For several years Todd Kopriva has been a terrific resource at collecting resources, tutorials, etc. for After Effects.  Well, now he’s doing it for Premiere Pro too and we would love for you to submit things that you’ve found useful for Premiere Pro.  Simply click on this link and you’ll see that he includes his email address within and you can mail him directly with information that would be useful to Premiere Pro users all around the world.  Much of this kind of content will show up in the Premiere Pro live Help section, so the more that’s there, the better it will be!

Premiere Pro,CS5,Help,Todd Kopriva,Support

Collecting Premiere Pro resources for you

Inch By Inch

Foundations

Relient K Typography

The Future of Publishing- created by DK (UK)

CREATIVE CALL / CONVOCATORIA

Blank Canvas

Music Machine

Slamdance Opening

Little Bites

Pause – Ideas in Motion

Melbourne Writers Festival

Nike AirMax

NBC Rebrand

Road Less Traveled

Tom Tom’s Last Words

Streetlight Manifesto – Birds Flying Away

Reclaim your mind – Terence McKenna (intro)

Mother To Son

Honestly | y?c???

The Roots

INTERIEUR · intro

Domenica Premiere – Teaser

Mister Eleven

Space and Air

Letras del tesoro

Africa Community Projects – Animation

Canadian Cancer Society: Relay For Life

God-o-nomics

Kinetic Typography – Idiocracy

playground sessions 3 – spot

5Nations Squash Championships 2010

The Pacific Opening Titles

Chuck Main Titles

If you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks!

33 Awesome Typography Pieces

Tutorial

In this project we will expand upon the Pacman animation we completed in Part 1.
What we will be doing in part 2:

1. Design the ghost shape and eyes, and animate them in After Effects
2. Add a "Start Game" and "Game Over" Slate
3. Add some Start Game and End Game audio
4. Add some enhanced sized muchies
5. Add some enhanced Munchie audo
6. Navigate our ghost in th maze, annimating changes in color

What you will need to complete Part 2

1. All of the footage files associated with Part 1. You can access these files at http://ae.tutsplus.com/
2. Download all the footage files associate with this tutorial; Part 2.

The Basic Ghost Design –
Preparing the Files in Photoshop

Ghost

The ghost element is easily created in Photo Shop or Illustrator. My tutorial uses Photoshop as the design tool.

Launch Photo Shop and open a new document.

Use a measurement that conforms to your needs. 300×300 will do nicely.

Use a transparent background.

(You only need one ghost. We’ll duplicate it later in After Effects.) I recommend you use the same dimensions as you did for your PACMAN image.

Ghost Body

1. Draw a square with the Marquis tool. Use most of the available space in your art board. Fill it with any primary color; red, green, blue, yellow.

2. Create a new layer and draw a sphere the same width as the square, and fill it with the same color as your square, then arrange the layers so they form the shape of a PACMAN Ghost.

Merge the layers.

3. Use a semi-round brush the size you want to make the eye sockets, and paint two spots where you want the eyes. I opened the Brush palette in Photoshop and changed the shape dynamics of a basic round brush to create an oval shaped brush. If you use the grid view in Photoshop it will make your life easier with this task.

Ghost Eyes

1. Create a new layer and draw a round circle with the Marquis Tool that will fit inside the eye sockets of your ghost body and fill it with black or white; something that will contrast with the body of your ghost. Rename your layer as ghost body.

2. Duplicate the layer and arrange the eyes symmetrically – to fit inside the eye sockets, and merge the two eye layers. Rename the layer as eyes.

At the end of step 2 here, you should have two layers in your photoshop document. a Ghost image and eyes.

You’re done with this design element. Be sure to save your file as something other than untitled. My suggestion is to call it Ghost Layers. Open After Effects and import this file as a Composition.

Enhancing The Basic Pac Man Simulation

Open your Simulated Pacman Part 1 AE project file. Imort the footage files for Part 2

Looking at your completed Part 1, you should have at the very minimum, the following functional layers, and in this order from top to bottom, in your timeline:
PacMan – as a composition.
Munchies … I call mine dots.
Maze
PacMan audio … mine is called munchie clip.

Critical Audio Clip Placement

The first thing we’re going to do is put in our Audio clips for the start of the game and the end of the game. It is critical we do this first because it sets up the parameters for how Pacman and the Ghosts will ultimately interact on the screen.

