Try Tuts+ Premium, Get Cash Back!

Writing With The Clouds

on Nov 2nd 2009 with 29 comments
Download Source Files

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 10 of 33 in the Logo Reveals Session
« PreviousNext »

I think at some point everybody has enjoyed trying to point out shapes of animals or other random things while looking up at the clouds. Well today you get to decide what that cloud shape will be! Without using any 3rd Party Plug-ins, I’m going to show you guys a simple way create clouds from shapes, text, a logo… anything you want! In this tutorial the main focus will be on track mattes and working with masks.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .flv

File size 111MB

 
Enjoyed this Post?

Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!

By

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

I'm a freelance motion graphic designer who specializes in start up videos. I live in Northern Idaho so I'm pretty used to working remotely. I love the fact that I get to get up every day and play with After Effects!  

Plus Premium
 
 
  • http://www.stevemullencreative.com Steve Mullen

    That’s pretty slick! Nicely done, thanks.

  • http://www.youtube.com.br/ianhpiratao IANH – BR

    Wow! Pretty Good man!

    Nice Work!

  • http://www.visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

    Good deal dude, I really enjoyed the tutorial, you are a really well spoken presenter. Super simple techniques, but a great end result.

    • Remington McElhaney
      Author

      Thanks, I appreciate it!

  • makproductions06

    I agree with topher that you are a good presenter. aka not an annoying voice. but I think this was alittle to basic for this site…

  • http://splaszfx.pl Splasz

    Great result man. thanx.

  • http://www.screencaster.com.br Guilherme Rambo

    Just a quick little tip: when you want to change the feather amount of a lot of masks at once, select them all and press F, this way only the feather property shows up.

    Great tutorial o/

    • Remington McElhaney
      Author

      Oh, good catch! Thats a very usefull shortcut especially for this tutorial.

  • http://r.wondr.googlepages.com/home v Ralle v

    That’s so simple, but I never thought of it. And like the other people said: nice presentation! Good job, I really enjoyed it.

  • Roy42

    Definitely not too much of my time; probably one of the shortest and still useful tutorials I’ve seen.

    It was a very well presented tutorial, and even the parts where you were copy/pasting the mask settings over and over didn’t get boring. I would probably attribute it to the nice cloud scenario.

    Shame for me that all of the cloudy days that have occupied the last 5 months of my life are gone now and it’s Summertime where I live. Still, it’s a good tut to keep in mind for when I can get a picture of clouds.

    Regards,

    ≈Roy

    • Remington McElhaney
      Author

      Thanks, Roy I’m glad you found it usefull. Just so you know I got my picture for the sky at cgtextures.com if you want to follow along with that.

      • Roy42

        Thanks, but I have a specific view in mind that looks fantastic when clouds are over it in my city. It’s nice to have a more personal touch, I find. It might be awhile before I get the picture I want, but to me, taking a stock image from a website in cases like these are like using a cheat code to avoid actually playing the game.

        Regards,

        ≈Roy

  • eric

    Thanks for sharing. Totally agree – youre a great presenter. Takes som skills and practice to get videotuts just right.

    • Remington McElhaney
      Author

      Thanks eric, this was my first tutorial of any kind so I’m glad it was recieved so well.

  • http://www.youtube.com/demoscenes Musiqal

    Much appreciated. This effect is nice and the tutorial is easy to follow along. One of the best I’ve seen in a long while :)
    Keep up the good work.

    • Remington McElhaney
      Author

      Thanks, I appreciate is Musiqal! This wont be the last one you’ll see from me I guarantee that. I’m working on an idea now that will blow this one out of the water:)

  • http://davidwoodfx.blogspot.com/ David W.

    That was incredibly simple. Now don’t take this as negative but I’m surprised the tuts network actually uploaded it. LOL! Congrats on the first tutorial and may many more be on the way! :)

    • Remington McElhaney
      Author

      I don’t take it as negative at all:) It is an extremely simple method, but I think since the end result looks like it does, it makes up for it. That was definitely a main concern when making the tutorial between me and the editor Adam, because we weren’t sure how it would be recieved:) Thats also why I tried to put a lot of effort into making sure it was presented as well as possibe. But I do understand and appreciate your feedback, and in my next tutorial I’m going to see how far I can stretch the limits of After Effects, and maybe turn a few heads ;)

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC4YJcgfRq0 Ron Ronson

    its kind of like this advert on UK tv
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC4YJcgfRq0

    nice smooth effect

  • http://www.designfollow.com/ designfollow

    great tutorial

    thank you

  • Anil

    Great tutorial dude.Keep up the good work.

    Thank you.

  • Nhat Phan

    Really love it!

  • http://myspace.com/reysup Rey

    this is beyond awesome
    i truly wanna thank you for this

    • Remington M
      Author

      Haha, anytime. I’m glad that you were all able to enjoy it :)

  • Valeria

    Great tut!! So simple and clever!

  • amitc

    Hey It is nice cloud fx but how creat it

    • http://RemingtonM.com Remington M
      Author

      Uh… watch the tutorial! ;)

  • Tharun G Smith

    it’s very niceTechnique

  • http://www.kennethgreen.net Ken Green

    I feel the tutorial was cut short with an advertisement. It ended right when you finished making the cloud to fill in the space/gap between the two words… or was that really the end of the tutorial?