After Effects Archives - Page 4 of 7

This Script has been updated for AE CC2021 on 12-17-2021

Create a Free or a Pro account, then simply click the link above to download! This script was built with an older version of After Effects, but is completely compatible. If you have errors appearing, please go to File > Project Settings > Expressions and change your expression engine from JavaScript to Legacy ExtendScript

Creating holograms in After Effects is about to get a lot more fun with the release of our latest script.

These effects are one of the most requested on ProductionCrate, our library of thousands of digital assets to help build your creative endeavours. We know that often you will need to control what’s projected in the hologram, which is why we released this tool to help you do exactly that.

Not only can you download it for free, but using it to create your After Effects hologram is a one-click process!

Every feature that you could possibly need was built into the script. This includes:

Color
Glow
Projection Rays
Chromatic Aberration
Scan Lines
Displacement
Flicker
Signal Interference
Framerate
Pixelate
Blur
Sharpen

All properties are fully customisable, meaning no matter what style you were aiming for, you’ll get there.

If you wanted to save your customised hologram, you can also click Animation -> Save Animation Preset to be able to apply it to any other shots you may have.

And if you wanted to save time, you might be interested in checking out the presets that we have built into the script. You can navigate through these by clicking the arrows on the pop-up window. These have been built to mimic some of the most recognisable movie holograms, referencing Star Wars, Iron Mans HUD, Aquaman and more.

To download and install the script, open up After Effects and navigate through File -> Scripts -> Run Script File. Find a folder you wish to keep the script, then extract both the images folder and “Crates Camera Script.jsx” to the new location. Double click the .jsx file and you’ll be ready to create your holograms in an instant!

If you’re wanting to save even more time, you can download these HD hologram VFX assets for your video.

Using VFX Assets in 60fps (After Effects + Premiere Pro)

in After Effects, Featured, Premiere, Visual FX/by David Blaker

So you’ve embarked on a video editing project at 60fps? Here’s a little thing you might want to know!

For those who need an introduction, the “fps” refers to how quickly a video will switch between individual pictures to create the illusion of a movement, which begins at roughly 15 frames per second.

So why would you want to create a 60fps project if most video formats are at a standard 24-30fps? For one simple reason: it’s satisfyingly silky smooth.

Other than it’s an impressive visual effect, it can also help out for a variety of purposes. For example, gameplay videos are often recorded at 60fps since the games strive for immersion, and so this smooth playback helps gives the game a more natural look.

Another case is for motion graphics, where a clean art style compliments the fluid framerate. This is common in infographics, such as a personal favourite from the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt.

So what do you need to do to your ProductionCrate workflow to make the assets you download fit into your scene? As you may know, most of our FootageCrate elements are 30fps, so here is what we suggest to make it work.

Introducing a much-loved technique, time interpolation! This handy tool is the computer taking a guess at what is happening between two images. From the guess, it then creates an image which is what it predicts the image to look like halfway between the first and the second image. This means you can convert a 30fps asset into 60fps, as the software will create the 30 extra frames out of thin air. We need to apply the interpolation to the 30fps asset to convert it to 60fps.

Most mid-tier editing software supports this. Here’s how you’ll find them:

After Effects

– Right-click on the ProductionCrate asset, go through Effects -> Time -> Time Warp.

– Set the speed to 50%, and make sure your project is in 60fps.

Premiere Pro

– Right-click on your ProductionCrate asset, and select “Speed/Duration”.

– Adjust the speed parameter to 50%.

– Choose Optical Flow as the Time Interpolation method.

Congratulations, your video is now as smooth as butter!

If you’re interested in levelling up your compositing skills, you might also be interested in our recent rotoscoping course!

Rotoscoping Tricks in Adobe After Effects and Mocha AE

in After Effects, Featured, Written Tutorials/by Chris Kelly

Adrian Jensen recently created this Pro VFX Course teaching you his techniques for rotoscoping in Adobe After Effects and Mocha AE. Here are some highlights from his course, Pro Users can view the entire roto-series here. If you’re rotoscoping to place video effects behind your subject or to integrate Motion Graphics into your project then this course is for you.

Rotoscope with Masking in After Effects

This is the most common technique for rotoscoping in After Effects. Some think it is antiquated, however we utilize it all the time.

