In Spline Tricks Parts 1 and 2, we looked at an overview of Auto-trace (an easy way to create splines for masks) and how to use some of those splines as positional data. While there are some advantages to using Auto-trace in some instances, other uses may not be so "press and play." So, in this latest installment in our Spline Tricks series, we'll examine some of the obvious and not so obvious issues and explain some fixes that may help you to work around the problems. (CreativeMac

Several years ago, my PaintBox initiation began with rotoscoping signatures for a game show that featured celebrities' names in the promo. For the show's promotional campaign, I was charged with the task of replicating the light-pen animation that was used on the set to animate each signature for the 15 celebrities that would appear that week. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

You are probably familiar with the X,Y, Z pixel coordinate placement of layers in After Effects. But what if you need to nudge something less than a full pixel? You can certainly do it, but why is it helpful? In this beginner Adobe After Effects exercise, we’ll examine how nudging along the Z space can create a two sided object. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

A great number of you like the project based After Effects exercises I have done over the years. One area that continues to be a favorite is the station interstitial. Interstitials are those bumper pieces you see between shows that tie everything together. In this After Effects 6.0 Pro exercise, we’ll create an ‘Up Next’ bit for our make believe station. To help us out, we’ll also you an effect from Profound Effects’ Useful Things. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

In this tutorial, Philip Hodgetts first looks at the affect of the Displacement Filter first, then moves on to Time Displacement before discussing a source of gradient images suitable for Displacement and Time Displacement Mapping. (Creativecow.net)

In the first two portions of our project exercise, we created a rain of 3D pills in NewTek’s LightWave 3D, saved that animation out as a series of RPF files that we then brought into After Effects to add some post Depth of Field and fog work using AE’s 3D effects. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

The After Effects expression language has a seldom-used random number generator that is really quite a gem. Dan Ebberts says “seldom-used” because he doesn't believe he's ever seen it used in a single expression he's seen posted on the internet. It’s not the easiest command to understand and the documentation is pretty sparse but once you get past that it’s very cool. (Creativecow.net)

Use Auto-trace to create a motion path for layers and/or effects in AE 6.

Working with the Auto-trace parameters. A description and users guide for AE6 Auto-trace.

One of the cool new features in AfterEffects 6 is the Auto-trace feature. While it may appear to be as low-tech as its Photoshop cousin, the Magnet Lasso tool, it provides much more interesting data for the animator, the most basic of which is the automation of animated garbage masks. As part of a quick series of tutorials using AE's Auto-trace feature, this overview provides some basics. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

There's more to splines than simple image extraction. Sure they're great for cutting mattes, but mask data in After Effects is based on Bezier paths that contain specific values which can be used for more than alpha channels. In this tutorial, we take a quick look at "lifting" the shape data for use in less obvious tasks, including position keyframing. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

I’m not an expert on expressions in After Effects, but I have found over the last couple of years some very handy expressions to help create a more complex looking animation. In this After Effects exercise, we’ll look at an expression that adds a time delay or offset to multiple layers. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

If you were amazed by the halo effect created in my last exercise, you were probably equally disappointed when you tried to apply the effect over a colored backdrop. Quickly the effect went in the toilet for one simple reason – the black portions of the effect do not key – or at least not yet. In this After Effects exercise, we’ll create our own Unmult effect and save it as a favorite. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

It is no surprise when I say 3D animation is everywhere. Nearly every show, commercial, and movie you see has some type of 3D work in it. While processor speeds have increased our productivity, those speeds also cause us to want to do more, which just so happens to increase render times. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

In the last installment, I demonstrated how to export an RPF file from LightWave so the files contained Z-depth information that we can use in Adobe After Effects. In this installment, we’ll continue on our final project. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Last time we left off just as things were starting to get interesting, as we had added faux scanlines, a hotspot, and a nice bulge effect to our fan-tabulous screenshot of the Library of Congress site. The whole idea, of course, is to inject a little va-va-voom into the traditionally boring subject of screenshots in a video, so let's continue on and finish prettying this sucker up. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Demonstrates motion tracking of the mosaic effect by, in short, attaching it to a layer that is attached to a null object that is attached to a moving car in the clip. 5 minutes 37 seconds.

