If Harry Frank recommends these 5 Adobe After Effects expressions, then you know you need them!

As with all graphics on Fox Classics, the palette for this spot was restricted to orange, black and white. Being that this is Sunday “Night” at the Movies, it made the most sense to use black as the base color. Most of these movies are from the 60’s/70’s and when I heard the music (The Supremes) I thought of one of those old 70’s-style beaded door curtains and decided to use that as the basis of the design. Read more

In part 3 of this series learn how to use After Effects Shape Layers to add dynamic and organic, self-animating elements to the background.

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In part 2 of this series learn how to use After Effects Shape Layers, Fractal Noise and Grid effects to create background elements, then animate them using the Convert Audio to Keyframes feature. Watch tutorial

This project for a Summer campaign on Foxtel Box Office was created using a combination of Maxon Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects with Zaxwerks ProAnimator and Knoll Light Factory. The simple 3D text supers were created using ProAnimator inside After Effects and the supers with characters were created in Cinema 4D and finished in After Effects. [Read more]

Yesterday I had a surprise visit at Foxtel by Ian Haigh, a fellow Sydney-sider and the creator of the very cool Ease & Wizz scripts for Adobe After Effects. I had no idea Ian worked just up the road from me and as it turns out he is a 10 year veteran of After Effects. So what is Ease & Wizz? According to Ian’s website, “Ease and Wizz is a set of expressions [Read more]

A massive 7 Hours of Kick-ass Design, Production and Workflow Techniques for Adobe After Effects

Work along with After Effects expert Jerzy Drozda Jr. (aka. Maltaannon) as he guides you step by step through a wide range of motion graphics and visual effects looks and techniques. Learn how to harness the power of expressions in After Effects to make beautiful, complex animations and save time.  Whether you’re an After Effects beginner or expert you’ll learn valuable techniques that will make your work look great. Included with the 10 video tutorials are 3 bonus video tutorials (Gyro Extended, Butterfly Man extended and Working with the Presets) plus free plug-ins and presets discussed throughout the lessons. Work fast, work smart, look great with Making It Look Great 5.

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Create a cool-looking gyroscopic element completely within After Effects. Inspired by the work of Mark Coleran, this tutorial includes extensive use of Shape Layers, parenting and simple expressions to create a technical look using almost no keyframes.

Create a slick push pin toy effect as seen in the Radiohead “House of Cards” video. This tutorial shows you how to combine regular footage with Trapcode’s popular Form plug-in
to create an eye-popping 3D effect. Watch this tutorial now for free here.

Create a reusable retro-style computer terminal animation. Harness the power of
expressions, including some undocumented features to change the text content and
look on the fly. Learn how to turn a simple typewriter effect into realistic DOS-style
computer readout.

Create a realistic and detailed Jumbotron-style video screen. This tutorial includes
must-know keying techniques, tips on creating volumetric lights and presets, and ingenious
workflow for creating complex looks on a single layer using the CC Composite effect.
The advanced CE Screenify effect is also included in the download exclusively for Making
It Look Great 5 viewers.

Create the stylish effect where a character suddenly bursts into hundreds of butterflies.
In this lesson learn how to create a smart butterfly rig using Trapcode 3D Stroke, control Trapcode Particular particles using dispersion maps, build volumetric backlighting using Trapcode Lux and automatically track a layer’s alpha channel.

Master fast and precise color correction techniques using standard After Effects tools
including Colorama and CC Composite. In this tutorial learn how to fine tune a look
using the Colorama effect as a range selection tool, allowing adjustments to specific
aspects of the footage.

Create an infinitely zooming spycam look. This tutorial starts with basic techniques for
creating a simple slide show then covers amazing, time-saving techniques for automating
transitions between layers using expressions.

Create automated subtitles based on layer markers. This short tutorial demonstrates
how to automate subtitle creation.

Create a realistic dripping blood effect without using keyframes or expressions.
This lesson includes a great study of precomposing and demonstrates how to use a
Photoshop-style brush with the CC Time Blend effect to paint text onto the screen.

Create a funky disco-style animation based totally on sound. This lesson includes a slick technique for creating running lights using Trapcode Form together with the Colorama
effect, basic camera movement, techniques using the CC Time Blend and Wave Warp
effects and plenty of simple expressions.

About your Host: Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) is a motion graphics and visual effects artist based in Warsaw, Poland. Well known in the motion graphics industry through his popular website maltaannon.com, Jerzy’s extreme creativity, razor sharp technical skills and relaxed teaching style, make him one of the top After Effects trainers in the world today.”

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Making It Look Great 5 hosted by Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) is almost here. The following is a list of all 10 tutorials included in the workshop, with Quicktime movie examples. This training is over 7 hours long and is packed with After Effects techniques, tips and tricks. More details soon. [Read more]

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.

Gallery post   Download project

Another boxing promo created using Adobe After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop. For this 3 day job I wanted to create a scene reminiscent of a boxing gym wall with old posters and banners. These fighters are up and coming but quite low in the rankings and this will be a battle of brawlers, so this gritty, unpolished look fits nicely. The basic idea and color palette [Read more]

In this recorded e-seminar I’ll show you how to build a simple yet dynamic type-based animation. Topics include working with Illustrator files, setting up simple relationships using expressions, per-character 3D type, setting up 3D layers, creative use of shape layers, Brainstorm, modifying and saving a preset. Watch e-seminar

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

Beginners often ask how to loop layers in After Effects. While looping a footage layer can be done using the Interpret Footage option, looping an unrendered comp takes a little more work but is still easy. In this video tip (no sound) learn how to use expressions to loop a precomp.  Watch tip

This background uses a series of Illustrator dots animated using the wiggle expression applied to Scale and Opacity. This was then precomposed and CC Radial Blur and CC Toner applied. The grid was created using Grid, warped using Displacement Map and softened at the edges using Lens Blur. It has depth without actually being 3D. Watch movie   Download project

For this project my client approached me with a print out of an ugly corporate chart representing the growth in Foxtel’s subscriber numbers. Considering that this information was to be placed at the start of a 3 minute corporate video I suggested that a dynamic timeline that captured viewer attention would be more suitable than a boring graph. At the start of the [Read more]