1. FROM THE PROJECT WINDOW - Drag the Intro to Pacman audio wav file into the timeline two times.

2.Position the clips so the beginninig of one of the clips aligns at the begining of the timeline, and the other aligns with the end of your timeline.

3. In preparation for the next step, we need to position the timeline marker at then of the introduction music.

Modifying Pac Man’s Chomping

Now we’re going to adjust PacMan’s two frame animation so that he starts chomping at the end of the introduction music, instead of right away.

1. Double click on the Pacman Comp in the TIMELINE window. This will open a new Comp Window and a new Tab in the Timeline.

2. Double Click on the layer. This will open a new comp Window and a new Comp Tab in the Timeline. Yes, I know I’m repeating myself.

You should now be looking at your origninal two layer Pacman comp, as illustrated above.

3. Now select the three Rotation key frames in each layer and drag them so that the first key frames line up with the timeline marker. The easiest way to select the key frames is to draw a box around one set of key frames, hold the shift key and draw a box around the next set.

Modifying Pac Man’s Route

1. In Part 1 I had my Pacman navigate off-screen to end the timeline. Seemed like a natural thing to do … But in this scenario, we have Ghosts with which to contend, so we want to change up the route that Pacman takes … one that ultimate leads to his demise. Ya ha ha ha ha. To do this we need to go in reverse for a moment and back out of some of our hard work in Part 1. Not to worry, we’re going to put everything back to normal. So … Select the Pacman layer in the Timeline. Tap the P key to reveal the Position Key Frames for the Layer, then click on the Positon text to select all of the Key Frames. Your layer should like the illustration below if done correctly.

2, Now, in the command bar, choose Animation > Key Frame Interpolation > and change the Roving Setting to Lock to Time, then click OK.

3. Now hold the Ctl Key (Cmnd Key on the Mac) and select one of the key frames. All your key frames should now be diamond shaped. Then select off the layer to deselect the key frames.

Now comes the tricky part. You must determine at what point in Pacman’s route you want him to alter his course. In my Part 1 maze, Pac man takes a northbound turn right at 14 seconds, but at that point, my Pacman should be dying. So this would be a good place to put in our pacman ending audio. Don’t worry we’ll come back to the Position Key Frames.

4. Drag the "Pacman Ending.mov" from the Project Window into the Timeline. You should position it so the end of the clip lines up with the first frame of the ending music. See my illustration below.

Hold down your control key and drag the timeline marker over the pacman ending clip to get an idea of where you might want to trim it.

Okay, back to those key frames. So now I know the exact point in time Pacman expires, so my last position keyframe will correspond with that point … dictated by the audio.

5. Manipulate your position Key Frames so that your last keyframe corresponds with the first frame of the "padman ending.mov clip.

Compare the two illustrations below to get an idea of what I did to alter my position Key Frames.

Okay … some more tweaking to do here. Those rotation Key Frames need to be corrected, but first we need to make our Position Key Frames Rove across time.

6. Select all the Position Key Frames in the Pacman layer. In the command bar choose Animation>Keyframe Interpolation>Roving>Rove Across Time. Click OK.

7. Tap the U key on the Pacman layer to reveal both the Position and Rotation Key Frames, and then line up the Rotation Keyframe pairs with their corresponding Position Keyframes. My illustrations below show out-of-synch Rotation Key Frames and then in-synch Key Frames.

Okay, we’re done with Pacman for the moment. Now we can concentrate on the Ghosts, and their interaction in the maze.

Animating the Ghost Eyes

Making the eyes wiggle in the sockets of our ghost is similar to the rotation animation we accomplished with Pacman in Part 1. We will use three key frames and the “loop out” expression.

1. Double Click on the Ghost comp. You should see two layers in your timeline; the ghost body and the eyes.

2. We only need to concern ourselves with the eyes layer, so select the eyes layer and tap the P key on the keyboard. This will reveal the Position transformation properties. Move your timeline marker to the end of the introduction music (about 4 seconds) in the timelilne then click on the stopwatch next to the Position property indicator. You will notice that a key frame appears on the timeline. Immediately Copy this keyframe.

3. Advance the timeline marker 3 frames, by tapping the Page-Down key three times. In the Comp Window move the eyes layer to the position you wish for them to toggle.

