Brandon Henry is an expert in mass communications and advertising and has been a multimedia designer for more than 8 years.

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One thing I want to stress before I even open After Effects is to set up your shot properly! This will save you a HUGE amount of time in post. Here are a couple of tips.

1. Lighting is crucial. At the very least you will need a light to light the greenscreen, and one to light the subject. I did this tutorial with 3 lights — a Key light (main light on me), a backlight (sometimes called a “rim light”), and a diffuse light to attempt an even light on the greenscreen to avoid harsh shadows. It also helps not to have any creases or lines in your greenscreen. You can find many tutorials online for setting up 3-point lighting.

2. If you do have a wrinkled or otherwise marked up greenscreen, it can help to shorten the depth of field. An example of a shortened depth of field would be to hold your finger in front of your face and focus on it. Notice how everything in the background becomes blurry. To achieve this with your Digital Video camera, either zoom out and get really close to your subject (helps to have a wide angle lens), or get far from your subject and zoom in. Set your camera to manual focus. This will help defocus your greenscreen.

3. Separate your subject from the greenscreen. If at all possible, you should have about 10 feet between your subject and your greenscreen. This will cut out shadows on the screen, and also minimize “bleed” on your subject. Don’t worry squeamish people, this only means the green color shows up on the subject.

Alright, enough of the technical jibber-jabber. Let’s get on with it! Oh, and bonus tip #4, don’t wear small stripes as I did…

STEP 1:

Import your captured video into After Effects, and place it on the timeline.

STEP 2:

If your subject is fairly static, or if you have other things in the shot such as light poles or wires, you can create a garbage matte around the subject using the Pen Tool. This can be a very loose outline. Be sure to leave enough space to choose the key color. For the rest of this tutorial, however, I will not use the garbage matte.

STEP 3:

Select Effects>Keying>Color Range. This will allow us to get the sneaky uneven green pixels. (Try using Color Key if you like, but it is much harder to get good looking results.) Set the Fuzziness to 20 (you can always adjust this). Set the Color Space to Lab. Next to the preview window you will see three eyedroppers. Choose the top one (no “+” or “-” symbol). This will allow you to get a baseline color to key out.

STEP 4:

Find a relatively even green area. You can see that in my example, the right side of my green screen is a bit more even then the left side. Click with the eyedropper to select the green.

STEP 5:

Well that didn’t do much on mine, so now I need to increase the range of green included in my matte. Now select the eyedropper with the “+” symbol and choose another fairly even portion of green. Now we’re getting somewhere. Repeat step 4 until you can get the background gone. Don’t worry about the small bit of green around the subject, we will take care of that next.

STEP 6:

Now to get rid of the green halo. Select Effect>Adjust>Hue/Saturation. Select Greens from the Channel Control. This will focus our adjustments just on the greens in the image. Notice in the channel range there are some triangle shapes above the green part. Move the Green Saturation slider all the way to -100. Adjust the Green Lightness slider to blend the grey with the subject.

If you still see hints of green on the outline of your subject, you can adjust the rectangles in the Color Range by sliding them towards the triangles. This will widen the range of greens being affected.

STEP 7:

Import a background movie or image to test your new-found keying prowess! Depending on your background, you may have to adjust the Lightness slider to blend with your background.

Happy Keying!

Brandon has won several awards specifically for his instructional design work. With a BS in Advertising & Mass Communications and a M.Ed in Instructional Technology, Brandon has been a presenter at educational conferences, and has also taught classes on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and other new media. He also enjoys playing paintball and scuba diving, although not both at the same time.

STEP 1:

Find a piece of clip art you would like to use. For this example, I used an item called “Decorative Fleurons” found on iStockphoto.com.

STEP 2:

To make this demonstration simple, I am going to avoid the tedium of animating the masks for both sides and only work with the right side of the image. Therefore, we can crop the image in Photoshop to only show half. Later, in After Effects, I will use the Mirror effect to make it look like both sides are growing at the same time.

STEP 3:

In Photoshop, using the selection tools and the Cut (Command-X [PC: Control-X]) and Paste (Command-V [PC: Control-V]) commands, separate the pieces of your artwork into individual layers. It is easier to animate a small mask for each part rather than trying to create one large complex mask for the whole image. Be sure to label each piece. This will become obvious when we get into After Effects. The screen capture below shows how I split up the image.

STEP 4:

Before you save the image, make sure to realign the pieces, using the Move tool (V), to make the animation process easier in After Effects. Now save your image as a .psd file.

