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Eran Stern ~ Tornado Text, part 1
Aharon Rabinowitz ~ AE Quick Tips #4: Copy Expression Only
Aharon Rabinowitz ~ AE Quick Tips #3: Show Waveform
Aharon Rabinowitz ~ AE Quick Tips #2: Preserve Transparency
Grant Swanson ~ Mystic Text
Aharon Rabinowitz ~ AE Quick Tips #1: Grow Bounds
Jeff Bellune ~ Igniting a Soccer Ball, part 3
Eran Stern ~ Afterista: part two
Jeff Bellune ~ Igniting a Soccer Ball, part two
Michael Park ~ Creating Advanced Glitter using Expressions with Trapcode Particular


Talid Al Khatib Talid Al Khatib
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Creating an Animated Volume Meter Creating an Animated Volume Meter

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating Powerful Motion with Simple Expressions in AE Creating Powerful Motion with Simple Expressions in AE

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).

Tutorial
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Trent Armstrong Trent Armstrong
view bio
Adobe After Effects Expressions
Animating Text Reflections with Expressions Animating Text Reflections with Expressions

In this tutorial from Creative COW Contributing Editor Trent Armstrong, you'll see how to use Expressions to animate reflected light across text. You can get great results using only ingredients included free with AE, including track mattes and the AE Camera.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Making Light Disappear & Reappear Behind Objects Using Expressions Making Light Disappear & Reappear Behind Objects Using Expressions

Learn how to save time and money using Expressions to create an otherwise difficult effect: animating the visibility of a lens flare as it passes behind objects -- including ones that aren't completely opaque.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects Expressions
Swinging A Realistic Chain Swinging A Realistic Chain

Creative COW member Trent Armstrong shows you expression features that apply all the way from After Effects 5 to today. He combines his experience as an average expressions user with tips and shortcuts for many core features that every AE user will be able to start using today.

Tutorial
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Doug Bassett Doug Bassett
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Expressions Without the Math Expressions Without the Math

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Graphic Beds using Digital Anarchy's 3D Assistant Graphic Beds using Digital Anarchy's 3D Assistant

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

Tutorial
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Jeff Bellune Jeff Bellune
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Igniting a Soccer Ball, part 3 Igniting a Soccer Ball, part 3

In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Jeff Bellune demonstrates how to use the tools available in particleIllusion and After Effects to get a particle emitter source to track an element in a video clip. Part Three shows how to mask the emitter layer in an After Effects composition, so that the emitter appears to be placed properly in the scene relative to the other video elements.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
particle Illusion
Igniting a Soccer Ball, part two Igniting a Soccer Ball, part two

In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Jeff Bellune demonstrates how to use the tools available in particleIllusion and After Effects to get a particle emitter source to track an element in a video clip. Part Two concerns the animation of the emitter itself so that it accurately tracks the video element.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
particle Illusion
Igniting a Soccer Ball, part one Igniting a Soccer Ball, part one

In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Leader Jeff Bellune demonstrates how to use the tools available in particleIllusion and After Effects to get a particle emitter source to track an element in a video clip. Part One details how to animate the Layer Offset in particleIllusion to eliminate motion in the clip that is caused by movement of the camera that filmed the scene.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
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Joe Chao Joe Chao
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Learning Basic AE Tips while Creating a Genie and Lamp: Part 3 Learning Basic AE Tips while Creating a Genie and Lamp: Part 3

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Basic Lighting Effects Basic Lighting Effects

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Using CC Filters and Displacement Maps to Create Fire Using CC Filters and Displacement Maps to Create Fire

In this tutorial, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor Joe Chao creates ethereal fire using some of the CC filters and displacement maps in After Effects.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Learning Basic AE Tips while Creating a Genie and Lamp Learning Basic AE Tips while Creating a Genie and Lamp

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
How to make a Text Stream using Expressions How to make a Text Stream using Expressions

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating Paper Ribbons and Confetti Creating Paper Ribbons and Confetti

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating a Logo Assembling Animation Creating a Logo Assembling Animation

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
How to make a Traditional Chinese Painting Effect How to make a Traditional Chinese Painting Effect

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.