Paint strokes and masks in After Effects are both forms of vector paths, but converting one into the other isn't always straightfoward. This tutorial shows how to take strokes from the Vector Paint effect, as well as AE 6's new Paint tools, and turn them into masks. (Creativecow.net)

The key to a good composite is successful integration into the background image. Sometimes you may have a very bright background or be keying from a DV camera, which nearly always results in imperfections because of the choke or screen blur effects that are necessary to achieve good edges. Light wrap, or light spill, is a very handy in these situations. In this tutorial, John Starr Dewar demonstrates an easy way to achieve light spill with a little bit of pre-composing. At the end, John also sho

n this tutorial, Colin James demonstrates creating something with glass planes that refract & blur footage behind them ~ much like the opening to the show, CSI:Miami. (Creativecow.net)

In this tutorial, Ben Unguren gives AE newbies a simple introduction to the concept of nesting. He assumes you have an understanding of what keyframes, layers and compositions are. This is in theBasics of After Effects Series. (Creativecow.net)

The WB Network has a very cool corner bug where a glowing line sweeps across the screen and around their logo. While it may seem like you have to do this in a true 3D program, with Trapcode’s 3D Stroke 2.0 you can get the same results in a few simple steps. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

After the last exercise, I got a few e-mails asking how I created the flying swirls around the Mindsprung emblem. It is fairly simple if you know how to manipulate 3D, and in this exercise, we’ll create a 3D atom using nothing more than the out of the box After Effects Production Bundle. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Ever have a complex composition in After Effects and want to make an adjustment to multiple layers? Unless you know about Adjustment Layers, you will be spending a lot of time applying the same effect to multiple layers. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Making smoke is something a Smoke Plugin does. Well, not necessarily. If you have the "old" After Effects 5.5 Prod Bundle, you can roll your own smokes. And fire? Yeah, we got that too, thanks to Colorama. Here are some basics. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

A lot of people stopped to check out the After Effects 6.0 review I wrote the other day… A LOT OF PEOPLE! Most have been blown away with the Text Tool and some of the amazing things you can do with it. To whet your appetite, here is a quick tutorial to show you how to create your own DMN logo in After Effects 6.0. You’ll want to bookmark this tutorial, because on delivery day, you’ll want to rip right into using the new Text Tool. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Here's another article for an AE Forum user: How to make a cube in AE 5.x+. If you're new to 3D or are simply having trouble figuring out how to make all these layers parent together in order to form your cube, don't worry. This might help. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

With some effects, achieving a "3D look" is sometimes better left to an actual 3D application. Let's say, for example, that you want to create the effect of a flag waving and dancing across the canvas like a snake. Well, some of you might be tempted to try this inside your motion graphics package. But here's a quick and effective way to do it in Maxon's Cinema 4D XL, which you can then render and bring into Discreet Combustion, Adobe After Effects or any other compositing a

by Stephen Schleicher While playing with After Effects, I rediscovered a way to reshape text to look like something else. The reason I say rediscovered is because even the best AE user will occasionally forget an effect that is not used too often. In this After Effects exercise (which will work in AE5.5 or the new AE6.0), we’ll use the Reshape effect to mold our effect. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Doing your own superhero movie? How the heck do we “Normals” summon our heroes in the time of need? Batman used the Bat Signal. In this Adobe After Effects Pro exercise, we’ll create our own Bat Signal reflecting off the clouds. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

If you're making your own 3D boxes in AE 5, you know it can be done, but what a hassle. Perhaps you saw Digital Anarchy's 3D Assistants, but thought, "I only need a cube." Well, Adobe heard you. Packaged inside the new After Effects 6.0 Pro is 3D Assistants Lite from Digital Anarchy.(DigitalMediaNet.com)

One of the trippiest effects of all time has to be the Star Gate sequence at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Originally, Kubrick and the rest of the crew didn’t have the benefit of computer technology to assist in the creation of the movie. Instead they relied on a “Slit Scan” machine created by innovator Douglas Trumbull. This created the illusion of two planes of infinite proportions. Some of the shots that went into the final effect included aerial landscape footage and ch

Adobe After Effects 6.0 has some great new paint features. If you're familiar with its old Vector Paint plugin, you'll definitely love the new options that the After Effects team incorporated with the Photoshop paint engine. And if you weren't a fan of the old paint and its interface oddities, you'll have good reason to take a look at paint again under the new version. With this in mind, this week we kick off a new series exploring the painting features in After Effects 6.0.(Digi

In a previous article, we created the shape of an object out of its name. In this After Effects exercise, we’ll take a 2D fish and make its tail thrash in a 3D environment. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

