Category: Tutorials

‘Sculpting’ paths in Adobe Illustrator

Here’s another free tutorial from my first venture into making video tutorials for Adobe Illustrator. My tutorials are probably what you’d call non-standard! I’m not going to teach you how to ‘the cool look’ that we’ve all seen a million times before, that doesn’t really interest me, and there are plenty of other websites that…
Basics on Solids in Adobe After Effects

When designing motion graphics in Adobe After Effects there are times you just need to create a plain old layer to apply effects to. Solids are just right for this purpose, and for lots of other uses in After Effects. This video is aimed at a basic level. It shows you how to create solid-color layers…
Hand-drawn animation with After Effects Paint tools

Week four of 2011 brings my fourth FREE Giveaway Tutorial. This tutorial comes from my Adobe After Effects CS5 Learn by Video DVD from video2brain. The paint tools in After Effects are usually used for cloning or filling in mattes, but they can also be used to create stop-motion-style animation. In this movie you’ll see how…
Lip Sync in After Effects

Lip-syncing is something that all animators will be asked to do at some point in their career. The following technique automates the process of lip sync in After Effects and uses only built-in features of Adobe After Effects – no extra software is required! This video tutorial is an updated version for Adobe CS5. Tutorial…
Tip: Wrapping text around a circle in After Effects

I saw a post on the After Effects mailing list today asking how to wrap text around a circle in After Effects. Here’s how it’s done; 1) Create a text layer with the text you want. 2) Select the layer and then, with the Ellipse tool, draw a circular Mask on the Text layer. 3)…
Creating a Cityscape in 3D

I want to share an example of one of my tutorials that I’m very proud to say inspired a great piece of work, “Black Day to Freedom” by the amazing Rob Chiu. I met Rob after watching a very inspiring talk he gave at the Flash on the Beach conference a few years back. I…
A free tutorial gift for the holidays

Well, another year comes to an end and the holidays are about to begin. What better way to spend your time off than sitting back comfortably and allowing me to entertain you with some of my latest After Effects CS5 tutorials? Here’s a free tutorial movie for you, taken from the “Jumpstarts” section of the…
After Effects CS5 Learn by Video

This complete training program offers an extraordinary value, combining 14 hours of video instruction with a 120-page full-color guide to teach you the fundamentals of Adobe After Effects CS5, as well as the basic principles of motion graphics and visual effects. You’ll get in-depth coverage of the After Effects interface and the latest features in…
Trapcode Particular Free Tutorial

I’ve just watched a great After Effects tutorial, made by my good friend, the great Peder Norby of Trapcode fame. He’s dome a wonderful job of teaching you how to get the best volumetric smoke effects using Particular. I love this tutorial as it was totally improvised so it shows how he had to experiment…
Free tutorial – creating a 1960s retro opening title sequence

My dear friend and esteemed and talented After Effects aficionado, Aharon Rabinowitz has posted my 1960’s retro “Pop-art” tutorial up on Red Giant TV. I actually recorded it in the 1960’s but it’s taken this long for technology to catch up to a stage where it can broadcast a whole hour (almost) of FREE After…
Adobe After Effects Training DVD and book

Well, it’s all happening this week! My new book, “Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist” finally went on sale. As well as the book, I also have a new training DVD on the way which I worked on with the amazing Todd Kopriva from Adobe. As a little taster of what’s to come is…
Artbeats Blooming Marvellous Tutorial

Blooming Marvellous Angie Taylor takes you through the steps to build an opening title sequence for a TV show using Artbeats footage to create 3D flowers growing within After Effects 3D world. This lesson also provides you with the experience of using scripts within After Effects. Watch Tutorial (right click to download) Watch Final Movie