Using Trapcode Form, and some twist and color, we can create something that can be used as DNA strand. Download the project and take a look!
>Download the CS3 project
Born in early 70s, I'm a real sucker for old school graphic nostalgia. This title here holds a special place in my heart, as every time it came on, it meant some sort of primetime cartoon awesomeness. I was playing around with some different glow ideas and thought I'd post what I was playing with. The project uses ITC Avant Garde Gothic, but feel free to use your own.
One of the challenges when using Trapcode Form is that it is so similar and yet so different from Trapcode Particular, which many people are so familiar with. With Form, gaving a "source point" is a bit of a challenge, as the position is based on the center of the shape.
I've set up a sample project here where the location and spherical field make the Form strings guided by a Null object, making it a little easier to control for some situations.
This is a great compilation of many Trapcode Particular projects that I've posted over the past few years at AE Freemart and Trapcode People. There's lots of ideas and creative uses of Particular in here, so take a look for yourself!
>Download the projects here
Here is a set of three Trapcode Form "flame" project with 3 different variations.
These all use Shape layers to drive the shape of the flame, which is a great way to control the flame in Form. You can even animate the shape path to make the flame move.
Here is a full 3D scene, including walls, floor and a glowing TV in the corner.
This is the graymachine 3D preset I mention in a couple of tutorials. Apply it to a 3D layer and duplicate it until you get an extruded object.
See it in use in these tutorials:
Retro Graphics | Camera Shake
>Download the CS3 preset here
Here's a something cool that happens when you combine shape layers and a couple expressions. These speaker shapes are fully 3D and can be scale & rotated in 3D space.
This After Effects project uses shape layers as a particle for Trapcode Particular to create a very cool flowing effect.
>Download the CS3 project here
>Learn more about Trapcode Particular
Time to put away your Betamax tape of The Last Star Fighter and adjust the horizontal hold on the Panavision, the TV's on the fritz.
To see this in use, check out the Retro Graphics Tutorial.
These are the sample compositions and expressions from Tutorial #19.
I've included an additional example not covered in the tutorial that shows how to use a more flexible comp name, such as "sc100_JoeAverage". You'll see a simple variable that allows you to define the number of characters in the scene number. In this case, "sc100" has 5, so scLength is set to 5.
Mac Version:
#include '/Expressions/source.txt'
try{eval(thisComp.name)}catch(err){"not found"}
Windows:
#include 'file:///c:\Expressions/source.txt'
Download both as Compositions
These two After Effects expressions are pretty simple, but they make slide show projects a breeze!! The first, "AutoZoom", makes a layer zoom (scale) based on the in and out points of the layer.The "zoom" value, is how much it zooms. Positive or negative values will both work.//AutoZoom - Apply to Scalezoom = 10;value + linear(time, inPoint, outPoint, 0, [zoom, zoom])Next, AutoFade creates fades on head and tail of any clip. The transition is specified in the "transition" variable, which is defined in frames.//AutoFade - Apply to Opacitytransition = 20; // transition time in framestSecs = transition / ( 1 / thisComp.frameDuration); // convert to secondslinear(time, inPoint, inPoint + tSecs, 0, 100) - linear(time, outPoint - tSecs, outPoint, 0, 100)
Download both as FFX Presets
See a Demonstration Here (No Audio)
This is largely becoming the most common expression I use. It is so simple and so powerful. This was originally something I posted on AE Freemart, and is based on the amazingly awesome and inspirational ideas from Dan Ebberts.
Simply put, the location of any 3D layer (Null, Light, Solid, etc) can be adapted from 3D space to a 2D location. Imagine, the location of a 3D light driving the location of Knoll Light Factory flare, or the example below, where a 3D beam is created using two 3D nulls.
Essentially, you just need to create an expression on your 2D location, and add an expression like the one below. Replace the layer name (ie.. "Null 1"), with your 3D layer. This is so useful!!! I use it in just about every project.
>Download the AE CS3 3D Beam Project
thisComp.layer("Null 1").toComp([0,0,0])
Here is the expression from the "grunge tutorial":
veloc = 18;amplitude = 60;decay = 2;t=time - key(2).time;if (t<0){value}else{x=amplitude*Math.sin(veloc*time)/Math.exp(decay*t);value + [x,0]}
