Tutorial

Step 1

Create a new composition clicking by Menu->Composition->New Composition. Name it “Circles”, change the resolution to 200×200 and set the duration to 7 seconds.

Step 2

We don’t need a background solid so we can skip that part and click on the Toggle Transparency Grid button.

Step 3

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. The color is doesn’t matter. Change the resolution to 200×200 and name it “Circle”.

Step 4

With the “Circle” solid layer selected, go to Effect->Generate->Circle. Under the effect properties we have to set the color to #302B2F and click on the Radius stopwatch to add a new keyframe. Move forward 2 seconds and change the Radius property to 93.

Step 5

Let’s duplicate the “Circle” solid layers, offset them and change the circle effect colors on each layer.

Step 6

Let’s duplicate the top “Circle” layer once again. Offset it and right click on it and go to Time-Reverse Layer or you can use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+alt+R). Now we have a looped circle animation. We can use this animation in Trapcode Particular as a custom particle for example, but because in this tutorial we’re dealing with default plug-ins, I will use Foam.

Step 7

Create a new composition clicking by Menu->Composition->New Composition. Name it “Abstract circles”, change the resolution to 1280×720 and set the duration to 7 seconds.

Step 8

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. The color is doesn’t matter. Change the resolution to 1280×720 and name it “BG”.

Step 9

With the “BG” layer selected, let’s go to Effect->Generate->Ramp. Change the Start Color to #9BB58F and the End color to #FFA601 and set the Ramp shape to Radial Ramp.

Step 10

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. The color is doesn’t matter. Change the resolution to 1280×720 and name it “Foam”.

Step 11

With the “Foam” layer selected go to Effect->Simulation->Foam. Before we move, on let’s drop the “Circles” composition inside of this composition and turn it off. In “Foam” I didn’t change too much. I changed the Bubble Texture Layer to the “Circles” composition and changed the view option to rendered and that’s it.

Step 12

Finaly I just add this crunched paper image and changed it to multiply. It’s an optional step but it just gives a little more depth to the animation.

Step 13

Now you should see something similar to this… Let’s go to the 2nd animation : ).

Step 14

Create a new composition clicking by Menu->Composition->New Composition. Name it “Radio waves fun”, change the resolution to 1280×720 and set the duration to 10 seconds.

Step 15

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. The color is doesn’t matter. Change the resolution to 1280×720 and name it “BG”.

Step 16

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. The color is doesn’t matter. Change the resolution to 1280×720 and name it “Radio waves”.

Step 17

Go to Effect->Generate->Radio Waves and set the following properties. I used #FA0047 as the stroke color.

Step 18

Go to Effect->Time->Echo and set the following properties.

Step 19

Here’s what you should see now…. Now, let’s finish the 3rd and final animation.

Step 20

Create a new composition clicking by Menu->Composition->New Composition. Name it “Circle text Animation”, change the resolution to 1280×720 and set the duration to 12 seconds.

Step 21

The method is almost exactly the same as what we did before. The only difference is that now we have to choose different solid layer colors.

Step 22

With the “Circle 1″ solid layer selected go to Effect->Generate-> Circle and apply it. We need to animate the radius just like we did before, but in this case I need to change the Blending mode to Stencil Alpha.

Step 23

Let’s duplicate the Green solid layer couple times, change the colors on every duplicated layer and offset them.

Step 24

Finally, I just put a text layer on top of all the duplicated layers.

Step 25

Let’s select the Ellipse Tool to create a circular mask on the text. Hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift while dragging to create a perfect circle mask.

Step 26

Let’s change the mask to Add mode and we’ll need to animate the Mask Path as well.

Step 27

I am just trying to create a simple growing circular mask path animation as you can see here. You can add the previous paper texture to the top and change the blending mode to Multiply to create a more dramatic or realistic look and here’s an another trick that I used..

Step 28

We can add a simple point light and then turn the 3D layer option on for all of the duplicated solid layers.

Conclusion

So this is it! I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and learned some new things. Try your own variations or customize the free project file that you can download at the top. My name is Tibor Miklos, thanks a lot for your attention and I’ll see ya next time! If you have any questions or just get stuck, just shoot me an e-mail. sir.tibor.miklos@gmail.com

Final Image

King Kong (2005)

VFX Team

• Joe Letteri
• Brian Van’t Hul
• Christian Rivers
• Richard Taylor

Development of the Visual Effects

Working with proxies

For this movie, the VFX team of Weta Digital had to improve their working system with regards to hardware, networking and infrastructure. Now, they have a big philosophical change in their pipeline: so they are more geared toward pulling information together at render time rather than carrying it through individual scenes. This means that technical directors now use low resolution proxies rather than high detailed geometry whether they’re looking for complex scenes or complex characters..

With a creature like Kong, you don’t want to open a scene and have all of the fur in it, and you can’t open up a scene with all of New York in it – Joe Letteri

Development of new tools

The team had to create new tools that could satisfy their needs, so they created a new fur simulation software and new fur shaders to animate Kong’s five million hairs when he moves, ruffle his hair on the plane’s wing, manage the collision with other objects and allow it to become dirty. The crew also wrote a fluid dynamic’s solver, which they use to create the ocean for Kong’s voyage to New York.

You really need your own software so in the case of something not looking right, you are able to open it up and figure out what’s going on – Joe Letteri

Creating Kong

Of course, one of the biggest challenges in the film was the creation of its star. The modelers created him and the doubles which he interacts with in Maya with the help of Mudbox. To breathe life into Kong, rather than rely solely on keyframe animation for the CG gorilla, the crew motion captured the actor who gave life to Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, Andy Serkis. New software made it possible for animators to drive the CG gorilla with either the mocap data or key frame animation, and a new system interpreted Serkis’s facial expressions before mapping data onto the 3D model.

The software looks at the dots on Andy’s face, figures out what his expression says that he’s sad, for example and then applies that to Kong. – Joe Letteri

VFX Breakdown Video

This video will show you the amazing VFX Scenes, how they made it and some scenes of compositing.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (2010)

VFX Team

• Tim Burke
• John Richardson
• Christian Manz
• Nicolas Aithadi

Development of the Visual Effects

CG Set Design

For many of the scenes in these movies, partial sets and then digital sets were created. This film wanted to show more destruction shots and extensive battle sequences so they decided not to use any more miniatures because with CG Imagery they were able to create more rigid body dynamics and destruction work. The castle in the earlier movies was actually a miniature and so they had rebuilt the entire castle and were able to handle new concepts and ideas. They also rebuilt the set for Godric’s Hallow in CG and almost the entire scene is full of CG environments and CG snow.

