The secret to making motion graphics look sexy and less digital is to borrow some tips from the cinematic production world. Simon breaks down a bunch of tips including how to build your own light leaks and film scratches! The tricks learned in this tutorial can be applied to any motion graphics piece.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Craigsnedeker May 11th
Cool!
( )JR04 May 11th
Amazing – definitely going to try this after work…………
( )MMM May 11th
gracias vieja! great!!!
( )CgBaran Tuts May 11th
Great one thanks
( )Sal May 11th
Simon,
Thank you for sharing. A lot to digest. Beautiful work.
( )nirvana May 11th
COOlllllllllllllll~~~~THKS~~My Friend~
( )Greg May 11th
Well presented! Great work.
( )0x87k May 11th
Very impressive work, maybe you can add something more in the clip but anyway it looks pretty awesome!
( )Good job man, keep it up!
Sean May 11th
These are the kinds of tutorials people want to see. Excellent work! Haven’t gotten to the tutorial yet but I can’t wait! Love Form tuts!
( )luantran May 11th
gooooooood.
( )thank
KJ May 11th
Man this looks nice. Thank You. Downloading it now.
( )Diego SA May 11th
It’s definitely sexy and less digital. Excellent!
( )yuri May 11th
awesome!
( )John Fischer May 11th
This is truly excellent, loved it! Great way to add that extra something to your work. Thank you!
( )ShadowZproductions May 11th
Awesome looking stuff!
What’s the sound?
( )Or did you make it?
Simon Bronson May 11th
All of the audio samples courtesy of freesound.org/
Spaced out telephone: Twisted Lemon freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=508
( )soundscape: ERH freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=34421
soundscape: yewbic freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=33796
reverse drum: dropthedyle freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=686
ninjtso May 11th
that was crazy thing i really like it
( )James May 11th
Fantastic tutorial, thankyou.
( )Adam Everett May 11th
Very well done! I love some of the work on your reel… very fun! Great tutorial, very clear you know your stuff… I’d love to hear a bit more energy or enjoyment with the audio… it seemed like you were bored a little bit. Other then that one thing… it was perfect!
( )Simon bronson May 11th
Thanks for the feedback. Being my first tutorial I was quite daunted by the process and a bit self conscious too. Next time I’ll record the voice separately and add a bit more life to the screencast.
( )Dani June 2nd
hehe adam u hot!
( )Satya Meka May 11th
Great! I am always a big fan o Simon’s work on vimeo.
( )Oscar Dante May 11th
Her is mine version, did not use the scratches and dust, just form. http://vimeo.com/4595872
( )Rafi May 11th
dude! your the bob ross of after effects!
( )Likwit_Snake May 11th
3 WORDS:
WON DER FUL
( )fatih May 11th
pleas documant
ı dont me
after effecte yeni başladım arkadaşlar başlangıçta ne yaptın ne ettin belli değil direk olaya girdiniz anlamadım sahneye ne koyulmuş onuda bilmiyorum
( )dökumanı verirseniz çok makbule geçeçek
morsje May 11th
am i the only one that doesnt see in the motion graph the starry night and the lady with ermine?
( )f1a5h84ck May 11th
Hello, Simon.
Thanks for your time spent on this tutorial, but, I’m sorry, I’ve found this tut some sort of useless. There is a bunch of Form Tutorials explaining how to use Fractal Field, Layer Maps, etc. Even on Trapcode.com. So, having a little fantasy, there’s no problem to create such simple wiggling particle field.
If you could explain how to create such fluid looking particle flows, like Mate Steinforth did in his Colour Love, it would be really appreciated.
http://www.dixonbaxi.com/rebrand/colourlovefive.html
As for dust and scratches you don’t have to purchase Trapcode Form to create them. You can do it simply in AE using Fractal Noise.
Thanks.
( )david May 13th
U can maybe get something similar by adding vector blur on top.
( )suggestion May 11th
man the video loads so slow (same for all the rest of tutorials) i suggest u use flash video or swf like videocopilot instead of mp4 its better quality and much less size and loads fast
( )Gray May 11th
Rather than bashing one of my “less favorite” tutorials for not doing a good job recreating the final effect, I’ll commend this tutorial for doing a fantastic job in that sense.
All you other folks making tutorials for this site take note. This is how tutorials should be done; I think actually producing something very close to the final effect at the end of a tutorial is absolutely essential, and not some half-assed video that barely shows the theory and technique behind the effect. (It’s not often that this happens, just often enough…)
That’s just my rant, that I felt I needed to get off my chest for a few weeks.
