Tufuga Media

This is a series of 4 video tutorials which cover many of the different ways you can use motion tracking inside of After Effects.  Hopefully, you will find they move in a sequencial fashion.  I need to credit Andrew Kramer at Videocopilot.net for the technique used in the reverse motion tracking tutorial at the bottom.  Check out his zombie face tutorial to see another application of this very useful technique. (more…)

This video tutorial will show you how to use one of the most commonly used expressions, the wiggle expression.  We will use the wiggle expression to drive a 3d camera in After Effects to create the poplular camera shake effect.  Then we will learn how to control the effect using expression slider controls, which allow us to keyframe when the effect starts and stops and how intense the shake is. (more…)

Expressions are fun (sorta)!  In this video tutorial, we will dig in a little deeper into After Effects expressions and learn how to tweak an expression that isn’t turning out quite right by using math to modify the expression.  We will also cover what an array is (kind of, I’m not a math person anymore) and why that is important in After Effects.  We will use the position properties of a grocery scale basket to drive the rotation of the scale’s hand. (more…)

This tutorial covers a more complex situation in which expressions really save us time.  Dont worry, this is still an After Effects Basic video tutorial.  Expressions can get much more complex than this!  Basically, we want to use the rotation of a “knob” on this ugly soundboard I drew, to drive the audio indicator levels.  Each should respond differently to the knob, but still be controlled by the knob’s rotation.  Sounds hard, but I’m going to show you its not as bad as it seems.  We will use the linear expression to make it work! (more…)

Here’s a quick tip on how to import an image sequence into After Effects. (more…)

We’re starting to get into our video projects now!  This video tutorial covers using After Effects for greenscreening.  Be sure to try this out!  It’s importat that when you shoot your greenscreen footage that your screen is as evenly lit/colored as possible.  We will then show how to use Keylight to key out the background, use masks to create a garbage matte, and we’ll even begin to cover lights to help compose the two shots together with a realistic, moving shadow! (more…)

In this tutorial I will show you how to use track mattes in your compositions.  I will cover both Alpha mattes and Luma Mattes.  I will also create a very short and simple animation using this feature of After Effects.  This is a pretty easy topic, so it should make for a quick and easy lesson! (more…)

I realize that we have been using masks for a few of our projects, but now we are going to explore them deeper.  This video tutorial covers how to use the pen tool, mask feathering, mask animation, expansion, and also the mask modes.  This is a practical lesson, so nothing fancy looking, but definately something you will need to know as an After Effects artist! (more…)

This video tutorial will cover the basics of animating a flourish, which is a very popular stylistic element commony used in After Effects projects.  Although it takes time, it makes for a very nice embellishment to an animation.  I recommend also checking out Video Copilot’s Evolution package once you understand how these are made.  Buy that and save yourself lots of time!  This project is easier if you do some prep work in Photoshop or Illustrator, and I discuss that briefly. (more…)

I’ll add more info about this later.  But click to view the tutorial. (more…)