AE Preset: Back N Forth + animation aids

Back N Forth is a free sine wave generator preset for the position, scale, and rotation in every axis of your objects inside of After Effects:

What this means is that with this preset, you can automatically make your layers move from side to side (or up and down) in a motion that is always equidistant from the center on both ends! This is different from using something like “Wiggle” in that wiggle is more or less random motion, whereas sin waves are constant and fluid.

Author Neal Barenblat has another preset as well, Flicker On.

Back N Forth joins other recent expression-based presets as animation aids, like Gravity preset from Jesse Toula and Better Bouncing by Ian Haigh. See foundation basics and much more from JJ Gifford (plus harmonic motion) and Dan Ebberts.

Not disimilar is Ease and Wizz, a script to generate alternative keyframe interpolations for After Effects (especially to the sine-like Easy Ease). Looking at pictures by Chris Meyer is the fastest way to see what behaviors you get with this script. Author Ian Haigh has a nice demo on AE Scripts; here's a preview:

Continuing with tangents off sine animation are some tutorials for creating animation of sines:

• Creating sine animation with the Wave Warp effect by Aharon Rabinowitz
• Generate a Dynamic Morphing Background Design with Sinedots by Stefan Surmabojov at AEtuts+ (below). Sinedots is available free for CS5 and earlier from Philipp Spöth (deja vu).

Update: animationPATTERNS, by Markus Bergelt, is "a keyframe-based easing assistance, that allows you to edit and create new easing types. It comes with a dockable palette, a set of default interpolation methods like bounce, rubber, pendulum... and is very easy to use! !animationPATTERNS does not work with properties that already use expressions. They'll get replaced by clicking apply pattern."

Learn to Code: The Full Beginner's Guide

Learn to Code: The Full Beginner's Guide is 4.5-part intro series on Javascript from LifeHacker. It might be useful for using expressions in After Effects. And it doesn't leave you hanging since the epilogue shares some best pactices and additional resources.

Here's a sample movie:

AE Plug-in Matchnames

Update August 2016: After Effects Plugin Match Names from David Torno is the most updated article available (PDF download and script to contribute).

Update: redefinery posted Effect Match Names Reference (for AE CC (12.1)).

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David Torno published a long list of After Effects plug-in matchnames for scripters and expression artists on the AE I Owe You Facebook page:

"Nothing exciting, but might be handy. While the list is not 100% complete, under 1200 right now, I would like to get every single current plugin made for AE in this list at some point.

I can pass along a script I made to export matchname info for plugins. Basically if you don't see the plugins you are looking for on the list AND you have them installed and you are interested in adding to this list, let me know."

What is a matchName? Under the hood, every object or property has a unique matching ID. Here's a description from AEnhancers:

'matchName will give you After Effects' internal name for any given layer or property type, so you can figure out what kind of layer or property you are dealing with. For example, a layer might also be an "ADBE Camera Layer", an "ADBE Light Layer" or an "ADBE Text Layer", all fairly self explainatory really.

So an "ADBE AV Layer" is basically any kind of layer that might contain audio or video, in fact any kind of layer that isn't a Camera, Light or Text layer.'

Several years ago Jeff Almasol posted an Effect Match Names Reference for AE 7 at his Redefinery. Jeff's rd: Gimme Props script "dumps the name and matchName of the property hierarchy of the selected layers, in selected order. Use this information to retrieve the internal matchName for a property that you want to access in your scripts."

Also, some recent AE scripts offer matchname services; see 'Knowledge at your fingertips' for After Effects, ExpressionUniversalizer to translate expressions, and ft-Toolbar.

You can see matchname use in action in a tutorial at AEtuts+, Learn How to Create a Light Rays Custom Effect from Scratch by Jorrit Schulte.

ExpressionTimeline: script to modify expressions

AE Scripts and Mamoworld now offer ExpressionTimeline, a new After Effects script that lets you combine and modify expressions without editing the code itself. This script makes it easier to:

• make expressions be active only for a certain period of time
• add more than one expression to a property
• fade expressions in and out smoothly
• transition smoothly from one expression to the next one

Here's a short demo and a tutorial for a peek (there's more on Mamoworld):

After Effects ExpressionTimeline in 1 Minute from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

Expression Timeline Tutorial from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

5 Easy After Effects Expressions

Via FilmakerIQ is Top 5 Easy Adobe After Effects Expressions by Sean Bowers, the first episode of a “Fix it in Post” series from NextWaveDV (embedded below).

For something comparable, My 5 Favorite Expressions by Harry Frank comes to mind, as does an Andrew Devis video Hidden Templates & Powerful Expressions. There's more on expressions in AE Help, the piled-on post Expressions & Scripting Resources for After Effects and others at AE Portal, and in various video tutorials at AEtuts+, for example a 5-part series by Frederik Steinmetz, Introduction To Writing Scripts For AE.