One of the new changes/features in Adobe After Effects 6.0 is Convert Audio to Keyframes. This Keyframe Assistant does as the name implies and is a great replacement for Motion Math. And let’s face it, after the introduction of Expressions, the only reason to use Motion Math was to create keyframes from audio. In this overview exercise, I’ll walk you through the use of this new assistant to get an animated character to talk. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Classic B-movies used all sorts of low budget conventions to get the hero from one exotic location to the next. Raiders of the Lost Ark paid homage to these classic movies and techniques by using the now classic animated line moving from country to country tracking the flight path of the plane the hero was traveling in. In this After Effects exercise, we’ll recreate that classic B-movie shot using modern day technology. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Over the last couple of weeks, I have gotten a few requests asking how to recreate the opening credits of the television series Alias as well as how to do the cool “fly through letters” effect that reveals the new location. Instead of repeating myself in many an email, here is your recipe using the Adobe After Effects 6.0. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Glint passes can add a simple bit of motion to a static image, or provide the additional highlight the client is looking for. It's a handy, yet simple trick to have in your skill set. This week we'll take a look at one technique for creating this effect using Maxon's flagship 3D program, Cinema 4D, along with Adobe After Effects to develop easy glint passes that add dimension in an instant. If you're a veteran user, you may think it a basic technique, but take a look at an altern

Ever go on a shoot, only to come back and hear the client say, "Gosh I wish the (insert name here) would have worn a green shirt instead of a red one". Now you can satisfy the client by using one of the color changing effects in After Effects. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

There are going to be times when you need to repurpose an animation in an After Effects Timeline. Knowing how to do it quickly is not only a huge timesaver, but could be a lifesaver on a tight deadline. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Instead of creating complex paths or masks in After Effects, it can sometimes be easier to create those items in Adobe Illustrator and simply copy and paste them into After Effects. Here’s how. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I showed you how you can use After Effects’ Particle Playground to create a plethora of falling turkeys. With the next holiday already here, let’s create some snow particles and have them pile up on a layer. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

As a compositing wizard, you may be asked to blend a CG element onto a real world surface. Transfer Modes and Opacity changes will only take you so far before you reach the end of their limit. In this After Effects Production Bundle Tutorial, we’ll take an image and composite it believable on top of a rusted piece of metal. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

In the past I have proclaimed how the Color Difference Key in Adobe After Effects was the best all purpose keyer in the After Effects gallery of plug-ins. There are some limitations to the Color Difference Key effect; especially when it comes to keying whispy, smoky elements, or when you don’t have a chromakey background to begin with. In many cases, the Inner Outer Key effect will be able to help you out. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

When keying footage there will be times when you have a poorly lit set, imperfections in the background, etc. and you only really need to key that area immediately around the foreground subject. During these times you would use a garbage mask to isolate the foreground element and get rid of any background crud. But what happens if you need to animate the mask? (DigitalMediaNet.com)

As a motion graphic artist, a company looking to have their logo animated for video and film work has probably approached you. There are literally hundreds of ways to approach this task. In this After Effects Production Bundle exercise, we’ll use fractal noise and ramp effects, along with a Track Matte to make the company’s logo go up in smoke. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

After Effects typically isn’t used to edit transitions, yet the program has some simple transitions built in. While you may not use the After Effects transitions as a transition between video clips, you may discover other uses for these effects; especially the Gradient Wipe. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

I’m going to begin a multi-part tutorial/feature that looks at how you can create (or recreate) a rotating star for your next After Effects project. We’ll begin by looking at a sequence of images that will not import as a sequence and how you can use the Sequence Layer option to correct this problem. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

In the last installment, we looked at how image sequences can be generated when the images themselves won’t import into After Effects so we could create a rotating sun. While the solution worked, there was still the problem of being able to composite the footage over other layers. In this After Effects Production Bundle tutorial, I’ll show you how to take care of the corona issue as well as create your own Sun from scratch. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

If you haven’t used wiggle, the expression that gives your layer a little shake, then you are missing out. Wiggle allows you add randomness to a property of a layer. For example, you can cause a jittery chaotic motion to a layer by applying the wiggle expression to the Position property of a layer. Here is how it works. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Radio Waves is one of those After Effects plug-ins which at first seem to be kind of lame. However, when you start experimenting and going beyond the basics, interesting results are sure to follow. In this After Effects tutorial, we’ll briefly explore how Radio Waves work and then create a unique background for a children’s television network. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