4. Advance the timeline marker three frames as in step three, then Perform a Paste function to create a new key frame at the new timeline position.

5. Hold the Alt Key (Command for Mac) and click on the stop watch to enable expressions for the layer. Select all three key frames and then from the expressions language menu choose Property > loopOut(type = "cycle", numKeyframes = 0) from the expression language arrow.

6. Precompose the two layers by selecting both layers and choosing Precompose from the Layer Menu. (Layer>precompose) Name your pre composition appropriately. You may need to find it later. Now you have one layer of a ghost with animating eyes. This is the layer we will move into our working comp.

Ghost Treak

In this tutorial we will deal with two Ghosts:

1) A Death Ghost; the one who ends Pacman’s journey, and

2) A Munch Ghost; a Ghost that gets eaten by Pacman.

Some of the steps here will be familiar to you if you completed Part 1.

1. Drag your Ghost Composition into the Composition Window, resize it and position it where you wish for it to start in the maze.

2. Duplicate the Ghost Composition Layer: Select it, Edit>Duplicate. and move it to a position in the maze where you want it to start.

3. Now change the color of one of your Ghosts. Select one of the Ghost layers then Access the Effects Menu from the command bar … choose Color Correction>Change to Color.

4. Using the Eye Dropper choose the color you want to change by clicking on one of your Ghosts.

5. Change the color of your Ghost by changing the value of the Hue Transformation Propery.

We will come back to the Effect Palette in a future step to animate the color of your Ghosts.

Ready To Navigate

1. Choose one of your Ghost layers and tap the P key to reaveal the Position properties. Move the timeline marker to the end of the introduction music, then enable Position animation for this layer by clicking on the stopwatch. You will see a diamond show up in the layer.

2. Advance the timeline marker 20 or 30 frames, then move your Ghost in the comp window to a new position. (Hold down the shift key to move in a straight line.)

3. You will have the same bezier path issue with your Ghosts as you did with Pacman. So use the Convert Vortex Tool to square-up the Ghost path in the Maze.

4. Repeat steps 1 through 3, navigating your Ghost around the maze. If this is the "Death Ghost" you will need to cooridinate your Ghost to collide with PacMan at the start of the "Pac Man dies" music. If this is the Munchie Ghost, you will need to coordinate the Ghost to collide with Pacman prior to the "Pacman dies" audio.

Remember to use the Key Frame Interpolation feature to force each of your Ghost Position Key Frames to Rove Across Time. Select all of the position Key Frames for the layer and then from the command bar choose: Animation>Keyframe Interpolation>Roving>Rove Across Time. Click OK. (Click here if you need help.)

Tweaking The Munch Ghost

1. Your munch Ghost needs to disappear at the point that Pacman and the Ghost collide.
To make this happen simply trim that Ghost Layer back to the point where Pacman and the Ghost Collide.

2. While we’re here we might as well add the "Ghost Eat" Audio in the timeline. Position your timeline near the point of collision between Pacman and Munch Ghost. Drag the "Ghost Each" Audio into the timeline.

3. Use the RAM Preview button in the Preview Tab or Hit the 0 in the numeric keypad to review the animation.

Tweaking Pacman At The Collision of the Death Ghost

1. Pacman needs to disappear at the point at which Pacman and the Death Ghost collide.
To make this happen simply trim the Pacman layer back to the point where Pacman and the Death Ghost Collide. This point also corresponds with the "Pacman dies.mov" We placed this audio in the timelne in an earlier step … referenced here.

2. Tweak your layers and Key Frames in the Timeline to line everything up. You won’t get it right the first time … trust me.

Mega Munchies

In the original Pacman Video Game, the player navigated Pacman around the maze to eat dots and Mega Munchies in order to earn points and change the Ghosts into edible Ghosts instead of Death Ghosts.

In my version, my Mega Munchies are nothing more than Big Dots. To make my dots I simply added shaped layers, positioned them in the comp window at desired locations, and then performed a precomp to collapse the shaped layers into one layer.

1. Create a new shaped layer: Go to the Command bar and choose Layer>New>Shape Layer.

2. Now, in the tool bar choose the Elipse tool, and modify the properites associated with the layer.

3. In the comp window, draw a sphere and position it in the maze accordingly.
(You can duplicate the layer to create as many Mega Munchies that you want.)

