6 Must have After Effects Plug-ins

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Category: Articles, Web links

After Effects is a great program that packs a lot of punch right out of the box. However as an experienced motion graphic designer you need more than what AE offers off the shelf. When looking to create particle, lighting and film effects it is best to go with a 3rd party plug-in to get the job done quickly and easily. Here is my short list of six powerful plug-ins that any serious After Effects designer should add to their arsenal.

1. Trapcode Particular

Trapcode Particular is one of the most talked about After Effects plug-ins of all time for good reason. Its powerful and easy to use particle system makes it the ideal choice for creating an array of effects like smoke, dust, clouds, grass, bubbles, rain, snow, debris and anything else you can think to throw at it.

More info: Trapcode Particular

2. Video Copilot Optical Flares

In 2009 Video Copilot launched the incredible After Effects plug-in Optical Flares. This affordable add-on creates stunning real life and artistic lens flares. Its ability to track 3D lights make it a truly indispensable tool and “wow” maker.

More info: Video Copilot Optical Flares

3. Magic Bullet Looks

Red Giant Software continually produces innovative plug-ins for After Effects users. Magic Bullet Looks is a toolkit for designers to add film moods and effects to their compositions. With over 100 presents and the ability to tweak your own, Red Giant Looks will not disappoint you with its overwhelming number of features.

More info: Magic Bullet Looks

4. Trapcode Shine

Trapcode Shine is an oldie but a goody. This simple plug-in can breath life into a composition by adding majestic light rays and glorious shine.

More info: Trapcode Shine

5. Trapcode Starglow

Trapcode Starglow is another classic plug-in that everyone should own. Similar to Trapcode Shine, this plug-in can add shinning twinkle and glow to your composition.

More info: Trapcode Starglow

6. Lenscare by Frischulft

Although this plug-in is the most obscure one on the list, it does not make it any less important. Lenscare is a remarkable plug-in and is in a class of its own when it comes to blurring effects. With a few simple steps this plug-in creates realistic rack focus blurs. Go check out this plug-in for yourself and get ready to fall in love.

More info: Lenscare by Frischulft

Red Giant People

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Category: Free downloads, Useful tools, Web links

The great folks at Red Giant Software put together a useful resource for motion graphic designers called Red Giant People. Much like the now defunct Trapcode People website, Red Giant People is a place where anyone can submit their own After Effects presets. The library is already off to a good start and is a growing resource of free goodies.

Nodes Plugin for After Effects

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Category: Useful tools

Ever wanted to add some spice to your data being presented in After Effects? Get ready to be blown away by Yanobox‘s new plugin called Nodes for After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Motion. This plugin offers editors and Motion graphics artists a unique tool to combine text and graphics into beautiful 3D animations. Nodes lets you play with a number of different presets, or you can create your own graphic vocabulary by customizing all available parameters.

Adobe CS5 Launch April 12

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Category: Web links

It was just announced today that Adobe will be launching its newest set of creative tools called Creative Suite 5 on April 12, 2010. For the motion graphics community we hope to see a new version of After Effects (version 10.0) with 64-bit capabilities. Stay in the loop by hitting up the Adobe Creative Suite 5 Launch Site.

Top 5 Sites for AE Scripting Resources

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Category: Tutorials, Web links

1. After Effects Scripts

2.Dan Ebbert’s Resource for AE scripting and expressions

3. Creative Cow After Effects Scripting

4. XScriptorium

5. AE Enhancers

Honorable mention
Greymachine’s 5 Favorite Expressions

10 Inspiring Motion Graphics Blogs

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Category: Tutorials, Web links

1. Video Copilot Blog

2. Motionworks

3. Aetuts+

4. Grayscalegorilla

5. VisualFXtuts

6. Maltaannon

7. Graymachine

8. Amateur Media

9. AE Portal News

10. Maxafter

Optical Flares by Video Copilot

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Category: Useful tools, Web links

I just bought the newest After Effects plug-in by Video Copilot called Optical Flares. This powerhouse of a plug-in does way more than the out-dated Knoll Light Factory and at $124.95 what is there not to like?