Multiple Harrys

For this scene the actors were shot on the set acting out the transformation, sometimes adjusting their height to be the same as Harry. A second set of plates involved Harry acting out every character and he had to dress like all of the other actors. All of these actors except for Harry were shot only for their facial performance. To capture the facial expressions volumetrically they used The Mova Countour Capture rig that is designed to hold 28 cameras around the actors. A phosphorescent make-up was applied to the actors which was then picked up by a series of cameras and produced a tracked surface and mesh. The data was then processed at MPC in conjunction with a facial rig built for each actor and finally, it was animated building skulls inside the heads to keep the facial mechanics of each character as realistic as possible.

Flight Attack

The flight attack takes place in a phrenetic sequence flying over London to escape the Death Eaters. MPC created GG thestrals “a winged horse with a skeletal body”, extended Privet Drive’s set and combined the green screen riders with the CG thestrals and digital doubles. To create the clouds, they used Maya Fluids and then joined the far and near clouds, using different techniques to render it. The spells were created to look like a lightning inside the cloud and also used were some lens flares. The duel between Voldemort and Harry when their wands get connected and then Voldemort’s wand broke up was created using full CG Smoke and using both a digital double and the real actor.

VFX Breakdown Video

This video will show you the amazing VFX Scenes, how they made it and some scenes of compositing.

X-Men First Class (2011)

VFX Team

• John Dykstra
• Matt Johnson
• Nicolas Bonnell
• Fiona McLean

Development of the Visual Effects

Making of the Mutants Effects

The VFX team designed the way mutants exhibited their powers as if there were no film history to deal with. They began with a range of ideas for each mutant and started considering how they related to the mutants in previous films, both visually and in the X-Men comic world. Where there was a character that had already been seen before like Mystique, they tried to relate the effects to earlier visuals. Where there was a family tie in comic book genealogy they tried to relate their characters power to a family similarity, such as the fact that Havok is Cyclop’s brother. In some cases the team didn’t use any real visual reference so they simply chose the visual that they liked the best.

Creating the Diamond Body

The team started by creating simple still illustrations of how Emma Frost’s diamond body would look. The character went through multiple reviews until the team found a look that worked. They then translated those still images into an animation. To get the movement as precise as possible they rotoscoped, frame by frame, the actress’s performance. Finally, VFX artists digitally removed her from the frame and put the animated one in her place. To really look like a diamond, Frost needed to sparkle, so they had a lot of work to make sure she refracted and reflected light correctly. They finally managed to get the right look by taking pictures of a faceted cubic zirconium and using them as a reference.

She had to be both crystal and fluid, because she had to move when she was in her diamond form – John Dykstra

Making of Azazel

Azazel is a devilish-looking mutant who is able to transport between dimensions. For its making, the VFX team began with the development of the digital fire and smoke simulation that appears when he teleports. They roto-mated Azazel, so whatever movement he was doing at the time would then in turn affect the smoke simulation. Then, they also had to create the tail, which was built and animated in CG and some transparency and textures were added in for a real-world feel.

We went through a lot of development of trying to create a digital fire and smoke sim because he was more closely aligned with the devil – Matt Johnson

VFX Breakdown Video

This video will show you the amazing VFX Scenes, how they made it and some scenes of compositing.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s Ends (2007)

VFX Team

• John Knoll
• Hal Hickel
• Charles Gibson
• John Frazier

Development of the Visual Effects

Creating Davy Jones and his Crew

Davy Jones and seventeen of his transmogrified crew were digital creations that had to match seamlessly with the real actors. The team used ZBrush for the creation of the 3D models for the characters. For the animation the team used motion capture but not in traditional methods; instead of recording performances in a mo-cap studio and then inserting the CGI character into a blank space on the plates post-production, they decided to shoot the actors and record their movement on the same plate, and then replace them digitally with the CGI character. The team used Pixar’s RenderMan for the renders, but they were taking so long that they decided to discuss with Pixar how to implement a new technique inside their software. This way, renders that were taking twelve or thirteen hours went down by to just three or four hours and they started to produce the same or even better results in a quarter of the time.

Creating a Maelstrom

To create this scene, ILM hired Frank Lossaso-Petterson who helped to build the Stanford’s fluid simulation engine, which is an hybrid of a PhysBAM engine and a Zeno interface. It’s something like Maya except that it is more customizable. To create the Maelstrom the team used a technique which consists in simulating it as though it were flat and gravity pointing inward instead of sloping down, and then transforming the surface into the whirlpool shape. This scene required a lot of computational fluid dynamic, huge resolutions and computational power and memory.

Environments and Compositing

This movie has more than 1000 VFX shots including waterfall sequences, icebergs, ship destruction, CG Creatures, and so on. Many of these shots have live action elements combined with CGI, except for the Maelstrom whirlpool which is a total 3D Environment. The ships were live action boats extended and sometimes full CG Ships so they had both live water action and CG water simulations. There is a scene where the ship is descending below the water; for this scene water passes were filmed and tracked and then were combined with CGI elements and the motion captured crew.

My goal is to always start from some live action so we got a grounded reality that we can build from- John Knoll

VFX Breakdown Video

This video will show you the amazing VFX Scenes, how they create it and some scenes of compositing.

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Part 1 explains the concept and builds the bulk of the shapes used to create the effect. We also start to get into using gradients to control the layers. Part 2 finishes the gradient control layers and begins fine tuning the look with motion. Part 3 finishes the tutorial with lights, adjustment layers, expressions, camera animation, and final tweaks.

Once you build the out the project, you can use it for anything just by modifying a few layers. Check it out!

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Continuing our Aetuts+ Hollywood Movie Title Series, today’s tutorial will explain how to make the The Three Musketeers flying logo. We will make the whole animation within After Effects, but first starting in Photoshop to break down each of the elements into layers to animate. We’ll be using two different particle systems and some custom lens flares to bring this simple animation to life. All for one… and one for all!

Tutorial

Interview – Part 2

Tutorial

Tutorial

Introduction

First I want to give a little background information on myself. My name is Remington McElhaney and I am a 19 year old freelance motion graphic designer. Hopefully my age doesn’t scare you away just yet from continuing to read this article, because I believe I have some good information to share.

I live in Northern Idaho, so jobs working with After Effects are fairly hard to come by. I began working in restaurants when I was 14 and quickly worked my way up from dish washing to full time dinner cook. I would work in the summer at a fine dining restaurant on the lake and in the winter at a local ski resort cooking.

Now one year later I work full time doing what I love, and I have clients all over the world.