4. Position the shape layers in the maze to your liking.

6. Trim the appropriate Shape Layer(s) to correspond with the point that
Pacman
"eats" each Mega Munchy.

In my version Pacman only has time to munch one.

7. From the Project Window, drag the Cherry Bite.wav audio file to the timeline .. lining it up with where Pacman eats the Mega Munchy.

8. (Optional) Select all of your shape layers and create a precomp.
You can reference how to do that by clicking here. What this does is save you some real estate in your timeline.

Animating the Ghost Color Changes

In the original Pacman Video Game, whenever Pacman consumed a Mega Munchy .. in some versions it was a piece of fruit like a Cherry or Strawberry… all of the active Ghosts turned blue for a limited amount of time. If Pacman ate a Blue Ghost the player earned points, but if perchance Pacman encountered a Ghost of a different color, the game ended. So what we’re going to do now is animate those Ghosts in out timeline so they turn blue, and then back to their original colors, just in time to end our game at the end of our timeline.

1. In the Timeline Window, move the timeline marker to the point at which Pacman eats the first Mega Munchy. For an additional point of reference, this is also where we placed our Cherry Bite.wave file.

2. Select all Ghost layers, and access the Effects Control Palette. Click on the Hue Transform Stopwatch to set a keyframe.

3. Advance the timeline marker one frame, and change the Hue transform value till the Ghosts turn Blue. You will see that a new Key Frame was created for each of your Ghost layers. It will be necessarry to copy each pair of these keyframes for each of your Ghost layers that do not get eaten by Pacman during the time the Ghosts are Blue.

4. Advance the timeline marker to the point at which Pacman eats the first Blue Ghost, and then from the Project Window, drag into the Timeline the "Ghost Eat.wav file, and align it with the timeline marker.

One Ghost down … one to go.

5. Advance the timeline a couple of seconds .. at least past the point where Pacman eats the first Blue Ghost. Select one of your remaining Ghosts .. If you haven’t already done so, Copy the Hue Transform Key Frames for this layer that you created in step 3. Paste them into the layer, then swap the order of these Key Frames in the timeline.

Now you have returned the Ghost to it’s original color.

FINISHING UP

If we’ve done everything right most of our animating is done, but there is still one more little item with which to attend. You may notice in my maze there is a small line at the top of the Ghost box before they start animating. Let’s call it the Gate.

At the point the Ghosts are released, the Gate goes away. I did this by using a layer mask on the Maze layer.

Masking Out The Gate

1. Select your Maze layer in the Timeline Window, position your timeline marker to the point just prior to when the Ghosts start moving around the maze.

2. Using the Pen Tool from the tool bar, draw a box adjacent to the Gate.

3. Tap the M Key to reveal the Mask properites for the layer, and then click on the stopwatch.
If all you are seeing is the mask, click on the Inverted box.

4. Move your timeline marker a few frames, to the point just prior to when the Ghosts make their escape from the box, and then move the entire mask so it covers the Gate.

That’s it. You’re done with this step.

Adding Game Slates

We’re all but done with our Pacman Simulation. All we have to do now is add some graphics to help make it "real."

1. Create a new solid. Layer>New>Solid .. make sure it’s black, and size it so it covers up a portion of the maze you want your Start Game graphics to occupy. (In the illustration below, my black solid layer has been resized, indicated by the red anchor points.) Trim the layer in the Timeline so it is the same lenght as the introduction audio.

2. Make a new Text Layer. Layer>New>Text. Type in your Intro slate text. Mine says "Get Ready."

Access the Character Palette: You will necessarily have to change the fill color …white works well, the stroke properties … mine is set to none, and the font style and size.

Trim the layer so it is the same length as your black solid. Study the illustration below for the layer order, type style, and properties I used.

Repeat Steps 1 and two for your Game Over slate.

Testing Your Pacman Simulation

Tap the 0 Key on the Numeric key pad.

You can also view this video at here:

You’re done. Thank you for working through this challenging tutorial. I hope the process advanced your skill and expertise in After Effects.

Russ Williams

Chomp Out Your Own Pac Man Animation – Part 2

Automated Versioning of your Comps

The compsFromSpreadsheet script allows you to quickly generate copies of your master comp with data from your spreadsheet used to update text or replace layers.