It was 1950 when Bette Davis first said it in "All About Eve," and people have been misquoting it ever since. Fortunately, After Effects knows bumps, and people have been using it famously since its introduction. If you're new to Displacement Mapping, this might help. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

I get requests every so often on what is the easiest way to edit many layers in the After Effects Timeline to create a sequence. The easiest answer is to use the Sequence Layer assistant. Here is what it is all about. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Making smoke is something a Smoke Plugin does. Well, not necessarily. If you have the "old" After Effects 5.5 Prod Bundle, you can roll your own smokes. And fire? Yeah, we got that too, thanks to Colorama. Here are some basics. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Here's another article for an AE Forum user: How to make a cube in AE 5.x+. If you're new to 3D or are simply having trouble figuring out how to make all these layers parent together in order to form your cube, don't worry. This might help. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

While playing with After Effects, I rediscovered a way to reshape text to look like something else. The reason I say rediscovered is because even the best AE user will occasionally forget an effect that is not used too often. In this After Effects exercise (which will work in AE5.5 or the new AE6.0), we’ll use the Reshape effect to mold our effect. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Doing your own superhero movie? How the heck do we “Normals” summon our heroes in the time of need? Batman used the Bat Signal. In this Adobe After Effects Pro exercise, we’ll create our own Bat Signal reflecting off the clouds. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

If you're making your own 3D boxes in AE 5, you know it can be done, but what a hassle. Perhaps you saw Digital Anarchy's 3D Assistants, but thought, "I only need a cube." Well, Adobe heard you. Packaged inside the new After Effects 6.0 Pro is 3D Assistants Lite from Digital Anarchy. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

One of the trippiest effects of all time has to be the Star Gate sequence at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Originally, Kubrick and the rest of the crew didn’t have the benefit of computer technology to assist in the creation of the movie. Instead they relied on a “Slit Scan” machine created by innovator Douglas Trumbull. This created the illusion of two planes of infinite proportions. Some of the shots that went into the final effect included aerial landscape footage and ch

Not only can After Effects 6.0 track a single point in a motion clip, it can also track multiple points. These multi-points are tracked and the resulting data can be used to distort a layer you are applying the data to. In this segment, we’ll look at multipoint tracking and how you can use it to create a believable effect. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Adobe After Effects 6.0 has some great new paint features. If you're familiar with its old Vector Paint plugin, you'll definitely love the new options that the After Effects team incorporated with the Photoshop paint engine. And if you weren't a fan of the old paint and its interface oddities, you'll have good reason to take a look at paint again under the new version. With this in mind, this week we kick off a new series exploring the painting features in After Effects 6.0. (Dig

In a previous article, we created the shape of an object out of its name. In this After Effects exercise, we’ll take a 2D fish and make its tail thrash in a 3D environment. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

One of the new changes/features in Adobe After Effects 6.0 is Convert Audio to Keyframes. This Keyframe Assistant does as the name implies and is a great replacement for Motion Math. And let’s face it, after the introduction of Expressions, the only reason to use Motion Math was to create keyframes from audio. In this overview exercise, I’ll walk you through the use of this new assistant to get an animated character to talk. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Over the last couple of weeks, I have gotten a few requests asking how to recreate the opening credits of the television series Alias as well as how to do the cool “fly through letters” effect that reveals the new location. Instead of repeating myself in many an email, here is your recipe using the Adobe After Effects 6.0. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

In the last installment, I gave a tour of the improvements and features found in the Tracking and Stabilize Motion features of After Effects 6.0 Pro. In this installment we’ll work through an exercise putting the Stabilize Motion feature to work. (DigitalMediaNet.com)

Even better than being able to stabilize a shot is the ability for After Effects 6.0 to track regions or points in a layer and apply that tracking information to another layer in your composition. With the tracking feature, it becomes a simple matter of making computer-generated graphics, effects, or even complex compositions follow a point in your video.

Profound Effects Useful Things is a wonderful addition to Adobe After Effects. With it you have the ability to create over 300 effects – many come with the app, while others are created by a huge user base. For some users, the way you create an effect can be a bit daunting. In this overview, I’ll walk you through the process of creating one of my favorite Useful Things effects.

Classic B-movies used all sorts of low budget conventions to get the hero from one exotic location to the next. Raiders of the Lost Ark paid homage to these classic movies and techniques by using the now classic animated line moving from country to country tracking the flight path of the plane the hero was traveling in. In this After Effects exercise, we’ll recreate that classic B-movie shot using modern day technology.

