Stringy hair-like Trapcode Form

AEtuts is hosting Super Stringy Hair-Like Logo Reveal, a Trapcode Form tutorial by Michael Fawke. It looks like fun, covering:

... the basics of setting up Trapcode Form, and using alpha channels to control its effect… allowing you to discover some pretty cool effects which can be easily manipulated to create all kinds of craziness.

Forms from video synthesizers

Via Video Circuits is some old school form, "LZX Visionary - Vector Rescanning Experiments," and for extra fun "Scan Processor Studies:"

Update: And for even more extra fun, something done in Trapcode Form:

Silver Black Cycle from Rhett Dashwood on Vimeo.

Free particle experiments from Mattrunks +Chilltorial

Mattias Peresini aka Mattrunks has some new and older Trapcode Particular project files on his blog and on Red Giant People. Mattias' motion design website, Mattrunks, is in French and automatically translated if you surf with Google Chrome.

His free After Effects video tutorials are intriguing but aren't available in English yet. That may change when an inexpensive membership system comes online allowing complete downloads. It'll be interesting to see what the worldwide AE community really looks like as Mattrunks and other non-English After Effects websites are translated. Hopefully the Adobe TV Community Translation project will find volunteers for its supplements.

Here's the render of Mattrunks' Cell Shading Experiment using options in Particular 2 (What: no RTs?!). The project file for this and other recent experiments are available, as are several more from two slightly older sets (1, 2).

Cell Shading Experiment with Particular from Mattias Peresini on Vimeo.


Update: Chilltorial shows how to create something similar in Shading Particles with Particular -- in Thai!

Frozen in time, a free Particular project

Peder Norrby posted a free CS4 AEP of his Trapcode Particular experiment Frozen in time, which uses a Light Emitter driven by a wiggle expression, Aux particles trails that are frozen in time using a Physics Time Factor. Here's a render:

Frozen in time from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.

Re-creating the 'Lost' smoke monster

Red Giant TV has a new tutorial and project by Seth Worley, Episode 52: Re-creating the Lost Smoke Monster. The tutorial features Trapcode Particular and 3D tracking with the Camera Tracker plug-in from The Foundry.

Update: BTW, @Oddernod posted some intro tips for Trapcode Particular on Twitter,

• Been playing w Particular a TON lately - quick tips: work w lots of small particles (less than 3) at low opacity (less than 5%) set to ADD mode
• use Glow Spheres as particle type, set to big size & feather values, & low opacity. Use motion blur set to subframe
• crank shutter angle up & play w levels & opacity boost. Work in 32-bit Linear for some terrific glow blends
• Study those Physics settings! Wire up a Expression Slider to Particles/sec to act as a multipler for working vs render values
• Treat Particular like a 3D app's particle system: use Motion Preview mode to quickly design the movement, then design the look.

Procedural Disintegration: 3D layer to particles

Similar to effects discussed earlier in Shatter and disintegration: techniques for our time, Quba Michalski has a new After Effects tutorial video, Procedural Disintegration, that shares a "method for disintegrating/dispersing a 3D layer into particles. The method shown here has been optimized to produce maximum amount of particles at lowest computing cost (more stuff flying around, faster renders)."

Other Quba tutorials with context can be found in previous AEP posts.
This 70-minute tutorial requires Trapcode Particular and VC Optical Flares or similar. Project and MP4 downloads are available on Quba HQ, plus there's Vimeo versions for mobile viewing. Here's a preview the current tutorial:

Update: see also the "layer removal" tutorial for Particular, Dealing With Spontaneous Particle Combustion by Ben Watts at AEtuts.

Aligning Particular motion paths

Red Giant posted QuickTip #25: Aligning Particular Motion Paths:

Motion paths in Particular can be tricky. Harry Frank brings you this overview of how to set them up, and a foolproof way to align the spline in 3D space with a simple expression. ...There's also a preset for AE CS4+, to use (with a try/catch thing so it doesn't error). Expressions used in this tutorial:

Particular Emitter Position XY:

pos = thisComp.layer("Motion Path 1").position.valueAtTime(0);[pos[0], pos[1]]

Particular Emitter Position Z:

thisComp.layer("Motion Path 1").position.valueAtTime(0)[2]

Red Giant QuickTip #25: Aligning Particular Motion Paths from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

Procedural dispersion with Trapcode Particular

@rymden notes a new "layer removal" tutorial for Particular, Dealing With Spontaneous Particle Combustion by Ben Watts at AEtuts. Here's the preview; Ben says:

"In this tutorial I will demonstrate how to build up a procedural dispersion effect using Trapcode Particular. This is great for burning off logo’s, text or even 3d renders. The color and motion of the effect can be changed easily as well as the wipe angle thanks to handy global wipe control we will construct."

Flocking tutorial for Cinder by Robert Hodgin

For advanced explorations outside of After Effects, check out the 5-part flocking tutorial for Cinder by Robert Hodgin that was noted by @blprnt. It contains the same logic used to make the Bait Ball video below. Cinder is a free, open source, peer-reviewed C++ library for creative coding, and the Cinder team recommends advanced Processing skills -- which is still beyond most of us.

Happily though we have Trapcode Particular; see Flocking Experiment with Trapcode Particular + new versions for renders, projects, and advice from Peder Norrby.

Bait ball from flight404 on Vimeo.

