Quick HUD Element from Shortformvideo

In Quick HUD Element, Laurence Grayson follows up his De-rezzing your video grunge tutorial with a tutorial on making the HUD element in that video. The project file and extra tips are on the Shortformvideo website.

For more on HUD displays in AE and beyond, click the tag HUD. Here's the video:

Update: For more on HUDs, see Create A Highly Detailed Digital Terrain Scan by Ran Ben Avraham, ShortformVideo’s Satellite Tracking Display, a tutorial series by CG Swot, Compositing an Advanced HUD - Complete Video Workshop.

Designing & Compositing a HUD

Via Motion Graphics eXchange is a new After Effects tutorial video from Dave Scotland at CGSwot, Designing & Compositing a HUD:

"Learn how to design and composite a combat Heads-Up-Display (HUD) with an automated tracking system [Boujou] using real ground targets in After Effects. Take a pre-tracked background plate and feed various target data into the on screen graphics, based on distance to camera expressions. Design and build various animated and static elements including random number generation and meter movement..."

For context, click the tag to see previous posts on Ironman’s HUD and Mark Coleran on screen design, especially movies in Nuke & the 'Iron Man' HUD + 'Iron Man 2'.

See also AE-specific advice in A Heads-Up on Using Reticles by Chris & Trish Meyer (which uses Artbeats Reticles), and Futuristic HUDs everywhere soon on a Video Copilot tutorial.

Sci Fi GUI project for FreeForm AE

Chris Bobotis of Mettle posted a free HUD-style After Effects project, Sci Fi GUI, created with CS4 and Mettle's FreeForm AE. The project (direct download) uses FreeForm AE's 3D displacement mapping feature; Freeform comes bundled with AE CS5 (or use a demo from Digieffects).

For tutorials on creating HUD interfaces, see AEtuts' Tracking A Futuristic High Tech Floating Interface (in 2-parts) and Dive Into A HUD Diver Mask Animation (also in 2-parts). For more resources and tutorials, see Designing & Compositing a HUD and posts tagged HUD on AE Portal.

Update: check out the UI of Space Fence, an orbit tracking system,

Update: AEtuts added Creating Additional Graphical Interface Elements by Stefan Surmabojov, which also shows some tricks for Shape layers..

Adobe Inspire on Ironman’s HUD

The Adobe XD (Experience Design) team has launched INSPIRE, a new "blog" where team members share thoughts on design and UI, gather feedback, and test Adobe technology. The topics in this experiment overlap a bit with the EDGE newsletter and Adobe Design Center.

One of the video stories on Inspire is Ironman’s HUD: A Behind the Scenes Story by Ethan Eismann, an experience designer for Thermo and AIR at Adobe. Eismann has a number of stories on Ironman on his blog. An Fxguide interview on the same topic was mentioned earlier in Behind the HUD of Ironman.

Nuke & the 'Iron Man' HUD + 'Iron Man 2'

Dav Rauch from The Orphanage walks through their Nuke work on the HUD sequence from Iron Man in movies below from The Foundry's Youtube Channels (via 5tu).

Other reports and interviews on the same subject from Fxguide and Adobe --as well as a tutorial project by Video Copilot -- can be found in these previous posts.





Update: Iron Man 2 UI & motion graphics, both stills and short movies can be found at Perception:
"Using a combination of the Adobe Creative Suite of products and Maxon's Cinema 4D for 3D animation, Perception put out full 2k renders for what would ultimately be a film output for IMAX presentations and normal theatrical release. All working on the Macintosh platform, Perception's team of designers, compositors, animators and rotoscope artists worked tirelessly to deliver the entire package."

Update: In fxguidetv #099 Jan 07, 2011, Marshall Krasser details ILM's work on Iron Man 2 using Nuke.

Futuristic HUDs everywhere soon

The Futuristic HUD could be the next After Effects tutorial project from Videocopilot used at default settings to fill reels across the internets.

For context, see previous posts on Ironman’s HUD and Mark Coleran on screen design, as well as the AE-specific advice in A Heads-Up on Using Reticles by Chris & Trish Meyer, which uses Artbeats Reticles.

Behind the HUD of Ironman

Fxguide has an article on Ironman effects as well as a podcast, Behind the HUD of Ironman, which features Dav Rauch from The Orphanage. Rauch led the team that designed Ironman's Heads Up Display.

HUD and GUI graphics in 'Oblivion'

...is new at Pro Video Coalition.

Oblivion, a new movie directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Tom Cruise, features a unique mix of practical and digital effects. The HUD and GUI graphics seem to have been mostly shot in-camera after being created by a team lead by Bradley G. Munkowitz, aka GMUNK.

40+ roundups for After Effects

I was tempted to roundup 100+ tutorials just from Andrew Kramer, but instead here's a roundup of After Effects Portal topic roundups on Pro Video Coalition. Many of them have been updated since their initial release.

