Quba HQ

June 13, 2010
In Featured, Motion Graphics, Tutorials&Presets
11 comments

Tutorial+Preset: Automated Light Rig

Most of the time it is the best practice to manually control the lights in your After Effects scenes. There are situations however, when you may want to automate the dynamic changes in light color and intensity while maintaining high level of control over the look of your composition. That’s what the Automated Light Rig is all about.

In this tutorial I will show you how to link your lights with automated samplers on an image map, creating an ever-changing, yet unified, light rig. While the tutorial explains the expressions in depth, I am also providing you with presets simplifying the entire process into just few clicks.

As a little extra, I will also show you how to create a 3D light-aware smoke using Trapcode Particular (my method is a bit more involved than the standard Particular setup, but produces results that are much more true to life).

Music used in the trailer comes from Mr. Oizo’s Fiat 55 from the album Analog Worms Attack.

Running time: 45min
Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Required tools: After Effects
Optional plug-ins: Trapcode Particular

June 7, 2010
In Featured, Motion Graphics, Tutorials&Presets
17 comments

Tutorial: 100% Accurate Reflections

In this After Effects tutorial I will demonstrate to you how to build a two-camera rig in order to create perfect 3D reflections. using this technique, you will be able to reflect not only 3D layers, but also lights, particles, as well as any plug-in that obeys the movement of AE’s 3D camera.

The setup is trivially easy when using hand-animated cameras, but in the second half of the video I also show you how to create a more complex rig for use with Video Copilot’s Sure Target 2 camera controls.

The music used in the preview is a fragment of an Instrumental Mix of Perfect Exceeder by MASON vs Princess Superstar.

Running time: 51 min
Difficulty: Easy (you will be surprised how easy)
Required tools: After Effects (CS3 and above)
Optional plug-ins: VC Optical Flares, Knoll Light Factory, Trapcode Lux, Trapcode 3D Stroke, Trapcode Particular

February 12, 2010
In Featured, Motion Graphics, Tutorials&Presets
4 comments

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.

Curtain Projection

I have been messing around with Cinema 4D again. This time I built a setup with a number of semi-translucent curtains and a projector rig casting a video on them. The video was pre-processed in After Effects in order to produce a low-res RBG grid typical in the low grade projectors.

Snaking Energy

This effect uses particle system traveling along a 3D path to create a stream of energy. It can be used for magic vfx and is easily controlled by adjusting the guide path.

For this example I simply randomized the paths and camera movement to create more energetic and chaotic composition.

Halftone Hologram

I was playing around with turning images to halftone-screen patterns. Once I had the line pattern, it was just one step away from Star Wars – style holographic projection.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t remember where did I get the footage from and who is the woman in the video :)

Electron Probe

This one was created completely procedurally. The central particle mass is created using slightly modified preset of Trapcode Particular. The readouts were created using null objects orbiting the central sphere and feeding position data to series of expressions drawing lines and numbers.

Chi

Back in 2003, when I was just getting started with After Effects I shot this little thing to try out some basic 2D motion tracking. The footage was totally under-lit, the tracking had uncorrected errors, but I still like this little piece.