Articles: Sort By Category: Adobe After Effects: Tutorial

	Creating a Heart Monitor by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to build your own EKG Machine in the Comfort of Your Own Home (or Office). (Flatline not included)

	Creating a Magnifying Glass Effect in AE by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you a technique for creating a magnifying glass in After Effects.

	Working With the Scribble Effect - Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to use Auto-Trace and Illustrator to create complex scribble animation in AE.

	A Ring of Cows by Tielman Dewaele Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor Tielman Dewaele demonstrates a quick way to position layers into a ring, with null objects and animate them with another null.

	Working With the Scribble Effect - Part 1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create Scribble-like animation with shapes and text in After Effects.

	Learning Basic AE Tips while Creating a Genie and Lamp: Part 3 by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor Joe Chao finishes up his Genie in a lamp series by adding a light stream and a few other final lighting effects.

	Basic Lighting Effects by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor Joe Chao demonstrates creating some light effects. This is part two of Joe's Genie in a Lamp series.

	Creating Multi-Color Gradient Ramps by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create simple and complex multicolored gradient ramps in AE.

	Creating a Light Saber by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to create a light saber -- surprisingly enough, something that is still being asked about.

	Expression Controls #3 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz takes a look at some advanced uses of expression controls, and shows you how you can make your expression more dynamic.

	Expression Controls #2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz explores most of the expression controls, showing you how they can be used to enhance your projects and save time.

	Frame Rate Conversion by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates a frame rate converter in After Effects.

	Expression Controls #1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz introduces you to expression controls, a series of effects designed only for use with After Effects expression.

	Expression Tips #1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you some basic expression principles and shares a very useful expression that can be used to convert one set of values to another.

	AE Text Tips # 1: Working with Photoshop and Illustrator Files by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shares tips on working with Photoshop and Illustrator Text, as well as a few other text-related hints.

	Simulated Lighting by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to add simulated light to a scene.

	AE Workflow Tips #7: Importing Projects by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shares tips on the many uses of importing After Effects Projects, and how you can recover corrupt AE files.

	Animating a TV Turning on and Off by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz revisits one of his first AE tutorials (the Old TV Look) and shows you how to animate the TV turning on and off.

	Fun with Ink by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to create ink splotches in After Effects --something people are always asking how to do.

	Bending Mode Tips #1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shares some hints for working with layer blending modes in After Effects.

	Animating a Signature - Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz revisits his earlier tutorial on animating a signature and shows you how to add a pen writing the signature in After Effects 3D.

	Using CC Filters and Displacement Maps to Create Fire by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor Joe Chao creates ethereal fire using some of the CC filters and displacement maps in After Effects.

	AE Workflow Tips #6: Drag and Drop by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how dragging and dropping can speed up importing footage, rendering video, and exporting files.

	Nesting and Pre-Composing - Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz explains when and why you would want to nest compositions and pre-compose layers in After Effects.

	Creating the 3D Ribbon Effect by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this Video Tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz demonstrates how to quickly create the popular 3D ribbon effect in Maxon Cinema 4D and Maya.

	Nesting and Pre-Composing - Part 1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz explains the basics of nesting and pre-composing compositions in After Effects.

	Creating 3D Text by Traylor Woodall Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, animator Traylor Woodall demonstrates how to create 3D text or logos in Adobe After Effects without 3rd party plug-ins.

	Rotoscoping in AE by Pete O'Connell Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, compositor Pete O'Connell explains a few of the techniques he uses to rotoscope in After Effects.

	Creating Custom Client Review Systems by Aanarav Sareen Article Type: Tutorial In today's rapidly moving editing and post-production world, faster methods of client review have become an absolute necessity. In this article, CreativeCOW leader Aanarav Sareen demonstrates how to create custom client review systems using Adobe Captivate.

	Combining Effects with AE's Fractal Noise Effect by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz examines how to be more creative by combining different effects with AE's Fractal Noise.

	Building Up Particles by James Lee Article Type: Tutorial This tutorial by animator James Lee demonstrates a building up of particles to simulate a disintegrating hot air balloon using Trapcode Particular and Adobe After Effects.

	AE Keyframe Boomerang Effect, Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz explores another instance of the boomerang effect and its causes, as well as several solutions for preventing it.

Using After Effects 7 on Intel MacPro Computers by Graham Jones Article Type: Tutorial Creative Cow member Graham Jones was the very first guy we have found who came up with a successful way that works for most users who want to use After Effects 7 on the new Intel-based MacPro computers. While it is not guaranteed to work for everyone, if you have been wanting to use AE7 on a MacPro, Graham gives you his recipe.

	AE Keyframe Boomerang Effect, Part 1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to handle the annoying (and sometimes crippling) boomerang effect, in which a layer moves randomly between two spatial keyframes that are exactly the same.

	Looping Fractal Noise by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial IIn this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz show you how to create seamlessly looping fractal background animations by using AE's Fractal Noise effect.

	AE Workflow Tips #5: How to Find Missing Footage by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to locate missing footage and other elements in your After Effects project.

	Force Motion Blur by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon rabinowitz shows you how to add a motion blur to effects that don't support this feature. Also covered is adding blur to video footage that has been sped up, and an introduction to CyCore's updated Effects - CyCore FX HD.

	Creating Light Streaks by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to create light streaks as seen in the new Nano iPod commercial.

	AE Workflow Tips #4: Renaming & More by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz discusses methods of renaming layers, compositions, footage and effects. Also discussed are a couple of hidden buttons in AE that will make life a little easier.

	Animating a Signature by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to animate a signature appearing on screen, and a few tricks to make it look more realistic.

	AE Workflow Tips #3: Open in Editor by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz discusses the ''Open Editor'' command and how it can help you streamline your workflow. Also covered is preparation for getting this command to work for you with all image, video and audio formats.

	The Very, Very Basics of Fractal Noise by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz introduces you to the Fractal Noise Effect, and shows you how to create the animated backgrounds seen in the opening of the Creative Cow AE Tutorials.

	AE Gotchas 1: Wrong Frame Rate by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz discusses one of the most common AE mistakes - Importing image sequences at the wrong frame rate - along with the effects and solutions.

	AE Gotchas 1: Wrong Frame Rate by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz discusses one of the most common AE mistakes - Importing image sequences at the wrong frame rate - along with the effects and solutions.

	Create 3D Reflections by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to create ray traced light reflections inside After Effects.

	particleIllusion 3 and AE 7 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial After Effects 7 & ParticleIllusion 3: In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to get position data from After Effects 7 into particleIllusion. Also, using the same method, you can get data from After Effects 7 into older versions of AE.

	Creating a Custom Wave Form - Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to improve the look of the Customized waveform and talks about how to get real control of your audio keyframes with Trapcode Sound Keys.