Getting Started

Before you can use the script you need to setup one or more template compositions to receive data from your spreadsheet. There are three different ways your template comp can be updated from the spreadsheet

• Text layers that begin with ^(shift 6) will be able to receive data from the spreadsheet as the text for that layer.
• If you have a text layer named ^date it will receive todays date (great if you’re generating slates)
• If you have a non-text layer in your comp that begins with #, it will be replaced by the project item named in your spreadsheet

If you are running the script as a dockable panel, there will be two buttons to automatically create either a text or layer object in the currently selected comp.

Setting up your Spreadsheet

The first line of your spreadsheet must contain the names for each column.
When you run the script it will take each of these column names and and allow you to connect that column with elements in your template comp.

After you do this the script will go through the spreadsheet line by line, each line of the spreadsheet will become a new copy of one of your template comps, with data from that line of the spreadsheet updating the layers in the template comp copy that were targeted to receive it.
If you have set up more than one composition to receive data, you will need to have a column in your spreadsheet that holds the name of the comp to be used as the base. In the above sample spreadsheet the column ‘Core Spot’ will be used, so when the script is run, for the first line of data it will create a copy of the comp named “spot 1″ to be used for that line.

Before After effects can read your spreadsheet, it needs to be converted into a tab-delimited text file (most spreadsheet programs do this easily). This is a universal text format that will allow After effects to read in your data and organize it by rows and columns.

When you run the script be sure to point it to this newly created text file and not your spreadsheet as After Effects cannot read any spreadsheet format (maybe I should call the script compsFromTabDelimitedTextFile).

A word about Commas

If you have commas in your data, they will probably get stripped. Why? I believe it is a bug in Excel. There are two major types of delimited text documents, tab-delimited (which we are using) and comma delimited text. If using a comma-delimited format, commas are used to separate columns, if there happens to be a comma in your data, the program will need to strip them out prior to saving as they will be falsely interpreted as the end of that column.

If saving as tab-delimited, tabs would likewise need to be stripped out from your data. Commas are fine and should not be removed, as they are NOT a separator. Sadly, Excel still strips out commas, even when you are saving as a Tab-Delimited text file.

Running the Script

compsFromSpreadsheet needs to know which comps in your project have been setup for use with the script.

When you run the script a window will pop up with all the comps in the project in the left column . Double click on the comp names that are to be used to move them to the right “selected comps” column. Click continue when you have added all the comps to be used to the “selected comps” column.

If you only have one comp this window is bypassed.

If you put all your comps in a folder called TEMPLATES the script will bypass this window and assume that the comps in that folder are to be used

Synching Column Data to your Comp

When the script reads the first line of your spreadsheet, it needs you to tell it where the data from each column should go in your comp. The Field Init window opens. Each column name from the first line of the spreadsheet appears with a dropdown box underneath.

The dropdown box links the data from that column in the spreadsheet to elements in your template comps. The dropdown box contains the names of all the layers that were set up earlier to receive data (remember, the text layers that started with ^ will receive the data from this column, and a layer with a # will be replaced with the project item named in this column.)

If a column name is the same as an element name in one of your comps, that will be automatically selected in the dropdown i.e. If you have a column in your spreadsheet “phone” and a text layer in one of your template comps named “^phone”, that item will be automatically selected in the dropdown box. If however, your text layer is “^phone number” it will not be selected in the dropdown box.

If you have more than one comp to be used you will need to have a column in your spreadsheet with the name of the comp to be used for that line. Select ‘COMP’ from the dropdown box of the column that holds comp names, if you only have comp to be used ‘COMP’ will not appear in the dropdown as the script will already know which comp to use.

Naming Comps

The next step you need to tell the script how to name the newly created sequence, and where you want the rendered sequences to go. The default naming convention is line number, so the name of the very first Comp is “2″ ( because line 1 holds the column names). and the next comp created it called “3″ and so on until it reaches the last line of the spreadsheet.

Alternately you can have the script keep the name of the original template comp and append a number to the end. so the first time the script creates a comp from “spotA” it is named “spotA_1″, next line that uses that comp will name the new comp “spotA_2″

Lastly, you can choose to get the name from one of your spreadsheet columns. So if you choose “FROM SPREADSHEET | name” from the dropdown, the comp will get its name from the ‘name’ column of the spreadsheet.

Setting Render Location

Every comp created by the script will be placed in the render que using the default settings for your render que. It will default to saving the renders in the same directory as your project. If you click the “Render Output Location” button you can select where you want the script to render your comps to.