In this tutorial, Emanuel Eriksson uses masks and Particle Playground in After Effects to demonstrate how to blow a text, or any object for that matter, off the screen as if it was made up by small grains of sand. (Creativecow.net)

When Shane Oborn first started using After Effects, the plugin that intrigued him the most was AE's Production Bundle plugin called Particle Playground. In this tutorial, Shane demonstrates setting up a layer map and creating a blowing snow effect. This is a basic level tutorial. (Creativecow.net)

This tutorial from Chris Zwar is a bit of a one trick pony, but it?s a trick that?s worth knowing. Cogs and gears are nice looking design elements and are popular in all sorts of backgrounds. This tutorial includes demonstrations of Path Text, Masks and Expressions in a 4 (plus extras) part tutorial. (Creativecow.net)

One of the problems that may plague animators is that their animation is too perfect ~ too clean. In this article, Jim Tierney demonstrates how to add in a little randomness to your animation with the Wiggler tool in After Effects 5.5. (Creativecow.net)

Cell Pattern is a filter that can be used to create all sorts of background animations, displacement maps, track mattes, and many other things. It uses algorithms to generate the shapes and shading you see rendered. This allows you to create thousands of different patterns and textures. In this tutorial, Jim Tierney demonstrates a few of these as well as discusses how to create and save your own After Effects favorites. (Creativecow.net)

In this tutorial, Marek Doszla shows how to animate a butterfly in After Effects 5.5 starting from a digital picture. Marek puts it in the category of "After Effects experiment", however he uses some sophisticated features of After Effects as 3D space, expressions and time remapping that could be useful to beginners or even advanced users in motion graphics. (Creativecow.net)

In this tutorial, Dan Ebberts explores how you can use expressions in After Effects 5.5 to build a fairly sophisticated 3D particle generator. Our particles will respond to initial velocity, gravity, wind, drag, and much more. Using this particle generator, we'll look at how you might create explosions, smoke, a fire blast, falling snow, and even a liquid-like flow. We'll explore how to make each particle re-usable, which will allow us to simulate fountain-like particle streams. This one

Now that Shatter is included in the filter set of After Effects 5.5, many users are asking how to use this effect. In this tutorial, Ben Unguren demonstrates a few very simple techniques to help get you started with Shatter. (CreativeCOW.net)

Dave LaRonde shares his experiences with upgrading from AE 3.1 to AE 5.5, and the production bundle no less. What would he do first? He gave himself an assignment: A fictional client arrives with a starfield and two animations, both movies of a planet and a moon rotating on their axes. My task: the moon must revolve around the planet, and it must look CONVINCING, as if it were a time lapse from the Hubble Space Telescope. Armed only with the manual, he demonstrates both the old and the new: Mask

When Marcus Geduld teaches After Effects, students often ask him if there's a way to make letters fly onto the screen from multiple directions and form a word. They want to avoid animating each letter on a separate layer and can you blame them? In this tutorial, Marcus demonstrates a couple of techniques that will do the job, one of which uses Path Text; the other uses Particle Playground. (Creativecow.net)

With version 5.5 of After Effects, Adobe added the wonderful world of the powerful new Expression Controls. In this tutorial, Dan Ebberts looks at several different ways that expression controls can be useful in your projects. This is an Advanced Tutorial. (Creativecow.net)

Morphing is a distinctive effect that is best known from the movie "Terminator 2" as well as the Michael Jackson music video "Black and White". In this tutorial, Chris Zwar demonstrates simple morphs with the Reshape filter in Adobe After Effects 5.5 -- which is a Production Bundle only effect found under the "Distort" menu. (Intermediate to Advanced)(Creativecow.net)

This series is discussing a couple of approaches towards color grading using After Effects 5.5. Barend Onneweer starts out with a rather mathematical approach to match the overal color balance between shots. This procedure can also be put to good use to correct badly white-balanced video. (Creativecow.net)

Roland R. Kahlenberg, CreativeCOW's resident Particle Playground expert, shows off the versatility of Particle Playground by creating a game that incorporates collision detection against a customized grid. Please Note: This is an advanced tutorial demonstrating the use of layer maps. (Creativecow.net)