	Creating a Flip-Book Effect by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to create a 'Flip-Book' effect.

	Creating a Custom Wave Form - Part 1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create a customized, sound-reactive waveform using a stroke, a distortion effect and an expression.

	Using Motion Sketch to build a Spiral Path in 3D Space by Fang Xiang Article Type: Tutorial In this article, Fang Xiang demonstrates using motion sketch and an expression to build a spiral path in 3D space.

	AE Workflow Tip Part Two: Rendering by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shares some rendering workflow tips to help you avoid a crash and render a little faster, and discusses an important plug-in for speeding up your renders and previews.

	Learning Basic AE Tips while Creating a Genie and Lamp by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor Joe Chao demonstrates a few useful tips for AE beginners by creating a genie in a lamp. Joe will take what seems like a complex project and will break it down into 'bite-sized, easy to manage' concepts.

	Understanding Straight vs. Premultiplied by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this Video Tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz helps you understand the practical differences between Straight and Premultiplied video, when working with After Effects alone as well as between AE and other programs.

	Simple Bleach Bypass by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates a very fast bleach bypass effect that you can do in After Effects.

How modo can make your life easier: Image Synth by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this series of articles CreatveCOW leader Mylenium takes a look at Luxology's modo 201 and how it can help you make your daily work more efficient even if you are not yet a 3D artist. Moreover he tries to provide some guidance why you possibly should consider it to complement your arsenal if you are already using 3D programs such as Maxon's Cinema 4D. In this first video, Mylenium looks at a part of modo that isn't actually a part of modo. Included in the package is ImageSynth which is a standalone plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS or later and Mylenium will demonstrate how and why you should use it.

AE Workflow Tip Part One: Duplication by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this Video Tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz helps you improve your workflow through the use of duplication in After Effects. Topics covered include, duplicating layers, render settings, overwriting renders, and creating videotape containing both RGB and Alpha transparency information for archiving.

	Depth of Field by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to simulate a 'depth of field look to live action footage.

	Creating a Flock of Birds - Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In part 2 of this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create and animate a flock of birds from the original bird.

	Creating a Flock of Birds - Part 1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In part 1 of this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to build and animate a bird in AE 3D. In part 2, it will join a flock of birds.

	Horror Text - Part 2 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to make ''Horror Movie'' style text appear on a wall.

	Horror Text - Part 1 by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to make ''Horror Movie'' style text appear on a wall.

	Creating 3D Ribbon Text by David Langley Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial Dave Langley demonstrates how to create a 3D ribbon of text that flows smoothly around curves up and down slopes moving around and interacting with other elements using only core tools in After Effects.

Grazing Etiquette at the CreativeCow forums by David Battistella Article Type: Tutorial, Editorial In this article for CreativeCow.net, contributing editor and leader, David Battistella converses with other leaders in search of 'what constitutes good grazing' or polite etiquette for being part of a fun and truly useful Creative community. Read on as David, Jerry Hoffman, Walter Biscardi, Tom Wolsky and Bob Zelin share their thoughts for keeping the pasture peaceful.

	Render Tips and HD Proxies by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer demonstrates how to use proxies inside of After Effects 7.0.

	Multi-Machine Rendering by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to Render a project on several computers at once, without the use of the After Effects render Engine.

Tube Camera Effect using After Effects 6.5 Without Third Party Plug-ins by G. Allen Stewart Article Type: Tutorial Call it his love for everything old, or nostalgia or whatever, but G. Allen Stewart loved how the old color tube cameras handled light and color. He loved how the images seemed to be 'scan-lined', the blacks were crushed and noisy, so G. Allen Stewart went on a quest for the perfect plug-in to create that effect. He was never satisfied with the result, so here's his recipe for his ''make like 1970's TV effect.''

	HDR Imagery and 32 BPC by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer gives us a practical look at HDR Imagery and 32 bits per channel inside of After Effects 7.0.

	Creating Super Tight Junk Mattes by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz shares a method of quickly and automatically creating extremely precise junk mattes/gargabe masks for use in the keying process.

	Basic Color Keying Techniques by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Andrew Kramer shows you the basics of green-screening using Keylight. This is a sample of the training found in Andrew's Creative Cow Master Series DVD: "Serious Effects & Compositing - Advanced Techniques for After Effects 7," available soon.

	Keeping Your Speed Constant by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Aharon Rabinowitz discusses creating smooth spatial animation with no variation in speed using Roving Keyframes.

	Creating a Slideshow by Andrew Kramer Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Andrew Kramer shows you how create a slideshow with some cool effects and timesaving methods.

	Fixing Scaling Issues--Part Two by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz  shows you how to ease the values of Exponential Scale to create a smooth end to your layer's scale animation.

	Creating an Old-Paper texture using Fractal Noise by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial Previously, Chris Zwar penned an article we refer to as ''Everything you wanted to know about Fractal Noise but were afraid to ask,'' but in this article, Chris takes it a step further and demonstrates a real project: Creating an Old Paper texture using the Fractal Noise Effect.

	How to make a Text Stream using Expressions by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial CreativeCOW's Joe Chao demonstrates using expressions to create a text stream wrapping around a pillar. The pillar and its background are all completely made in AfterEffects.

	Fixing Scaling Issues--Part One by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz introduces you to Exponential scale, a keyframe assistant used to counter the issues that occur when scaling from very high values.

Building a Lensflare with Expressions by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Creativecow's Mylenium demonstrates various lens flares and how to create them. The main focus of this tutorial is not the lensflare itself - there are enough plugins out there, that do a far better job than even the most complex setup we can cobble together. Much more is it meant to again teach you some tricks to work efficiently with expressions and breaking down projects into workable parts. Lensflares lend themselves to illustrating the benefits of expressions because they involve lots of layers and effects.

Creating a Cartoon from Video by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial IIn this 3-part tutorial, Creative cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz explains the process of converting video to cartoon by using only After Effects and Adobe Illustrator CS2. While the tutorial spans 50 minutes and covers a wide range of topics (some in depth and some in general), after you have gone through the process once, you will find that it's easy to adapt the Cartoonification technique to your own needs.

	Creating an Outline around an Actor by Aharon Rabinowitz Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create the popular effect in which a colored stroke is placed around a keyed or rotoscoped subject.

	Using Presets and Templates by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial, Video Tutorial In this video tutorial, Creativecow's Mylenium demonstrates creating a dvd menu by using presets and templates which come with After Effects 7.0. In addition to using presets, we'll prepare our menu for use in Encore.

