Tutorial 181: Shadow Catcher

Severo Ojea | Jun 21, 2019

In this week's tutorial we use Cinema 4D's native tools to create a shadow catcher.

We will also go over the setup to do the same using Redshift.

Tutorial 180: Organic Web Look

Joe Clay | Jun 14, 2019

This week, we take a look at a simple, but useful effect. The main idea is to take an image and put some dots or a texture above it. Then you can use CC Vector Blur to make web-like connections between the bright areas that remain.

We're using this royalty free brain image, if you'd like to follow along.

Tutorial 179: Flowering MoSpline

Severo Ojea | Jun 7, 2019

In this week's tutorial, we create a flower structure in Cinema 4D. Using MoSpline's settings in conjuction with a Cloner, we'll create and animate a flower structure.

Tutorial 178: Biometric Scanner

Joe Clay | May 31, 2019

In this week's tutorial, we grab a character from Mixamo, bring it into Cinema 4D, and then bring that into After Effects to treat it with a scanner look. We're using the Grid effect combined with Card Dance to make boxes that outline the character's features.

You can find the M1911A1 model we used at GrabCad. To make the moving background, check out Tutorial 148: Tech Backgrounds. For the circle nodes, Tutorial 167: Intro to Nodebox will get you to where you need to be. And Tutorial 175: Looping Noise shows you how you can make the x-grid background. The technique is similar, but the expression on SourceText is different because we know the exact amount of characters we need.

line = text.sourceText.repeat(96);
txt = '';
for(i = 0; i < 54; i++) {
    txt += line + '\n';
}

txt;

And that's it. I hope you guys have fun with this one. There's a lot of possibilities for using this technique, and there's a lot of character rigs on Mixamo to experiment with!

Tutorial 177: Futuristic Circuitry Look

Joe Clay | May 24, 2019

In this week's After Effects tutorial, we make a tree map based on a gradient—in this case from Fractal Noise—and we turn it into a futuristic circuitry look. The end result uses our American Standard LUT from LUTs Vol 1 to tie the whole thing together. LUTs can be a great way to unify colors in an animation and give everything a final look.

Also, if you'd like to know how to build an Isometric camera, check out Tutorial 103: Isometric Projection. This month, our complex elements for $20+ patrons will include a preset of that camera. I got tired of having to go back and reference my own tutorial so frequently!

Tutorial 176: Stacking Paper

Severo Ojea | May 17, 2019

In this week's Cinema 4D tutorial, we're working with stacks of paper. It's a common visual representation that you'll probably come across if you make explainers. Using C4D, we can make pretty dynamic stacks of paper using cloners. Combined with the blend function and mograph effectors, we can stack papers and organize them.

Tutorial 175: Looping Noise()

Joe Clay | May 10, 2019

In this week's After Effects tutorial, we take a look at looping elements. This was inspired by Daniel Shiffman's Coding Challenge #136.1 on his excellent YouTube channel Coding Train. Coding Train is an excellent resource for coding visual art. A lot of the topics he covers can be repurposed in After Effects. Since he tackles algorithms frequently, it's also a good way to learn more deeply about the tools we use every day. For example, he has a few videos on Perlin noise, which underpins a lot of the plugins you probably use every day, like Fractal Noise.

For more information on sorting, check out JavaScript Array sort() Method.

Expression Code

Note that all of these require slider controls. You can see which ones you need to make assigned to variables in the following expressions.

This goes in a path property so you can draw a polygon.

seed = effect("Seed")("Slider");
s = effect("Noise Scale")("Slider");
v = effect("Variance")("Slider")/100;
a = degreesToRadians(effect("Evolution")("Angle"));
x = Math.cos(a) * s + seed;
y = Math.sin(a) * s + seed;
angles = new Array();
pts = new Array();
for(i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
    n = noise([x + (i*v),y + (i*v)]);
    a = linear(n, -1.25,1.25,-1,1) * 360;
    if (a < 0) {
        a = 360 + a;
    }
    angles.push(a);
}

angles.sort(function(a, b){ return a - b });

for(i = 0; i < angles.length; i++)
{
    a = degreesToRadians(angles[i]);
    ptX = Math.cos(a) * 300;
    ptY = Math.sin(a) * 300;
    pts.push([ptX, ptY]);
}
createPath(pts);