Tutorial
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Brendan Coots Brendan Coots
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Color Correction Techniques for Greenscreen Compositing Color Correction Techniques for Greenscreen Compositing

This tutorial from Brendan Coots focuses on color correction techniques for greenscreen compositing, including the construction of artificial highlights to add an extra layer of realism to your shots.

Tutorial
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Matt Dallos Matt Dallos
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Pan and Zoom with AE 5.5 Pan and Zoom with AE 5.5

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Using Fractal Noise to Create Fire Using Fractal Noise to Create Fire

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.

Tutorial
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René de la Fuente
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Maya Camera Import into After Effects 5.5 Maya Camera Import into After Effects 5.5

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, Ren 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.

Tutorial
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Tielman Dewaele Tielman Dewaele
view bio
Adobe After Effects
A Ring of Cows A Ring of Cows

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.

Tutorial
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John Starr Dewar John Starr Dewar
view bio
Adobe After Effects
How To Use Light Spill for Better Composites Without Plug-ins How To Use Light Spill for Better Composites Without Plug-ins

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.

Tutorial
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John Dickinson John Dickinson
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Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects 7 Interface Adobe After Effects 7 Interface

After Effects 7 has introduced us to a brand new unified interface. In this video tutorial, CreativeCOW leader, John Dickinson demonstrates how to navigate that interface.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
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Marek Doszla Marek Doszla
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Animating a Butterfly Animating a Butterfly

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.

Tutorial
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Jerzy Drozda Jr Jerzy Drozda Jr
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Studying Shape Extruder Studying Shape Extruder

After publishing his ShapeExtruder, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) got tons of emails asking for further explanation, so in this follow-up tutorial, Jerzy answers the most commonly asked questions.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Particle Playground on Ice Particle Playground on Ice

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how to generate snow using particle playground. He'll also show how to make the snow stick to other layers in your composition.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
CE ColorCorrector CE ColorCorrector

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how to change the look and feel of your footage easily with his new, useful CustomEffect for color correction.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Particle Playground on Fire Particle Playground on Fire

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how to generate particles from live action footage without using any keyframes or expressions.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
CE Shape Extruder CE Shape Extruder

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how you can extrude any vector based layer to give it a real 3D look inside After Effects.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects Expressions
CE Pixel Sampler CE Pixel Sampler

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how you can simplify the keying process, trigger expression events to control layers of your choice, and even do an automatic collision detection. Possibilities are endless.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Volumetric Lights Volumetric Lights

In this short video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates creating some cool volumetric lights without any plug-ins.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
CE Time Shuffle CE Time Shuffle

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates time jittering effects using one of his presets. You may have seen this effect in movies like The Ring, The Cell, or Fight Club. You may still create this kind of effect simply by playing with the TimeRemap function, but it's much easier using this preset.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Simple Object Removal Simple Object Removal

In this video tutorial, from Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon), you will learn basic techniques for removing unwanted objects from your footage.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Photoshoping in After Effects Photoshoping in After Effects

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) helps all you Photoshopers out there by preparing few presets that will enable you to work in After Effects the same way you work in Photoshop.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Radio Detection and Ranging Radio Detection and Ranging

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how to create a radar that really works! You'll draw the radar, animate the target over it, and watch how the radar detects the object by itself, marks it on the grid and even makes a beeping sound.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Building and Animating a CG Snake Building and Animating a CG Snake

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) demonstrates how to create a dynamic animation based on a 'chain rig'. You'll learn how to animate one layer using keyframes, expressions, or both, and make other layers follow the leading layer. The rest of the tutorial is about texturing and making the final look.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Using Expressions to Create a Volume Meter Using Expressions to Create a Volume Meter

In this video tutorial, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) shows you a smart way of creating dynamic and sound reactive Volume Meter.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
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Dan Ebberts Dan Ebberts
view bio
Adobe After Effects
noise() noise()

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

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Expressions in Adobe After Effects 6 Expressions in Adobe After Effects 6

With After Effects 6.0, Adobe has introduced some wonderful new functionality to the world of expressions. Most of this is the result of spectacular new features that have been added to After Effects that were not necessarily aimed at expressions but nonetheless dramatically increase the power available to the expression writer. There have also been a few changes and enhancements to the expression language itself.