Fractal Noise - A New Look at an Old Friend by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial When Adobe released After Effects version 7, the attention turned to major new features such as the user interface, 32bit HDR support and the graph editor. However there's another small update which is very significant for some users- the ''Fractal Noise'' effect is no longer confined to the Professional bundle, it's now included with the Standard edition. So for anyone who's never used the Professional version, or anyone who has never used Fractal Noise, Chris Zwar lifts the hood on this immensely powerful feature.

	Open GL Demystified by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial, Product Review In this video tutorial, Creativecow's Mylenium illustrates some of the new advanced Open GL features in After Effects 7 by comparing Open GL in version to Open GL in AE 6.5. If you're still wondering what the Open GL does, then watch Mylenium's video.

Creating a Glass Globe by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial When broadcast designer Kurt Murphy received a glass globe as a gift, it inspired him to see if he could create one in After Effects. In this tutorial, Kurt demonstrates creating and animating a glass globe totally in After Effects using Solids and Effects. This project is totally self-contained, needing no outside footage, but you will need the production bundle to complete it. Also nice but not necessary is the Trapcode Starglow plug-in.

	Creating Paper Ribbons and Confetti by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial Often for festivals and celebrations, we are asked to create animations involving colorful ribbons and confetti. In this tutorial, Joe Chao creates the ribbons and confetti and then demonstrates a couple of ways to shoot them out of a cannon. This animation would be useful, not just for Christmas, but for any festival.

	Creating an Animated Volume Meter by Talid Al Khatib Article Type: Tutorial One of the most fun and useful things in Adobe After Effects, is linking the motion of your project components with music. In this tutorial from Talid Al Khatib, we’ll create a ''volume meter'' that responds to your music.

	3D Toon on Paper by Mark Val Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Mark Val demonstrates creating a character that looks like he's drawn on paper. Mark takes us through the process from storyboard to finish, explaining the pipeline from XSI to After Effects.

	Creating a Logo Assembling Animation by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial Joe Chao was once required to create an animation in which a flock of fireflies assemble into an insect shaped logo. In this tutorial, Joe demonstrates a quick method to duplicate the effect using Trapcode Particlular.

Background Creation Tips and Tricks: Futuristic by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial There are many ways to create backgrounds in After Effects and many of us have our own special ways of doing this. Please join Dean Velez creator of ''The Anvel Training Program for Motion Graphics'' in a 5 part series as he shares some of his different methods. In this part five of the series, Dean uses the polygon lasso tool in Photoshop to create a wide odd shaped polygon in the center of the screen for each new layer with varying sizes, green tones, blend modes and overlap. He then imports the psd into After Effects to create a futuristic background.

Layered Earth Effect by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial We are going to build a layered, onion-skin type model of the earth revealing its internal structure. The goal is to create an illustration-like setup that is controlled via expressions and can visually hold up to things you can find in scientific books. Other scientific and statistical data can also easily be illustrated by modifying this setup. Most importantly you will learn something about structuring your layers and compositions in a way that will allow you to manipulate transparencies and mattes without destroying the illusion of 3D.

Particular - Frequently Asked Effects by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial Ever since Trapcode Particular was released one year ago, many people have developed a keen interest in this tool. However, even after this time many people find themselves confronted with problems. Regular questions on the Trapcode forum here at the COW clearly prove this. This tutorial is meant to explain some of the commonly asked questions and make your life easier by giving a few tips and tricks as well as some simple expressions.

Background Creation Tips and Tricks: Fire by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial There are many ways to create backgrounds in After Effects and many of us have our own special ways of doing this. Please join Dean Velez creator of ''The Anvel Training Program for Motion Graphics'' in a 5 part series as he shares some of his different methods. In this part four of the series, Dean uses a big X created in Photoshop and uses a variety of blend modes, effects, and adjustment layers in After Effects to create a fiery background.

How to make a Traditional Chinese Painting Effect by Joe Chao Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial for Adobe After Effects, Joe Chao (The English pronunciation that Cao Jun gives to his Western friends) gracefully gives to CreativeCow readers his easy-to-follow lessons on reproducing an ancient art technique, thousands of years old, and producing for today interesting and versatile special effects.

	More Lighting and Shadows by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial In part two of our Shadows tutorial, Bill O'Neil continues with an explanation of an effect that he's constantly asked how it was done. He doesn't use 3D -- it's done entirely in After Effects and the coolness of the scene is mostly from the lighting and shadows.

Using After Effects Expressions to Animate World Maps by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial These days even the smallest garage shops claim to be doing business all over the world so it's a quite common task to animate world maps and additional data related to their business. In this tutorial we will focus on a technique to represent a distribution or transport network. However, it can also be used to animate city maps or simply create other automated animation that applies the same paradigms.

Background Creation Tips and Tricks: Starfield by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial There are many ways to create backgrounds in After Effects and many of us have our own special ways of doing this. Please join Dean Velez creator of The Anvel Training Program for Motion Graphics in a 5 part series as he shares some of his different methods.In this part three of the series, Dean uses cloud layers created in Photoshop and applies filters to create a starfield background.

Dressing Up a Scene With Shadows by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial Bill O'Neil has learned a lot from his gaffers over his years of live action shooting. Simply putting a tree branch in front of a light can create interesting and beautiful shadows on an otherwise plain wall. The trade name for this light obstruction material is cucoloris or ''cookies''. These same practical techniques can be applied in the After Effects 3D world. All we need are lights, obstruction layers (cucoloris) and surfaces to shadow. This tutorial is broken into two parts that highlight two examples of dressing up a scene with shadows. This is part 1.

	Using the Liquify Filter in AE 6.5 to Create Movement by Graham Quince Article Type: Tutorial Many of you may have not seen the value of the Liquify filter when you first found it in AE 6.5, but in this tutorial, Graham Quince demonstrates how he used it in a recent project to bring still photos to life.

	Creating A Sunrise Using Expressions by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial The goal of this mini-tutorial is to show you some basic targeting using expressions as well as a few other tricks. Not only can this be used to create a stylized sun but also for lasers firing or wormholes.

Shading Effects by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Mylenium will show you how to replicate that stylish MacOS X buttons look. At first sight it will look like an antiquated technique of a time when today's layer effects in Photoshop were also created that way, but after a while you will clearly see the advantages of it. Think of it more as a source of inspiration on how to overcome limitations of for instance the Alpha Bevel effect rather than a tutorial in its classical sense.

Synchronizing Video to Audio with Layer Markers and Expression Sets by Joel Hooton Article Type: Tutorial A while back, Dan Ebberts made an article talking about synchronizing animation to audio using layer markers.  It was really cool and easy to setup.  Make a comp add the expression to an attribute and just click away on the * key on the num pad to sync video to audio. In this article, Joel Hooton wanted to see how many different useful sets of expressions he could develop that make use of this great feature.  We'll also see how they are used together to make more complex outputs.

