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Learn how to use Illustrator to break up a layer into pieces. Use expressions to automatically make the pieces move randomly into place. Click here to view the expression used.
Graymachine Products
Learn how to use Illustrator to break up a layer into pieces. Use expressions to automatically make the pieces move randomly into place. Click here to view the expression used.
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May 18th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Stellar tut! Love all the expression work, and what a great find in slicing things up inside Illustrator!
May 18th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I second that! I had no idea about that tool!
May 19th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Great great great !
Thx for this very nice tut !
May 19th, 2009 at 9:36 am
[...] This post was Twitted by beerad – Real-url.org [...]
May 19th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
This looks really sweet! I will try this when I get sometime. Thanks a million!
May 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
wow that’s really cool! I really appreciated the expressions’ use on this. And I must admit it’s been about a week I’ve been trying to figure out how to create this reverse shatter text effect, as I’m a Fringe fan and there is something like that on it.
By the way I tried spending few hours using the built in shatter effect to get this but I actually can’t get it reversed! What parameters am I supposed to animate to reverse this? The only thing that came to me has been reversing clip’s time, but then the control is not that good…what do you suggest?
thanks and keep it up with this great tutorials!
May 19th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I think time remapping is the only option with this.. which is why I like this technique here. I just wish it could be more 3D. Maybe using ProAnimator?
May 20th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
nice~!!!!!
May 21st, 2009 at 11:29 am
[...] you are going through the Reverse Shatter Tutorial, you might have a hard time finding the Knife Tool in CS4. Because Adobe likes to keep moving [...]
May 21st, 2009 at 11:29 pm
damn it looks like transformers
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:21 am
[...] View Screencast [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Oh my… I am truly astounded.
Ever since Video Copilot’s Meteor tutorial, most of the training sessions there have been pretty bland (Kramer, love you man! I feel like a real jerk for even thinking that!). In comparison, this is a breath of beautiful, fresh air. THANK YOU!
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 am
nice, werd! finished the tut. and i must say this back with ur expression series has truely got me open, expression series is a fantastic purchase, can’t believe i did this with no keyframes, now heres a question, i viewed ur afx w/external document tut., tryin to figure out how i would be able to dynamically change the property attributes like u mentioned in the tutorial? a lil help??
thanks sensei!!!
May 24th, 2009 at 5:33 am
thanks!!
when i import to after effects, i get only 1 layer..and i did every thing you said!!
what to do?
thanks again
May 25th, 2009 at 9:57 am
With out seeing it, I can’t say much more than it works for everyone else. Can you send the project files to me? I’ll take a look at it. harry (at) graymachine . com
May 25th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Im using CS4 for both Illustrator and AE, when I import the comp I cant get AE to recognize the video preset I used in Illustrator. I did however modify the video preset. Does this nullify AE ability to automatically recognize the comp size?
May 25th, 2009 at 11:58 am
What change did you make to it? I’m still on CS3, so it makes it difficult for me to troubleshoot CS4 problems, but perhaps someone else has some input?
May 25th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Ive figured out that it is something Im doing wrong in AI but I cant for the life of me figure it out. Importing PSD into AE works fine but not AI files. Anybody else using CS4 having this problem?
May 27th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Does not work on Windows unfortunately, I don’t know why Adobe decide to make the Mac version actually work properly and then remove all the options from the Windows version.
May 27th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Cody, a number of Windows users frequent this site, and i know that a few of them (at least) have gone through the tutorial.
Can you specify where you are running into a problem? This technique should work on both platforms going back several versions. I’d email you, but you offered up a fake email address.
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I have owned CS3 PP since its release and I have touched Illustrator maybe 4 times. It was really nice seeing a tut showing a use with Illustrator and Ae and a great tut at that. Well done Harry, by the way, Trapcode Particular 2!!! Can’t wait to see some of your new training on it.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Hey Harry
After changing my illustrator comp to dark grey and pasting my material options, my letters still do not look like they’re being reflected by light 1. I really don’t know where i’m going wrong.I’m using cs4 and are baffled at this stage.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Wondefull … and very well explained.