However my passion was always working with After Effects. I would come home after working 10 hour shifts and then play around in After Effects until 2 am in the morning. Then last December I stumbled upon a site called Elance which is an online job marketplace where clients can post jobs for freelancers/companies to bid on. I thought it was interesting and I might be ready to start getting paid for what I do so I sent out a few proposals. Long story short, within the first month I had 10 projects. I realized I either needed to quit my job freelancing, or quit cooking.

Now one year later I work full time doing what I love, I have clients all over the world, and I am currently ranked #34 out of 91,766 providers in the Design/Multimedia category on Elance. So I’m going to share a few tips and strategies to help get you to the top during 2012!

1. Be Prepared

Deciding to take the leap into freelancing can be terrifying. You can ease your way into it but eventually you are going to have to take the plunge and jump on it. Quitting your job and not knowing where your next pay check is coming can be very scary. It’s especially scary if you have a lot of bills or a family to support (luckily I didn’t).

One of the most important things to do is to make sure you are prepared. I made sure I could go three months without getting a single job and still be okay. Not because I thought I would have that hard of a time getting work, but I didn’t know. I was awarded 10 jobs in December. For all I knew though, December could be the biggest month of the year for freelancers. Maybe January was the worst…

I didn’t want to be pressured into taking jobs I wouldn’t normally take.

Another important reason for this was I didn’t want to be pressured into taking jobs I wouldn’t normally take. If you are getting desperate for work and your bills are stacking up you’ll take anything. I didn’t want to be put into that position. A few (or one) negative feedback on a site such as Elance can sink your freelancing dreams very quickly in the early stages.

There will always be clients you should steer clear off and unfortunately that’s one of those things you will to figure out and develop a sense over time. Being prepared will help take some (not all) of the stress out of freelancing.

2. Write Long Proposals

When I originally started out freelancing I didn’t have a lot of work I was comfortable sending clients. I felt I had a strong knowledge of After Effects and was perfectly capable of doing the work, but I simply hadn’t had any real world applications to use it. I had some pretty good looking images from my personal work but nothing too crazy that was actually moving. So what did I do too still find work, even though I didn’t have much of a portfolio? I wrote extremely long and in depth proposals. I didn’t include useless information to fill the screen, but I used my words to show what my portfolio couldn’t. I didn’t hold anything back and would lay out my best ideas in my proposal. I would then describe the process so well I’m not even sure if people noticed I didn’t have a strong portfolio. Clients appreciated the amount of time I would spend on a proposal and the level of detail I would include.

3. Be Flexible

When you are a new freelancer without much of a portfolio you are going to have to be flexible. This means taking on jobs that you might not find to be the most fun or exactly what you want to be doing, but it adds to your experience online for other clients to see. One of the largest clients I landed last year actually came by accident. I did some HDR Photoshop work for them and one thing turned into another and now they send me all of their motion graphics work. So you never know what doors a job may open. Not only does being flexible on your choice of jobs help you get jobs, but it also gives you a good idea of what you like to do.

4. Seize the Opportunity

As a new freelancer you need to be able to seize the opportunity a job may present. You need to be willing to jump on a job with only hours’ notice and deliver quickly. Finding jobs where people need to hire immediately is a great way to get some jobs and experience for postings you normally wouldn’t win. I once found a job for a great rate at 10 pm at night, submitted a proposal, and worked until 10 am the next morning. Obviously that wasn’t by original plan but I seized the opportunity, made some money and added to my experience on Elance once again. I actually did this countless times until I had finally built up a strong enough portfolio to be able to work “normal hours”.

5. Communication is Key

The #1 thing that helped me land more jobs than anything else was my communication skills. Clients (and potential clients) love it when you respond quickly to their emails. That doesn’t mean just sit at your computer all day waiting for an email, or fire off some super quick reply the second you get an email. It does mean that you need to find a way to make yourself accessible and make communication a priority. If you have the attitude “Oh I’ll just respond to that later” you may find you quickly have less and less emails to respond too. I made the upgrade to a smart phone at the beginning of this year and it was one of the most helpful things I could do. The extra $30 a month data plan more than paid for itself by enabling me to keep in contact with my clients. It’s okay to have boundaries with your time and to not be constantly plugged into work, but make sure that communication remains a priority.

6. Be Confident

One of the greatest pieces of advice I could give you is to be confident in your work. If you’re unable to convince yourself that you can do a job; then don’t expect a client to feel that confident in you either. There’s nothing wrong with being humble but there also comes a time when you need to be able to tell a client exactly why you are the best person for a job. By exuding confidence in my proposals I was able to win jobs over clients that had way bigger and better portfolios than my own. That may mean acting like you’ve done something more then you really have. (Note: Please do not lie to your clients and promise things you can not deliver) It just means “Yeah, I’ve done this once before” isn’t exactly going to win you jobs. Make sure you can do it and if you can, then make sure your client realizes that. Remember your selling yourself as much as your work, so make sure you sound confident!

7. Know Your Limits

As a new freelancer it is extremely important to know your limits. This one sort of ties in with the last tip about being confident. Confidence is important but make sure you can actually do what you’re promising. Eventually you’ll stumble upon this job which just sounds amazing but you’re going to realize that there’s no way you’ll be able to complete it on time without killing yourself. This is a skill I’m extremely grateful I was able to learn early without any major incidents. I may have had some late and stressful nights but I have yet to miss a deadline or not be able to deliver something I promised. That’s all because I’ve been aware of what I’m capable of doing. Messing up on a feedback based site such as Elance can really hurt you early on, so it’s very important not to give a client any reason at all to give you negative feedback.

8. Push Yourself

Even though I just got finished telling you to know your limits, now I’m going to tell you to push yourself. Getting confused yet? There’s a delicate balance between trying too hard and failing and not trying hard enough and failing as well. It will vary for each individual but you’re going to need to find that point where you are pushing yourself and continuing to grow, but without tanking your business because you bit off more than you can chew. Constantly push yourself to produce better work and to take on larger projects if you feel you’re ready, because chances are that you are ready. I would be embarrassed now to show you work I did a year ago, not because it is such bad work but because I was so focused on improving my work that I was able to jump leaps and bounds throughout the year in my abilities. So make sure you’re not just hanging out on that plateau for too long. Get up and climb that next hill!