Background Creation Tips and Tricks:The RAGE Background by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial There are many ways to create backgrounds in After Effects and many of us have our own special ways of doing this. Please join Dean Velez creator of The Anvel Training Program for Motion Graphics in a 5 part series as he shares some of his different methods. In this part two, Dean uses cloud layers created in Photoshop and applies filters to create an interesting red and black, almost fiery look. He calls it Rage.

Line Chart Diagram by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial This tutorial by Mylenium will show you how to create a fully animatable diagram with a few expressions and some thinking around the corner. While there are other techniques to create such graphs manually based upon Masks or the Write-On effect, this one has the advantage of being quite flexible and allowing last minute changes once you have the basic template. It cannot save you from buying dedicated software if you need things such as XML import or more variations of the look, however.In order to maintain maximum control over the look and avoid overloading one comp with too many layers, we are going to use several pre-compositions and cross-reference them with each other.

Pseudo-3D Extrusion by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial Since few After Effects users can do classical cel animation and a lot of them do not have a chance to use a 3D package's cartoon shading, here's a technique from Mylenium that will allow you to create such effects with ease inside After Effects. While it's quick and easy to setup and animate, it consumes a lot of time once it's time to render for final output. It also requires some major steps in Illustrator or Photoshop.

Background Creation Tips and Tricks:The DNA Background by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial There are many ways to create backgrounds in After Effects and many of us have our own special ways of doing this. Please join Dean Velez creator of The Anvel Training Program for Motion Graphics in a 5 part series as he shares some of his different methods. In this part one, Dean uses cloud layers created in Photoshop and applies filters to create a DNA strand look.

	A better Grid using expressions by Mylenium Article Type: Tutorial This tutorial from Mylenium will show you some basic principles when using expressions in After Effects. These include using the pick whip and some simple things you need to think of when referencing elements and converting numerical values.

	Using Curves to Simulate Bleach ByPass by Filip Vandueren Article Type: Tutorial In this quick tutorial, Filip Vandueren would like to share a technique he uses a lot which in Belgium is called 'etalongage' or color-timing. It's a two step process which gets great results.

	Using Depth of Field to Create Flythroughs by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial Depth of field refers to the distance from camera where things will be in focus.This tutorial from Bill O'Neil offers tips for assembling 2D flat objects in 3D space with the most realism using depth of field in After Effects.

	Shooting for 3D post by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial This tutorial from Bill O'Neil will focus on media acquisition for creating a 3D world in After Effects as well as offer tips for assembling 2D flat objects in 3D space with the most realism. Alright, how about realism in a surreal world? Read on...

Flying through a tunnel in After Effects by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial Flying through a tunnel can be useful for everything from “wormholes” in sci-fi movies like “Contact” to the transcontinental phone line in “3 colours red”, or even the optic nerve of Edward Norton in “Fight Club”. To create a Hollywood-level tunnel effect requires a true 3D application, with sophisticated modeling, rendering and 3D camera interaction – however, in this tutorial, Chris Zwar mocks up a quick & dirty 2D imitation with the “Polar Coordinates” filter in After Effects.

	Creating a 3D Filmstrip or Flowing Ribbon by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial In this quick tutorial, Serge Hamad uses Zaxwerks Invigorator to create a 3D Filmstrip. This method is also useful for creating those flying ribbons that are so popular in the commercials now. You'll need Invigorator classic for this.

	Two or Three Color Special Effect by Roland R. Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial We've all seen the scene in which everything is black and white except one color, but what if you wanted to have a two or even a three-color special effect? Well, this tutorial from Roland Kahlenberg, which we'll call Coolsville, will show you the way.

Building the Logo and Putting it together in AE: Part 5 of 5 by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial In this final lesson of a 5-part tutorial from Motion Graphics Trainer, Dean Velez, we'll build the logo and put it all together. The entire 5 part tutorial explores creating complex backgrounds using a Photoshop still with the 3D properties of After Effects. We'll also create high end transitions using path tools and various effects as well as eye catching 2D animation using parented layers and resolving text using the track matte features.

Building the Spider in AE: Part 4 of 5 by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial In this 5-part tutorial, Motion Graphics Trainer, Dean Velez explores creating complex backgrounds using a Photoshop still with the 3D properties of After Effects. We'll also create high end transitions using path tools and various effects as well as eye catching 2D animation using parented layers and resolving text using the track matte features. In lesson four, we'll build the animated spider.

Building the Animated Stroke in AE: Part 3 of 5 by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial In this 5-part tutorial, Motion Graphics Trainer, Dean Velez explores creating complex backgrounds using a Photoshop still with the 3D properties of After Effects. We'll also create high end transitions using path tools and various effects as well as eye catching 2D animation using parented layers and resolving text using the track matte features. In lesson three, we'll build the animated stroke.

Creating the 3D Space in AE: Part 2 of 5 by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial In this 5-part tutorial, Motion Graphics Trainer, Dean Velez explores creating complex backgrounds using a Photoshop still with the 3d properties of After Effects. We'll also create high end transitions using path tools and various effects as well as eye catching 2D animation using parented layers and resolving text using the track matte features. In lesson one, we'll prepare the Photoshop still.

Creating the Spider Web in Photoshop: Part 1 of 5 by Dean Velez Article Type: Tutorial In this 4-part tutorial, Motion Graphics Trainer, Dean Velez explores creating complex backgrounds using a Photoshop still with the 3d properties of After Effects. We'll also create high end transitions using path tools and various effects as well as eye catching 2D animation using parented layers and resolving text using the track matte features. In lesson one, we'll prepare the Photoshop still.

Creating Powerful Motion with Simple Expressions in AE by Talid Al Khatib Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Talid Al Khatib demonstrates that simple expressions can create powerful motions. In this case, we create a ''rose'' which could be used as a background or design element. Talid also points out that we often think that expressions only relate to the layer properties (scale, opacity, positon, anchor point and rotation) but actually, they can work great with effects too, in our tutorial, we applied expressions on two effects (grid and Hue/saturation).

Creating Liquid LIght by David Zandnerg by David Zandnerg Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, David Zandnerg creates a 'Liquid Light' background element using some basic knowledge about Trapcode 3D Stroke & Shine and Turbulent Displace from Adobe. The important thing to remember is that this tutorial is flexible, so change it as you like to whatever works for you in terms of shape, color and size. Also keep in mind that the tutorial is designed to give you some idea of the simplicity of After Effects for creating abstract art or to just have fun.

