If you are sick of the April Fool’s day silliness all over the net, I have some seriously cool stuff for you today. SplatterType is a custom preset I have developed recently that will allow you to create amazing ink and paint splatter animations with just a few clicks.
Updated! Please read the update info underneath the videos and use the preset instead of the project files!
Much like my previous tutorial, SplatterType relies only on After Effects text animators and does not require any additional plugins (3rd or even 1st party). Robust set of controls make it highly customizable, while the expressions work in the background to do all the hard work for you.
Whether you’re after a dark, grungy look or happy-go-lucky colorful design, whether you’re compositing 2D, 3D, mattes, transitions, you name it – this little free preset will let you spend time on creative choices rather than tedious keyframing. Enjoy!
Running time: 35min
Difficulty: Easy
Required tools: After Effects
Preview video:
Tutorial:
Update:
With some help from Dan Tore Jørgensen I managed to turn SplatterType into an actual preset. You may now download it, install into After Effects and create your own splats directly from the Effects&Presets panel, without the need to import my project file. Snake Plissken provided a French localization.
SplatterType preset may be applied either without any layer selected or onto an empty text layer and is compatible with After Effects CS3 and above.
Download the files associated with this tutorial below:
- SplatterType Preset
(After Effects CS3 and above, includes fonts)
Localized for US English and French
http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_SplatterType_Preset.zip - Project File
(includes SplatterType project, fonts and other assets)
http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_SplatterType.zip - Tutorial (112MB MP4)
http://video.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_SplatterType.mp4
Other free resources used in this tutorial include:
WC Rhesus A Bta typeface by http://www.wcfonts.com/
Sound sample by Rock Savage, via http://www.freesound.org/
You may also download this tutorial video from its Vimeo page. The preview can also be watched on YouTube.
Two more things
I want to see what will you come up with using SplatterType! Post links in the comments section. Also, just FYI, I am still not done with text animators. More cool stuff to come!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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[…] handy new Adobe After Effects preset (and tutorial) by Quba HQ for creating paint splat […]
Great work on this. I’ve put a link on Motionworks too. Best wishes, John.
oh wow, thanks, tut new great.
Great tutorial! Seems like an awful lot of work went in to creating the splat-text ‘preset’. Thanks for sharing!
Hey, Brilliant preset!
Really loved it. I saved it as a preset so I can put it in with the other presets in AE and not having to load the project file.
Should work fine by just adding it to a text layer, at least it worked fine here (I’m not very experienced in making presets and such).
Check it out at: http://www.mediemakern.no/splattertype/SplatterType.rar
Hope you don’t mind, if you do, please let me know and I’ll take it down right away.
Anyway, thanks for the preset!
Dan, your preset is nothing short of awesome! I wanted to do the same thing, but honestly speaking I forgot how to make animation presets…
Keep it on the server, no problem at all. I, on the other hand, will attempt to create a CS3-compatible preset here as well, since I am trying to keep all my “official” content compatible with versions CS3 and above.
This is gonna make SplatterType even easier!
Great!
I’m not the biggest one on creating presets either :-)
But what I did was opening your comps, dropped down the text layer, selected the Text and Effects (and Masks for the one with splats on path), chose Animation and Save Animation Preset.
Don’t know how to make it work on a pre-written text layer and be able to keep the original text, but I’m sure someone else can give some input on this. Not sure how necessary this would be, but it could be fun in some cases.
Anyway, feel free to use mine as you wish, download and re-upload to your website and project, if you want, and it would of course be great to make a CS3-compatible preset as well. Don’t have CS3 and don’t know how to do this with CS4 :-)
Hey Dan, thanks for your help. I have just updated the post with a proper preset download. It was much easier to make than I expected (and now works with CS3)
Cheers!
And just so that it does not seem as if Dan gets all the attention – thanks to all the others for your comments and support!
Only glad to help, I merely participated with a couple of mouse clicks, so I don’t deserve all that much attention :-) This thing is all you
I’ll add a link on my website soon.