Keep doing this great work … greets from Brazil.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:53 am
@Isaac. When I planned this tutorial, I made one dark gray 3D solid near my light, and then I adjusted the settings on the light like that first. This way I knew my light settings were correct, and from there it was a matter of putting the light in the correct spot.
Maybe start there? If you are really stumped. you could send me the project.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Is it possible to make this work with an image instead of vector text? I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to AI and can’t figure out how to convert my image so I can slice it up. Any advice would be appreciated greatly.
Awesome tutorial. Keep up the great work!
June 14th, 2009 at 11:46 am
[...] View Screencast [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 11:42 am
[...] Tutorial Link [...]
June 18th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Great tutorial…thanks for sharing. FYI, it looks like the ‘auto sequencing’ from AI only works for fonts converted to outlines. I tried with a logo, and after slicing, the pieces assemble randomly, not neatly from left to right. Any thoughts on fixing the order (other than manually re-arrange stacking order in AE
Keep up the great work!
June 18th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Honestly, it was a random discovery that it even worked in the right order with outlined type. Bummer that it doesn’t work with logos. I am setting up a template that uses masks in AE so one can drop any object in AE and have it work.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Wicked tut.
I am so happy with the outcome.
Especially panning the camera around.
Thanks a million Harry
June 20th, 2009 at 1:14 am
thank you so much for this wonderful tute.
you not only helped me create that awesome shatter effect but now i finally understand the concept of lighting in AE too
im also using CS4 and had some of the same problems as other people had (with the composition not being the correct size and also with the lighting. but i managed to fix them easy enough.
thanks heaps.
June 24th, 2009 at 2:39 am
VERY NICE TUT …
TNX ..
.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[...] Tutorial Link [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I am running into the same problems as some others in CS4/windows
1. The imported composition is not 1280×740, but something smaller, near the size of the text box.
2. Once a composition in AE, I can’t see, select, or isolate the slices on the screen, though I do have “layers”. All appear to be the entire text area. This might help – in AI when you regular slice (not slice selection) you see boxes over the text, not actual cut marks.
I’m very new at AE, so perhaps I’m doing something wrong.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Jean,
When you import the layers as a composition, you have two options: to import the layers as the document size or the layer size. The document size option will make each layer, no matter how small, the size of the document. This is not the option you want. This is at about 6:13 in the tutorial.
As to the first problem, this still works in CS4. I’m not sure of the specific problem you are running into, but there’s no issue with simply changing the composition to the size that you want, go to Composition>Composition Settings…
June 26th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Thanks, Harry. I assure you I used “layer size” when I imported. It would seem that if several folks are encountering the same problems in CS4, there is something going on – something beyond not following directions.
I’d love to hear from other folks in CS4 that have solved this problem. There has to be something going on.
Thanks for trying to help.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:48 am
I am freelancing in a facility running CS4 right now. I just ran a quick test.
1. In AI CS4 I typed the word “test”.
2. Created outlines.
3. Knifed the layer as I did in the tutorial.
4. Released to layers.
5. Moved the layers out of the group as I did in the tutorial.
6. Saved.
7. Imported into AE CS4.
All layers are in tact, and are proper layer size. You are right in the fact that CS4 now does not retain the original dimensions from the AI document. However, the layers are proper dimensions as in the tutorial.
If you’d like, email your AI document and I can take a look at it. harry at graymachine.com
June 26th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m an idiot.
Thank you, Harry. Slice and Knife are different tools – whodathunk?!
August 10th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Reall great tutorial Harry.
I’m suprised by how it all came together relatively straight forward.
Thanks for the tut!!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Hey Great tut. You think that 3D invigorator would make this look more 3D???
August 19th, 2009 at 7:06 am
I’d like to try this in ProAnimator. The limitation with Invig is that you’d only be able to animate 8 layers per layer.
September 1st, 2009 at 11:55 am
Hi Harry,
I have 350 layers but cant seem to import my file, im using a different text but other than that i follow your instructions precisely until the After Effects import which seems to lock up my version which i must point out is CS4 does anybody else have this problem? perhaps I have too many layers? Im gonna go make a cup of tea and wait while After Effects tries to import again.