	Creating the Egg: Part 5 of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial Many of you have seen Serge Hamad's various animations in the After Effects forum at CreativeCOW. In this 5-part tutorial, Serge demonstrates the steps involved in re-creating his "Golden COW." In this tutorial you will be creating the egg. This is the final step in this animation.

Building the Cage: Part 4 of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial Many of you have seen Serge Hamad's various animations in the After Effects forum at CreativeCOW. In this 5-part tutorial, Serge demonstrates the steps involved in re-creating his "Golden COW." In this tutorial you will be creating the cage around the planet. You will need 3D Stroke from Trapcode as well as Invigorator Pro or Classic for this one. Note that with Invigorator Classic you won’t be able to open the provided AEP though. The emphasis in this tutorial is on the use of the transparency mapping technique.

	Fun in Particle Playground Land by Roland R. Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Creating Shockwaves: Part Three of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial Many of you have seen Serge Hamad's various animations in the After Effects forum at CreativeCOW. In this 5-part tutorial, Serge demonstrates the steps involved in re-creating his "Golden COW." In part two, we create the Aura and the Planet. You'll need Image Lounge and Knoll's Light Factory from Red Giant Software and Zaxwerk's Invigorator. If you don't have these plug-ins, download the demos to follow along.

	Expressions Without the Math by Doug Bassett Article Type: Tutorial Recently Doug Bassett was working on a promo and tried to follow Fred Lewis' connection scripts but couldn't follow the math. In this article, Doug demonstrates a new approach which uses expressions but without the math...and he finished the promo in a minimal amount of time.

Creating a Nebula: Part One of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial Many of you have seen Serge Hamad's various animations in the After Effects forum at CreativeCOW. In this 5-part tutorial, Serge demonstrates the steps invoved in re-creating his "Golden COW." In part one, we create the nebula. You'll need Image Lounge from Red Giant Software. If you don't have it, download the demo.

	Combining Volumetric Lights and Grid Basics by Aaron Slater Article Type: Tutorial Aaron Slater was working on a music video in which his images would 'flash' within a basic grid to the beat of the music. Here's a tutorial demonstrating his technique combining volumetric light effects with the grid.

	Tanx-AE: A Game for After Effects by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial Everyone needs a diversion now and then, so Chris Zwar took some time to write a game in After Effects just to see if he could. Here's the result: Tanx-AE, the world's first game written for Adobe After Effects. Take a moment, download the aep and have some fun with this. It's for version 5.5 and up.

Displacement Mapping in After Effects by Philip Hodgetts Article Type: Tutorial Two of the less well known features of After Effects' Production Bundle are the Time Displacement Filter and the Displacement Filter. Both use the values of one image to affect the target image. 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.

	Turning Paint Into Masks in After Effects by Timothy Kurkoski Article Type: Tutorial 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.

How To Use Light Spill for Better Composites Without Plug-ins by John Starr Dewar Article Type: Tutorial 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.

After Effects and the VTFS System from dps Velocity by John David Hutton Article Type: Tutorial The Virtual Tape File System in Leitch dpsVelocity is the most fascinating design and John David's most favorite feature of the software. With the VTFS you can actually take an existing image sequence (targa, tif, others are supported) and bring it into your editing NLE without having to render it to a proprietary format first. You can also take a captured clip and copy the image sequence of that capture to another computer without ever exporting anything in the NLE first! In this tutorial, Creativecow.net leader, John David Hutton demonstrates how to use After Effects with the VFTS System.

noise() – After Effects hidden gem of the week by Dan Ebberts Article Type: Tutorial 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

	Creating a Glassy Look using Adobe After Effects by Colin James Article Type: Tutorial In 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. Colin needed this technique for work, asked the question in the AE COW, and this is what the members came up.

R:Evolutionary Motion Typography in After Effects 6.0 by Alan Shisko Article Type: Tutorial, Product Review Every art form has its technological touchstone. Whether it’s a million purpura mollusk shells ground up to make the color “purple” or the Korg DX-7 defining a generation of music, technology has had a profound influence on art and design. With the release of After Effects 6.0, designers, animators and compositors have been given a radical new tool to push pixels around: call it Textacy. Alan Shisko talked with Steve Kilisky, Project Manager for Adobe After Effects about Textacy and how it all came about..

	Text that Blows away like Sand by Emanuel Eriksson Article Type: Tutorial 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.

John Fischer demonstrates Building a 3D Grid/Video Screen in After Effects by John Fischer Article Type: Tutorial John Fischer created a much more in-depth version of a combination of tutorials done by www.ayatoweb.com in response to several inquiries in the AE forum at Creativecow. This is a fairly time-intensive tutorial, but the end results are worth it! When you're done you should know much more about track mattes, and some basic 3D camera moves. Hopefully, it will also give you some new ideas to play around with. Enjoy!

Professional Motion Control “Photography” with After Effects and Photoshop by Richard Harrington Article Type: Tutorial In this article, Richard Harrington demonstrates a quick tip on how to combine Photoshop and After Effects to achieve high-quality motion control in those documentary-style pan and zooms. Copyright © 2003 by CMP Books, excerpted with permission from "Photoshop for Nonlinear Editors" by Richard Harrington, ISBN 1-57820-209-4 No part of this material may be reproduced or distributed in any form.

Extras: Creating Cogs and Gears in AE 5.5 by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial 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. If you do a search on the internet, it’s easy to find a range of techniques for creating cogs in Photoshop and Illustrator, and Illustrator even comes with a few included.

Part Four: Creating Cogs and Gears in AE 5.5 by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial 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. If you do a search on the internet, it’s easy to find a range of techniques for creating cogs in Photoshop and Illustrator, and Illustrator even comes with a few included.

Part Three: Creating Cogs and Gears in AE 5.5 by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial 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. If you do a search on the internet, it’s easy to find a range of techniques for creating cogs in Photoshop and Illustrator, and Illustrator even comes with a few included.

Part Two: Creating Cogs and Gears in AE 5.5 by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial 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. If you do a search on the internet, it’s easy to find a range of techniques for creating cogs in Photoshop and Illustrator, and Illustrator even comes with a few included.

Part One: Creating Cogs and Gears in AE 5.5 by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial 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. If you do a search on the internet, it’s easy to find a range of techniques for creating cogs in Photoshop and Illustrator, and Illustrator even comes with a few included.

	How to Create that Ripped Edges Effect by Richard Harrington Article Type: Tutorial In this article, Richard Harrington demonstrates a quick tip on how to create that Ripped Paper Effect. Copyright © 2003 by CMP Books, excerpted with permission from ''Photoshop for Nonlinear Editors'' by Richard Harrington, ISBN 1-57820-209-4 No part of this material may be reproduced or distributed in any form.