9. Pay Your Taxes

This is a piece of advice I wish I had paid attention too from the beginning. When I started freelancing I didn’t know what to do about taxes and I also wasn’t planning on it becoming my full time job. Then once it did become my full time job I still didn’t know what to do about taxes so I just didn’t worry about it. It becomes a snowball effect and I just wrote a rather large check to cover my entire year of taxes at once. I would have definitely preferred to pay a little with each job. Many people have said this but a good CPA will really pay for himself (or herself). They can help you figure out what you’re supposed to be taking out and help find those helpful deductions that you are unaware of. Just one quick meeting with a CPA helped save me hundreds of dollars (or even thousands) and gave me the percentage of taxes that I needed to be taking out of each job. I can’t give any specific tax advice because for one I’m no CPA and for two it varies so much depending on where you are located. So please take the time and the expense to sit down and discuss your individual situation with a professional.

10. Raise Your Rates

The final tip I have to give you is to constantly keep trying to bump your rates up. That’s especially true for the first year. When you first start out, you’re not sure what your time is worth and you’re more than likely not going to be able to charge what your competitors are charging. My competitive advantage was absolutely price when I first started freelancing. I was more concerned about finding jobs that I thought would be good portfolio pieces then what my hourly rate was going to be. That doesn’t mean give yourself away for nothing or clients will value your work as such. It simply means to be competitive early on and then once you build more experience keep on raising your rates. The last video I worked on I was charging 10x what I was just one year prior. What to know the funny part? The client was happy to pay it! Because I had not only grown in my skills in the last year but I now had a solid portfolio to back up my proposal. You’ll eventually stumble upon a sort of equilibrium price that you are happy charging and clients are happy to pay. Until you feel you’ve reached that point though make sure you don’t get too comfortable charging less and always push for more.

Alright guys! That’s my 10 tips to help you start a freelancing career this year. This is obviously not a “How to” but merely one person’s opinion on what helped them be successful. As I’m sure you noticed reading through there was a lot of back and forth and it may have seemed a bit confusing. It’s obviously a balance of everything and it’s going to be different for each person. I can’t decide for you whether you’re being confident in yourself or BS’ing your way into a job that you’re not prepared for yet. Those sorts of things are going to be up to you to decide. I wish you all the best and I hope this encouraged a few of you that you really can take the plunge into the freelance world. If you have any questions or comments let’s keep this discussion going in the comments!

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Tutorial

Interview – Part 1

Tutorial

Tutorial

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Update: The winners for this giveaway have been selected. Thanks to everyone who participated.

If you are a frequent reader of our site, chances are, you are already familiar with UPrinting. They are an online printer that offers business cards, poster printing, postcard printing, and much more. UPrinting is a frequent sponsor of this site and we are very excited to partner with them on another giveaway.

Up for Grabs

Today, UPrinting is giving you several options to choose from. You can enter to win 500 standard business cards, 100 postcards, or 1 poster print. The choice is yours! More details can be found below.

500 Standard Business Cards
2" x 3.5" US Standard, 2" x 2" Square, 1.75" x 3.5" Slim
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte, 13pt Cardstock Uncoated
Front and Back Printing
3 Business Days Turnaround time

1 Poster Print
18" x 24"
Semi Gloss / High Gloss
1 Business day print turnaround time

100 Postcards
5" x 7"
14pt Cardstock Gloss
Front Only Printing
2 Business days print turnaround time

Rules

• To enter, submit your entry and select which product you would like.
• You may only enter once.
• Follow UPrinting on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ (Optional)
• Make sure to enter a valid email address so that we can contact you.
• Entries will be accepted until Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:59 PM, EST.
• Shipping is free to U.S. and International residents.

Continuing our Aetuts+ Hollywood Movie Title Series, today’s tutorial will explain how to make the “The Dark Knight Rises” flying logo. We’ll start by covering the 3D part in Cinema 4d for the creation of the whole scene of skyscrapers in order to build and form the shape of the Batman logo. Then we’ll insert the debris falling from the skyscrapers with the dynamics modules. From there, we’ll proceed over into After Effects so we can stylize and composite all the elements together for the final reveal for this incredible animation.

Tutorial

Tutorial

Tutorial

Tutorial

Requirements

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Red Giant Psunami you can download the trial version here
• Moon Photo you can download here
• Sky Texture you can download here
• Helicopter Sound you can download here

Step 1

We’ll create a new composition by clicking Menu-> Composition->New Composition. Make it 1280 by 720, square pixels, at 10 seconds long and name it “Main”.

Step 2

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. Color doesn’t matter. Make it 1280 by 720 and name it “Psunami”.

Step 3

With the solid layer selected, apply the Psunami plug-in. Effect->Digital Anarchi->Psunami. The first option is obvious. From the pop-up menu you can select a lot of default presets. It’s useful if you have a tight deadline and don’t have too much time to build an animation from scratch.

Step 4

Just so you know… Psunami is quite a render-heavy plug-in. Fortunately, we can decide what we want to render and what kind of mode we want to use. I recommend that you use the “wireframe” mode if you want to see the wave’s motion, and use the “texture [No Geometry]” while you are experimenting with the plug-in or working through this tutorial. Of course you need to change the mode to “Too Realistic” before the final render. We need a bigger surface so let’s increase the “Max Distance” to 20.

Step 5

I’m using this Cloud Image as an image map. After you import this image into After Effects, you need to turn off the layer visibility. You can use different images or you can play with the “Displace on” properties.

Step 6

Before we go on we need to add a new camera Layer->New->Camera.

Step 7

Let’s connect the Psunami Camera “x East-West” value to the After Effects camera Z value by alt+ left clicking on the stopwatch and using the pick whip

Step 8

Now we can create a really simple camera move by moving the Z position of the camera. This time we don’t need to use a null object as a camera controller.

Step 9

In this example I animated the “Elevation” property, but in this tutorial we need to change the “Elevation” value to 25. If you want to lift the camera higher, then you need to increase this “Elevation” value or you can change it to a negative value if you want to create an underwater shot.

Step 10

Under the “Air Optics” let’s change the “Haze Height” to 10.

Step 11

Under the “Primary Waves” section, we can control the direction and the height of the waves by changing the “Wind Direction” and “Wind Speed” properties. The fine grid size is defining the quality of the water surface. Higher value = Lower quality and Lower value = Higher quality (more detail).

Step 12

Under the “Light 1″ properties, let’s change the following properties.

Step 13

Under the “Light 2″ properties let’s change the following values. It’ll just give you a cool looking light reflection on the water surface.

Step 14

Here we have an ocean, but it’s not too impressive, is it? We have to decrease the brightness and if you look at the image a little bit closer, you will see a thin multicolor line. We need to remove that too.

Step 15

We can remove that easily by using the Minimax Effect Effect->Channel->Minimax.

Step 16

Let’s color correct the ocean. Go to Effect->Color correction-> Curves.