Volumetric smoke: Particular tutorial

Peder Norrby posted an After Effects tutorial and project on making Volumetric smoke with Trapcode Particular:

"After rendering the final clip I noticed I had to change the Particle>Size over Life curve so the particles size faded out rather than just disappearing abruptly. I also setup Aux>Opacity over Life so the auxiliary particles faded out (using opacity)."

AE/Particular Volumetric Smoke Tutorial from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.

Making DNA strands with Trapcode Particular

Alain Lores posted a tutorial that covers a flexible method of producing a nice-looking DNA strand effect using Trapcode Particular, Tut-01 DNA with Particular:

Tut-01 DNA with Particular from Alain Lores on Vimeo.

Looping Particular the "right way"

A few years ago Chris Kelley posted a few After Effects tutorial videos on The Mograph Blog. Trapcode Particular expert @graymachine says one of them is the best thing since waffles: Loop Particular the Right Way.

The other video tutorials are Nesting Cameras in After Effects Using Expressions and Linking Particles to a Null with Particular; his Mastering the Render Queue was also useful, though it lacks the default Windows menu theme that maybe be not better in blogs.

Flocking Experiment with Trapcode Particular + new versions

Peder Norrby posted a flocking experiment done with Trapcode Particular; he says:

"In this first test I emitted 40K particles (using a large Box emitter) on the first frame and they are affected only by the Turbulence Field (a 4D perlin noise fractal that is used as 3D displacement). The "birds" are simple black circles.

All movement was made using Physics>Air>Turbulence with a rather large displacement of 4000 px. Then I set down Turbulence>Scale to 1.0 and increased Evolution Speed to 150. In this first test I emitted 40K particles (using a large Box emitter) on the first frame and they are affected only by the Turbulence Field (a 4D perlin noise fractal that is used as 3D displacement). The "birds" are simple black circles. Viemo's compression really doesn't like this clip, download the original file to see it without artifacts."

There more info including example starling flocking and a downloadable AEP at Trapcode Sharelog.

Starlings Study 01 from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.

Update: Najork on Vimeo has a Re-work of Peder Norrby's Starlings Study, with "polygon sprites." Plus version 2 from Peder is available, 'This time I used the "Sprite" particle type with a 20x50 px comp as particle; a small triangle. I used Orient to Motion to make the triangles point in their direction of flight. The number of particles was set down to about 4K.'

Starlings Study 02 from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.

3D Outlined Text Using Particles

AEtuts posted Make Your Own Smooth 3D Outlined Text Using Particles, a tutorial by Roman Komurka. There's only 99 steps in text and pictures in this unique tutorial!

See also Must.have.3D.text and click the tag 3D text to see what other lengths AE users will go to get 3D text effects [update: Adobe take notice, please]. Here's Roman's preview render:

3D animated wings with Trapcode 3D Stroke

Iaenic shows how he made 3D animated wings in After Effects with Trapcode 3D Stroke in a new tutorial video (via Lester Banks). He also takes you through several techniques for working with After Effects' faux 3D space.

Advanced 3D Wings in After Effects from Iaenic on Vimeo.

Nulls vs. lights as emitters in Trapcode Particular

Harry Franks has advice on Nulls vs. Lights as Emitters in Particular in Red Giant Quicktip #18:

"Some people like to use Nulls or Solids as emitters in Particular, and some like to use Lights. But when is it best to use one or the other? Both have strength and weaknesses. Here you'll learn where an when to use them. Hey - it's not glamorous stuff, but this is some good Trapcode Particular info that will help you out when you need better control of your emitters."



Red Giant QuickTip #18 : Nulls vs Lights as Emitters in Particular from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

Old film looks with Particular and Color Finesse

Two recent video tutorials showed how to use Trapcode Particular for film looks:

• GC Swot posted 39. Aged Film Using Particles on "how to create film scratches, dirt and dust using Trapcode Particular, which can be saved as an importable element for future projects. Learn how to color correct the footage for an aged, vintage film look..."

• Now, with light leaks, is Red Giant Quicktip #17: Old Film Look, "Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create an old film look with light leaks. He'll be using Trapcode Particular to create the light leaks, and the tools in Magic Bullet Looks to create the look of old damaged footage."

Red Giant Quicktip #17: Old Film Look from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

Update: For an approach using Color Finesse and 8mm stock, see 01-After Effects | Vintage 8-mm Film Effect Tutorial from James Zanoni on Vimeo.

The Matrix effect: some resources for After Effects

There are a number of ways to generate the Matrix text effect in AE, and reflex dictates a list!

Please read the updated resource The Matrix effect in After Effects at ProVideo Coalition.

Particle Shadows in After Effects

After some teases, Video Copilot has a new After Effects tutorial video, 108. Particle Shadows, which extends some earlier work to demonstrate how to cast realistic shadows from a 3D Particle System (using Trapcode Particular 2). The tutorial includes work-flow tips and setup for custom sprites, as well as a mini 3D Max demo for creating the "Future Balls." See tutorial 100. Glass Orbs to make the balls pictured left.

Camera fly-thru titles and depth of field

via @hashae... Carl Larsen posted Living By The Spirit Titles, an After Effects tutorial video that shows you how to create titles using depth of field rendering, Trapcode Particular, and some free live-action footage. A project file is also included.

Living By The Spirit Tutorial from Carl Larsen on Vimeo.