Pan and Zoom. This is not new in AE 5.5, but still a quandary for many a beginner to AE. In this tutorial, Matt Dallos will cover the preparation of your images, the basic theory behind making them move, real world examples, and a few ideas about how this effect can be extended to other and more advanced applications.(Creativecow.net)

Vector paint, introduced in Adobe After Effects 5.0 has many uses but most people don't think of it as a rotoscoping tool. In this tutorial, Bill O'Neil demonstrates how to rotoscope with Vector Paint to create a "supercharged" sports spot. (Creativecow.net)

If you have very little knowledge about animating the camera and building a 3D comp, this tutorial is for you. In this tutorial, Bjorn Sjostrom tries to remove any fear toward the 3D tools in After Effects 5.5. He hopes it will give you an relaxed attitude towards animating the camera, and building a "3D corridor" where only your imagination can stop you, the sky is not the limit but space is.(Creativecow.net)

By using motion sketch and the smoother, you can achieve a less "computer-generated" motion in your animations, and in less time. In this tutorial, Ben Unguren introduces you to the basic techniques involved with motion sketch and the smoother. This is by no means a complete demonstration of what you can do with motion sketch or the smoother. This simply introduces you to how to use them. (Creativecow.net)

In after Effects 5.5, Adobe has added the capability for expressions to access keyframe and marker data. In this tutorial, Dan Ebberts will focus on how to use this new capability to synchronize an animation to an audio track using layer markers and expressions. (CreativeCOW.net)

Zaxwerks Invigorator is a powerfull 3D plug-in for AE.

One of the best ways of speeding your work in AE is to use low- resolutions proxies to substitute your original footage. This will increase the speed while previewing or rendering your work tremendously, especially if you are working with 3D. A proxy can be a lower resolution still or movie and you can replace it by the original footage at any time just by clicking on the respective proxy button on your footage window. In this article, Serge Hamad explains the procedure while creating a 3d ride

Have you ever looked at your rendered animation and just thought, 'Something just wasn't right?' In this tutorial, Bryan Preston demonstrates the use of AE 5.5's Time Remapping Filter to control the speed of an animation. (CreativeCOW.net)

Bezier Warp under the distort menu is a great tool for bending objects. In this third section of our light storm tutorial, Bill O'Neil demonstrates the use of Bezier warp to precisely bend the light storm to fit the scene. (Creativecow.net)

Bill O'Neil demonstrates the use of After Effects 5.5's Motion Blur with shutter angle and phase settings to create a 'smear' of color that will become one of the most useful clips in your digital spice rack. (Creativecow.net)

In part one of this three part series, Bill O'Neil demonstrates using Vector Paint to create a color wall of splotches and paint blips that we will “smear” across the screen. Part two will be a description of Shutter Angle and Motion Blur. In part three, Bill will spice up his favorite effect with Bezier Warp to distort the light storm to conform to the scene. (Creativecow.net)

Rick Gerard explains the use of the Light Transmission property added to Layer Material Options in After Effects 5.5. Basic and advanced techniques demonstrate only a few creative possibilities opened up by this exciting new feature. (CreativeCOW.net)

With version 5.5 of After Effects, Adobe has included some new keyframe-looping expressions that can be very useful for cyclic animation and layer-looping. In this tutorial, Dan Ebberts walks us through the basics of how to set up and use these expressions and then use one to loop a walk-cycle as you might do in a simple character animation. (CreativeCOW.net

With version 5.5 of After Effects, Adobe has included some new keyframe-looping expressions that can be very useful for cyclic animation and layer-looping. In this tutorial, Dan Ebberts walks us through the basics of how to set up and use these expressions and then use one to loop a walk-cycle as you might do in a simple character animation. CreativeCOW.net

Mark Simpson has written this tutorial in response to the many requests (mostly by one very persistent guy :) for info on a sample movie he posted in the Trapcode Forum using Shine in After Effects. This tutorial was done in AE4.1 using Filters from the Cult Effects Collection and the new Trapcode Plug-in Shine. Here's the rundown of how Mark creates the effect. (CreativeCOW.net)

In this second tutorial in the new series, "Alan's AE Tips & Tricks," Alan Hamill demonstrates using some keying techniques and the Displacement Map Effect to simulate a transparent, yet textured dancing man. You'll need the Production Bundle for this one. (CreativeCOW.net)

Join noted broadcast designer Kurt Murphy as he continues his exploration of the process of re-creating the on-air identity of a local broadcast affiliate in the Pacific Northwest area of the United States. In this lesson, Kurt shows you some tricks to using Basic Text and follows with Path Text. (CreativeCow.com)