1. Easter eggs in After Effects: a new hunt
2. Halftone techniques for After Effects
3. Chromatic aberration: creation and fixes with After Effects
4. Long shadows: adding body to flat design in After Effects
5. Kinetic type in After Effects
6. Fly around CC Sphere in After Effects
7. Optimizing performance in Premiere & After Effects
8. 3D from 2D images: After Effects + beyond 
9. Driving Plates and Composites in Premiere Pro and After Effects 
10. 3D printing in Photoshop CC 
11. Flowchart tools in After Effects 
12. Secondary animation and the principles of animation 
13. Tracking gestures on iOS for After Effects 
14. Circles in After Effects 
15. Spirographs in After Effects
16. Spirals in After Effects
17. Secondary animation and the principles of animation
18. The Ray-traced 3D renderer in After Effects
19. Brainstorm in After Effects
20. User interfaces in the movies and beyond
21. TypeMonkey: a kinetic type tool
22. Fractal Noise in After Effects
23. Typewriter effects in After Effects
24. Headphones: a few resources
25. How to shoot car videos inside & out
26. Whip (swish) pans in After Effects & Premiere
27. HUD and UI graphics in ‘Oblivion’ + titles
28. Slideshows in After Effects
29. Charts and graphs in After Effects
30. Vignettes in Premiere & After Effects
31. Sunbursts or radial rays in After Effects
32. Set Matte: a 32-bpc node for After Effects
33. Volumetric lighting in After Effects
34. The Matrix effect in After Effects
35. Muzzle flashes in After Effects
36. Creating Fire in After Effects
37. Using and creating After Effects scripts
38. Lip Sync in After Effects
39. Remove banding in After Effects
40. The Shatter Effect in After Effects
41. 3D Text in After Effects
42. Lens wacking, free lensing, and light leaks
43. How to Light Wrap
44. LED and Casino light text effects in After Effects
45. Creating snow in After Effects
46. Animate a Photo Mosaic in After Effects
47. Lens Flares in After Effects
48. Seamless edits for jump cuts
49. Adding motion blur in After Effects
50. Light Strokes and Streaks
51. Reflections in After Effects
52. Free Lower Thirds plus Additional Resources
53. Animate a character in After Effects
54. Sky Replacement with After Effects
55. Bleach bypass, cross-process, and other looks for After Effects

Even templates have their own tutorials

Cassidy Bisher has several After Effects tutorial videos available on Vimeo (via Lester Banks) that support his AE templates at Dropdrop.com. One cluster is a series on "spy gadgets," which looks at tracking in AE and in Mocha for After Effects, all in support of his "Top Secret" templates (example below).

For some related tutorials and background, see Designing & Compositing a HUD and posts on tracking and Mocha. See also Resources for mocha for After Effects and Motion tracking overview and resources in AE Help.

Spy Gadget Tutorial 1 from Cassidy Bisher on Vimeo.

OOOii: AE, Flash, and AIR in 'Star Trek'

Lee Brimelow posted a video interview with OOOii (formerly Blackbox Digital), a company whose work includes the gesture-based interfaces for Minority Report, the information design of Enemy of the State, the immersive technologies in The Island, the power walls of Déjà Vu, and the 360º projections in the recent Star Trek.

OOOii used After Effects, Flash, and AIR for Star Trek. This is from an earlier post:

"For Star Trek, senior developer Dave August created a complete ActionScript 3 framework for compositing and sequencing various effects that was used live on the set during filming. He also created an AIR application which was used for authoring the various sequences and also to control them as the actors manipulated them."

See also related previous AEP posts, Mark Coleran on screen design, Adobe Inspire on Ironman’s HUD, and Futuristic HUDs everywhere soon.

Update: see also ooo-ii: The Design of the Star Trek Movie Information Displays from Infosthetics.

Update: check out the UI of Space Fence, an orbit tracking system,

Ellipse Tool Plus from Hypoly

James Chiny's Hypoly has another free download, Ellipse Tool Plus:

"This is a custom preset that takes the basic after effects ellipse tool a step further. With a wide variety of possible set ups this custom preset can be very useful for HUD's and other on screen graphics. Designs such as the one in the image can be achieved with just a few clicks. The file also comes with a help file and source file for you to have a look at. I would be nice to turn this into a plugin one day rather then a custom preset but only time will tell."

AE Ellipse Tool Plus from Hypoly on Vimeo.

Note: You may remember Hypoly from such free downloads as a 3D Ribbon/Wire in AE with Trapcode Particular and a Simple Camera Rig Script that will set up a simple camera rig with rotation and position controls located in one Control Null.

Red Giant Universe 2.0 - no more free lunch

You probably already heard, but...

Red Giant Universe had been a consistently-updated mix of free and subscription effects for Adobe After Effect, Premiere Pro, and related apps like Hitfilm Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. With the new Universe 2.0, Red Giant removed the less popular plug-ins -- and will no longer offer free tools! 

There more at PVC in Red Giant Universe 2.0: Hud, Mograph, Stylized Damage & Looks, Transitions

The week in After Effects

...‘Avengers’ HUD, Orient World, Particular, shortcuts, and error codes are just a few of the latest news items. Read The week in After Effects at PVC.

Here's Trapcode Particular Essentials from Dan Stevers, which "covers the essentials of Trapcode Particular, a particle generating plug-in for After Effects that also happens to be the greatest plug-in of all-time!" Dan looks at how to use or make Dust, Rain, Snow, Sparks, Firework, Layer Emitters, Custom Particles, Snow w/ Custom Particles, and Light Emitters.