STEP 5:

In After Effects, create a new comp. Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the footage window and select Import>File. Choose your new layered Photoshop file and select Composition-Cropped Layers from the Import As pop-up menu. Click Open.

STEP 6:

When you double-click on the new Comp (in my case, fleuronsSeparate Comp 1), you will see that your Photoshop file is still layered and in the same stacking order as you saved it. Now, it is time to organize your layers. I have arranged my layers based on the order I want them to appear. You can adjust your layers however you like. You can click-and-drag your layers in the Timeline to move them above or below the other layers. You can also use the shortcut Command-Option-Up Arrow (PC: Control-Alt-Up Arrow) and Command-Option-Down Arrow (PC: Control-Alt-Down Arrow) to move your layers up and down in the Timeline stacking order.

STEP 7:

If you do a RAM preview now (Composition>Preview>RAM Preview), all of the elements will appear at the same time and do nothing. We want to give the impression of growing vines, so each element needs to appear at different times in the Timeline. You can slide the color bars right and left or, if you want your elements to appear at a certain time, you can use the shortcut Command-G (PC: Control-G) to enter a time. Then, use left bracket ([) to move the start of the clip to the current time. Use Option-[ (PC: Alt-[) to set the clip's in-point to the current time.

STEP 8:

Since we imported the artwork as cropped layers, each piece will have an Anchor Point close to its center. Since I am scaling the flower and the dots rather than animating a mask around them, I need to reposition the Anchor Point so they appear to scale from the center (remember, we are working with half of a graphic). Here, I selected the topDot layer in the Timeline and chose the Pan Behind tool (Y). Then, I moved the Anchor Point to the left edge of the dot. Now, when I scale it and mirror the Comp, it will look like a full circle grows in.

STEP 9:

Now, we will start masking the pieces. I will start on the layer called BaseLayer, as that is my main piece that all the others grow from. Select the Rectangular Mask tool (Q) and draw a rectangle, starting off the stage at approximately the same height as the bottom layer. Hit M to bring up the mask properties. Create a keyframe for the mask shape at the first frame by clicking on the stopwatch.

STEP 10:

Move to 2 seconds in the Timeline (press Command-G [PC: Control-G], then type 200). With the Selection tool (V), click once in the gray area outside the stage to deselect the mask shape. Now, with the Selection tool, click-and-drag the right side of the mask and expand the mask to the end of the artwork. Now, when you do a RAM preview, the bottom layer should appear to draw on.

You can move the points of your mask by using the Selection tool and clicking-and-dragging one of the mask points to a new location. To add points to your mask, hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and click any of the yellow mask lines. Notice the cursor changes to the Pen tool cursor.

STEP 11:

After you have created a mask for all of your layers, save your animation (actually, save often). Next, click Composition>New Composition and set the time to 5 seconds. The composition size should be the same as the previous Comp. Name your composition finalComp, or whatever you like. Now, drag the mask Comp into the new Comp.

STEP 12:

Now, we need to resize the image down a bit so we can fit both sides in the Comp window. Go ahead and move the time marker to the end of the Comp, just so we can see the entire graphic after the growth spurt. With the comp layer selected, hit the “S” key to bring up the Scale property and scale your image down to about 35%.

STEP 13:

Now, select Effect>Distort>Mirror. Click the Reflection Center button (it looks like a crosshair) and then click the left side of the fleurons layer. This will mark the point where the two sides “grow” out of. Set the Reflection Angle to 180° and do a RAM preview. If everything went right, your artwork should grow from the center of the Comp with two identical sides. You may have to weak the position of the Reflection Center to get it just right. You can also try experimenting with the Center point and the Reflection Angles to get some cool effects. Now, add some text and you have a fancy animated logo.

Brandon’s experience as a consultant in web and multimedia design led him to work with such clients as Sprint, Black & Veatch, Assist-2-Sell, and Vistar International. This experience also provided the background for his contributions to several publications including Technical Writing: Processes & Procedures, and The Director 6 and 7 Bible.

Brandon has won several awards specifically for his instructional design work. With a BS in Advertising & Mass Communications and a M.Ed in Instructional Technology, Brandon has been a presenter at educational conferences, and has also taught classes on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and other new media. He also enjoys playing paintball and scuba diving, although not both at the same time.

Now you are probably thinking “oh great, that’s all we need is a bunch of cheesy Star Wars screen wipes.” I am here to tell you, gentle reader, that the Gradient Wipe can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.

The gradient wipe is used to transition one image to another by using the luminance values of a layer in the timeline. That layer could be an image, text, or as the name implies, a gradient-Basically anything that contains pixels.