In this tutorial, Jayse will show you how to take Illustrator artwork and import it into After Effects 5. For the final touches, he will show you how to use DigiEffects Schematic Grid to enhance transparent 'scoreboard' screen. (Creativecow.net)

Alan Hamill demonstrates the use of Particle Playground to simulate rising smoke. (Creativecow.net)

Ever wanted to extrude a logo in After Effects but are on a tight budget and always looking to tinker about? Read on as Roland Kahlenberg demonstrates a cool way to introduce some z-depth to our objects in AE 5.0 Production Bundle. The only source file is the COW's very own logo. (CreativeCOW.net)

In this tutorial, Jayse will show you how to use some of the cool new 3D features of After Effects 5 as well as using the new plug-in called Shine to liven up the scene. (CreativeCOW.net)

Dan Ebberts demonstrates setting up an animation of a piston, crank, and wheel using parenting and expressions so that we only have to keyframe one of the pieces and the others follow along. We will set keyframes for the rotation of the wheel and (hopefully) the crank and piston will animate automatically. (CreativeCOW.net)

When you import vector artwork into a pixel-based program such as After Effects or Photoshop, its edges are determined by the outmost edges of the art. In this article, Lon Clark demonstrates that by creating crop marks, you define a new edge/size for the file and that can open up new design opportunities. (CreativeCOW.net)

When you're creating text using Illustrator, it's easy to simply type it out and call it a day. Lon Clark demonstrates by spending a little time fine tuning your letter spacing by making tracking and kerning adjustments, you'll wind up with a slicker and more professional type treatment. (CreativeCOW.net)

Join noted broadcast designer Kurt Murphy as he continues his exploration of the process of re-creating the on-air identity of a local broadcast affiliate in the Pacific Northwest area of the United States. Kurt examines the design choices he made regarding the background imagery and the tools he used to implement these design choices. (CreativeCOW.net)

Bryan Preston explores the process of precomposing in Adobe After Effects. He looks at the use, strategy and inner workings of precomps in After Effects. This is an article that is well worth reading to understand why, when and where and how to use precomps in your own AE projects. (CreativeCOW.net)

In this tutorial, Jayse will show you another way of creating moving clouds using  Adobe After Effects 5 without needing extra plug-ins. If you are unfamiliar with simple 3d  in After Effects 5, you may want to read  the After Effects 5.0 manual before continuing with this tutorial. (Creativecow.net)

In this tutorial, Ben Unguren will show you one way to control expressions in Adobe After Effects 5, by using another layer as a "controller" of a layer with a simple wiggling expression, giving you a great deal more control.(Creativecow.net)

Build the basics in After Effects to avoid some common problems. PreComposing is the process of creating a separate composition out of one or more layers in your open composition. In this tutorial, Barry McWilliams demonstrates two common uses of precomposing. (CreativeCow.net)

To Jim Howells, expressions seem to be the most powerful new feature in AE5.0 In this tutorial he demonstrates that through expressions you are able to link attributes together, between properties, between layers, across compositions. (CreativeCOW.net)

In this tutorial, Roland Kahlenberg, who is a non-programmer, intends to show other similarly inclined users of AE 5.0 that Expressions do offer quite a bit to the toolset of the conventional designer. (CreativeCow.net)

In addition to his tutorial on how to pull a usable matte from badly lit blue or green screens, Barend Onneweer has put together a list of things to consider when shooting for chromakeying.

This tutorial will be on using AE and Flash together, with info on what is supported as vector, the best way to get it out of AE, and when and why you should use AE to create Flash content.

Roland Kahlenberg demonstrates a small bit of what Particle Playground can do. You should experiment further once you've come to grips with the mechanics involved. You need the production bundle of After Effects for this one.

After Effects 5 has some powerful 3D compositing features and some new tools that make complicated animations a snap. In this tutorial we will use parenting, expressions and Boris 3D text to recreate the Universal movie opening (sort' a).

With the help of the Motion Sketch plug-in included with Adobe After Effects®, you can instantly create motion path keyframes simply by drawing a free-form path. (Adobe)

This tutorial explores one of the most powerful of the new Adobe® After Effects® 4.0 Production Bundle effects: Particle Playground. It uses the Particle Playground effect to make a box full of animated watches spill out onto the floor. (Adobe)