Review, Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Building the World's Greatest Cameraman Building the World's Greatest Cameraman

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Synchronizing Animation to Audio Using After Effects Synchronizing Animation to Audio Using After Effects

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Generating Random Motion with AE 5.5's Expressions Generating Random Motion with AE 5.5's Expressions

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Animating a Walk-Cycle Using Loop Expressions Animating a Walk-Cycle Using Loop Expressions

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Parenting and Expressions Parenting and Expressions

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Building Your Own 3D Particle Generator Building Your Own 3D Particle Generator

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.

Tutorial
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Emanuel Eriksson Emanuel Eriksson
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Text that Blows away like Sand Text that Blows away like Sand

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.

Tutorial
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Fang Xiang Fang Xiang
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Using Motion Sketch to build a Spiral Path in 3D Space Using Motion Sketch to build a Spiral Path in 3D Space

In this article, Fang Xiang demonstrates using motion sketch and an expression to build a spiral path in 3D space.

Tutorial
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John Fischer John Fischer
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Adobe After Effects
John Fischer demonstrates Building a 3D Grid/Video Screen in After Effects John Fischer demonstrates Building a 3D Grid/Video Screen in After Effects

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!

Tutorial
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Jim Geduldick
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Using the AE CS3 Puppet Tool with Motion Particles Using the AE CS3 Puppet Tool with Motion Particles

In this article, Toolfarm's Jim Geduldick talks about his workflow for using Apple Motion's particles with the AE CS3's Puppet tool.

Tutorial
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Marcus Geduld Marcus Geduld
view bio
Adobe After Effects
MAKING TEXT FLY MAKING TEXT FLY

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.

Tutorial
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Rick Gerard Rick Gerard
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Expressing the Camera: Animating Along a Path Expressing the Camera: Animating Along a Path

Rick Gerard presents a five minute tutorial movie in which you'll learn how to simplify animating a camera over a still image and how to orient the camera along a path using expressions to gain compete complete control.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Animating a Camera: Tracking to a Null Object Animating a Camera: Tracking to a Null Object

Rick Gerard presents a five minute tutorial movie, you'll learn how to simplify animating a camera over a still image and how to control where the camera is looking by tracking the movement of a null with a simple expression.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Using Projection Layers to create a gobos and projector type effects Using Projection Layers to create a gobos and projector type effects

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Understanding the use of square vs non-square pixels in AE Understanding the use of square vs non-square pixels in AE

Rick Gerard gives a glimpse of the inner workings of Adobe After Effects and explains exactly how AE mixes square and rectangular pixels. Youll never worry again about how to interpret footage. DV, HD, Wide Screen and Film comps will be a walk in the park.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Faking An Iris: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sphere! Faking An Iris: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sphere!

Rick Gerard explores some methods of simulating a camera lens. In this tutorial, Rick uses the Boris Sphere Plug-In for After Effects.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Animating the Universal Cow Animating the Universal Cow

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.

Tutorial
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Serge Hamad Serge Hamad
view bio
Zaxwerks
Understanding Custom Edges Understanding Custom Edges

In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader Serge Hamad demonstrates everything you need to know about creating a Custom Edge in Zaxwerks Invigorator and ProAnimator.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating a 3D Filmstrip or Flowing Ribbon Creating a 3D Filmstrip or Flowing Ribbon

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating the Egg: Part 5 of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad Creating the Egg: Part 5 of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Building the Cage: Part 4 of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad Building the Cage: Part 4 of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating Shockwaves: Part Three of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad Creating Shockwaves: Part Three of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating Planets & Auras: Part Two of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad Creating Planets & Auras: Part Two of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad

Many of you have seen Serge Hamads 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. Youll need Image Lounge and Knolls Light Factory from Red Giant Software and Zaxwerks Invigorator. If you dont have these plug-ins, download the demos to follow along.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating a Nebula: Part One of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad Creating a Nebula: Part One of the Golden COW by Serge Hamad

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Layer Mapping in Invigorator Layer Mapping in Invigorator

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Animating with the Parenting Features in AE 5.5 Animating with the Parenting Features in AE 5.5

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Using Post Render Actions to Pre-render elements and create proxies in AE 5.5 Using Post Render Actions to Pre-render elements and create proxies in AE 5.5

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.

Tutorial
Zaxwerks
Creating Lord of the COW Ring with Zaxwerk's Invigorator Creating Lord of the COW Ring with Zaxwerk's Invigorator

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.

Tutorial
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Alan Hamill Alan Hamill
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Smoke Effect Smoke Effect

Alan Hamill demonstrates the use of Particle Playground to simulate rising smoke.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating an Invisible Man Creating an Invisible Man

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.

Tutorial
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Jayse Hansen Jayse Hansen
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Growing Design Elements in After Effects Growing Design Elements in After Effects

In this video tutorial, Jayse Hansen demonstrates how to create graphic elements that will grow in After Effects. This question comes up in the forums all the time. Now we have a step by step tutorial.

Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating Surreal Clouds without Plug-ins Creating Surreal Clouds without Plug-ins

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
3D Schematic Grid -- from Illustrator to After Effects 3D Schematic Grid -- from Illustrator to After Effects

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Shine Video Wall in AE 5 Shine Video Wall in AE 5

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.

Tutorial
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Philip Hodgetts Philip Hodgetts
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Displacement Mapping in After Effects Displacement Mapping in After Effects

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.

Tutorial
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Karl Holt Karl Holt
view bio
Adobe After Effects
SynthEyes 3-D Camera Tracker SynthEyes 3-D Camera Tracker

If your are unfamiliar with 3D camera tracking software, SynthEyes 3-D Camera Tracker is a tool which will analyze moving 2D video footage by tracking points of reference frame by frame. From this, it can reproduce an accurate 3D camera which matches the properties and movement of the real-world camera you used to shoot the sequence. In this review/tutorial, Karl Holt gives us an indepth look along with a lot of tips for using the software.

Review, Tutorial
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Joel Hooton Joel Hooton
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Synchronizing Video to Audio with Layer Markers and Expression Sets Synchronizing Video to Audio with Layer Markers and Expression Sets

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.

Tutorial
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John David Hutton John David Hutton
view bio
Adobe After Effects
After Effects and the VTFS System from dps Velocity After Effects and the VTFS System from dps Velocity

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.

Tutorial
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Colin James Colin James
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Creating a Glassy Look using Adobe After Effects Creating a Glassy Look using Adobe After Effects

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.

Tutorial
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Graham Jones Graham Jones
view bio
Adobe After Effects
Using After Effects 7 on Intel MacPro Computers Using After Effects 7 on Intel MacPro Computers

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.

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Roland R. Kahlenberg Roland R. Kahlenberg
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Adobe After Effects
Creating Footage with Shatter and Particle Playground Creating Footage with Shatter and Particle Playground

In this tutorial, Roland R. Kahlenberg, CreativeCOW's resident Particle Playground expert, shows off the versatility of Particle Playground and Shatter to create a Shattering World Effect. He demonstrates how you can create a little ooomph and wow factor just by using what is already in After Effects.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Two or Three Color Special Effect Two or Three Color Special Effect

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Fun in Particle Playground Land Fun in Particle Playground Land

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Creating an Audio LED Meter Creating an Audio LED Meter

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.

Tutorial
Adobe After Effects
Adding Z-Depth to your Logo Using AE5 PB Adding Z-Depth to your Logo Using AE5 PB

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.

Tutorial