Trapcode People Resurrected Part 3

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Category: Free downloads

This is the last part of my three part series on found projects files from the now defunct Trapcode-People.net website. Enjoy!

Download Trapcode People Part 3

alphabet.aep, aonfire.aep, aqua.aep, audioanimation.aep, audioanimation2.aep, blowingtext.aep, boxecho.aep, counter.aep, dis-texted.aep, disintegration.aep, dofbubblesae6.aep, dofdust.aep, fizz.aep, flowerstroke.aep, fractalglow.aep, fractualsun.aep, green_fluff.aep, ice.aep, impulse.aep, latitude.aep, lighttrail.aep, magictest.aep, meteor.aep, money.aep, multiswoosh.aep, myparticles.aep, nebula.aep, particlularwomen.aep, pastel_checkers.aep, photo_ball.aep, rain2.aep, reigneoffirekiki.aep, smoketrail.aep, snow.aep, sparklingbubblesver2.aep, spectralave.aep, spinning_disks.aep, waterfall.aep, word_1.aep

Download Trapcode People Part 1

Download Trapcode People Part 2

After Effects User Group Listing

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Category: Web links

I just went to my first After Effects user group meeting in Toronto last night and I had a great time. I thought creating a list of all the user groups I know in North America might help people get connected.

After Effects Toronto

Adobe After Effects New York

Digial Media Artists Los Angeles

The Dallas After Effects User Group

San Francisco’s Motion Graphics User Group

Minnesota After Effects User Group

After Effects Seattle

Motion Graphics Los Angeles (Non-existent)

If you have a link to a group I missed, please post it in a comment.

Demystifying After Effects Render Settings

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Category: Articles

A lot of new After Effects users and sadly even seasoned users get hung up when it comes to rendering their videos. The most common mistake that I have seen people make when rendering their videos is choosing the “Animation” compression type when outputting a QuickTime video file. This results in ridiculously huge file with an unnecessary level of detail. This blunder is soon followed by another when the inexperienced user tries their hand at the AVI output setting. More frustration overcomes the user when they experience a tremendous loss to the level of quality in their video, long render times and large files. When it comes to rendering videos for the playback or further video editing leave the “Animation” and “AVI” outputs to the pros.

Rendering High Quality Video for Further Encoding

The Quick-Time “Photo – JPG” compression type is what you should be using if you are archiving source files from AE, rendering video to import into your video editor or rendering video to later encode into video playback format like WMV, MP4 or MPEG. “Photo – JPG” compression can create relatively small video files without sacrificing much of the the quality of the video. That is why “Photo – JPG” is the compression type of chose when it comes to stock video clips bought over the web. The quality is superb and the file size is manageable.

Two things you should keep in mind when it comes to the settings for these two compression types. One is compressor depth and the other is compressor quality. The depth is the bit-depth of color. For “Photo – JPG” you want to keep this on Color. Compressor quality is something to be noted when using “Photo – JPG” because it determines overall compression quality. It is a good practice to keep this marker somewhere on “High” (If you choose “Best” you are going to be left with a very large file.)

Rendering High Quality Video for Easy Distribution and Playback

It is common to render a video straight from After Effects into a playable file that is good for the web or universal distribution. On a Windows machine or on a Mac equipped with Flip4Mac, Window Media Video (WMV) is a good choice if the viewers will be Windows based. A general set of WMV export settings are as follows: WMV Standard, One pass, constant bit rate (CBR), Quality of 80 and a Bit rate of 2000 Kbps  SD, 3000 Kbps for WS-SD and 5000 Kbps for 720p.

Another common form of distribution is the Flash Video (FLV) file format. A general set of export settings for this file format are as follows: Max data rate 650-2000 Kbps, On2 VP6 video codec (Sorenson Spark is a less desirable alternative) and a frame rate “Same as Source”.

Lastly one of my favorite formats to render video in is xH.264. This produces a very high quality video that that is small in file size. At times this can be a very complex format to use because of all the setting variations, so stick with the factory presets if you are unsure. Here are some general settings I like to use: NTSC, CBR of 2Mbps, Progressive field order, square pixels and “main” profile with a level of 3.0.

Written by Jeff McIntosh