After Effects Roundup August 2024

Rich Young

4 weeks ago

The current release of AE (version 24.5) was covered in Adobe After Effects June 2024 release. Will there be IBC show news this September? It probably depends on what’s in beta, which has featured a new look across the entire app, themed and styled using “Adobe Spectrum design.”

There’s several other beta features starting release in August, including Decluttered 3D model import, and some new Render Queue settings. Also, Camera and Light Options are now available in the Properties Panel.

Importantly, Beta version 25 is now available. This yearly switch to the next major version means that After Effects projects saved in v25 cannot be opened in previous versions of After Effects. It is also required to have v25 of Premiere Pro and Media Encoder to make use of Dynamic Link.

The Complete MOGRT Guide for After Effects 2024 by Jarle Leirpoll is really that. A shorter article also on Frame.io is Insider Tips: Put Your After Effects Guides Right Where You Want Them by Laurence Grayson.

SternFX keeps us up to date, and cranks out a number of AE tutorials from beginning to more advanced levels. Recently he shared some tips on how to Instantly Elevate Premiere Pro with After Effects. But remember rushing jobs reduces quality, as explained by Corridor Crew in I Prove Hollywood Effects Aren’t BAD, They’re RUSHED.

The After Effects Beginner Guide: Tutorials & Templates to Get Started from Creative Market is reasonably new and succinct, leveraging external resources to introduce you to AE. Here’s an example on masking from David Lindgren.

Along the same line, After Effects Basics introduces the subject with extra certainty in Learn EVERYTHING About MASKING (After Effects Tutorial). They also introduce the RotoBrush in Learn EVERYTHING About ROTOSCOPING! (After Effects Tutorial).

In Mask Like A Pro Using This Time-Saving 3D Roto Hack | 3D Alpha Mattes, Will Carmack 3d tracks in a mask to avoid using the pen tool frame by frame to keep a matte lined up. And in Transform Paintings Into 3D Scenes With After Effects, Will creates a 3D scene by cutting up old art and adding Generative Fills in Photoshop to help rebuild the scene.

After Effects Basics also posted These FREE PLUGINS Will Change Your LIFE! (After Effects Tutorial), and Motion Nerds (like just about everyone) has their own list in Top 5 Free After Effects Plugins You Need.

Motion Array posted How to Create Light Stroke Paths in Adobe After Effects from Scratch. If you don’t have time to create your own light stroke effects, Motion Array has tons of downloadable templates you can customize in just a few clicks. For similar background, see Adobe on Learn how to shoot light painting photography.

You can also check out older Andrew Kramer tutorials on replication of the old iPod nano commercial, Light Streaks and Light Streaks 2. Aharon Rabinowitz updated the effect in Ghostbusters Afterlife Ghost Trail Effect. Those tutorials use Trapcode Particular but you can use built-in plug-ins too. QuickVFX showed how to use CC Particle Systems II in After Effects Tutorial: Awesome Light Streaks With No Plugins!

SonduckFilm shows you how to create a 3D-looking sphere from a circular solid, and then gets you into CC Particle World in Make the Best Cinematic Visual Particles in After Effects.

Film Riot showed off a Doctor Doom Forcefield Effect from the last Fantastic Four film.

Texturelabs has several good AE tutorials, but others too, and a new Photoshop distress plug-in. This week School in Motion mentioned one of his Photoshop tutorials that can be done in apps with similar tools. See The Secret to Eye-Popping Color Overlays in Photoshop! and “Color Science Hacks” from School of Motion, a summary inside Runway’s Monster Maker, Public Domain GOLDMINE, Art of the Title SOS | Motion Mondays.

In Advanced Tracking In After Effects, Flomotion shares details about various advanced motion tracking in 2D and 3D. Then in Wolverine Claws in After Effects – Advanced Object Tracking, Flomotion shows you how to make a 3D scan of your hand and use GeoTracker from KeenTools.

If you need a warm-up try Premiere Gal’s 3 Ways to Motion Track: Beginner to Advanced! (After Effects).

Victoria Nece from the AE team has some clues on a different effect: “Accidental cool AE effect stack of the day: 3D Channel Extract + Find Edges + Threshold. Almost a retro-linework look.” She also never gets “sick of throwing Colorama on a depth map.“

Gimme more lines and keep your hands to yourself..

Motion Nations recently shared Line Motion Graphics Text Animation in After Effects – After Effects Tutorial. But since there are multiple approaches to every task, and lines are a cottage industry, here’s are a couple of more blasts from the past. ECAbrams posted Diverging Paths – Adobe After Effects tutorial and SonduckFilm had some different quickies in 5 Line Motion Graphics To Elevate Your After Effects Work.

Corridor posted a short, THE BROKEN PORTAL, which they later explained. Just don’t think too much about the ending or the comments. And, it’s not a tutorial: This is What Happens When you Desynchronize Portals by Corridor Crew.

Many of us dug the book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction by Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel, as well as the website Sci-Fi Interfaces. Now Adam Savage’s Tested has posted Why Star Trek’s Graphic Design Makes Sense, another primer on Star Trek Next Generation graphic design and fictional film user interfaces, with the actual designers.

Black Mixture has been covering some AI tools and has comments on Blender and AE in After Effects is Still Beating AI.

In AI news, Elmo X is here to save the election with ultra-believable deepfakes.

Whoever wins AI, wins the world, or a big part of it. The almost obscene gamble on this venture instead of human needs has possibly huge implications. Matthew Berman outlines the details of a paper on AI conundrums in Ex-OpenAI Employee Reveals TERRIFYING Future of AI.