do i slow it down?
That Is cool
thank you bro to gave me info about this tutorial , thank you lot , i do apperciated.
Amazing Tutorial! Even for a beginner as me, the tutorial was easy to follow and to complete within a day a full song.
Hey. Exactly what font did you use in that video and what’s the link to get it?