Step 17

Let’s add a little Tint as well Effect->Color correction->Tint.

Step 18

Now you should see something like this.

Step 19

It’s time to add the clouds to the background. If you don’t want to add a Moon into your shot, then just put the cloud layer below of the “Psunami” layer and you’re done. If you want to create the same sky that I did, you’ll need to download this Moon Photo first.

Step 20

First we need to remove the dark background so I will use the Color Key Effect->Keying->Color Key to remove the blacks from the image. (I’ve tried the screen mode and it didn’t work so leave the image in normal mode) Select the eye dropper tool and select a dark place in the image.

Step 21

Let’s add a little glow effect to the Moon. Effect-Stylize->Glow

Step 22

Let’s duplicate the water reflection layer and rename it to “Sky” and put it over the moon layer changing the blending mode to screen and turning on the 3D layer switch. Duplicate this layer again and rename it to “Sky 2″ and apply Color Key to it and change the key color to #2B343D. This is a good trick because we are in normal mode so without the color key plug-in we only see the cloud layer, which hides the moon layer. I want to see the moon and the clouds at the same time. So with the color key, I just removed some of the detail from the “Sky 2″ layer and this will create a much more realistic looking sky. In real life situations, sometimes the sky is clear, but the clouds are hiding the whole moon or just a little parts of it. Something like this.

Step 23

Let’s animate the X position of the “Sky 2″ layer.

Step 24

Select those three layers and go to Layer->Pre-Compose and select the “move all attributes into the new composition” option. Once you’ve done this, you just need to put this comp beneath of the Psunami layer.

Step 25

Import the Aetuts+ logo, turn on the 3D switch checkbox and change the Z position value.

Step 26

Go to Layer->New->Adjustment layer and name it “Color Correction”. After that, go to Effect->Color Correction->Curves and set the following properties.

Step 27

Let’s add the Tint effect to desaturated it a little. Effect->Color Correction->Tint.

Step 28

Here’s my final result. You can change the position of the light reflection in Psunami under the “Light 2″ menu Light Elevation property (if the moon doesn’t match with the reflection). You can add extra things such as rain or lightning, it’s up to you.

Step 29

This is my final layer order.

Conclusion

So this is it! I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and learned some new things. Try your own variations or customize the free project file that you can download at the top. My name is Tibor Miklos, thanks a lot for your attention and I’ll see ya next time!

Final Image

After exporting the data to Cinema 4d we will add some dynamic simulations that will interact with the background footage. I’ll show you how to light the scene with a self-made HDRI and render it out to composite back in After Effects.

Tutorial

After exporting the data to Cinema 4d we will add some dynamic simulations that will interact with the background footage. I’ll show you how to light the scene with a self-made HDRI and render it out to composite back in After Effects.

Tutorial

If you don’t already use Videohive.net to download insanely well-priced project files and stock video, you’re a fool… and I recant my earlier statement about you being one of my favorite people in the world… seriously, friendship terminated!

Videohive.net has saved me SO much time and money over the past couple years by not having to reinvent the wheel each time I take on a new project. If you are ever on a deadline, this huge collection of “drag and drop” After Effects project files will guarantee a quicker turn around. Create an account, better yet… add some of your own projects! I love logging in after only a couple of days to see that I’ve earned another couple bucks… without doing any additional work.

Anyways, back to this file. It’s a CS5 project file, but you can copy and paste in the included tracking data if you have an earlier version of After Effects. Other than that, just drop your footage in the pre-comp and it’s ready to go.

Project Preview

May of 2009

Tutorial

Tutorial

Tutorial

Although not included in the video tutorial, the source files even contain chromatic aberration and optical distortion, for added realism. The source files also contain all of the rendered 3D layers needed for the composite, which allow you to experiment using your own creativity and imagination… Enjoy.

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Part 3 concludes the 3D Pixelstorm series. Nancy covers the deformation features in ShapeShifter AE. She’ll shows Mettle’s take on deformations which prove to be quite powerful and versatile. Nancy will then wrap it up by applying some finishing touches.

Tutorial

The following Items from the Envato Marketplace were used in this Tutorial:

Surf Hits the Beach

Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials

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  Create a Festive Cocktail Using Photoshop’s 3D Capabilities

  For many of our readers, this time of year is filled with family, friends, and celebration. In this tutorial, we will explain how to create a festive cocktail using Photoshop’s 3D capabilities just in time for your New Year’s celebrations. Let’s get started!

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  Create a Dark, Conceptual Photo Manipulation With Stock Photography

  In this tutorial we will be teaching how to integrate elements from different sources to create a realistic photo manipulation with dark and conceptual elements. You will learn some lighting and blending techniques as well as some interesting post-production tips. Let’s get started!

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  Create High-End Action Figure Packaging – Tuts + Premium Tutorial

  With collectables, the packaging of the product is often as important as the craftsmanship of the product itself. In this two-part Tuts+ Premium tutorial, author Tim Kyde will explain how to create packaging for a high-end 1/6 scale action figure. Part 1 of this tutorial will explain how to shoot your own photography and create a print-ready outer sleeve and inner packaging for our action figure. This tutorial is available exclusively to Tuts+ Premium Members — Join Now to get started!

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Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials

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  Wrangling with the Facebook Graph API

  Have you ever wanted to learn how to make your applications more social with Facebook? It’s much easier than you think!

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  From Idea to Market: How We Built Gradient

  Retracing the steps you’ve taken is a helpful way to understand how well you’ve executed your vision – whatever that might be. What could you have done better? What should have been avoided? Today, I’ll share what we’ve learned (and are still learning) while crafting Gradient. It’s an experience that has changed everything for us.

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  Should You Learn CoffeeScript?

  I’d imagine that I represent a large portion of the web development community. I’m very intrigued by CoffeeScript; I’ve even learned the syntax and used it in a few demos. However, I haven’t yet taken the plunge and used it in a real project. It comes down to this one question for me: is CoffeeScript something that is truly worth investing time and effort into learning?

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Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials

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  Outstanding Tutorials, Quick Tips, Articles and Interviews from Vectortuts+ in 2011

  As the year comes to an end and we pack up our vector tools for some well deserved rest and relaxation, let’s take a look back at some of the best and most inspiring Vectortuts+ articles and tutorials for 2011.

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  Community Project: 2012 Calendar Design Project

  Vectortuts+ loves Illustration and discovering new talent, so today we are proud to be launching a new community project that combines both, the Vectortuts+ 2012 Calendar Design Project. The best thing is, you can be a part of it! Find out how to get involved, at the jump.

