Writing with Colored Sand
Tutorial Details
- Program: After Effects
- Difficulty: Intermediate
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
We are going to make this writing with sand sort of effect. The story behind this tutorial is; One day my manager asked me for spray or sand kind of effect. First I googled on the internet but I never found any kind of tutorial, After one hour of RnD, I came up with this effect which I felt was looking great, so I figured I would share it with you guys.
Tutorial
Step 1
Create a new composition, go to Composition > New Composition rename it “Write with Sand” and
and make setting as shown below.
Step 2
Now go to Layer > New > Solid and rename it “Particle_Layer” and set up the size, color and
duration as shown in illustration below.
Step 3
Particle_Layer selected go to Effect > Trapcode > Particular. Now we need a wall on which particles
will collide and stick to it. So, we’ll make another solid, Layer > New > Solid. Rename it “Wall_Layer”
and make sure the setting is matching to Solid setting dialogue as shown, and click OK.
Step 4
Fine, now for our convenience put (drag) the “Wall_Layer” below the “Particle_Layer” and hide its
visibility and turn it into 3D layer.
Step 5
Select “Particle_Layer” and go to ‘Effect Control’ panel ‘Physics’ tab First change the Physics model
Air to Bounce. Collapse the bounce section within the Physics tab and change the Wall layer none to
Wall_Layer and ‘Collision Event to Stick’. Keep rest of setting as it is.
Step 6
Create Layer > New > Light name it “Emitter” and keep the setting as shown in illustration down. OK,
now and select the Particle_Layer and change the emitter type to ‘Light’. Now instead animating light
position manually, we’ll use a mask path.
Step 7
To create a mask path I am using AE TUTS+ logo. (For reference I downloaded the logo from site)
Import logo inside the After Effects using File > Import > File and create a new composition
Composition > New composition and rename it “Logo_Mask” and make setting as shown below.
Step 8
Drag the logo image inside the Logo_Mask composition and select logo layer inside composition
timeline, select Pen tool (shortcut G) and start drawing the logo. We’ll start drawing the way how
we usually write on paper. After one letter finishes, start next letter without changing mask even
when there is no connectivity between the letters. Keep drawing until the logo gets finish. Here is
what we’ll end up with.
Step 9
OK, now our mask is ready to use. Go to ‘Write with Sand’ composition and create a null object
Layer > New > Null Object. Turn it in to 3D layer and make sure that the null object is having the
same position as Emitter layer, if not select both the layer in timeline window and hit P on
keyboard to reveal position properties and change the position values of emitter layer as exactly null layer.
Step 10
Instead of animating our light layer we’ll link our Light to Null object. To do this drag the pick whip
of Emitter layer to Null object. Now Emitter layer is connected to Null object that means if we animate
null object the Emitter layer will follow exactly.
Step 11
To animate null object using mask path, go to Logo_Mask composition, Reveal the mask properties of
layer by pressing M key twice, Click on the ‘Mask path’ and Edit > Copy. Now again go to Write with
Sand composition, Select Null object and reveal its position property (by pressing P key on keyboard)
and use Edit > Paste.
Step 12
Before moving further first we’ll tweak some Particular setting. Select Particle_Layer and change the
attributes as illustrated below.
Step 13
Now our efforts getting shape slowly! But not that strong; we need lots of particles! Instead increasing
particles count we’ll increase the Physics time factor up to 10. Cool! Now it’s strong enough to see but
particles are dieing before completing the logo. To fix that go to Particle section and increase the value
of Life [sec] to around 100. Yes! Now we are able to see complete logo. Not smooth enough but OK.
We’ll fix that weirdness in next step.
Step 14
By pasting mask-path to null-object-position we got the keys. The total duration of keys is around 50
frames. We want it around 225 frames, to extend that, Select Null 1 layer, hit P on keybord to reveal
its position properties, select all keys; now hold down Alt key and drag the last key of animation till
225th frame. WOW! Very smooth!
