Quba HQ

Tutorial: Alphabet Soup (Fake Text Particles)

In this After Effects tutorial I will show you how to create a cool underwater opening title sequence. Rather than using Trapcode Particular (which many of you may not have installed) or CC Particle World (which really could use an update to its coordinate system) the project fakes particle simulation through use of text animators.

This quite lengthy tutorial is derived from another Video Bits project I created a while ago. The original Alphabet Soup used Particular and wasn’t much more than an eye-candy. The new-and-improved one I present to you today can actually be used for something else than ambient displays :)

Let me also give the credit where it is due: The preview video uses an audio clip from Lech Janerka’s song entitled Absolulu. I have been listening to it all day long and I can still take more.

Running time: 66min
Difficulty: Medium (as long as you’re patient)
Required tools: After Effects

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Tutorial: HolOS Password Hacking

Password hacking is usually presented as a quite dull process in Hollywood visuals. It is even more dull in real life. In this tutorial I will show you my take on a HolOS password hacking interface – spicing it up with After Effects 2.5D crossword puzzle look.

The idea for this tutorial comes from one of the Video Bits projects published back in 2008: Crossword Hax. I think enough time has passed since I created that effect, so I decided to share it with the community.

Running time: 41min
Difficulty: Advanced
Required tools: After Effects
Optional tools: Trapcode Horizon

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Wings: Destinations

Destinations was the first advertisement commissioned to us by Rafineri agency.

Originally planned as a simple 2.5D animation, the project was soon moved into a 3D format to enhance the feeling of flight and the depth of the world we constructed. We placed flat photographic images of world’s famous landmarks in a 3D landscape divided into four sections – representing the four seasons.

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Tutorial: Text Reveal (Efficient Method)

Revealing handwritten text is one of these unpleasant tasks every motion designer has to deal with at least once. In this tutorial I present possibly the quickest and most efficient way of producing this effect.

Since the reveal effect itself is quite simple to produce and would result in a very short tutorial, I added some bulk to the video by presenting a smart way of guiding a null along the reveal, using it to drive different effects, such as a lens flare or particles.

Running time: 35min
Difficulty: Medium
Required tools: After Effects, Illustrator, Trapcode 3D Stroke and Particular.
Optional tools: Video Copilot Optical Flares

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Knoll Chromatic Lens 2 for VC Optical Flares

One of the most frequently (over)used After Effects lens flares is undoubtedly Chroma Lens 2 preset available in Knoll Light Factory Pro. As many other motion designers I, too am guilty of using this effect in a few projects too many.

As I am currently migrating my flare workflow to Video Copilot’s Optical Flares plug-in, I decided to re-create this client-favorite preset inside the VCOP.

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Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche is a short film directed by Arev Manoukian. It caught my eye today over at Motionographer, and although I realize most motion graphics enthusiasts already visit that site on a daily basis, I decided to re:post it here as well.

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Wireframe Madness

A few days ago I published a post entitled Volumetric Clouds? Yes We Can! featuring the screenshot of the After Effects timeline containing over 550 layers used in creating (among other things) fake volumetric fog/clouds.

The project is now complete, but since it is still not cleared for air, I have another teaser for you all – a video of the entire animation in wireframe mode.

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Volumetric Clouds in After Effects? Yes We Can!

This is just a little teaser snapshot of the After Effects timeline of the latest project I am currently working on. The NDA prohibits me from sharing too many details with you, but I can disclose the fact that I decided to make some volumetric clouds in a software completely unfit for this purpose.

Not the smartest idea, but hell, if it can be done – why not.

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Warp

I have been messing around with creating “painterly” look for a still image and came up with this one.

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Video Copilot Optical Flares Released

Yesterday marked the release date for Video Copilot’s Optical Flares plug-in. Set at a fairly low price point of $125, Optical Flares are soon to become a must-have tool in the arsenal of any After Effects user.

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