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  Quick Tip: How to Create a Watercolor Background Using Adobe Illustrator

  In this tutorial we will learn how to create Watercolor Background using a Gradient Mesh, tools of deformation and Blending Modes. The techniques which are described here allow the creation of complex textural backgrounds in a simple and effective way.

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Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials

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  A Year in Web Design: How the Experts Saw 2011

  “What did you find most memorable about the world of web design in 2011?” That’s the question I posed to some of our industry’s shining stars last week. One word cropped up more than any other (can you guess?) and everyone had plenty to say. See for yourself after the jump, and let us know what rocked your boat in 2011!

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  Get Into LESS: the Programmable Stylesheet Language

  I don’t like CSS. Plain and simple. It makes the World go round on the web, yet the language is restrictive and hard to manage. It’s time to spruce up the language and make it more helpful by using dynamic CSS with the help of LESS.

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  Say Hello to the HTML Email Boilerplate

  Figuring out html email will test the patience of any human being. A seemingly small formatting issue will inevitably arise and you think to yourself, “self, I’m a world class web developer type person schooled in the latest and greatest html5/css3/whatever, I can tackle this with plenty o’ keystrokes to spare.”

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Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials

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  Tips to Get Started with Still Life Photography

  There arent many photographic practices that date back further than still life photography. When photography originated, it was necessary for exposures to be quite long, so photographing static objects was the ideal subject matter. However, as the technology developed, the fascination for capturing still life has remained and is still one of the most viable photographic professions today.

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  Is It Worth It? Some Gear Buying Advice

  A lot people believe their photography will improve “if only…” With the holidays approaching, a lot of avid wanna-be photographers, amateurs, and professionals will be making wish lists for gear that they erroneously believe will make them better photographers. There are many forums, YouTube videos, and articles pandering how camera/lens/light/brand/voodoo doll will make your photos better. Today, we’ll examine that idea.

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  Superb Photos of Paths and Stairways

  “Follow the Yellow Brick Road,” an infamous movie quote inspired by a pathway to a land of dreams. Wherever your paths take you and whatever amount of stairs you have to climb, its always worth it to see whats at the end, but more importantly to enjoy the journey. Today’s collection gathers dozens of images of paths and stairways, images that symbolize something different to every person.

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Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials

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  Freebie: Epic 3D Character Model Of Pyro From Team Fortress 2

  Today we’re super excited to bring you this amazingly detailed character model from Cgtuts+ regular Shaun Keenan. Shaun has re-created “Pyro” from Valve’s hit game Team Fortress 2 in glorious detail, and is making the model available to the Cgtuts+ community for free!

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  Digital Matte Painting And Projection Basics: From Photoshop To Maya To Nuke, Part 1 – Tuts+ Premium

  This Tuts+ Premium tutorial series covers a variety of basic techniques for both creating and projecting matte paintings using Photoshop, Maya and Nuke. The first part of the tutorial will cover how to approach the creation of a matte painting, the research and background knowledge you need, the concept, and finally starting to create your matte painting in Photoshop. Log in or Join Now to get started!

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  Create A Flying Paper Animation In 3D Studio Max With Thinking Particles

  In this tutorial by Cristian Pop, you’ll learn how to create a nice flying papers effect in 3d Studio Max using the power of Thinking Particles. We’ll start by creating the paper shapes and materials, then move into Thinking Particles to set up the rules and look at how we can combine them to create the flying paper effect.

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Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials

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  How To Track Footage That Is Out Of Focus

  In this tutorial we are going to take a look at a simple, but interesting idea. The main point will be to show you how to work with footage that is out of focus making if difficult to track. After we track it we are going to attach the camera interface elements and fake some depth of field to create the illusion that they are floating in space and shift in and out of focus like the rest of the scene.

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  DIY – Create A Camera Dolly Completely From Scratch

  Ever wonder how to get smooth footage from your video camera? Today you will learn how to build a Camera Dolly that will help you acquire this type of footage. Get out those dusty power tools, buy some cheap supplies at your local hardware store, and you’ll be on your way to capturing some amazing footage in no time!.

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  How To Create A Dr. Who Time And Space Vortex – Tutsplus Premium

  In this tutorial well be creating a Time & Space Vortex (like that used in Doctor Who) completely inside of After Effects. We will be using Trapcode Particular and Trapcode Shine to create the vortex. I will then teach a vital Expression that drives the camera and completes the Effect. Once you have mastered the effect, you can personalize it to create whatever Time-Tunnel you desire! All of Time and Space awaits you…

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Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials

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  Drum Compression: Get Your Attack and Release Times Correct

  Compression can be a tricky one to get your head around, and even if you’ve got your head around the threshold and ratio settings without the attack and release times being set correctly it will always be difficult to get the desired effect. This quick tip will outline a really handy trick I learned from a friend a few years ago which allows you to get your attack and release times just right. It’s primarily designed to work on drums but the same principles will apply to any percussive sound.

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  Quick Tip: Punchier Drums with the New York Compression Trick

  Ever have a mix where you wish the drums were bigger, more energetic, more in-your-face? I first heard about this technique in Bobby Owinksis, The Mixing Engineers Handbook, and it has since become a staple in my bag of tricks. The technique is a more aggressive take on parallel compression that can really add punch to your mix.

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  D Mixing Part 6: Depth

  In this segment of our mix down tutorial, we are going to begin to look in depth into depth. Depth within any mix and listening situation is paramount to proper sonic understanding. Much like we see in 3D, we hear in 3D and taking out any one of these dimensions only serves to create a flat and unnatural sound. As such, the most common tools which give the illusion of depth (reverb and delay) become an important and necessary part of mixing.

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Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials

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  Getting Started With EaselJS: A Flash-Like Interface for the HTML5 Canvas

  There’s been some resistance from Flash developers to our new HTML5 content. In this article – aimed at experienced AS3 coders – we’ll look at EaselJS, a JavaScript library that makes working with the HTML5 canvas very similar to working with the Flash display list.
  

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  AS3 Quick Tip: Hacking the Event Flow

  Sometimes you may find yourself needing to modify the behavior of a component for a user input event. This article will explain how to do so by modifying the event object in-flight, before it’s processed by the component. That’s right, you can lie and cheat. In code.

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  in Flash and Web Apps: A Retrospective

  With the year 2011 at a close, it is time to reflect upon some of the major industry events of the year. A lot happened… we’ll pick out some of the bits and pieces that will be most interesting to browser app and game developers from the world of industry, web, runtimes, operating systems, mobile, and more!

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Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials

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  WordPress 3.3 “Sonny” Is Finally Here! What’s New?

