This week, we're using fields and vertex maps to reveal geometry. We also use bools as a different technique for revealing objects. By layering these animations we can make more complex looks.
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In working with some camera tracked footage, I discovered that there's a checkbox for showing the tracker marks. I wanted to isolate them to mess around with them. So I started by using CC Composite set to difference. Then I changed the markers, and finally I used CC Composite to bring the original footage back.
I've done something similar before, but for some reason I never really explored the technique. That was dumb. This technique can yield interesting effects. Eventually, I started to just use Difference Matte. While you can sometimes use Difference Matte to pull a decent key from footage with a still plate, if it's noisy footage it might not work well. The best part of this is that we're still using the original footage, so it's a perfect matte. This allows us to isolate effects. You can apply an effect straight to another effect, without affecting the rest of the pixels in an image. There's a lot that can be done with this technique. We're just scratching the surface, so again I'm urging you to experiment. See you guys next week! And make sure to grab JSplacement. It's worth paying for.
The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week, we're exploring creating FUI particles from footage using X-Particles inside of Cinema 4D. This technique can be used to easily make complex-looking animation very quickly.
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The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week, we explore using screen captures to build tech backgrounds by treating them with effects like CC Kernel. This allows us to take a traditional UI and get edges of different elements so that we strip away the actual UI and are left with a sort of structure rather than the UI itself.
As always, if you use any copyrighted material, you need to make sure that it's no longer recognizable. By converting things into partial edges, we can convert such structured layouts into techy backgrounds without misrepresenting the original content. Our intent is to take our input and convert it to a completely different output.
Of course there are many ways to do this, this is only about the idea of taking these screenshots and converting them for our uses.
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The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week we're taking a look at creating a node network in Cinema 4D. We go through four different setups. Two are a more manual process but they are more robust than the other two, which are more automatic.
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The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week, we're going to explore making new noises using camera sensors. When you generate noise inside of After Effects it's' either all very uniform or patchy. You can make better noise in AE, but what's even better and faster is to use your camera to record with the lens covered. All camera sensors have some inherent noise, and recording blackness makes it easy to bring it out. Use a levels or curves adjustment and go to town.
By using a bunch of different cameras, even different copies of the same camera, we can get interesting noises to use in our animations.
I didn't go over some of the examples as this is really about making the noise, but they basically use Displacement Map pointed at the noise. The one that shifts colors has Displacement Map on an adjustment layer with a blending mode of Hue instead of Normal. I do explain the grainy glow technique, and I hadn't found it when I recorded, but it came from this tweet from @shabello23:
There's a lot of different things you can do with noise, so having another way to make noise can be really helpful. Never forget that you can use your camera—even your cell phone—to make all sorts of interesting stuff to use.
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The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week, we're looking at how to make various versions of parallelogram-fold pages for a pop-up book inside of Cinema 4D. Using an Xpresso rig, we again set up our animation to be controlled with a single slider.
In the future, we will combine this page with other types of pop-up pages to create a pop-up book. Our next Cinema tutorial will explore something different, but if you need more pop-up pages and missed Tutorial 143: Pop-up Book Part 1, you should check it out!
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The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week we're taking a look at building a sort of FUI look by tracking a face and using Minimax to create boxes around features. This could be interesting combined with a full user interface. If you want to keep the outline of the body, it'd be best to shoot on white if the person has dark hair. But you can play with contrast if you want some of the person's features to be missing or altered.
Have fun with it and tweet us @workbench_tv if you come up with anything cool! And be sure to grab JSplacement if you haven't.
Grab the Project Files
The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week, we're looking at how to make a V-fold page for a pop-up book inside of Cinema 4D. Using an Xpresso rig, we set up our animation to be controlled with a single slider.
In the future, we will combine this page with other types of pop-up pages to create a pop-up book. Make sure to check out Tutorial 145: Pop-up Book Part 2!
Grab the Project Files
The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
This week we take a look at how to retime animations for Mograph Templates. This expression will allow you to retime your animations while preserving the timing of the intro and outro animations—only the hold point is flexible. This way, you can have Motion Graphics Templates that can be retimed without time remapping in your main comp—which can have odd effects with animated Master Properties.
This expression can be applied to nearly every property since it ends with valueAtTime(). I've set this up by making a layer called controller, which is where the markers go. To split markers, option/alt+click on them and drag. Make a marker that covers your intro animation and one that covers the outro animation.
//Retime animations
dur = thisComp.layer("Controller").effect("Duration")("Slider");
m = thisComp.layer("Controller").marker;
animIn = m.key(1).time;
hold = animIn + m.key(1).duration;
animOut = m.key(2).time;
outDur = m.key(2).duration;
end = animOut + outDur;
if(time < hold) {
t = time;
} else if(time > dur-outDur) {
t = linear(time,dur-outDur,dur,animOut,end);
} else {
t = hold;
}
valueAtTime(t);
If you'd like the time between intro and outro to remap instead of hold, you can replace t = hold; above with the following:
t = linear(time,hold, dur-outDur, hold, animOut);
And that's all you need to retime your animations for templates. As for the rest of the template setup, that's for another tutorial. But if you'd like to see how this one is built, the project file below includes the setup.
Also, make sure to check out Evan Abram's tutorial, Controlling Time in Templates on the subject for another approach.
Grab the Project Files
The best way to get our project files is to become a patron on Patreon. For $5 a month, you get access to all of the tutorial project files we've made available as well as other monthly projects, rigs, R&D, elements, early product previews, and BTS content not available anywhere else! You can also purchase just this project file on our Gumroad Store if you would rather do that.