When you’re using masks to roto in After Effects don’t try to use one mask. This may seem like the correct approach at first, but you’ll quick realize how complex and messy it will become. Instead, break up your subject(s) with multiple masks, this will speed up your workflow tremendously.

A lot of tutorials suggest a fixed number of frames to move before keyframing. Adrian suggests keyframing your masks at the point of most-motion as a better approach.

There are two different kinds of masks you can use, Adrian prefers the Auto-Bezier mask option.

Remember, you can double click your masks and rotate them, this will save time, especially for rigid body objects. You don’t have to move each mask point by point every time.

Color code your masks. This will help distinguish them from one another, and will help if your mask looks too similar to the subject you are trying to roto out.

Rotoscoping with Mocha AE

Adrian’s preferred method for rotoscoping is Mocha AE.

Mocha AE comes with After Effects and is a terrific tool for motion tracking and rotoscoping work.

You can track multiple masks (or ‘layers’) at one time with Mocha AE. Adrian still recommends multiple masks for your subject, instead of attempting one mask.

When using Mocha AE set your spline up and let it track all the way through before making any adjustments.

Lock your mask when you are done with it, you can turn off the Gear icon to disable processing.

Want to learn more? Visit Adrian’s Pro Rotoscoping Course and get your roto-game leveled up. Adrian covers masking, Mocha, the Roto Brush Tool and even techniques to avoid rotoscoping entirely.

Creating Earthbender VFX

in After Effects, Featured, Visual FX/by David Blaker

Recently we’ve had a dig at creating one of our most epic shots in ProductionCrate history – Earthbending!

We utilised the full range of FootageCrate content to help us achieve this destruction VFX. After building out the scene in 3ds Max, smoke bursts, shockwaves and debris elements from FootageCrate (which you can download here) brought the compositing to the next level.

Our powerful Camera Shake Script also gave us control over realistically jolting the camera to fully immerse our viewers into this clip.

The crashing elements from SoundsCrate can also help build the action.

We used 3ds Max and After Effects as our choice of software, though anyone wishing to follow along will be able to use almost any program that has the same features!

Head over to our recent Davesplanation video to check out how we did it!

We hope projects like these inspire you to create your next epic project using ProductionCrate assets.

You can check out our previous Davesplanation, where we destroyed a plane!

How to Make an 8-Bit Effect

in After Effects, Featured, Visual FX, Written Tutorials/by Chris Kelly

8-Bit is back! You’ve probably noticed the growing popularity of this retro style. We’ve seen it in titles and openers, logo animations, indie games, VFX Shorts and many more. Let’s take a look at how to achieve this style. We’ll be using After Effects but if you’re a Hitfilm User you can find an awesome tutorial here.

We’ll show you how to make this 8-Bit style in AE, but you can also download the preset here

For our effect we chose this aerial explosion from the popular Anime and Toon Category to give it that 8-Bit look.

Import your clip or effect into After Effects.

A popular technique in AE for achieving the 8-Bit look is by using the Mosaic Effect, but we find it far too difficult to achieve the perfect squares and pixelation needed to pull this effect off. Instead, we’re going to use CC Block Load.

Drag CC Block Load onto your footage. Set the Completion to 0. We set our Scans to 3. For the number of scans, use to your discretion. Uncheck the Start Cleared selection.

Classic 8-Bit games were limited in what colors were available. While our explosion doesn’t appear to have too many colors, we can still limit the variation and add some color degradation with the Posterize Effect.

Add the Posterize Effect to your layer. You will instantly notice some color degradation. Play with the level. Depending on your footage you can find the right look for you. We suggest adding these effects to individual layers but staying consistent with the CC Block Load scan number for pixel consistency.

One additional item you can change is your composition’s framerate. We are going to change our comp’s from 29.97fps to 15fps. To do this you can go to Composition>Settings or just hit Control K (Command K for Mac) and change your framerate there.

For the final step we want to get rid of those semi-transparent pixels. This can be done quickly with the Levels effect. Drop the levels effect onto your layer, and select the Alpha option from the drop-down.

Select the Alpha Input White number (32768) and type /2 for (32768/2) and deselect. Now your number will read half of that, or 16384. Copy that number and paste it into your Input Black. Now you have crunched out those semi-transparent pixels!