Step 15
Hit 0 key for RAM preview to see what you got. We are almost there! Fine, Now we need to cut the
extra strokes than the letters and make our logo clean. Move your timeline indicator exactly when the
A letter gets drawing over (In my case around on 26th frame) Select Particle_Layer and go to Emitter
panel within Particular Effect and click on stopwatch to animate the Particles/sec, to reveal animated
property of Particle_Layer hit U on keyboard. Hit Page Down key on keyboard to go to next frame,
(frame 27th). And change the value of Particles/sec to ‘0’. Basically what we are doing is, we’re emitting
particles when only the logo letters are appear and when extra strokes are drawn we’re making the
emission ‘0’. Again go to the timeline when letter E is about to start (in my case frame 30th) and add a
keyframe at current time with 0 value. Press PageDown key on keyboard to go to next frame (frame 31st)
and again increase the Particles/sec value to 300. Again go to timeline where E letter gets end and set
the Particles/sec value to 300. Keep doing the same thing until end. And here is final result.
Step 16
Good! Logo-animation done but still some of particles needs to be fall and thickness of letters should
be even more. To do that, increase the value of Gravity to 2. And what?! all particles are falling down
dramatically again. Don’t worry Go to Emitter panel and change values of Velocity = 30, Velocity
Random = 95 and Velocity from motion = 1.
Step 17
Still result not that good enough. Particles are flying in space dramatically. To fix that select ‘Emitter’
layer in composition timeline, hit P on keyboard to reveal the position property and adjust the Z
position to something around -23. Awesome! Exactly, what we’re looking for. Try RAM preview.
Step 18
Hey! Time to colorize, there are two ways to change the colors of particles. One is to change the
‘Set Color’ property of Particular to ‘Over Life’ from Particle section. And second way is ‘Random
from Gradient’ from same drop down menu. But in both the case we won’t get the color per
character as well as we can’t animate the colors in particular while using light emitter.(But before
moving ahead reset the ‘Set Color’ property to ‘At Birth’ if changed)
Step 19
Don’t worry! Here is the solution. Animate the light color! So go ahead and reveal the ‘Emitter’
(light layer) properties by clicking on small triangle and again by clicking small triangle of ‘Light
option’ you’ll get ‘color’ property.
Step 20
Yes you’re right! We are going to animate the color of light according to start and end of character
letters (as we animated Particles/sec value). To animate color, move your timeline indicator till ‘A’
letter gets appeared completely and click on stopwatch of ‘color’ property and change the color to
Red. Press PageDown key and change the color of light to Green. Drag the timeline indicator till letter
E will get start and add a keyframe with same green color. Press PageDown key and change the color
of light to Blue. Keep doing same thing till the end and choose the colors which you like and there we are!
Step 21
To match look and feel with the final video preview, use the following tricks. Double click on ‘Emitter’
(light) layer and change its intensity 100 to 250. This is good trick to increase no. of particles. Select
Paticle_Layer and make following changes, Sphere feather = 100, Opacity Random = 100 and Color
Random = 20.
After completion of tutorial keep tweaking attributes and let me see if you found something intresting.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. Keep visiting AE Tuts plus.com.
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By Ganesh Narwane
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looks really simple and very effective, I would never have come to working out how to do it.
Thanks for sharing
Rich
interesting :-)
better if you made video also for the tutorials thanks anyway!!!
Great thanks.. I’m thinking about using it as a part of my new website, I gonna launch in a week or so..
Nice one.
no more screen shot tutorials
Looks OK!
See everybody… Plus tutorials aren’t the only awesome tutorials that there are going to be from here on out….
As for the tutorial… nice, short, sweet and to the point… very simple effect, but taught me some cool techniques that I can apply to some upcoming projects… I’m no whiz with Particular, so short tuts like this help fill my gaps of knowledge here and there…
Thanks dude, I hope you have more tuts on the site!
Amen
Nicely done. A cool effect process outlined in great detail. Thanks!