Let’s start our spooky transition in Photoshop. Create a new image the same size as your video. For this tutorial we will be working with NTSC DV at 720 x 480.

STEP 1:

Create a new layer and label it transition. Fill it with black. Next, select the brush tool (B). Set your brush color to white, and choose a grungy type brush tip.

STEP 2:

Set the brush size to something relatively large, like 100 pixels or so. Set the brush opacity to something low like 30. If you have a tablet, set the opacity to pressure. The idea here is to get a range of grays. Solid black areas of the transition layer will show first, white will show last. With many levels of gray, you will get an eventual transition rather than an on/off effect.

Start painting with your grunge brush, building up the intensity of the white. Feel free to change the size and even the brush shape. The more variation in the transition layer the better. Unless you are doing a full screen transition, don’t worry about filling in the whole layer, just the area where the text will be.

STEP 3:

Next, create a title with the text tool, label this new layer as title. Save your transition document as title.psd.

NOTE: The nice thing about After Effects is the variety of files it accepts. You could create your titles in different formats such as EPS or TGA, and then compose everything in AE . For this lesson, we will do everything in one PSD file and import it as a composition..

STEP 4:

Open After Effects and create a new composition (again at NTSC DV 720 x 480). Set the duration to 5 seconds..

STEP 5:

Right click in the project window and choose Import>File and choose the title.psd file we just created.

Choose Composition from the Import Kind drop down list, and set the Footage dimensions to document. Pre-6.5 users will make this selection from the bottom of the Open File dialog box. Adobe Bridge tip: If you switch your Bridge view to Compact View, you can keep your Bridge window open on top of your other Adobe applications, allowing you to drag and drop without switching applications. Cool stuff!

STEP 6:

Double click the “title Comp 1″ composition in the project window to open it. Notice in the timeline all the layers are imported. Since we don’t want to actually see the transition layer, click on the eyeball next to the transition layer to hide it. As long as it is on the timeline, we can still use it.

STEP 7:

Click the title layer in the timeline to select it. From the Effect menu, choose Transition>Gradient Wipe.

Since we want our title to “materialize” we will start the transition at 100%. In the Effect Control box (F3) set the Transition Completion to 100%. This setting will make the title disappear, but don’t worry, we’ll make it come back in just a second.

STEP 8:

Make sure you are on the first frame (home key) and click the stopwatch next to the Transition Completion setting in the Effect Controls window to set your first keyframe at the first frame of your animation. To see your keyframe in the timeline, hit the U key.

Now go to the last frame (end key) and set another key frame by clicking the “add or remove keyframe” checkbox next to effect. If you click on the stopwatch again, you will turn off all keyframes for the effect.

We want to start and end our animation with a black screen, therefore both keyframes should be 100%.

STEP 9:

Next we will set the keyframe for when the text is visible on screen. Hit Ctrl + G to bring up the Go to Time dialog box and enter 200.

This will take the slider right to the two second mark. Using the Ctrl+G mode of moving around the timeline is much quicker and efficient than dragging the slider, especially after 3 cups of coffee.

STEP 10:

In the Effects Controls panel, change the Transition Completion number to 0%. This will make our text materialize over a two second period. Let’s have our text stay on screen for two seconds, then disappear. Go to the four second mark (Ctrl+G and then type 400) and create another keyframe. Set the Transition Completion number to 0%.

Now if you do a RA M preview, your text should pop up, and then disappear. What gives? I thought we were doing a transition? No big deal. To really see the benefit of the gradient wipe, in the Effect Controls box, select the “transition” layer (or whatever you may have named your gray splotchy layer) from the Gradient Layer drop-down box.

To smooth out any hard edges, set the Transition Softness to around 10%. It’s also good to make sure the Gradient Placement is set at Center Gradient.

Now when you run the RA M preview, your text should sort of “grow” onto the screen. The sample on the right shows the effect with extra “dirt” for effect. That’s all there is to it! You’re ready to create some creepy titles in time for Halloween!!

Brandon’s experience as a consultant in web and multimedia design led him to work with such clients as Sprint, Black & Veatch, Assist-2-Sell, and Vistar International. This experience also provided the background for his contributions to several publications including Technical Writing: Processes & Procedures, and The Director 6 and 7 Bible.

Brandon has won several awards specifically for his instructional design work. With a BS in Advertising & Mass Communications and a M.Ed in Instructional Technology, Brandon has been a presenter at educational conferences, and has also taught classes on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and other new media. He also enjoys playing paintball and scuba diving, although not both at the same time.