Now you have your 8-Bit style. Mess around with the Anime FX and see what works best for you.

Want to keep learning? Check out this Bouncey Text Tutorial in After Effects

Download Ancient Temple Matte-Painting Assets

in After Effects, Featured, Visual FX/by David Blaker

Download ancient temple matte-painting assets here

We have uncovered a collection of ancient structure assets for your VFX and matte-painting projects.

With several different lighting angles, such as overcast and sunny. These effects are built to match your footage without any hassle!

All of our Free users can access these high-quality graphics, which all have been built with scalability in mind, so whether it’s a tight shot or a wide angle, your VFX will blend in realistically. Pro users can download these at full-resolution (4K)!

You can combine these with our apocalyptic overhanging-vine and destruction graphics to blend the temple into your scenery, giving the appearance that the abandoned temple has been left there for centuries.

If you’re interested in creating your own, we have a special new category of 3D ancient structure assets! These are perfect for your game level designs, 3D renders and VFX! But we’ll get into the full power of these 3D assets in a future article.

Want to know more about our GraphicsCrate library of thousands of matte-painting VFX goodies? Check out our apocalypse effects!

Crate’s Free Text Animator script for After Effects! (Download)

in After Effects, Featured, Motion Graphics, Scripts and Plugins/by David Blaker

Download the Crate’s Text Animator script for After Effects here

All ProductionCrate members can now download the exciting Text Animation script for free!

This exciting addition to the range of tools gives you the power to create fun animations for your text – with a single click.

With 25 hand-made presets to choose from, you’ll never run out of a fresh way to liven up your videos, commercials or presentations! The presets include glitches, fly-ins, slides, spins and more.

Without the script, to create a text animation graphic in After Effects, you may spend hours manually adjusting countless keyframes and meticulously modifying their speed, opacity, motion blur and many other parameters. This script puts an end to the suffering, doing all of the work for you within seconds!

To give you even more control, our script creates a Null object that contains adjustable parameters, so you can tweak your design to perfection even after generation.

Let’s take a look at the After Effects script:

Choose Animation – This opens up the range of presets that you can choose from.

Eye Icon – Generate a preview that helps you see what the animation looks like.

Text – Enter what you want to be displayed!

Preset Parameters – Once you’ve selected a template, a number of sliders will appear that lets you customize each preset to meet your expectations. These are also accessible through the Null object that is generated with the preset.

Create New Comp – Enabling this creates the new text in a new composition. Disabling will generate the text in your selected composition.

Preview All – A handy tool that creates a grid previewing all the available presets

Create – Once you’re happy with your settings, hit this and let the script make your text come to life!

The script has been built to balance simplicity with function, so whether you’re a Vlogger wanting to spice up your editing skills, or are building a title card for a blockbuster movie, this script is for you!

To install the script, extract the files from the download, and drop “Crate’s Text Animator.jsx” folder into your After Effects > Scripts folder. You then can run the script by heading through File -> Scripts -> Crate’s Callout Script.jsx.

We’re excited to see what you create with this script! If you’re interested in our other After Effects scripts, extensions and plugins, check out this page here.

Create Callouts for Free in After Effects (Script Download)

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by David Blaker

Creating callouts for your video can often be a complicated and time-consuming process, though all that is about to change…

We’ve created a free powerful script for Adobe After Effects that can do all the work for you in seconds: Crate’s Callouts!

Download the Free Callout Script here.

Callouts are the small infographic labels that overlay a video, highlighting an important feature to inform the viewer of a name, statistic or the anatomy of a seal:

The script is packed with a huge bundle of presets, all fully customizable and ready for you to composite onto your video. This means that if you work for an organization or run a YouTube channel, you will be able to match the branding by adjusting the colours of the templates with one click!

To get started, you’ll need to first use a Null object to mark the position of what you want to be featured by the callout. The best part about this script is that it can be completely animated, so if you need the callout to follow a moving subject then this is the script for you.

For the next step, we’ll need to install our script. Extract the files from the download, and drop the “productioncrate-callout-script.jsx” file into your After Effects > Scripts folder You then can run the script by heading through File -> Scripts -> Crate’s Callout Script.jsx.

Now let’s take a look at what features we have at our disposal:

Arrows: Navigate through the presets to find the one you want.

