Tutorials
Crystal 3D Logo by Tim Harris
ShapeShifter AE
Nancy presents a tutorial created by Tim Harris. He created a logo animation for his company using ShapeShifter AE, in After Effects. We love the crystal finish!
Captain America
ShapeShifter AE + FreeForm Pro + FreeForm
PART 1: In this video tutorial Eran Stern of Sternfx.com will show you how to create the shield inspired by the movie Captain America without leaving After Effects. The project includes two compositions, one which uses FreeForm Pro and ShapeShifter AE and the other based on the bundled FreeForm plug-in which is included with After Effects from version CS5. This one uses FreeForm Pro, ShapeShifter AE, RGS, Magic Bullet + Trapcode Suite Products
PART 2: Even if you’re strictly an After Effects user, sooner or later, you’re going to be handed a 3D render to integrate into your motion graphics work. Harry Frank of Red Giant TV shares techniques on finishing the job with effects and color correction.
3D Pixelstorm – Part 1
ShapeShifter AE
Nancy will show you how to create 3d shape morphs and leverage tools and animation presets that ship with After Effects. She covers some of the powerful features in ShapeShifter AE and even touches on pre-comping.
3D Pixelstorm – Part 2
ShapeShifter AE
Nancy explores ShapeShifter AE’s built-in Generator. Some have called it a mini, built-in, Mo Graph (a la C4D) others a bit of a particle system… we call it cool 
Check it out.
3D Pixelstorm – Part 3
ShapeShifter AE
In Part 3 of this series, Nancy covers deformations and applies the finishing touches.
Character Animation Overview by Dan Geis
FreeForm Pro + FreeForm
This serves as an overview and an intro to a 18 part series on Character animation in After Effects using FreeForm Pro, Cycore FX, Duik Tools and native AE Tools and expressions. We are very proud that our products are an important part of the toolset that Daniel uses for his creations. Dan created a 17-part series for ae.tutsplus. Here they are:
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 1
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 2
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 3
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 5
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 4
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 7
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 6
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 8
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 9
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 10
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 11
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 12
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 13
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 14
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 15
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 16
- How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 17
Speak of the Bevel
ShapeShifter AE
VinhSon Nguyen from creativedojo.net uses After Effects Shape Layers, Masks + 2D filters to create some neat animated bevels and styles for ShapeShifter AE. He explores the free project file that is available for download.
Create The Amazing Spiderman Title Sequence, Entirely in After Effects!
ShapeShifter AE
Yes, we’ve always wanted to swing from building to building, like our hero, Spiderman. Well, why not do the next best thing, create the title sequence. At least there’s no danger of falling off high buildings!
Make Big Buck$, in Minutes, Using Shapeshifter AE!
ShapeShifter AE
Learn how to use ShapeShifter AE, in this quick and easy tutorial. Nancy explains the concepts of Reflection Mapping and Displacement Mapping.
ShapeShifter AE | The Basics – Part 1
Check out just how easy and fast it is to create 3D Text extrusions and organic 3D in AE
ShapeShifter AE | The Basics – Part 2
2D and 3D Stereo Conversion
FreeForm Pro
FreeForm Pro is an excellent complement to Mocha Pro for 2D to Stereo 3D conversions. Speed ease of use and the advanced 3D displacement mapping in FreeForm Pro help to bring incredible depth and control to your stereo 3D projects.
Terrain Scan
FreeForm V2 + FreeForm Pro
In this tutorial we are going to create a 3D futuristic terrain scanner. Step-by-step, we will create monochromatic displacement maps and use them to extrude the 3D mountain like shapes. We will explore the difference between the old version of FreeForm (the DigiEffects version, bundled with AE CS5) and FreeForm V2, which is considerably faster after having some excellent optimizations to the source code.
Create a Tunnel
FreeForm Pro
This tutorial will show how to quickly and easily create a tunnel effect using FreeForm Pro. You’ll be able to deform it, stretch it, change its texture, and much, much more. The best part is that even with lots going on, you’ll still find the render time is surprisingly fast!
Creating A Water Box
ShapeShifter AE + FreeForm Pro + FreeForm
We’ll be making a displacement map for ShapeShifter AE that forms a “water box”. This type of project can be customized very quickly and easily with your own logo and/or text. The displacement map that is made can be used with FreeForm Pro or the CS5 bundled version of Freeform. We’ll also touch on a couple of the differences between the 3 plug-ins.
Sink The Shot – Sports Title Sequence
FreeForm Pro + ShapeShifter AE
3 part tutorial series by Ran Ben Avraham. You will learn how to turn your basketball court floor from solid to elastic and back to solid again using FreeForm Pro. Along the way you’ll create a very cool basketball promo with some glass explosion, bombastic 3D, text and lots of tips & tricks.
Sneak Peek
ShapeShifter AE
Ben Griggs put together this tutorial. It shows how to do the intro sequence to a sneak peek of Shapeshifter AE.
Money Makes The World Go Around
FreeForm V2
In this tutorial Ran Ben Avraham shows a cool way to create your own economy show opening sequence. He uses Freeform to create a single dollar bill flopping in the air. Then, using Trapcode Particular, he shows how to emit hundreds of dollar bills to create a nice animation. Finally, he adds some nice Depth of Field using a custom build depth map and the Lens Blur plug-in.