Kinetic Text Expressions for AE

Lester Banks notes an animation and expression on Vimeo by Danny D, Kinetic Text Expressions for AE (embedded below). Lester also points out a resource on another source on inertial bounce by Harry Frank (with downloadable presets), and by extension a thread on MoGraph.

Some related resources can be found at Motion Graphics Exchange and in recent posts here on presets and tutorials for gravity and bouncing (without the tweaks for rotation of course) . There's probably more on expression source AEnhancers. Here an example from Danny D:

Kinetic Text Expressions for AE from Danny D on Vimeo.

2010 In Review at PVC: expressions

PVC is reposting what they consider the best posts for 2010 In Review. There's no "After Effects" tag to check relevant posts easily, and there must have a been a flurry of info after the CS5 release, but what stands out in memory is the series on expressions by Chris and Trish Meyer.

Check out the linked index of the 12 installments at Deeper Modes of Expression: The Index.

Better Bouncing in After Effects

Ian Haigh posted EbbertBounce.ffx, a preset for basic bounces in Better Bouncing in After Effects. It's based on Dan Ebberts explanations on Motion Script, and is similar to Ian's Ease and Wizz -- but with sliders to adjust amplitude, decay, and frequency.

For some related resources, see the recent AEP post Gravity preset, Unpack Precomp script + more, which notes a similar preset and a tutorial and other resources.

Update: Ease and Wizz is now offered through AE Scripts.

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.

Auto-fade audio in AE when voice track starts

In AE Help, Todd Kopriva lists instructions for the Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant and some Online resources for converting audio to keyframes.

Among them is a reference to Ducking Audio Expressions posted at Video Copilot forums, meant to automate music fades as voice tracks start:

"Nathan Gambles provides an expression on the Video Copilot website that ducks (reduces the volume of) audio on one layer when the volume of audio on another layer increases. This technique is useful, for example, for automatically decreasing the volume of a soundtrack when dialog occurs. This expression for the Stereo Mixer effect depends on the Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant having been applied to the other audio layer."

Update: Motion Graphics Exchange listed this last year and has newer related related auto-fading and more.

Linked index to Deeper Modes of Expressions

Chris and Trish Meyer have finished posting the series on expressions in After Effects and provide a linked index of the 12 installments at Deeper Modes of Expression: The Index.

Expressive Text: Deeper Modes of Expression #12

Chris Meyer posted the last of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5.

The 12th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 12: Expressive Text on ways to manipulate numbers and text using expressions:

"Finally, we’d like to demonstrate ways to use expressions to manipulate text created with the new Type tool. We’ll show how to display time and parameter values as text, both for diagnostic purposes and to create graphical elements. On the second page we’ll show to how to manipulate strings of text, including using the Buzz Words animation preset to cycle through words in a list. Then on the last page we’ll talk about the Expression Selector to animate text created with the Type tool."

Automating lower-thirds with After Effects

Adam Everett Miller has a new workflow tutorial on AEtuts, Enough Lower Thirds To Feed A Small Country, which uses the well-documented CompsfromSpreadsheet script by Mike Cardeiro from AE Scripts.

This post has been expanded and update, see Free lower thirds and tutorials: Leverage Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects at PVC.

Color coding: Deeper Modes of Expression #11

Chris Meyer posted the 11th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5.

The 11th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 11: Dreaming in Color on using expressions to choose, modify, or create master colors:

"The next-to-last subject we’re going to cover is manipulating color inside expressions. This is powerful, as so much of graphics is about color, and also because it is very handy to set up a master color on one layer and then have a large number of other layers or effects look to this master – a great way to accommodate sweeping client changes at the last minute."

Introduction To Writing Scripts – Photo Wall

AEtuts posted the lastest in a series by Frederik Steinmetz, Introduction To Writing Scripts Day 4 – Photo Wall. [update: Day 5 is up Nov. 2]

Here's the preview, which is reminiscent of the script Trajectory:

Tutorials taking you beyond the basics

Todd Kopriva has a hyper-view of 2 recent tutorials by Andrew Devis mentioned in Using audio to control AE: 2 approaches in his post tutorials on using linear expression method, null control layers, and expression controls:

"... the real strength of these tutorials isn’t in the audio part of that instruction; it’s in the linking part.

Andrew shows very clearly and methodically how to use expressions (specifically the linear expression method), the expression pick whip, null object layers, expression control effects… all of which are immensely powerful and crucial features. Unfortunately, these same features are usually very intimidating for new users.

In other words, I think that Andrew may be selling himself short by saying that these are tutorials about something as easy to do as converting audio to keyframes. In fact, they are great resources for teaching some of the most important and universally useful features to help someone to move from the basics into doing seriously complex and advanced work in After Effects."

Read the rest, with the proper links, at After Effects region of interest.