Conclusion

The script will run through your data line by line. For each line it will create a new comp, put it in a folder called “compsFromSpreadsheet”, update any target layers in that comp with data from the current line, finally, the comp will be placed in the render que using render que defaults and set to render in the same directory as the project (unless you set a different render location in the field init window.

Hit the render button and all your newly created comps will render (go out for a pint while it renders!)

Dockable Panels

The script can either be run as a dockable panel or as a traditional script.

If run as a dockable panel, there will be buttons in the panel to create target text or layer objects to be used with the script. Clicking “Run compsFromSpreadsheet” will bring up the comp select window

If the script is run the traditional way (by accessing it through file – scripts), you will be taken to the comp select window immediately, bypassing the window shown here.

Licensing

compsFromSpreadsheet may be downloaded and used free of charge for non commercial use. If it is to be used commercially, the license is $20

Version History

• v2.11 – May 2010
  • Small bug fix to new separate folder feature, now correctly places extension after frame number.
• v2.1 – May 2010
  • You can now choose to have renders go to separate folders, so if you are rendering a tiff sequence for example, each comp will be rendered to an individual folder.
• v2.01 – May 2010
  • Added file extension to output file name in render queue.
• v2.0 – May 2010
  • Added ability to insert footage items.
  • Added dockable UI.
  • Blessed for CS5.
• v1.22
  • Fixed a small bug that prevented the script from running on some non-english systems.
• v1.21
  • Fixed a bug in the program that caused the script not to run in certain situations. Previously, the script would try to create a folder called “Renders” in the same directory as your project to put your rendered files. The script no longer does this. Now there is a button in the field init window which allows you to designate a folder for renders. If you do not choose one, renders will go wherever your render que is set to put them.
• v1.2
  • The comp select window now uses scrolling lists to accommodate projects with a lot of comps. The way it works now is there is a list of all comps in the project on the left side of the window. Any comp you want to use, double click on it and it will go the the list on the right. The list on the right is all the comps to be used by the program.
  • If you create a folder called ‘TEMPLATES’ the comp select window will be bypassed and the program will assume that all the comps in this folder are to be used.
• v1.1
  • Added the ability to choose the naming convention of new comps. Previously the comp was always named the line number of the database, now you can choose if you want line number, original comp name (with an incrementing number), or sync it up with a column in your spreadsheet.
  • Fixed a bug in the new version check.The function is only supposed to run once every 10 days, but the function checked every time the script was run. This has been corrected.
• v1.0 Initial Release

CompsFromSpreadsheet

New in version 2.0:

• Added dockable UI.
• Added suffix or search and replace new comp name.
• Maintain hierarchy and arrange into new folder option.
• Non-english AE support.
• Blessed for CS5.

Version History:

True Comp Duplicator

{Adobe in the same way as Adobe After effects is primarily used suggestion graphics and visual After effects. In the same way as special effects allows users to bring to life,, and media in the sphere of 2D and 3D seat with various built-in tools and third person plug-ins, because well because for one person attention to variables like parallax and user-adjustable slope of observation.

Both in the After effects reel and round about non-linear bowdlerization systems (NLEs) are layer-oriented, every for one person media object (video clip, audio clip, still image, and so forth.) occupies its own track. In the sphere of contrast, other NLEs mistreat a media can occupy the same track because prolonged because in the sphere of stage. This track-oriented usage is further suited used for bowdlerization and can keep project archive much further concise. The layer-oriented usage the same way as special effects adopts is suited used for act and keyframing. Although ones with the aim of employ tree or else node workflows, such because Apple Shake-are better suited to get by hefty volumes of objects inside a composite, in the same way after effects is able to somewhat counter the clutter by selectively defeat layers (using the Shy switch) or else by grouping them into pre-compositions.
After effects explosion
After effects – After effects intro

The key interface consists of(windows in the sphere of versions previous to in way as After effects animation CS 5 ).

Three of the nearly everyone commonly used panels are the Project panel, the work of art panel, and the Timeline panel. The Project panel acts because a bin to, capture on tape, and audio footage items. Footage items in the sphere of the Project panel are used in Timeline panel, and timing can take place adjusted. The items visible by the side marker are displayed in the sphere of the After effects work of art panel.