Thanks
September 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I had to wait a long time! its fine now thanks
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Hey Harry,
Thanks again for all of your help. It was especially nice to meet you when you were last in NYC. Harry, I’m having trouble with the expression that you set up in this tutorial. Could you help me suss out just what I may have missed? Thank you,
Tony
Check it out:
seedRandom(index, true)
start = random([-100,200,-2000], [1000, 400, 1000]);
end = value;
linear(time, 0, 5 + (index*thisComp.frameDuration) start, end)
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Never mind. I found it.
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Glad you found it! Hope to get to NYC again soon.
September 6th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Going to try this out, and maybe do a 180 degree camera turn at the same time.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Well, I didn’t want to add a camera spin and have people miss the point about it being a useful tutorial about using illustrator and expressions, telling me that it “looks like Fringe”, but yeah, I think some movement would help.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Hello Harry. Great tutorial.
However, I’m discovering a bug (?) when I import the Illustrator text into After Effects. Whether I choose “layer size” or “document size”, it imports as the size of the text. So, in other words, I’ve got a 864 x 486 sized document from Illustrator, but it’ll only import into After Effects as the size of the text (738 x 75).
I’ve tried both ways of importing, but no matter what I do it only comes in as the size of the overall text. I will note that I’m working with Illustrator CS2 and After Effects 7. I’m thinking the older versions are the cause of this “bug”, but still I thought I’d let you know in case you know of a fix. I’d love to work with CS3 and/or CS4, but I’ve got no money because I have no job.
Damn laziness… I mean, recession.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hello Harry. Sorry for replying to my own comment. After re-saving, re-importing, and repeat, I just gave in and changed the Composition settings to what I want. It seems to be a “fix” for it, but I’d love to know if there’s another, you know, real fix to this.
I’d love to start integrating Illustrator projects into After Effects, but with this little “bug” it may get a bit annoying. I’d hate to create an entire scene in Illustrator, and have it not import properly into After Effects and have to rearrange layers separately.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hello Harry. I’m sorry if I’m spamming your page here, but I’m trying to figure something out.
Your animation is set to reach the end position at 5 seconds, and a single piece of the text lands 1 frame after 5 seconds, from left to right (G – E). However, I’d like to have mine set the same but instead of having the pieces land in a linear formation, I’d like for it to be random. So piece 1 could be a section of the “R” and piece 2 could be a section of “M”.
Basically I’m trying to figure out if there’s something I could add to the “ease(time, 0, 2 + (index*thisComp.frameDuration), start, end)” expression that would randomize the index. I know the manual way would probably be to rearrange the layers, but when you’re dealing with 200+ layers, that would take a LONG time to rearrange, let alone making it look organic.
Again, sorry for the amount of posts. I’ve been messing around with the expression, trying to achieve what I’m asking for, but in all honesty I’m not that great with expressions. I’m actually terrible at them. Thanks!
September 10th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Hey Barry! Thanks for visiting.
I can’t really think of too many automated ways to do this. No matter what, you are going to need to sort out which pieces go with which letter, as there is no way for expressions to know this. If it were me, I’d start selecting groups of layers to isolate each letter and perhaps use the color coding tags to organize the layers for each letter.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Hello Barry. Thanks for the quick response.
I never even thought of that approach. I guess I’ll have to do it that way. I figured there would have been an expression that would randomize the selection of index, but I guess not!
I’m just looking for more of a Dark Knight teaser trailer look (where the bat-symbol broke up in random areas at random times).
Cool, thank you Harry. Much appreciated!
September 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
When I use the expressions for this tutorial i get an error message of:
After Effects warning: Variable expected Expression Disabled.
Erro Occurred at line2.
Comp:’ Fifty Amp Fuse CUT UP
Layer 1 (’Layer”)
Property:’Position”
I checked and double checked I have it correctly typed your expression in
I did try a simple expression of: Transform.position.wiggle (10, 10) and that worked
Thanks for your help
Lance
September 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Can you post what you have as your expression? It works for me. Sounds like you might be missing a semicolon or something simple.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Hello Harry. Last post for this video, I swear. A nice guy over at CreativeCow was able to give me the answer I was looking for! I made a thread linking to your website and asked them if there’s an expression to randomize the order of the index value for the last line in your expression, and it turns out there is.