Using audio to control AE: 2 approaches

Andrew Devis is on a roll with yet another tutorial -- this time it's a 2-part tutorial on Using Audio To Control Effects. It's a unique approach in that they do the same thing but with slightly different methods.

Paraphrasing, the 1st part is the workmanlike approach, both slightly simpler and quicker, and ideal if you are only controlling a couple of items with your audio. Version 2 shows how to keep all the controllers on a single layer and is better suited for more complex projects with many layers, which need good organisation. The first tutorial is better if you are not experienced in using audio and expressions.

Learn random expressions with earthquake tutorial

On AEtuts started a series of After Effects tutorial videos on expressions with Felt Tips. The first, Shake It Up With An Expression Earth Quake (previewed below), is

"a basic look at the various random number methods in After Effects expressions. I go on to use some of these techniques to build an earthquake effect that you can easily adjust with a series of sliders. The tutorial is aimed at intermediate After Effects users who have some experience with the program and are looking to learn more about the power of expressions."

By the way, you can find other reviews of similar material by Chris Meyer, who recently posted on wiggle and random number methods. See also Random Numbers methods (expression reference) in AE Help for reference.

Felt Tips explains a bit more:

"This is not a tutorial about making some eye-candy effect. I’m well aware that you can build the same effect with a couple of keyframes and the wiggler. This is about setting up a simple effect with expressions to make a much more controllable animation, that is faster and easier to experiment and work with than the manual equivalent. There are very few good screencasts on the topic of expressions. This is the first in a series that attempts to fill that gap.

As with all series’ it starts simple, with some grounding principles. This is to make sure that it’s not just about copying and pasting someone else’s code, but gaining a thorough understanding of the process for yourself, so that in the future you can design your own complex expression systems. The next one will be building on that knowledge rather quickly. Very soon, you will be writing expressions to automate processes which would take you hours by hand – and shortly afterwards, doing things that can *only* be done with expressions."

Intro Javascript for AE

AEtuts posted Introduction To Writing Scripts For AE – Javascript Part 1 by Frederik Steinmetz (preview below):

"In Part 3 of this series, we’ll be learning how the Adobe Javascript Editor works and how to write a script that can be executed in After Effects. You will learn how to debug scripts and end up with just a few lines of code that will generate a cube that consists of 1.000 solids, a parent null object, a light and a camera."

See also Dan Ebberts chapter on scripting in Creating Motion Graphics With After Effects by Trish & Chris Meyer, Lloyd Alvarez's AENY presentation on AE scripting, AE CS5 Help on Scripts and Expressions -- as well as the piled-on post Expressions & Scripting Resources for After Effects and posts tagged expressions and scripting. By the way, Lloyd Alvarez has an ongoing course teaching an Introduction to After Effects Scripting at fxphd.

More this week in After Effects

Here are some AE items new this week that were not already mentioned here:

• Channel effects tutorials on 'luma to alpha' (part1, part 2) from Felt Tips on Vimeo.

• Learning the After Effects Graph Editor by John Kostrzewski on Fuel Your Motionography (more in AE Help, in CMG, and from Mylenium).

• AE Quick Tips #6 Super Smooth Curve from Felt Tips, which also explains the Graph Editor (see Ease and Wiz also, especially Ease and Wizz: alternative keyframe interpolations for After Effects by Chris Meyer).

• Update (pictured) from Mike Cardeiro of his script Trajectory, which lets you align layers in a comp evenly in 3D between 2 nulls, with delay controls for animation.

• ActivateDisabledExpressions, a script by Lloyd Alvarez, will go through selected layers, an entire comp or several selected comps and activate any disabled expressions.

• DuplicateLayers-n-UpdateExpressions, another script by Lloyd Alvarez, will duplicate the selected layers and if any of the layers have expressions referencing any of the layers being duplicated it will update the expressions to point to the newly duplicated layers (watch the demo).

• Update to The LoopMaker script by Lloyd Alvarez, which "loops any layers, footage or comps with one click™."

• Several tutorials and articles on AEtuts.

• OpenEXR workflow in Maya and After Effects CS5 by Guru Vaidya

• A New Trapcode Particular Preset: “Sparkler” – Including Motion Sketch Tutorial by Nick Campbell.

• AE Tutorial – Rusty checkerplate from Shortformvideo

• Both parts of Automatic Animation from Motionworks are up (Auto-Keyframe mode, Motion Sketch, Wiggler and Wiggle expressions, creating motion paths from Illustrator path, Shape Layer Wiggle, Text Wiggly Selector, and various automated effects).

• Dallas AEUG member John Begg put together a few expressions and "imagery to create an easy-to-use CC Sphere project [rendering a planet Earth]. The expressions are hooked to a Comp Light so it appears that moving the light around the scene changes the lighting on the sphere." For similar projects, see AE 3D Earths with & without 'Knowing' lava and Fly around CC Sphered layer in After Effects.