After effects – After effects intro

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After effects – After effects video copilot

Kraboudja

Caitlyn

Scribulous Scrawlin’

Aleia

Skinny Black

Tommy’s First Alphabet

Oilhand

People Are People

Nymphont

Hans Hand

Big Mister C

Sexy Sara

As I Lay Dying

Scratch Kit

Love Moi

Lovitz

Salamander

Acki Preschool

Gorillaz

Note This!

Like Giselle?

Kids First Print Font

Mskitokilla

Cat’s Awesomely Awesome Font

Simpsons

Luna

J.D. Handcrafted

Ah the monster is comming

Julies

Eltops

Honey I Stole Your Jumper

Harrison

Joe Hand

Ma Sexy

Promised Freedom

Hannahs Messy Handwriting

Jules Hand

Curly Joe

Ashley

Ammy’s Handwriting

Popstar Autograph

Cutie Pop

Burst My Bubble

Christopher Hand

Two Turtle Doves

Designer Notes

Dali

Journal

Sketch Rockwell

Jellyka – Estrya’s Handwriting

Sweetie Pie

Imitation

Hand of Sean

Aerofoil

Rickman Script

Brook 23

Penciledinh

Sgt. Portfolio

Analgesics

Later On

Soylent Black

Arthritical

le Grand Saut

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63 Handwritten Fonts

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Premium for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

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Tutorial

Step 1

First of all launch 3DS Max and selecting the front view hit “ALT+B” on the keyboard to get “View port Background” appeared. While selecting “Match Bitmap”, “Display Background” and “Lock Zoom/Pan” , click on “Files” and browse for the reference image of the bullet.

Step 2

Pick the Line tool and draw the shape according to the middle bullet.

Step 3

Apply “Lathe” modifier on the spline and click on “Max”.

Step 4

Apply a “Shell” modifier on it and increase the inner amount to something like 2.0 to give some thickness to the shell.

Step 5

Press “M” on the keyboard to open Material Editor. In the diffuse channel choose the color as something like brass, give the Specular level as 125 and the Gloss value as 50. And apply it to the shell.

Step 6

Now drag a PF source icon in the view port.

Step 7

Hit “6” on the keyboard to open the Particle View window. Adjust the values of Birth > Emit Start, Emit Stop and Amount as shown in the figure.

Step 8

Put “Shape Instance” in the event instead of “Shape”, and pick the bullet from the scene as Particle Geometry Object.

Step 9

Now, if you choose the Display type as “Geometry”, you will see that all the particles have taken the shape of bullet.

Step 10

Drag a Gravity force in the view port. Put a Force operator in the event and choose the gravity in “Force Space Warp” section. By doing this you will see the bullets going downwards.

Step 11

Again go to “Shape Instance” operator and down the scale to 25%.

Step 12

Draw a Box in front of the PF source icon to make a building .

Step 13

Make a camera and place it on the ground level so that the scene should look like this. Add some lights also to lit the scene and the bullets.

Step 14

Press “M” on the keyboard and apply this kind of texture to the building.

Step 15

Give “Raytrace” in the Reflection tab and put the value to 20. In this way some reflection of the bullets would come on the building.

Step 16

Now go to Time Configuration and choose 100 frames per second, since we need it in slow motion.

Step 17

Now this is the time to render the scene. Hide everything except the bullets and then save the animation in .TGA format with alpha channel. Same would be done with the building also.

Step 18

Next, in Photoshop, I took an image of helicopter from internet and then separated its blades and the body in two different layers as “Heli” and “blades”, so that later I could use it separately. I hope, the readers know the technique how to do that, since this is a very basic procedure in Photoshop. If not, then I would recommend you to visit www.psd.tutsplus.com to watch some basic as well as advance tutorials on Photoshop.

Step 19

Now lets move to After Effects. Make a new composition as “Final” with 720/576 dimension.

Step 20

Import the Building and the Heli_Bullets files and drag these into the Final Comp. Import a Sky footage also and put it beneath all the layers.

Step 21

Now import the “Heli.Psd” file which has been separated in two different layers in Photoshop. While importing it at the first time, choose the “heli” layer which is the body of the helicopter and then drag it into the Final Comp.

Step 22

Do the same again and choose “blade” this time.

Step 23

Select the “Pan Behind Tool” and move the pivot of the blade to the center of the Helicopter. By doing this the blades will rotate around its right axis.