Now, one idea I loved in this tutorial was using paintings as a basis for colorizing the particles, that is awesome!
Nicely done.
( )Sean May 12th
A rant shared by me, my friend! I agree wholeheartedly with every word! A professionally designed tutorial that recreates the preview….and teaches a TON. Something that has been sorely lacking around here lately!
( )manu May 11th
awesome work…
( )Parker May 11th
fantastic, thanks
( )Kevin May 11th
Sweet, I love the color idea, I’ll have to find other ways to use that outside of form
–
( )Kevin
Rafael Guerra May 11th
Its amazing…this site has A LOT of Form tutorials, but everytime we are surprised with smething that hasn´t been covered before. Good job.
( )Rev65 May 11th
Thanks, Simon! Very professionally executed tutorial. Loved seeing the tricks for creating film grunge elements using… FORM!!! WHAT? But hey.. it’s works so why not! Sometimes you have to consider using a certain plug-in not for what it is named or is “designed” to do, but more so on the results you can produce with it.
( )seba May 11th
Thanxs a lot Simon! Pretty inspiring tutorial
u ar awesome!
( )Rich4rd May 11th
wow,thats gr8..
( )this i give u site,http://sikatwes.blogspot.com/
anything what do you want about 3d software and AE project,maybe will give u all inspiration..
cool tuts,thnx simon..
KFLoc35 May 12th
You can download streaks, film burns, and flairs @ http://vfxschool.blogspot.com
which should save you some time….
( )Sean May 12th
Just got done with the tutorial. I learned more than I have in weeks. Best tutorial since the last one put up by the Maestro Lloyd Alvarez. I think I learned more in this tutorial than I have in maybe any other. Thank you soooooo much! FANTASTIC STUFF!!!!!
( )Victor May 12th
Very,very nice tutorial.
( )kyd May 12th
支持~~~~~~~~~~~~~~！！！
( )versa May 12th
cool!
( )symbiosis May 12th
that was wicked….thanks …look forward to trying it out…cheers mate….have a good day!
( )f1a5h84ck May 12th
Why is my comment still awaiting moderation, while others are being already posted?
( )Rev65 May 12th
I this becoming a trend?
( )Waves of Color… http://oscardante.com
Oliver May 13th
What’s the music on your version it sounds so familiar?
( )Rev65 May 13th
not my work, just found it and chuckled at the similarity to this tut.
Lotenna Enwonwu May 12th
Great work. Loved the tut. Especially the depth of field part. I noticed you did not use a null object to control the cameras. Is that the way you usually animate and do you recommend that?
( )Simon Bronson May 12th
Using nulls for the camera would probably make sense, I’m just used to the old fashion way, but whatever works for you.
( )There are also cool scripts out there for controlling the focus distance too which could come in handy as well.
youssef sarhan May 12th
nice work simon.
( )Chip May 12th
It’s always nice to get new ways to use Form. Thanks.
( )Oliver May 13th
I have to agree with Adam on the voice part, but your new plan seems like it will counteract that, other than that a really good tutorial.
I loved the film scratch effect; I have always used a 3rd party plug-in and I never really thought about how to do it without it. Thanks and Good Job!
( )Şahap(Shahap) May 13th
Great! Thanks For Tutorial.
/o türkçe yazan arkadaşım sne yanlış yerde öğreniyorsun
önce içerde Beginner eğitimleri var onlara baksan ardından bunlarla ilgilensen kannımca daha iyi anlarsın. Adamlar pata küte dalmamış seni de beni de unutmamış yani/
( )CAZ May 13th
Hey wicked TUT…but, being realitivly new at the after effects game….i would like to see more tutorials that don’t use trapcode…….i can’t afford to create trapcode effets.
But hey…..nice job regardless
( )fatih May 14th
şahap kardeş
benim ingilizcem o kadar yok ki türkçe kaynak bulmam lazım en azından sonra bakarız
( )Simon Potter May 14th
A stupid question to ask…but how and where did the dust come from photoshop. I’ve completed the tut but with the standard sphere setting of form.
( )Simon May 15th
Nice tutotial – i ended up with this http://www.looksneunow.com/motion/ – of course not as cool as yours
( )Lloyd May 15th
There is something very nice about your version. A perfect example of less is more. Great job!
( )Simon Bronson May 16th
Lovely stuff, I really like where you’ve taken this. I’d never have thought to use a high key background but it works!