Don’t have it as of today, but I’ve been thinking about setting up a resource section on my website with links to great resources and so on, so I’ll have you up there in the near future.
All the best!
And thanks for the mentioning :-)
[…] Quba HQ is back again with a splatter tutorial in after effects that utilizes the text animators to create the actual splatters. He has devised a preset that uses a dingbat font of splatters that can be animated with the effect controls in after effects, which is quite clever actually! […]
Hi, this looks good, but there are some localization issues.
Indeed, I use CS4 in french, and I get many many errors when trying to apply the preset.
If anybody knows how to turn CS4 in english (this was possible in CS3 on OSX, but seems to be impossible with CS4 version …).
I had the same issue trying holomatrix demo.
I can’t figure out why adobe has not solve these compatibility issues when opening a project in different AE langages !
Hey Snake, you have to add the following “extension” to your “AfterFX.exe”:
>> -L en_US>> incl. the leading space ;)
To MicGuyer : thanx for your help, but I’m on Mac OSX, and AE ins’t an .exe but an .app file. And I can’t add extension like in windows.
In CS3, I could uncheck french from file property to launch it in english, but this option doesn’t exist anymore since CS4 …
Anyone knows if it’s still possible but another mean in CS4 ?
Thanx.
Hey Snake (Metal Gear Solid?)
If I am not mistaken, the preset itself should work in a multilingual environment. Instead of using the project file, try downloading the preset, since the ffx files should (to my best knowledge) work with other language versions. This would not be the case with the project, unfortunately.
Let me know if it works for you – if not, maybe some other users have some solution (I heard there is a script for translating expressions, but never tried it myself).
I am fairly new to the whole concept of sharing resources and publishing presets, so please excuse me for the localization negligence.
Hey Snake, try to apply the preset and afterwards run the translation-jsx-file form here: http://www.motion-graphics-exchange.com/after-effects/TranslateExpressions-2.0/4997cf5f52a49 . Hope it works ;)
BTW. Quba, great work…
Thanks Mic! It’s really great to see the members of AE community helping each other :)
Thanks for the preset, projectfile and suuuper idea!!
Hi everyone, first of all thanx for tour help, I really appreciate it, since my problem not only concerns these Quba ffx but also many others projects I tried to download from english sites and generate errors in my french version of AE.
Quba : Snake Plissken is the main character from the SF movie “New York 1997”, a film I particularly like …
About direct ffx download : it’s not working, because when applying ffx, the code of the animated parameters still contains some english words like “slider” which in french become “curseur” … and generates errors
… BUT …
MicGyver: thanx for the jsx link, it makes the translation really easier, although you have to select by hand each wrong parameter and then click Translate. But it really works well, & I easily “converted” all expressions and make both ffx doing the job …
I still have one problem guys : I tried to save my working translated effects as ffx, so I select all the effects and choose “save as preset”, and then replace english Quba ffx files.
But when I apply them again in a blank composition, the ffx applies on a grey solid instead of a text layer, and all the text has been lost ! So the last question and I’ll be OK guys : how do we keep the text layer with ALL the text in it and the effects applied when saving it as an ffx ?
It has to be possible because Quba presets, when applying, generate the text layer already filled with text …? I hope I’m clear enough.
Again thank you guys, this really help me a lot ! I retweet Quba : “It’s really great to see the members of AE community helping each other :)”.
Cheers.
Snake,
When creating the FFX I selected all of the effects and properties first (all the way from the layer name to the last transform property) and then hit “create new preset” icon. It did the trick. I myself was surprised to see it create a new text layer. Perhaps selecting only the variables makes the preset try to work on a solid?
Also, if you manage to get it working, and by some chance have it CS3 compatible – let me know, since I would like to include it in the preset download.
For future projects I should think about localization, but since QubaHQ is relatively new to the whole tutorial business, I still don’t have a following strong enough to outsource it to the community…
Quba : Man, you’re THE Man!