  The latest and greatest version of the WordPress software — 3.3, named ’Sonny” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt — is immediately available for download or update inside your WordPress dashboard. We’ll be covering lots of the new features of 3.3 this week, but for now, go and great the latest version! As we’ve mentioned before, it’s the best way to keep your WordPress site safe and stable.

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  Getting Loopy – Ajax Powered Loops with jQuery and WordPress

  In this tutorial, we give you a starting point for creating AJAX interaction in your blog. We follow a step by step process, showing you how to load posts based on the viewers page scroll. The tutorial covers enqueueing scripts, setting up an AJAX handler, how to get a file outside of WordPress to use WordPress functions and access the database, and logic for loading posts on user page scroll.

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  Saintly” Practices that All WordPress Developers Should Strive For

  Here on Wptuts+, we talk a lot about the ‘how’ and less about the ‘why.’ Of course, we are a tutorial site, so that’s the goal, right? Well, as a followup to last month’s article on the “Cardinal Sins of WordPress Plugin Development“, today we’re going to look at a few practices that, if every developer followed, would make the world a better place (well, at least our world!).

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Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials

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  Getting Started With Kindle Fire Development

  The Kindle Fire is the new touchscreen and e-book reader from Amazon. This device has generated a lot of buzz, and for good reason! It is currently the best selling Android tablet, with millions of units already sold. This tutorial will teach you how to begin making apps with the Android SDK specifically targeted for the Kindle Fire.
  

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  iOS 5 SDK: Storyboards

  Storyboarding is one of the most exciting new features about the iOS 5 SDK. Take a look at the wealth of functionality offered by Storyboards in today’s iOS 5 SDK tutorial!
  

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  Titanium Mobile: Build an Image Uploader

  This tutorial will demonstrate how to build a custom progress bar by creating an image uploader with Titanium Mobile. Specifically, the demo project will allow you to select an image from the device photo gallery and upload it to a remote server for storage. Both the Titanium Mobile code and the server-side code will be explained. Now, let’s get started!
  

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Happy New Year!

We’d like to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year! Why not take a look at our Holiday Wishes post to see a video message from the Envato HQ team, and find out more about what you might have missed over the Christmas period.

We hope you’ve enjoyed everything that we’ve had to share this year, and look forward to publishing thousands more top-quality tutorials, articles, freebies, and resources in 2012.

Thanks for being part of the Tuts+ community!

Working with Rich Young

We started the year super strong as I had been chatting with Rich Young from AePortal. We had discussed the option of bringing him on to create regular posts about different hot topics in the industry. I’ve learned so much over the years due to Rich’s quality archival and organizational work that it was an absolute treat to have him come and keep Aetuts+ in the loop with the latest. Please take some time to look through all of the Book Reviews, Industry News, and Tutorial Roundups he’s posted here on Aetuts+.

Hollywood Movie Title Series

I first met Antonio Cerri back the middle of 2010 as he created this tutorial for Aetuts+. I loved how he so naturally worked between Cinema 4d and After Effects, using both programs for their strengths. After a few more tutorials, the idea came to let the viewers choose a Movie Title from their favorite Hollywood flicks, and then we’d produce a tutorial recreating that text style. Throughout 2011, as new movies have were released, we’ve had a total of 3 Movie Title Polls, and over 20 Tutorials teaching how anybody can make these amazing openers themselves! We have an incredible line up for 2012 so grab some popcorn, it’s gonna be good!

Integration of Social Media

Right at the end of 2010 we first announced that we had a Facebook Page and over the course of 2011, we’ve grown to over 18,000 fans. Every morning I log in with updates on the latest activity on Aetuts+ along with inspirational videos and fun topics of discussion. Even though we do have an area for you to leave comments after each tutorial on Aetuts+, I’ve found the Facebook Page to be an excellent platform to talk to the readers about the content we post on the site and get feedback about what you want to see more of.

If you’re not already a fan, take a second to do it… Simply “Like” our Facebook Page and you’ll see “Fan Bonus” on the left where you can download a free exclusive tutorial that can’t be found anywhere on the main Aetuts+ site! You can also follow us on Twitter or if you’re more of a Google+ user, be sure to check out Aetuts+ Google+ Page!

Chris Bobotis and the Character Animation Series

Chris Bobotis started Mettle back in 1992 and has developed a number of powerful plug-ins including Freeform Pro and ShapeShifter AE. I was introduced to Chris when we posted a Sneak Peek to ShapeShifter AE, previewing some of the plug-in’s functionality. After conversing back and forth, we decided to put together the Freeform Third Party…. Party! contest in September.

This contest was a really fun opportunity for our readers to collaborate and show what they were made of. Chris provided the opportunity to host what I believe to be the longest and most in-depth tutorial series on Character Rigging and Animation within After Effects that exists. This 17 part series by Daniel Gies uses Freeform Pro to give depth and add realism to the animation. I thoroughly enjoyed working through this series and it was definitely a highlight of the content we’ve posted this past year.

Added Value to Tuts+ Premium

As most of you know, we have a Premium membership. Becoming a member allows you access to the a massive archive of Project Files, ebooks, Courses, and in-depth Bonus Tutorials. We give you all this additional content as our way of saying Thank You! for your support of our goal to help people learn and earn online. I’ve been extremely impressed with the new site redesign and layout. Toward the end of this past year, we’ve really made it a goal to put out a new Premium Tutorial each week, a goal that you will continue to see into 2012. We have over 45 Premium After Effects tutorials already with plenty more in the works. I’m stoked to see the Premium program continue to grow and I believe 2011 has really helped refine our method through consistency and little additions like having short tutorial overview videos instead of just a preview of the end result.

If Aetuts+ has helped you grow and learn this past year, consider 2 things as you enter this new year:

1. We are always looking for more talented individuals to contribute to the site by becoming authors. I don’t think one month has gone by where we haven’t posted a tutorial from a first time author. If you have any tutorial concepts, quick tips, or content ideas that you haven’t seen online anywhere else, we’d love for you to pitch your content! Don’t worry if you’ve never created a tutorial before, we’ll help you along the way AND pay you for your work.
2. Help support Aetuts+ by becoming a Tuts+ Premium Member. We rely on readers like you to help make this site possible, and Premium membership comes with a host of fantastic benefits — from regular bonus tutorials and resources, to a huge collection of eBooks and educational courses. There’s never been a better time to join with full Unrestricted Access to Tuts+ Premium!

Tutorial

Get the Full Tutorial!

Didn’t hear about Ae Premium? It’s an additional, in-depth tutorial, published each week just for our Premium subscribers (on top of all our regular free content!)