Cell Pattern And Favorites by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Transparency Maps & Custom Edges in Zaxwerks Invigorator Pro AE by Jon Okerstrom Article Type: Tutorial Invigorator is known around the world as the king of ''flying logo'' animations. No one does it better or faster. But Invigorator is capable of a lot more than that. A question posed by a user in the COW’s Invigorator forum proves the point. The challenge: how to create a 3D crown. The solution: Use a custom edge and a transparency map. Jon Okerstrom shows you how in this project. Download the files and follow along. You'll need Zaxwerk's Invigorator.

Animating a Butterfly by Marek Doszla Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Basic Shatter: Introduction to the Shatter Effect by Ben Unguren Article Type: Tutorial 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 very simple technique to help get you started with Shatter.

	Graphic Beds using Digital Anarchy's 3D Assistant by Doug Bassett Article Type: Tutorial There are many ways to create a graphic bed, but in this tutorial, Doug Bassett demonstrates a quick and easy method using 3D Assistant from Digital Anarchy. If you don't have the plugin, download the demo version

AE 5.5: Masks, Transfer Modes, Track Mattes, Time Remapping by Dave LaRonde Article Type: Tutorial 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: Masks, Transfer Modes, Track Mattes, Time Remapping for a little bit of fun, and as it turns outÉ Expressions!

	Building the World’s Greatest Cameraman with AE 5.5's Expression Controls by Dan Ebberts Article Type: Tutorial 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.

MAKING TEXT FLY by Marcus Geduld Article Type: Tutorial When Marcus Gedult 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.

Maya Camera Import into After Effects 5.5 by René de la Fuente Article Type: Tutorial It makes sense to use a 3D program to create a 3D scene; but what if you need to re-use the camera motion info from that scene for advanced compositing? In this tutorial, René de la Fuente and Will Scates walk through the basic steps needed to accomplish this using Alias|Wavefront's Maya 4 and Adobe After Effects v 5.5.

	Morphing In After Effects by Chris Zwar Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Moving Layer Masks on Glass by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial Kurt Murphy demonstrates the technique of moving layer masks on 2 sides of a glass cross in Zaxwerks Invigorator. This tutorial assumes that you have some previous exposure to the plug-in. If you don't have the plug-in, download the demo so that you can follow along. Kurt also completes the project by using the Write On to Reveal a 'handwritten script", Trapcode Shine and Lens Flare.

	nesting compositions - 1 by Ben Unguren Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Ben Unguren gives COW members a simple introduction to the concept of nesting. He assumes you have an understanding of what keyframes, layers and compositions are. This is in the Basics of After Effects Series.

	Color Grading in After Effects: Basic Color Control by Barend Onneweer Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Pan and Zoom with AE 5.5 by Matt Dallos Article Type: Tutorial Pan and Zoom. 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.

	Rotoscoping with Vector Paint by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Motion Sketch and the Smoother: The Racing Course by Ben Unguren Article Type: Tutorial By using motion sketch and the smoother, you can acheive a less ''computer-generated'' motion in your animations, and in less time. This tutorial 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.

	Cinema 4D import: Simple Color Correction by Thorn Article Type: Tutorial With AfterEffects 5.5, Adobe has truly delivered C4D users an excellent solution to assembling all of your 3D pieces. Cinema 4D and AfterEffects are a very powerful combination, and in this 3-part tutorial series, Thorn shows you how to get started in the world of multipass.

Layer Mapping in Invigorator by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial Serge Hamad demonstrates the technique of layer mapping in Zaxwerks Invigorator. This tutorial assumes that you have some previous exposure to the plug-in. If you don't have the plug-in, download the demo so that you can follow along. Serge uses the Pro Version, but you can accomplish the technique with the Classic Version as well.

	Synchronizing Animation to Audio Using After Effects’ Layer Markers and Expressions by Dan Ebberts Article Type: Tutorial 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.

A Beginner's course in 3D in AE 5.5 by Bjorn Sjostrom Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Getting Jiggy With the Wiggler by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Animating with the Parenting Features in AE 5.5 by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial An easy way to make any number of layers follow the movements of a single layer is to use the Parenting feature in After Effects 5.5. In this article, Serge Hamad demonstrates the power of parenting in some of the different situations you may encounter in your production studio instead of the usual robotic animation exercises that you may have seen elsewhere.

Using Fractal Noise to Create Fire by Matt Dallos Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Matt Dallos demonstrates using Fractal Noise in After Effects 5.5 to create fire. More specifically, he demonstrates the "Bonanza look" of a fire burning through a piece of paper. Yes, this effect could be generated in a 3d program or plugins, but why bother when you can do it with AE's own filter set. You can also use these same basic steps to create other plasma and liquid type effects.

	Time Remapping in After Effects by Bryan Preston Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Light Storm Effect by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial 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. This tutorial also uses AE 5.5's Vector Paint, Bezier Warp, Transfer Modes and Trapcode's Shine to create this very cool effect.

	Motion Blur with Shutter Angle and Phase Settings by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial 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

Using Vector Paint to create a color wall of splotches by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	BENDING LIGHT WITH BEZIER WARP by Bill O'Neil Article Type: Tutorial 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

Using Post Render Actions to Pre-render elements and create proxies in AE 5.5 by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial 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 through a corridor.

	Path Text: Advanced Settings by Ben Unguren Article Type: Tutorial With version 5.5 of After Effects, Adobe has included some new features in the path-text filter that can be quite cool SUCH AS THE ABILITY TO TREAT TEXT CHARACTERS AS INDIVIDUAL OBJECTS, BUT RETAIN THEIR CONNECTION TO A PATH. In this tutorial, Ben Unguren demonstrates how to use the filter to generate a dancing type-on effect.

	Generating Random Motion with AE 5.5's Expressions by Dan Ebberts Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Dan Ebberts demonstrates a method of generating motion that is random in both time and space and allows you to quickly assemble a composition with a pleasantly fluid, chaotic movement.

	Using Projection Layers to create a gobos and projector type effects by Rick Gerard Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Animating a Walk-Cycle Using Loop Expressions by Dan Ebberts Article Type: Tutorial 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 we’ll use one to loop a walk-cycle as you might do in a simple character animation.

	Liquid Lines by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Jim Tierney demonstrates using the GridLines filter in Geomancy to create some beautiful sweeping lines. This is something that would work really well as a background element or more as a foreground element if you're trying to communicate something like the flow of information.

	Parenting and Expressions by Dan Ebberts Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Creating an Audio LED Meter by Roland R. Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial In this Tutorial, Roland Kahlenberg demonstrates creating an 'as real as you want it to be' audio LED meter using Motion Math and Expressions. At the bottom of the page is a sample of its use in Roland's demo reel -- just to give you a 'real world' example.