Nice work, simple and elegant. Great tutorial!
Great great, but next time try to make a video ;)
Thanks! Great job.
Yeah, sure.
nice one, but next time try make one video,
to be more easy for everyone.
thx
Really awesome, will use for intro in my new short. Many thanks, and a bunch of respect from Mexico City.
I’d love to see a ‘plain sand’ version – the movement of the sand is pretty realistic, so I think it’d look great. Neat effect!
יפה מאוד!!
big thanks for this one ;)
Cool , Thanks Bro .
There has to be a step missing. The particles continue to fall off for me, they do not hold.
Never mind, found my mistake.
What was the mistake Hicham? My particles continue to fall and they do not hold.
Excelente look…..Ganesh Narwane
acabado perfecto gracias por el aporte…..
Thanks!
desde La Paz – Bolivia
Coolest. Mustage. Ever.
looks very simple and very very cool as well… awesome effect… thanks for sharing
this is the one of good ones..thanks
looks great, thx.
make a video next time :) Awesome
WOW MAN VERY VERY NICE
That’s a great tutorial. Thanks very much
ya video tutorials are nice also easier to teach and learn with and easier to make.
check out my site
hazystudio.com
nice tuts, but can you put a video in describes in detail all this :)
Damn cool… the red and green combo in the example on top looks especially good.
Thx…… :)
Nice..I thought it was helpful.
Useful in many ways, thank you!
Damn cool! very impressive and is a much better alternative to the glitter effect :)
Well done man, keep up the good works.
Excelente tuto amigo, felicidades!
This will look great on e-cards too… nice style.
The ‘trail’ at the end, in the bottom…aaah!!! just love it…makes it a great visual appeal.
Dude!!! it’s AWESOME!!!
This is fantastic! You did a great job on this tutorial. Thank you so much for taking the time to create it and show us how to replicate it.
Although it looks appealing, I feel its just an upgrade of the ‘spray’ feature in Windows Paint.
Good!, But in windows paint program you can’t animate
Part 3:
Particle_Layer selected go to Effect > Trapcode > Particular.
Why can’t I find this? I try search for that action but the program says that it doesn’t exist?
pleace help!
(I have AE CS4)
most possibly you might not installed Trapcode particular plugin
where do I get that plugin? Sorry if i ask a stupid question:-)
Hi Ganesh – I can’t find it either – did you use AE CS4 to do this or an earlier version of AE ..? And if I need the plugin – where may I find it ..?
Many thanks,
Paul
canterg@hotmail.com or facebook “Seb melm”
Perfectly done. I was stuck with the same dilemma about creating a writing with snow flakes.. I think this sand tut will help me create the effect tht looks like snow flakes.. Thank you and regards
Jal
Hi
I am planning to develop a site dedicated to motion typography for a university project.
It would be a site where users can upload and rate other videos, as well follow tutorials, etc.
I have a questionnaire, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to fill it in. to help me get a better understanding of features to include on the site.
If you are interested reply back or email me at ‘weeven@hotmail.co.uk’
Thanks, Steven
Sure! why not!
I will have to try to use this in an idea I have.
thanks.
goto youtube and search et101q
and tell me waht you guys think of my after effects titles, they are just tutorials from here that i did =)
This tut is not working at all for me….could someone help me out, I am following it 100% of the way.
Awesome effect! Very helpful. :] Thank you very much.
Great Ganesh ji
App to agg laga di
I did fine till the end. For some reason, my text still writes out as white, even though I change the light color as detailed. Can you upload a video of it? Or can I send you my project file so you can tell me where I went wrong?
most possibly u missed step no. 15 and 16. If not Send me ur file and I’ll let u know. nganeshan2005@yahoo.co.in
Great tutorial but always mention when you’re using external plugins
Same problem as David above…can’t get the letters to change color even though I have done as said and put all the key frames in. I think a setting is being missed in the tutorial somewhere as when I change it from “At Birth” to one of the others I see a change in color. ?????