After Effects includes dozens of effects which can be applied to layers to change their appearance. For example there are effects to: alter the exposure or color of an image, add a new visual element (i.e: particles), manipulate sound, distort an image, remove grain etc. Not only does each effect have several settings that can be adjusted. They can also be combined.
We’ll do a simple tutorial demonstrating how to combine a few popular effects, but there’s a lot more to explore beyond this example (the official Adobe Guide is a good resource). You can watch the finished example below and download the .aep file and assets here.
Let’s start by creating a new Composition
- Go to Composition > New Composition (or Command + N) and use the following Settings:
- Name: “Effects Example”
- Preset dropdown: HDTV 1080 29.97
- Duration: 0;00;10;00
- Set the background color by clicking on the color swatch at the bottom of the Window
Make sure that the Effects panel is visible:
- Go to Window > Effects & Presets (there should be a little check mark next to it)
We’ll start by using the Color Gradient effect to create a colorful background:
- Create a New Solid Layer: Go to Layer > New… > Solid (or Command + Y).
- Name it “BG” (for background)
- Make it the same size as your comp.
- The color doesn’t matter since we’ll replace it with a gradient.
- There are so many effects that it can be easier to just type in the name you are looking for in the search box. In this instance, we’ll type “color gradient”.
- Click and drag the “4-Color Gradient” effect onto the “BG” Solid Layer. You’ll notice that the Effect Controls panel opens up in the Project panel window.
- Let’s set the parameters for this effect:
- First, let’s set the colors we want to work with. In this case Color 1 is set to a light yellow (#FFF081), Color 2 to grey (#686868), Color 3 to a darker yellow (#CCBA46), and Color 4 to white (#FFFFFF)
- We can also change the position of each color by clicking and dragging on each one’s anchor point.
- Play around with the Blend value until you like how the colors merge into one another (the higher the value, the wider the blend).
- We won’t be changing the Jitter, Opacity or Blend Mode options in this case, but feel free to play around with these values to see how they affect the Composition (same hold for pretty much all the effects’ options in this tutorial – we’ll only adjust the ones relevant to what we’re trying to achieve, but they are all worth exploring).
Next, we’ll use the Particles effect to create our hovering/fading spheres:
- Create a New Solid Layer: Go to Layer > New… > Solid (or Command + Y).
- Name it “Particles”
- Make it the same size as your comp.
- The color doesn’t matter since we’ll replace it with a gradient.
- Type “particle” in the effects search box
- Click and drag the “CC Particle World” effect onto the “Particles” Solid Layer.
- By default the particles are generated over time, so if you are on frame 0;00;00;00, you’ll see new Grid and Guides in your Composition but not particles. To see these, move the Time Indicator forward.
Let’s set the parameters for this effect:
- We’ll first set the type of particles. Toggle the Particle tab:
- Set the Particle Type dropdown to “Lens Convex”
- Set the Birth Size – how big the particles should be when they are first created (0.25) and Death Size – how big the particles should be when they vanish (0.5)
- The size variation option increases or decreases the difference in size between all the particles on the screen at the same time (70%).
- You can define what the Maximum Opacity should be (45%)
- By default the particles are generated by a pretty narrow “producer” (point from which they are created). Let’s change this. Toggle the Producer tab:
- Increase Radius X (the width of the “producer”) (1.1)
- Increase Radius Y (the height of the “producer”) (0.35)
- Increase Radius Z (the depth of the “producer”) (0.5)
- To slow down the rate at which the particles are generated, we’ll lower the Birth Rate (0.1)
- We’ll raise the Longevity so that each particle grows slower and stays longer on the screen (3)
- Let’s also define the type of motion the particles should follow. Toggle the Physics tab:
- Set the Animation dropdown to “Twirl”
- If we want the particles to feel like they are floating rather than falling, we must set the Gravity value to 0
- We’ll also lower the Velocity drastically to slow down the animation (0.01)
If you want particles to be on the screen when the animation start, you can do by adjusting the layer’s Timeline:
- Move the Particles’ layer Timeline to the left and extend it to the right so that it continues to animate until the end of the Timeline.
Next, we’ll use the Gradient Ramp effect to apply a gradient over our particles:
- Type “ramp” in the effects search box
- Click and drag the “Gradient Ramp” effect onto the “Particles” Solid Layer.
- We’ll get our Particles to shift from Light yellow to White: Set Start Color to ##FFF081 and End Color to #FFFFFF
Finally, we’ll apply a Glow effect to the Particles to make their edges glow:
- Type “glow” in the effects search box
- Click and drag the “Glow” effect onto the “Particles” Solid Layer.
- Let’s adjust a few of the options:
- Set the Glow Threshold value to 75%
- Set the Glow Radius to 200px
- Set the Glow Intensity to 10
This might be a good background for an opening credit sequence. We could import and fade-in a logo:
- Import your Illustrator/Photoshop file or create a logo with After Effects tools (in this example, we’ll be using this .ai file)
- If using, drag and drop the Illustrator file onto the Timeline and position it above all the other layers
- Scale the logo to your desired size.
- Set your Time Indicator at the point you wish the logo to start fading in (0;00;02;00)
- Toggle the logo’s Transform properties, click the Stop Watch icon next to the Opacity property and set its value to 0.
- Set your Time Indicator at the point you wish the logo to be fully opaque (0;00;06;00)
- Set the Opacity property value to 100%