All of the text layers have something like this to repeat characters. If you put a few characters in and add a carriage return, it'll duplicate lines and the carriage returns.

text.sourceText.repeat(23);

This is the expression used on text where we don't care if the first and last characters loop together. Apply this to an expression selector in a text animator.

v = effect("Variance")("Slider")/100;
a = degreesToRadians(effect("Evolution")("Angle") + (textIndex * v));
s = effect("Noise Scale")("Slider");
x = Math.cos(a) * s;
y = Math.sin(a) * s;
noise([x, y]) * 100;

This is the expression used on characters that need to loop first and last characters—around a circular path for example. Apply this to an expression selector in a text animator.

seed = effect("Seed")("Slider");
a = degreesToRadians(textIndex/textTotal * 360 + effect("Evolution")("Angle"));
s = effect("Noise Scale")("Slider");
x = Math.cos(a) * s + seed;
y = Math.sin(a) * s + seed;
noise([x, y]) * 100;

Tutorial 174: Fracture Mattes

Severo Ojea | May 3, 2019

In this week's tutorial we use the fracture object in Cinema 4D to create interesting mattes. We explain how the animation is set up in C4D. Then in After Effects we take the mattes and create a killer glitch effect. It might also be interesting to use this effect like we did last week with Cineware.

We used HB Group from HB Modeling Bundle 2.3 so grab it if that interests you! It's definitely worth the cost. There's a lot of super useful stuff in there for modeling.

Tutorial 173: AE + C4D Forever

Severo Ojea | Apr 26, 2019

In this week's tutorial we fracture an object in Cinema 4D, but instead of rendering it, we use Cineware to use After Effects as a sort of renderer for Cinema. Because we can combine various types of shading through the Cineware effect, we can build some interesting things directly in AE. Also, we forgot to mention, you can add your own camera in After Effects—if you're brave—and change up the angles directly in AE.

Tutorial 172: Easy & Powerful Graphs

Joe Clay | Apr 19, 2019

In this week's After Effects tutorial, we're making bar graphs. This time, we're going to use text animators to make them, which means we have access to text animators, so instead of being limited by shape layers, we have full access to animate each element with ranges. See Kyle Hamrick's #textperiments if you're unsure of how limitless text animators are.

This can be taken a lot further. You could even tie it to CSV data if you want to. But even as-is, this is a way to get accurate graphs using real data if you so choose. And to add a new data point, all you need to do is add a new number to the layer's name—which is pretty sweet.

I also forgot to mention one of the coolest aspects of this. It all lives on one layer so you can make it a preset! And don't forget to check out info on the spread operator from JS Tips. That totally beats what I was going to do—sorting a copy of the array and checking the first element.

Expression Code

Note that all of these require slider controls. You can see which ones you need to make assigned to variables in the following expressions.

This goes on the Source Text property.

var string = '.';
string.repeat(name.split(',').length);

This goes in text animator set to modify scale.

var x = effect("Bar Width")("Slider")/.195; //the height and width of this period is about 19.5px
var y = effect("Max Height")("Slider")/.195;
[x, y];

I think maybe my explanation for why I'm dividing the height and width sliders by the pixel size of the period may be weak. I want those sliders to work as pixel values but I need to use scale to accomplish that. So I divide the pixel value I want by the original pixel value. This gives me a ratio. It's going into scale, so I need percent. If something gets 2x larger, it needs to be 200% the size. So we multiply by 100. Make sense? I hope so.

I'm not sure exactly how to explain the .195 part mathematically. I guess it's sort of like we're in the middle of dividing by 19.5 so to multiply by 100, without actually doing it to the slider portion, we divide the part we're dividing by by 100. That multiplies the final value because we're dividing by a smaller number. Make sense? It's going to have to.

Apply the next expression to tracking in a text animator. I put this one in the same animator as the scale since they won't affect each other.

effect("Bar Width")("Slider")-19.5;

And finally, add another text animator with scale. Set scale to 100%, 0% and add this expression to an expression selector.

var values = name.split(',');
var maxValue = Math.max(...values);
(1-(values[textIndex-1]/maxValue))*100;

Recall that this runs for each character in the text and textIndex is the index of the character the expression is currently evaluating. That's it!