It’s now working perfectly. I was saving ffx preset only selecting effects from the effects panel, and not from the timeline WITH the layer name and all the transformers … It’s so cool, now I know how to save presets with the layer involded if where is one …
I put the french working ffx in a new zip file of QubaHQ_SplatterType_Preset.zip, and modified a little the instructions.txt file.
It’s there : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1933742/QubaHQ_SplatterType_Preset.zip
Feel free to take a look and see if you want to update it. It’s just a suggestion of course, but it would be nice for french users. Maybe other languages can be added by people.
I use CS4, but I think it will probably work with CS3, since all the effects used in these ffx already exist in CS3. We’ll see.
Thanx again Quba, keep on the good work like this, I’ll be on it.
Snake.
Glad it worked out for you. Unfortunately, Adobe really dropped the ball on backwards compatibility in AE – FFX files created in CS4 are not compatible with CS3, so I am not going to put that in the main download.
Still, people having localization problems can easily find your version here, in the comments.
Splatter away!
Great preset. REQUEST! Is there any way the text fly in thru 3D space on the Z axis and then land?. Kind of like what flying ink might actually do. When I turned on “”3D per character” in the animate menu everything disappears.
Hey Tom,
Of course it could be done – I have decided not to implement it in the preset for two reasons:
1. Including the 3D flight would force the preset to be rendered in 3D, slowing down render times even for those who only want to use it in 2D.
2. I did not want to make the preset too complex from the get go. There are already quite a few ways of tweaking it more than I originally planned.
Adding a 3D motion would actually require a bit more complex animation, as “splats” don’t just travel through space. One would probably want to have balls (or “.” characters) flying and then turning into splats upon impact.
I don’t see why such animation would not be possible, but I think it is quite specific to a particular concept/style and I’d rather not have it in the original FFX.
If enough people want such feature, sure, I can look into it, but that would be something to do as a tutorial, and not a preset. I think it would be better if people solve the flight animation on their own so that I can concentrate on delivering something totally new instead :)
Now that it’s working fine for me, I did some transition tests.
I’m happy with this one.
http://vimeo.com/10675867
Quba, I didn’t have seen your wish about CS3 compatibility. I still own my production premium CS3. I’ll see if I can reinstall AE CS3 (that allows me to launch it with any language I want). Since the translation tool also works with german, italian and spanish, I’ll perform it for all those languages too, and post them here as soon as possible.
Cheers.
Snake, that sounds awesome! Thank you in advance on behalf of all After Effects users in need of localization.
Meanwhile, since we are on the topic of sharing stuff made with SplatterType, here is a little illustration I made for inviting some of my friends to sushi :)
http://downloads.qubahq.com/images/SushiNight.jpg
Quba,
As I said, I reinstall my CS3 bundle. But I’ve spoken a little to fast.
Indeed, it’s not because of the CS4 that it’s no longer possible to choose the startup language, but because of snow leopard. Since I had updated to CS4 and snow at the same time, I thought it was due to CS4.
But it’s not, it comes from apple OSX SL.
So I can’t launch AE in other language to perform the translation of your ffx. However, I was at least able to do it for french, and so I did.
I updated the zip with these french ffx made in AE CS3. You can download it with the link of my previous post. See if you want to update yours, now that it’s CS3 compatible.
I’m a little disappointed, but it’s still english + french. Maybe some other people will add more when the site will spread more & more …
Wish I could do better. By the way, nice inviting illustration !
Cheers.
Hey Snake, i’ve found this Link, hoping ;) (I’m on Windows)
Yep, I’ve found it too earlier and it works … but on CS4 !
However, Quba wants the project to stay fully CS3 compatible.
That’s why I’ve reinstalled my CS3 version to do it, and then I saw I was unable to change the language anymore, the way I was used to.
So, I made some searches all the afternoon and found this about snow leopard : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Snow_Leopard#Dropped_features
… sounds like there’s no way left to change AE CS3 language in OSX 10.6.x snow leopard (maybe with Terminal but I don’t know anything about it). So I’ve given up and just performed the only translation I could (french).