Fun With Track Mattes: by Dave LaRonde Article Type: Tutorial Learning to use track mattes can be a valuable weapon in your After Effects arsenalÊ They're extremely versatile, and knowing how to use them can save you the time and expense of researching and buying yet another plug-in. A Creative Cow visitor wrote, 'I want to do a grid of small boxes that dissolve one row at a time, from bottom to top. What would be the fastest way to it?' A perfect opportunity to use track mattes! In this article, Dave LaRonde demonstrates the technique step by step.

	Understanding the use of square vs non-square pixels in AE by Rick Gerard Article Type: Tutorial Rick Gerard gives a glimpse of the inner workings of Adobe After Effects and explains exactly how AE mixes square and rectangular pixels. You'll never worry again about how to interpret footage. DV, HD, Wide Screen and Film comps will be a walk in the park.

	Layer Cycling in Invigorator Pro for After Effects by Jon Okerstrom Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Jon Okerstrom uses Adobe Illustrator and Invigorator Pro AE to demonstrate how Invigorator Pro AE can accomplish a 3D write-on effect.

	Creating Lord of the COW Ring with Zaxwerk's Invigorator by Serge Hamad Article Type: Tutorial Serge Hamad uses Zaxwerks Invigorator to create 'Lord of the COW Ring' in response to a question in the Zaxwerks COW. Everyone wanted to know how to recreate the ring in that much talked about movie, 'Lord of the Ring.

	Animating a Signature by Kevin Kantorski Article Type: Tutorial A year ago, Kevin Kantorski needed to create an animated signature. After a lot of research, he came up with the method in this tutorial. You don't need the production bundle for this one -- in fact, you can use AE 4.1 if you don't have 5.0.

Using GridSquares to Create Running Circles by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial Gridsquares is probably the best of the Geomancy filters to start off with. It's the most like a traditional particle system, and in fact, the only real difference is the use of the grid to control how the particles behave. In this tutorial, Jim Tierney explains the different parameters and helps take the 'fear' out of working with particle systems. You'll need Digital Anarchy's Geomancy filter for this.

	De-Interlacing the COW by Barend Onneweer Article Type: Tutorial Barend Onneweer describes the how, what and why of several methods of de-interlacing video-footage using Adobe After Effects.

	Sand Dune Effects with Digital Anarchy's Psunami by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Jim Tierney demonstrates a 'non-water' use for Digital Anarchy's newly acquired Psunami plug-in. Follow along and learn how to create your own 'Dune' world.

Trapcode Shine: Write it with Light by Mark Simpson Article Type: Tutorial Mark Simpson has written this tutorial in response to the many requests 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.

	Caustics: Dropping the Cow into A Pool of Water by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Jim Tierney creates the effect of an object dropping into water, using the Caustics and WaveWorld filters in Adobe After Effects.

	Creating an Invisible Man by Alan Hamill Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Smoke Effect by Alan Hamill Article Type: Tutorial Alan Hamill demonstrates the use of Particle Playground to simulate rising smoke.

Preparing a News Open: Basic and Path Text by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial 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. At the end of the animation, Kurt Murphy adds the titling for each heading (Local News, Morning News, etc.) using Basic Text. In this lesson, Kurt shows you some tricks to using Basic Text and follows with Path Text. And then... Finishes with the Arc Reflection. This is the completion of the series.

Blowing Smoke Using Digital Anarchy's Geomancy by Jim Tierney Article Type: Tutorial The HairLines filter in Geomancy was originally designed to simulate streams of liquid. It does this very well, but that organic type of motion lends itself to other effects, such as smoke. In this tutorial, Jim Tierney demonstrates how to get some slightly stylized, but realistically moving, smoke. This useful for cigarettes, smoldering fires, or the occasionaly disintergrating gerbil. However, this tutorial will focus on the streams of smoke, and won't be getting into the finer points of spontaneously combusting rodents. This tutorial will work with either the release or demo version of Hairlines.

	3D Schematic Grid -- from Illustrator to After Effects by Jayse Hansen Article Type: Tutorial 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.

	Creating Surreal Clouds without Plug-ins by Jayse Hansen Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Preparing a News Open: Logo Touches by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial 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 part seven of the series, Kurt adds a few touches to the logo - a blur, a lens flare, a drop shadow - little touches added to 'fine tune' the look.

	Preparing a News Open: Open Beauty Shot by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial 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 part six of the series, Kurt integrates the "beauty shots" into the design.

	Preparing a News Open: Introducing the text: Local Coverage by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial 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 part five of the series, Kurt adds some text to his sequence.

Preparing a News Open: Arc Highlight & Arc Flare by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial Join noted broadcast designer Kurt Murphy as he outlines the steps he used to re-create the on-air identity of KVEW television, an ABC affiliate in Washington state. In this on-going series, Kurt explores design issues as well as set-up short-cuts and tricks. In part four of the series, Kurt adds some highlights to his design components. Join in, you will enjoy this great series.

	Adding Z-Depth to your Logo Using AE5 PB by Roland Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial Ever wanted to extrude a logo in After Effects but 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.

Preparing a News Open: Creating the Background by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial Join noted broadcast designer Kurt Murphy as he outlines the steps he used to re-create the on-air identity of KVEW television, an ABC affiliate in Washington state. In this on-going series, Kurt explores design issues as well as set-up short-cuts and tricks. In Part One, he introduces the subject and then sets out to create it. Join in, you will enjoy this great series.

Precomposing in After Effects by Bryan Preston Article Type: Tutorial 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. He also adds some secrets he's learned in using precomps to manage both files and projects more efficiently. 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.

	Precomposing in After Effects by Barry McWilliams Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Preparing a News Open: Adding WOW to the Logo by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial In Part Two of the series, noted broadcast designer Kurt Murphy expands on the logo that the client chose in Part One. Here, Kurt takes the EPS files into After Effects and uses the 3D powers of Zaxwerks Invigorator to bring the ''Wow!'' to the on-air identity Kurt creates for KVEW. Even if you do not have the Invigorator, this is a great article for AE and other users as it shows the process used by a respected artist in action.

Preparing a News Open: Choosing the Logo by Kurt Murphy Article Type: Tutorial Join noted broadcast designer Kurt Murphy as he outlines the steps he used to re-create the on-air identity of KVEW television, an ABC affiliate in Washington state. In this on-going series, Kurt explores design issues as well as set-up short-cuts and tricks. In Part One, he introduces the subject and then sets out to create it. Join in, you will enjoy this great series.

Expressions are FUN! by Ben Unguren Article Type: Tutorial 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. If you are unfamiliar with expressions in After Effects 5, you may want to read the chapter 'Creating Expressions' in the After Effects 5.0 manual before continuing with this tutorial.