Step 24

Select both of the layers of “heli” and “blade” and adjust these parallel to the building.

Step 25

Select the “blade” layer, open its rotation and animate the rotation of the blade in clockwise direction.

Step 26

Now select the “Building” layer and apply color balance effect on it. Adjust the color to match with the scene.

Step 27

Now its time to make muzzle flash. I used one of the suitable muzzle flashes from VideoCoPilot’s action essential 2. You can buy it from www.videocopilot.net.
I duplicated the muzzle flash layer several times by pressing “Ctrl+D” and lined these up so that it could give the feel of continuous fire rounds.

Step 28

Select all these muzzle flashes layers and goto Layer>Pre-Compose. And rename the Pre-Composed layer as “Muzzle Flash”.

Step 29

Put the Pre Composed “Muzzle Flash” layer beneath Bullets, Building and Helicopter layers. Adjust the rotation of Muzzle Flash layer a bit.

Step 30

Make the duplicate layer of Muzzle Flash, Helicopter and Bullets layer and mirror these layers so that the reflection of these layers could appear on the Building.

Step 31

Select these duplicated layers and pre compose them as Reflective Materials.

Step 32

Now select the Reflective Materials layer, right click > blending mode> soft lights. Now it gives a cool reflection on the building.

Step 33

I used some dust elements taken from again Action essentials 2, but in a different manner. First simply import the dust element in the Final Comp, and apply Distort > Twirl effect on it . It gives a cool effect of wind simulation due to fan blade of the helicopter.

Step 34

Now make an Adjustment Layer at top of the all layers and apply Effect> Sapphire Stylize> S_film Effect. This effect gives some glow and grain on the footgae with overall color corrected effect. You can get the plugin from www.genarts.com.

The End

Now render the scene and see the effect. You can always play with the values and options of the effects to get desired result.

Recreate The Matrix Chopper Scene

Enter the Expression Toolbox :

The Toolbox is a centralized location for you to store commonly used expressions, as well as making it easy to apply and retrofit to the comp you’re currently working on. You can group expressions that require multiple properties and controls to be enabled.

A Few Features :

• Grouping (assign a group ‘name’ – or select an existing one at any time to view all of expressions in the group only at the same time)
• Retrofitting ( this will pull layer names out of the expression, and allow you to select from a list generated from the current comp, which layer SHOULD be referenced)
• Auto generation of layer effects ( based on expression code; Sliders, radio buttons, angles, points, etc.. will be generated automatically if they are referenced in the expression you are using, this is optional of course )
• Sort by expression name, author and date ( these are created as expressions are entered into the library )
• Expression Editing ( go back and edit author name, expression name, description – usage information, or the expression itself at any time )
• Ability to apply current expression to the currently selected property of any layer.
• Distributable ( the library file names and content is entirely up to you, and they are lightweight and transferable to others)
• Merging of libraries ( you are able to import libraries from others and consolidate them into one "main" library if you wish )

So go ahead and give the Expression Toolbox a try, and see how easy it can be to organize your expression collection without having to dig through text files or forum posts to find your expressions.

Sharing expressions on a global scale :

The next step for the Expression Toolbox will be an online entry system that will allow you to enter your expressions to a global web driven database that anybody can access. You will then be able to download the most recent version of this database directly from the script. This will be in the next big release of the Toolbox.

For user support or feature requests for the Toolbox, please visit: http://support.croedesign.com

Version history

• 1.11 Fixes a failure to load when descriptions contain symbols. Also fixes a few behind the scenes issues to tidy things up. – Dec 2009
• 1.1 Fixes a few bugs. One was causing retrofit and apply to fail on load. The other was a problem with line breaks carried over from websites when pasted. – Nov 2009
• 1.0 Initial Release – Nov 2009

*** Important note for Windows 7 Users :

Windows 7 has a LOT of security built in, which keeps you from writing to all directories except My Documents.
This is causing the script to silently fail, it will go through the motions of saving but the library remains unchanged, this is because you don’t have permission to write to the file or directory.

Follow this link for information on how give yourself permission to modify directories / files.

http://www.blogsdna.com/2159/how-to-take-ownership-grant-permissions-to-access-files-folder-in-windows-7.htm

Thanks for your patience, hope this helps

Expression Toolbox