Track Layer: Select the Null object you want the callout pointer to follow.

Title + Subtitle: Here’s where you input the text you want to be displayed.

Animation direction: Which way would you like the callout to come in from?

Color tools: Adjust the look of the preset to match your brand.

Smart Color Change: This nifty feature will automatically adjust any other colours that can be controlled to match your theme.

In/Out: What period (in seconds) do you want the callout to be on screen?

Base Point/Outline: Control the shape of the feature mark.

F: Click this to open up the text composition after creation, so you can adjust the font manually.

Once you’re happy with all the settings, hit “Create”, and you’ll save hours of time while the script creates your dream callout card within seconds!

Each preset has been carefully designed animated to give it the most professional appearance possible, helping you increase your production value at no extra cost!

If you want to control and customise the callout card after it has been generated, that is no problem! There will be a control null generated in your main composition window, clicking on this will reveal all of the various colour settings that you can adjust instantly in the effects window.

We’re excited to see how you make use of these free After Effects callout presets. If you’re interested in how else you can boost your workflow, take a look at our Lower Thirds script.

Crush a Car with VFX!

in After Effects, Featured, Visual FX/by David Blaker

We’re taking you on a quick journey to explore how we created this awesome car-crush VFX shot!

We’ll cover plenty of techniques in this mini-tutorial that will help you build your very own VFX shot from start to finish.

We used 3ds Max and After Effects for this, however, we’ve ensured that you will be able to follow along and use the same workflow in almost any other 3D software like Blender.

This is our first Davesplanation episode, so let us know if you want to see more!

Let’s get started:

You can download the car model here if you are a Pro User

For Pro’s we have another car model you can download here

Find the Crate’s Camera Shaker Script Here

The Sound Effects used are all available on SoundsCrate

Download the Powerful Lower Thirds Script for After Effects

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by David Blaker

Download Crate’s Lower Thirds Script here (Pro) Updated 8-17-2022

Ever wondered how to create lower thirds in After Effects? Pro members can now download the latest After Effects script to generate your own customized lower thirds! We have just updated this free script with 20 New Lower Thirds for Social Media and Youtube Call to Actions!

For those new to the term, lower-thirds are the banners that overlay the base of a video, containing text that helps provide information. This can be the name of the person on-screen, context to some archive footage, or even as the countdown card for a Top 10 video!

Download our script today, and create your own lower-thirds with our one-click solution!

With an astonishing 75 templates to choose from and a huge range of customizations to make, you will have everything you need to create the lower-thirds that matches your branding perfectly. So whether you’re editing for a sports program, an exciting tech-startup or your own YouTube channel, our script is here to give you a professional look you deserve within minutes!

Our main categories each feature their own range of unique designs:

Artistic lower thirds
Corporate lower thirds
Geometric/Modern lower thirds
Floral lower thirds
Minimalistic lower thirds
Sporty lower thirds
Tech lower thirds
Social Media (NEW)
Youtube (NEW)

Let’s take a look at the interface, and see what tools will be at your disposal.

Category: Tell us what your video is focusing on! We’ll then display a variety of different themes for you to choose from which have each been individually designed to fit your needs.

Logo: If we’ve featured an option for you to add your branding in a specific template, here is where you select the specific layer for us to use in the lower third.

Title: Type in what you want the viewer to read!

Subtitle: If the template supports a subtitle, this is the smaller text that will usually appear beneath the title, such as a date, or a job title.

Colour pickers: Use the colour picker to help show off your brand!

Smart Colour Change: This special tool will change the colour of similar elements included in the design, so it automatically matches your picked colour style.

In/Out: Decide exactly when you want the lower-third to appear and disappear!

Create New Comp: When deselected, the lower third will be directly imported into the current open composition. When turned on, it is built in a separate composition.

Create: Once you’re happy with all of your settings, hit this to let the magic happen!

Installing the script is a swift process. Just drop both the “Crate’s Lower Thirds.jsx” and “images” folder into your After Effects > Scripts folder Open up After Effects, and run the script by heading through File -> Scripts -> Crate’s Lower Thirds

We are excited to see how you make use of this lower-thirds generator!

If you’re interested in our other scripts, check out our easy looping animation script.

Free Hologram Generator Script (Download)

Download Crate’s Free Hologram Script here