	Shine Video Wall in AE 5 by Jayse Hansen Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Expressions in After Effects: Animating without Keyframes by Roland R. Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial As many of you know by now, AE 5.0 has introduced a new feature called Expressions. Experienced users akin it to Motion Math, although they are quite different. 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.

	Making Titles or Objects Turn to Smoke and Disappear by AUTHORVIEW Article Type: Tutorial The illusion of making something go up in smoke tends to be popular all the time. Here Tobias Lind provides a quick tutorial on how to make this happen in After Effects. The result is pretty cool and quite realistic as you'll see for yourself. And it contains no particles.

	Cult Effects Paint: Wiggle Controls! by Kathlyn Lindeboom Article Type: Tutorial Kathlyn Lindeboom takes a look at some of the tools in Cult Effects 1.5. This tutorial uses Cult Effects CE Paint along with 'Wiggle' Controls and the CE Checker filter. CE Paint is the new Vector Paint in Adobe After Effects 5.0 Pro Bundle.

	Particle Playground: Experimenting with the COW by Roland R. Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial 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.

Cool Moves With The Wiggler by Kathlyn Lindeboom Article Type: Tutorial Kathlyn Lindeboom gives users a look at some of the tools in Cult Effects 1.5. This second tutorial in a series uses Cult Effects CE Paint along with 1.5's new 'Wiggle' Controls. In this tutorial, we'll animate the Displacement Variation in the Wiggle Control in order to make the strokes dance into place. Cult Effects Paint is the Vector Paint in Adobe After Effects 5.

	Confetti: Making it with Cult Effects Paint or AE5's Vector Paint by Kathlyn Lindeboom Article Type: Tutorial Kathlyn Lindeboom gives users a look at some of the tools in Cult Effects 1.5. This third tutorial in a series uses Cult Effects CE Paint along with 1.5's new 'Wiggle' Controls. In this tutorial, we'll make confetti. Cult Effects Paint is the Vector Paint in Adobe After Effects 5.

Rork-n-scroll: A Guide to Scrolling Titles with Path Text by Roland R. Kahlenberg Article Type: Tutorial As part of our Motion Graphics repertoire, we're occasionally requested to perform the traditional right-to-left and bottom-to-top text scrolls. Suffice it to say that it is one of the more frequent client-requests. In this tutorial, Roland Kahlenberg explores a method to add some variation to the conventional look of a scroll while still maintaining a high level of legibility.

	Faking An Iris: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sphere! by Rick Gerard Article Type: Tutorial Rick Gerard explores some methods of simulating a camera lens. In this tutorial, Rick uses the Boris Sphere Plug-In for After Effects.

	Procedural Matte Creation by Barend Onneweer Article Type: Tutorial Barend Onneweer explains Procedural matte creation by combining multiple keying types into a single matte for extensive control over the final matte. This is essential for pulling those difficult mattes from badly lit greenscreens.

Simulating a Tornado in After Effects by Mark Simpson Article Type: Tutorial Mark Simpson uses the masking capabilities of After Effects along with some 3rd party plug-ins to simulate an animated Tornado. This tutorial is in response to the many requests about how to make a Tornado in After Effects. This simple tutorial uses the pen tool to create multiple masks in conjunction with the 'Turbulator' plug-in, to make a quick and dirty Tornado. It can't compete with the advanced particle emitters of a dedicated 3D app, but it is sure to be useful in some instances, where the lack of time or high end 3D tools required for a fully realistic tornado are not available.

	Morphing With Adobe Illustrator by Rick Gerard Article Type: Tutorial Rick Gerard, a frequent visitor and contributor in the Creative COW After Effects Community explores some methods of morphing text using new features in Adobe Illustrator 9.0.

	Flags: blowing in the wind by Kathlyn Lindeboom Article Type: Tutorial The illusion of making a flag blow in the wind tends to be popular all the time. Here Kathlyn Lindeboom provides a quick tutorial on how to make this happen easily in After Effects using Forge FreeForm 2. The result is pretty cool and quite realistic as you'll see for yourself.

Using Cult Effects 'CE Lightning' & Evolution 'Foam' to grow a tree by Mark Simpson Article Type: Tutorial Mark Simpson uses Cult Effects 'CE Lightning', 'CE Radial Shadow' and Atomic Power Evolution 'Foam' effects to simulate a time-lapse like effect of tree being grown out of the ground and then leaves growing on the tree. This tutorial could easily be adapted to be used with the built-in plug-ins of AE 5.

	Making a Real Aperture: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Illustrator by Rick Gerard Article Type: Tutorial Rick Gerard explores some methods of simulating a camera lens. In this tutorial, Rick uses Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects to create the aperture.

Animating the Universal Cow by Rick Gerard Article Type: Tutorial 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). A new way of thinking about layers in AE is required. It's easy to grasp once you stand back from the project a little. Let's proceed.

Animating Skies and Writing Text With Light! by Mark Simpson Article Type: Tutorial Mark Simpson uses The Foundry 'Tinderbox' plug-ins, T_Sky, T_Rays, & T_Blur filters to create some unique text effects against an artificial sky. In this first look at the new TinderBox series from The Foundry -- Mark Simpson explores some of the powers of the incredible fractal skies plug-in and the beauty of the TinderBox Rays plug-in. Mark's conclusions give high praise to a new set of AE plug-ins just beginning to grow in popularity among After Effects users.

	Evolution 'Card Wipe': Simulating an LED Style Audio Meter by Mark Simpson Article Type: Tutorial Mark Simpson uses Atomic Power Evolution 'Card Wipe' effect and Adobe After Effects Production Bundle's 'Motion Math' to simulate an LED style Audio Meter.

	Evolution 'Shatter': Blowing text off a page by Mark Simpson Article Type: Tutorial Mark Simpson uses Atomic Power Evolution 'Shatter' effect and Adobe Illustrator to simulate text being blown off of a page. Evolution is built into After Effects 5.0. This tutorial should be easily adapted for use with AE 5.

	Creating a Flowing Title Effect by George Polevoy Article Type: Tutorial George Polevoy explores a method of creating a flowing title effect in Adobe After Effects. With this technique, you can add a variety of effects, such as smoke or fire, as well as an abstract 'flowing' for a visual element.

Cloud Fly Through by Richard Rippon Article Type: Tutorial In this tutorial, Richard Rippon will show you how to simulate flying through a cloud bank using After Effects 5 new 3-D capabilities. We will primarily be working with the layers Z position, so we won’t even scratch the surface of After Effects 5 new capabilities. To create the clouds we will use After Effects Fractal Noise plug-in and Boris Clouds plug-in, which may be found in Boris AE and Boris Continuum. If you have your own way for making your clouds it should also work.