seedRandom(index,true)
start = random([-100, 50, -2000] , [1000, 436, 1000]);
end = value;
ease(time, 0, 2 + (random(thisComp.numLayers)*thisComp.frameDuration), start, end)
There we have it. I guess the way to make the index go at random is “random(thisComp.numLayers)”. It gives a great overall organic effect.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi Barry. Sorry, I guess I misunderstood your question. “index” is always the layer number. You can, in your example there, generate a random number using the number of layers. Still, this will randomize your layers and not provide any grouping per letter. But, just so you know what is happening:
random(5) : generates a random value between 0 and 5.
random(thisComp.numLayers) : generates a random value between zero and how many layers are in the comp
You could also just look at how many layers you have, for example.. 200 layers, and use;
random(200)
Either way.. glad you got it sorted out!
September 10th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Oh, well that makes sense! Sorry for all of the messages. I’m terrible at expressions and trying to learn. Thanks for the information! I’ll try to be a little more clear next time, haha. Thanks man.
September 19th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
[...] 1 Reverse Shatter [...]
September 27th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Hi, i cant find the slant text, I am a bit of a noob. So i was wondering if you can specific where you found the slant text
September 27th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Take your pick! Seems that Dafont, Urban Fonts, etc have it:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=slant+font
September 28th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Hey, thank you for the google search tip. My composition is just as big as the text, so i was wondering if i have done something wrong???
September 28th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
where can i find the wall texture ?? =)
October 9th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
How would you cut the text up in photoshop?
Thanks,
October 11th, 2009 at 9:05 am
You could use the Polygon Lasso tool and use shift + command + J (shift + control + J in Windows) to duplicate that selection to a new layer.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:09 am
I don’t even remember where I found it. Often, I check on Flickr (using an advanced search) for textures that allow Creative Commons usage.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I think this is a CS4 thing. Just re-adjust your composition settings (Composition > Composition Settings…) to the resolution that you want.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Very cool way of randomizing the animation. It puts a new twist on things. In the past, I’ve animated the position, and rotation properties of 1 layer, then used index to have all the layers look at the one on top of them, to animate. Its pretty easy, and you only animate 1 layer, essentially what you’ve done here. I’ve also set up slider controls to ease in and out of the animation and be able to adjust the value’s at any given time.
However, I really like this randomization and I learned some new things I did not know before. I think in a sense this may work better.
Very nice.
Thanks.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 am
You can find a wide range of textures at cgtextures.com
I have also created a tutorial on where to find great, free, high-quality images. You can view it here:
http://vimeo.com/4686298
Happy After Effecting!
October 28th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
hello there,
i have tried this effect in my composition, actually i am making a broken wall(many shapes) and then revert to solid wall, so the thing is i dont want the shapes in arranged layer order (index), i want random layers.
Is there any change in script? Can you email me the script
Also post some more tuts and projects
, they are very helpfull
Thanks!
October 29th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
You could just randomize the layer order. Too many layers?
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
I’m French, please give me a tips for reduce a composition at 6 second Thank you for help
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I think i have just set my composition by ajust. Why i don’t work.
please help me
because when i set my composition my animation don’t finish.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:17 am
I am not sure of your actual question, Cedric. Do you need to lengthen your composition? Go to Compostion > Composition Settings.. and change the duration of the composition.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:30 am
i just like, the composition was more longer jsut shortly maybe 5 second and at the time the most best time is 13 second. And when i ajust my time composition in composion setting this animation not finish.
November 14th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Hello Harry,
while trying to follow the tutorial I came across an issue of layer order in AFx: it imports the Illustrator file ruining the layer order for some reason.
Say, there are 105 pieces -> layers in AI.
The imported comp starts with layer 36 to 67, then Layer 6 comes. Then 68, 7, 69, 8..
Is it a bug or a feature? What’s the best way to resort the layers?
November 15th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Sergei, It’s worked for me when I’ve tested it on CS3 and CS4 on Mac OS and Windows. If you are having different results, it’s a matter of figuring out what is going on with your computer, or your process.
Are you using type or a logo? What version are you running?
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
great tutorial. i’m very new to AE and i’m very pleased with how mine turned out. lemme know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FBcLKJMpj4