( )Simon May 16th
nice that you like it
thank you
Tobias May 15th
@simon: The author said it was taken from a photograph. If you don’t have such a photograph I don’t think it’s to hard to create those pixels your self manually:)
( )Lloyd May 16th
The images that Simon used can be downloaded from Wikipedia Commons from the link above
( )Tolo May 16th
Muy Muy Muy bueno
( )Gracias Totales
andrew daffy May 16th
stunning stuff. An informative and clear demo, some wonderful insights into naturalistic effects, and utterly beautiful results. Your voice is also very soothing, you could read bedtime stories about precomposing layers. Thanks Simon. MORE PLEASE!
( )Klas May 17th
Brilliant stuff!! Loved the filmleaks and the way to use form to create filmjunk. Thank you very much!
( )ismael May 17th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IoAML29rck
( )Aleso May 17th
amazing simply amazing
http://www.3dand2dmag.wordpress.com
( )trak May 18th
here’s mine : http://www.vimeo.com/4692440 .. Thanks for the tut
( )Simon Bronson May 19th
Awesome, you really took it to a new level! You’ll have to teach me some of your tricks now.
( )Trak May 20th
Thanks Simon…not sure to have something to teach you…. Your scratch plate and dust techniques with Form were very clever…
Lloyd May 19th
Fantastic execution! Loving your piece.
( )trak May 20th
thx man
, just added strings layers and Kaleidoscope
Simon May 20th
great!
( )Mark May 20th
fantastic and intriguing technique you have there Simon. I like your analogue on digital take on thing (if that makes any sense)…
( )Katarina May 21st
I really agree with f1a5h84ck… The whole thing you’re describing is pretty useless. You just sift through the options not really knowing what they do and why. Everyone with a little brain and curiosity can do that.
As for the scratches its stupid enough to combine them with this ultra high tech effect such as form, let alone making it in AE. Why simulate something when you could just make a telecine of the real dust and scratches and superimpose them in your final shot.
I think you don’t know much about it…just showing off
( )finemotionvision May 22nd
Don’t listen to the detractors, Simon!
Sterling effort and quite inspiring. Great first tutorial and if it’s good enough for Peder Norrby – it should be good enough for most After Affects users. The guy’s a genius.
( )finemotionvision May 22nd
and by the way…here’s my effort inspired by yours and all the other positive minded people on AE Tuts and Vimeo….
http://vimeo.com/4784209
( )Simon Bronson May 23rd
Thanks for all of your feedback guys. Positive or Negative, it all helps to see what people are getting out of these tutorials.
I’ve started a channel on vimeo where we can share our creations.
http://vimeo.com/channels/44255
Once you’ve got something to show, drop me a message in the ’shout box’ and I’ll add it to the channel.
In your video descriptions I’d love to read about any interesting techniques you’ve come up with as well.
( )peter May 24th
Super cool, man!
( )Damo May 31st
Excellent.
My attempt below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjKWpoY6uI
( )Simon Bronson June 3rd
sweet. with that music it feels like the opener to a james bond film.
( )daniel June 2nd
GREAT love it. This is a great website!
( )Klas June 4th
Hi Simon,
Just finished watching your demoreel and the other formexperiments and I love your work. Very inspirational!!
And I love the music as well
( )Rockinamadeus June 12th
Hello I am kind of new to the whole Trapcode word of AE. I am around half way in when you start adding cameras and when I go to zoom in on my form the sphere particles are very pixelated. Anyone know what’s going on?
( )Simon Bronson June 13th
Could be that your focus distance is off, try disabling depth of field first. If it looks ok you’ll need to tweak your focus distance.
( )Rockinamadeus June 14th
Well I tried it and still no luck. I’ll give the tutorial a redo and I’ll get back to you. Thanks man
Rockinamadeus June 15th
Alright I got everything working. This is a fantastic tutorial, I want to see more stuff like this. Great job! I’ll post my result to the Vimeo channel.
Mohammad July 2nd
thanx alot bro..
( )lmdang July 3rd
toll!!
( )rakesh July 3rd
nice work…..
( )Joel July 24th
thanks for sharing! good inspiration
( )R. Murdock November 10th
Fantastic tutorial. Thank you so much!
( )Gyorfi Szilard November 14th
Masterpiece! What an original way to use form, cool effect with the light transition.
Besides that, the narration was easy to follow
One of the best tuts here
Thanks!
( )Gabriel November 20th
Hi Simon,
You put together an easy to follow and informative tutorial. I used your light leak technique with lights in 3D space for my latest video:
http://www.vimeo.com/7678769
Thank you!
( )