A simple red silk-style banner created in Adobe After Effects using Trapcode Form. Also includes a logo displaced by the Form layer using the Displacement Map effect. Read more…
January 6, 2010 by John Dickinson | 6,705 views | Comments (14)
May 18, 2009 by John Dickinson | 12,789 views | Comments (10)
Here are a couple of Form experiments. Both use the String settings; one for an amorphous background element and the other for an interesting text reveal. Click the thumbnail for large images. Download Project
March 14, 2009 by John Dickinson | 17,621 views | Comments (11)
Recently I was asked to come up with an idea for a show and as seems to be the case lately, had very little time to develop it. Click on the thumbnail and the first picture you’ll see are my initial ideas created in Illustrator. The second one is better than the first but simply making the T and A capitals in a script font (Scriptina) wasn’t working, Read more…
March 6, 2009 by John Dickinson | 12,197 views | Comments (18)
In this short tutorial learn how to use After Effects’ Fast Blur, Turbulent Displace, Roughen Edges, Texturize, Displacement Map and Gradient Wipe effects to give text a grungy look.
February 21, 2009 by John Dickinson | 15,491 views | Comments (17)
This After Effects CS4 background is based on a 3×3 Grid created in Adobe Illustrator. Click the thumbnail to view full size images.Take a look at this on-demand e-seminar for tips on how it was set up and how to work with the Illustrator file to change the shapes. Download project
December 11, 2008 by John Dickinson | 10,879 views | Comments (9)
Summer is almost upon us here in Australia but I know that many of you on the other side of the world are heading into a long cold winter. So I thought I’d make a pretty snowflake background for you to use. It’s based on a very handy confetti background created by Peder Norby from Trapcode.
Download Project
December 6, 2008 by John Dickinson | 26,004 views | Comments (40)
This project is another good example of taking poor quality 4:3 vision, making it 16:9 and giving it some polish. The tools included Adobe After Effects, Zaxwerks ProAnimator, Trapcode Horizon and Shine, and Maltaannon’s Screenify effect (featured in MILG 5). The vision was treated with the Screenify effect— which adds a realistic jumbotron Read more…
November 26, 2008 by John Dickinson | 6,565 views | Comments (9)
Often when creating grungy styles I resort to stock imagery, as is the case with this weathered metal look. The base for the look is a metal texture, heavily treated in Photoshop, with an After Effects comp combining Roughen Edges and Fractal Noise for blotches and scratches. You’ll also notice I’ve color corrected the Text comp inside the Main comp to help it sit better with the background. The background was created by combining a couple of stock footage layers, which have been replaced in the download with a rendered still. Download Project
November 18, 2008 by John Dickinson | 6,960 views | Comments (11)
Here is the After Effects project for Unbreakable. The look is based on graphics from the original movie trailer; read the Gallery post for more details.
July 10, 2008 by John Dickinson | 3,187 views | Comments (9)
Here’s an Adobe Photoshop file containing a nice beveled-gold layer layer style.
May 13, 2008 by John Dickinson | 15,703 views | Comments (8)
This starry background was created using a combination of Fractal Noise and Trapcode Particular and is based on a preset included with Particular.
April 9, 2008 by John Dickinson | 4,657 views | Comments (11)
The ECG (Electrocardiogram) is one of those graphics that is handy to have on file. There are a number of different ways to create them in After Effects, here’s one created using masks and the Vegas effect.
March 30, 2008 by John Dickinson | 4,437 views | Comments (0)
This light rays background, used in a boxing promo, was created using Fractal Noise, Directional blur and Trapcode Shine.
February 27, 2008 by John Dickinson | 7,581 views | Comments (10)
In 2007 Motionwork ran a challenge to see who could create the best explosion using Adobe After Effects and Trapcode Particular. All 11 finalist projects have been compiled for you to use in your own projects.
January 17, 2008 by John Dickinson | 1,574 views | Comments (0)
This is the grid I created for the Diehard project. It’s uniform grid of random ones and zeros created using Trapcode Particular and After Effects’ own Grid effect. It works best with bitmap fonts and the font I used can be found here
December 23, 2007 by John Dickinson | 2,697 views | Comments (6)
This type look is based on graphics from the trailer for Premonition. The background is some stock smoke footage with soft feathered masks and the Wave Warp effect. Replace the text in the “text” comp and adjust the range settings for the text — POSITION 1 for the top line and POSITION 2 for the bottom line. Watch movie Download project
December 7, 2007 by John Dickinson | 4,533 views | Comments (12)
Here’s a simple sparks preset created using Trapcode Particular.
December 1, 2007 by John Dickinson | 4,986 views | Comments (7)
This project uses a simple index expression to offset the text layers and nulls to control the distribution using Expression Control sliders. This allows them to be freely distributed with one null while setting keyframes for Y-Position and Rotation with another. Download project
November 16, 2007 by John Dickinson | 3,309 views | Comments (0)
Experimenting with the presets that ship with After Effects is a great way to create some unique looks. These backgrounds are based on the Cosmic Power (Backgrounds category) and the Cells (Synthetics category) presets.
November 2, 2007 by John Dickinson | 3,178 views | Comments (6)
In my tutorials I’m always recommending experimentation as a way of getting comfortable with the After Effects tool set. After quite some time I finally got around to just sitting and playing myself – specifically with Shape Layers — and the result is some interesting looks. Download project