The only way left is that someone – still using CS3 on Leopard 10.5.x -downloads the translation-jsx-file and does what I planned to do. I don’t know if on windows it’s easy to change AE language, if not, a windows guy still on AE CS3 can probably do the job too …
Greetings.
I can’t download the tutorial
the link starts downloading but its speed starts to descend to zero and the process stops!
Anyone can help…….?
Loay – it should not be happening. I would guess the problem is somewhere en route between your computer and Dreamhost servers that host the content.
I recommend using some sort of download manager that will permit you to resume the downloads once they die.
Snake: Gonna add your French localization to the preset in a short while. Thanks again.
I’m Already using one but it dies before even 10 seconds
The Project file and the Preset downloads well. Strange!
Anyway, Thanks fol helping.
I am really to hear that Loay – are you also unable to watch the video on the page?
Thanks alot for sharing this !
Looks really easy-to-handle…will try it soon.
Cool idea btw ;) Keep them comin’
Cheers !
Snake, there’s a beta test running on a new after effects addon script that solve the language troubles on scripts and presets. If you’re interested get in contact http://twitter.com/mgxchange
Great Tut and thx for all stuff.
Here (http://vimeo.com/11110501) what i rebuild following the splatter tut, just applaying default settings.
Thank u again.
fantastic tutorial and a genius idea for a preset, beats the hell out of hand building these types of animations with individual splatters!
Ill definitely post my outcome later
Quba,
Thank you!
Quick question: The MP4 version of this tutorial doesn’t seem to actually be available when you click to download. Is this just me? Is there any chance you can recompress the file?
Hey Raivan!
Thanks for pointing that out. I had all the download piped through a force-download php script that used to work, but for some strange reason stopped. It was supposed to allow visitors to download content directly without the need of right-clicking.
I now removed the script and updated the links, so if you try again it should work just fine.
Sorry for that.
[…] are two e-mail invite banners I made for the most recent Sushi Nights. In the first one I used SplatterType to generate an abstract sushi graphic. In the second – I used mad illustration skills of […]
oh wow, thanks, tut new great.
Hello!
The preset download file and the project one are the same!
What happened?!
Hey franco – I must have messed up. Gonna re-up the correct project file now! Thanks for spotting it
Should be fixed now. Must have replaced the project file by mistake when juggling different language versions :)
Hmm.. the project zip still seems to have an issue. It’s odd, because they are both different file sizes, but uncompress to the same size/same files. Also, if I try to uncompress with Stuffit Expander (as opposed to the default Archive Utility on OS X 10.6), I get an error that the structure of the archive is damaged.
Maybe this is only a Mac issue?
At any rate, I’ll just make my own assets to use with the tutorial… I’m sure we’re all excited to see what you have for us next, and don’t want to take you away from focussing on whatever the next awesome tutorial is!
Weird stuff. It is working fine for me. There was a wrong link on the first mention of SplatterType in the article – but I fixed it now. Tried it on Windows 7 and everything works fine.
If everything else fails, let me know, I can send you the uncompressed files to the email you have registered with.
I am actually just about to start recording new tutorial – just doing some last-minute adjustments to the project.
I re-downloaded the zip on my PC, and was able to get the AE project file. Funny though, when unzipping… Winzip reported the “archive is damaged”, but still unzipped the two AE files.
With that, I was able to finish the tutorial. It was a great little project, thanks so much for sharing! Can’t wait for the new one!
I have downloaded your projectfile but the example file wont extract. Think it may be corrupt. Can you direct me towards a file that does work?
What a lovely tutorial by the way and amazing preset…Guy like you do make a difference..
Cheers
Christian
Bawkchicken, Christian,
Indeed, there was something funky with the zip file. Although the bit size was identical to a fine-working one on my HDD, it would report errors and miss some files after decompressing.
I uploaded a newer version – hopefully this one will act normal. It is slightly bigger since I used lower compression ratio.
UAU… Just Love it!!! Great preset… i have already tried and posted in my youtube account for you to see it!!! Best Regards from Portugal
Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HS_DOrsvsk