Well, it’s that time of year again – time for my gift to you – free, festive, After Effects animation presets. It’s my way of thanking everyone who has supported me throughout the year by buying my books and tutorials. I’d also like to thank everyone who’s helped spread the word by sharing my free tips and techniques on Twitter, Vimeo, Facebook and Google Plus.
Here is a free After Effects project, complete with animation presets, expressions and some custom vector artwork. Download Winter Holiday After Effects Presets.
This project is not intended as a finished design piece but rather as a way of presenting a few little ideas I’ve been experimenting with. I’ll provide you with the ideas, it’s your job to take these experiments & make them look cool! Please post them on my Facebook page if you do use them in a project you’d be happy to share.
It contains some interesting techniques to help add a little festive cheer to your seasonal animations. All the effects used are native After Effects plug-ins so no extra software is required and it was created in After Effects CS4 so can be opened in any version from CS4 upwards.
It includes a couple of particle animations. One using a custom snowflake-shaped layer as particles, creating a 3D snowstorm with CC Particle World. The second uses Particle Playground’s Persistent Property Mappers to make particles of snow stick to layers as they fall from above. I also use these to create a wind effect to blow the particles around as they fall.
The third composition features some cool expressions that create a realistic blinking effect on some 3D festive lights. the 3D lights were created in Illustrator. I’ve even included the Illustrator file so you can see how it was created. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