Join Today!

Join Premium and Expand Your After Effects Knowledge!

For those unfamiliar, the family of Tuts+ sites runs a premium membership service. You gain access to exclusive premium tutorials, screencasts, and freebies from Aetuts+, Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Cgtuts+, Activetuts+, Phototuts+, Audiotuts+, and Vectortuts+! For the price of a pizza, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business.

Become a Premium member and download this tutorial today!

What Do You Want to See on Premium?

Is there a specific technical aspect of After Effects that you really want to learn more about? How about a very advanced technique that you could never quite grasp fully?

We really want to make our Premium content as relevant and useful to you as possible, so do send through your comments and requests to ae@tutsplus.com. Let us know what you want to see, and we’ll commission top-notch After Effects experts to teach you!

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A Message from Envato HQ

Although the Tuts+ team is spread over the globe, Envato HQ is where much of the Tuts+ magic happens! It isn’t looking traditionally Christmassy in Melbourne at the moment, but we have a special holiday message from everyone at head office:

From everyone at Envato we want to wish you a Happy Holidays and look forward to seeing you all refreshed and ready for another big year in 2012! From Envato HQ to the community, we’ve created a little video to share the holiday cheer. Enjoy!

Music is Kids Holiday Theme by AudioJungle Author CraigHall

Gift Guides & Freebies!

Wondering what to buy your fellow geek this Christmas? Never fear! You may have left it it a little late, but our holiday gift guides can still come in handy. Here are a few great places to start:

• The Official 2011 Nettuts+ Holiday Gift Guide
• 30+ Gift Ideas for Browser App and Browser Game Developers
• 10 Last-minute Gift Suggestions for the Musician in Your Life
• 36 Great Holiday Gift Ideas For The Cg Artist!
• The Official 2011 Phototuts+ Holiday Gift Guide
• 20+ Great Gift Ideas for Any WordPress Developer

We also have a couple of exclusive freebies and discounts, just in time for the holidays:

• Get $6 Off Our New Rockable Book: “How to Record Great Music”
• Exclusive Freebie: 50 Crisp Web UI Icons

The Christmas Freelance Freedom Comic

The “holiday jingle” comic encapsulates everything that we love and hate about freelancing. Don’t forget to sing along to the “Jungle Bells” theme music as you read it…!

You can also enjoy the whole back catalog of Freelance Freedom comics over at FreelanceSwitch.

AppStorm Giveaways

We have two fantastic competitions running over at the AppStorm network over the holiday period, and there’s still time to get your entry in to stand a chance of winning:

1. Business Productivity Bundle Giveaway —Each bundle includes a license to Daylite and Billings Pro – it’s the perfect combination for getting your business organised and making money!
2. The AppStorm Holiday ’11 Video Game Giveaway — In the spirit of this season we’ve hand picked a few critically acclaimed, and award-winning, games released over this year to give away to our readers!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

All that’s left is to wish you a very happy holiday on behalf of everyone at Tuts+! We hope you’ve enjoyed everything that we’ve had to share this year, and look forward to publishing thousands more top-quality tutorials, articles, freebies, and resources in 2012.

Here’s to another exciting year at Tuts+, and thank you for joining us on the journey!

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Download the Stock Clips!

Didn’t hear about Tutsplus Premium? It’s additional, in-depth content, published each week just for our Premium subscribers (on top of all our regular free content!)

Join Today!

Join Premium and Expand Your After Effects Knowledge!

For those unfamiliar, the family of Tuts+ sites runs a premium membership service. You gain access to exclusive premium tutorials, screencasts, and freebies from Aetuts+, Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Cgtuts+, Activetuts+, Phototuts+, Audiotuts+, and Vectortuts+! For the price of a pizza, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business.

Become a Premium member and download this tutorial today!

What Do You Want to See on Premium?

Is there a specific technical aspect of After Effects that you really want to learn more about? How about a very advanced technique that you could never quite grasp fully?

We really want to make our Premium content as relevant and useful to you as possible, so do send through your comments and requests to ae@tutsplus.com. Let us know what you want to see, and we’ll commission top-notch After Effects experts to teach you!

Continuing our Aetuts+ Hollywood Movie Title Series, today’s tutorial will explain how to make the The Avengers flying logo. We’ll start by covering the 3D part as we model and create the logo animation in Cinema 4d. This is where we’ll see how create and apply a old black leather textures. From there, we’ll proceed over into After Effects so we can stylize and composite all the elements together. Finally, we’ll wrap up with the addition of the light-reveal effect background, with sparks explosion.

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In this tutorial, we’re going to be using Trapcode Form 2.0 as the base for our animation. With Form, we’re going to create a simple disintegration effect using Form 2.0′s new Quick Maps feature. (You can achieve the same effect using Form 1.0 by following this technique. Aside from Form, we’re also going to be using Shine (although you could use CC Light Burst) and Optical Flares (although you can learn how to create a pretty decent lens flare using only After Effects’ built in tools here.

With some color correction, color grading, and a few keyframes, we can create a pretty decent ‘Hollywood’ style title. Don’t forget to fine tune the animation and add your own spice to it! My apologies for the rapid speed at the beginning of the tutorial, it will slow down once we really dive into the project! Enjoy guys.

Tutorial

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Tutorial

Get the Full Tutorial!

Didn’t hear about Ae Premium? It’s an additional, in-depth tutorial, published each week just for our Premium subscribers (on top of all our regular free content!)

Join Today!

Join Premium and Expand Your After Effects Knowledge!

For those unfamiliar, the family of Tuts+ sites runs a premium membership service. You gain access to exclusive premium tutorials, screencasts, and freebies from Aetuts+, Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Cgtuts+, Activetuts+, Phototuts+, Audiotuts+, and Vectortuts+! For the price of a pizza, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business.

Become a Premium member and download this tutorial today!

What Do You Want to See on Premium?

Is there a specific technical aspect of After Effects that you really want to learn more about? How about a very advanced technique that you could never quite grasp fully?

We really want to make our Premium content as relevant and useful to you as possible, so do send through your comments and requests to ae@tutsplus.com. Let us know what you want to see, and we’ll commission top-notch After Effects experts to teach you!

Tutorial

In Part 2, Nancy focuses primarily on ShapeShifter AE‘s built-in Generator. Some have called it a mini built-in Mo Graph (a la C4D), others say it’s closer to a particle system… we just call it awesome! Check it out.

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The following Items from the Envato Marketplace were used in this Tutorial:

Epic Earth

Distorted Logo Sting

Surf Hits the Beach

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