Digital Tutors - Creating Vibrant Fractal Transitions in After Effects

Software used

After Effects CC and up, Element 3D Plug-in, PFTrack 2011, Maya 2013

What you will learn

In this series of tutorials we will composite a shimmering fractal reveal in After Effects utilizing assets generated in Maya. We will be matchmoving a live action plate and creating proxy geometry of the scene in Maya. We will then export the geometry as OBJ assets and assemble them in After Effects. We will animate a fractal pattern to act as a matte for our transition and apply that to our 3D geometry using the Element 3D plug-in. To create vibrant glows we will be using plugins such as Radium, Sapphire, and Starglow whilst taking advantage of linear color-space to achieve the best results possible.

Guest Tutor

James Whiffin

1. Introduction and project overview 00:40

2. Matchmoving in PFTrack 12:03

3. Refining and exporting the camera solve 05:22

4. Modeling geometry in Maya 08:46

5. Modeling more complex geometry and UV mapping 12:42

6. Exporting our assets from Maya into After Effects 09:40

7. Animating the ink texture 09:47

8. Refining the ink animation 13:21

9. Compositing a bright rim 09:25

10. Compositing motion blur and chromatic aberration 09:37

11. Compositing Radium glows 10:40

12. Compositing Starglow 04:33

13. Compositing the screen replacement 08:42

14. Creating a custom glow 05:36

15. Adding dust particles 06:44

16. Animating glow intensities and adding a pull focus 07:26

17. Adding lens effects, color correction, and lens distortion 09:09