Blog posts filed under After Effects

If you’re wondering how to create tilt shift blur in After Effects then you’re not alone, it’s a lovely effect that can bring a really cool aesthetic to your projects.

In this post I’ll show you how to create a tilt shift effect manually, and then we’ll take a look... Read more →

Animating your logo is a great way to present your company online and in film. When done correctly, logo animation can actually enhance your logo, adding interest and intrigue through motion.

So, how much does it cost to animate a logo? Well, to answer that... Read more →

I’ve just launched my latest project for made by loop called Spoke! It’s a radial layer repeater script for After Effects that provides a quick and simple way to repeat any layer, not just shaper layers, around a circle in After Effects.

Let’s say you wanted 10 copies of... Read more →

As a professional motion designer it’s my job to create wonderful animations for my clients and help them get their message out to their audience. It’s a job I love doing, and it’s a job that takes time to get right.

Sometimes though, time is of the essence and budgets... Read more →

Creating a glitch transition or adding some digital distortion in After Effects can take time to get right, there’s multiple layers and effects involved and even with something like the glitch presets for After Effects I made for Loop, it can be a bit of an effort to... Read more →

I’d love to be able to give a single figure answer to the this question, but the truth is; costs vary from project to project depending on client needs and style considerations.

As a very rough ballpark figure, projects tend to start from around £6000. This sort of budget allows... Read more →

Update: The Numero Script has now been updated to include a Beta version which includes the ability to add commas and decimals!

The first version of the Numero script was designed to take a lot of the legwork out of creating a... Read more →

On the last day of my week long takeover of the Motion Hatch podcast Instagram account, I had an idea to post my latest motion design reel alongside the first ever reel/promo I did… all the way back from 2010!

For those of you that weren’t following here... Read more →

Throughout my motion design work I’ve animated a fair few paragraphs for explainer and social media videos - much like the example you see here for trivago:

Although simple on the surface, the technique to... Read more →

UPDATE: The script has now been updated to make it easier than ever to create a sliding number counter in After Effects

My latest project for Loop is a brand new script for creating odometers or sliding number counters in After Effects like the one below:

Read more →

Yep, it’s that time again! I’ve managed to put together a brand new motion design showreel for 2018, featuring projects from the past year and beyond.

Take a look:

I really enjoyed putting this reel together, it really made me stop and... Read more →

2017 was a great year, I’ve been lucky enough to work on some wonderful projects with some ace clients and agencies, if 2018 is as good then I’ll be a happy motion designer!

As it was a busy one, I’ve only now had the chance to update my portfolio with... Read more →

I’ve always loved sci-fi, it’s my favourite genre by far. The world building, the rules, the foresight, just the wonderful creativity involved in creating something out of this world is what fascinates me the most.

As a motion designer, I’ve always wanted to have a go at creating a futuristic... Read more →

Fragment is the latest project I’ve made for Loop - a set of 15 glitchy transitions and presets for After Effects.

Had a lot of fun making the promo for this one too:

Making the... Read more →

Following on from the ever popular Instagram style Skylights filters I made a while back, I decided to make a pro version - 30 brand new filters, plus an additional 15 noise and grain overlays to... Read more →

Throughout a lot of my motion design work I find myself needing different hand icons; perhaps a hand pointing to something, or swiping on a phone screen.

That’s why I’ve made Handicons! A set of 30 different hand icons, perfect for all sorts of projects.

Here’s a quick look at... Read more →

Over the past couple of weeks I swapped Manchester for a freelance motion design contract at The Guardian in London.

I had a great time working there, as you can imagine the projects are pretty varied. In the first week I worked on this from the 99 seconds series:

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been down in London working freelance on some more motion design projects at The Guardian.

This time I worked on a couple of different projects, the first of which was a video detailing what the Ebola virus is, how it’s transferred, and what... Read more →

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a new motion graphics promotional video for my own website (something similar to my old motion graphics promo).

In this new promo I’ve used plenty of shape layers, halfway through animating I ran into a slight problem though: I’d... Read more →

Ever since Adobe added Cinema 4D to After Effects I’ve been trying to use it more and more in my motion graphics work. Every now and then I’ll discover something cool & I just can’t help experimenting with it!

The most recent thing I’ve found is the ‘Cel Render’ effect... Read more →

I had a random idea the other day while I was looking at my current business card design - why not create a business card with a bit of a difference? Something which showcases the motion graphics work I do, something which could act as a little introduction to... Read more →

After creating a few different motion design gif experiments, I decided to incorporate one into my site to help advertise what I do.

This is the result:

It’s now helping to liven up the services page, I think it... Read more →

I was looking through some of the pictures on my phone from last summer and decided to have a go at creating a short animation from a still photograph. Here’s the result:

Here’s the original photograph:

Read more →

I wanted to create an Instagram style filter using the standard tools within After Effects to help liven up some old footage I was working with. After creating a few different styles I ended up... Read more →

I’ve been working on a motion graphics project recently that involved creating an animated gif version of a client logo in After Effects.

Before taking on the project, I decided to experiment slightly and put some trial animations together to help get a feel for the gif making process:

Read more →

I’ve always loved watching video tutorials on the web, I find having someone talk you through how to do something and being able to watch them do it is far more engaging than simply following a blog post with some screenshots.

So I’ve decided to have a go myself! I’ve... Read more →

Another short motion graphics test, this time experimenting with motion tracking in After Effects to ‘parent’ some visuals to the movement of my eye:

I’m pretty pleased with the results, using motion tracking like this can be a great way... Read more →

Another little motion graphics piece I’ve created, this time to experiment with a couple of different techniques when animating 2D shapes in After Effects.

The music was again created by Andy Hudson and the full track ‘Fear Of’ is... Read more →

I wanted to have a go at animating the futuristic Assassin’s creed logo in After Effects:

Whenever I see an animation I like, I’m always curious as to how it’s actually done and what techniques have been used to create... Read more →

To go along with my website redesign I thought it was time for a brand new promotional video as well. Here’s the finished video:

Once again the music was provided by my good friend Andy - http://andyhudsonmusic.com

When I... Read more →

As a little experiment into mixing live action footage with motion graphics I created the short sample videos below. The process involved tracking the motion of the video in After Effects and linking the position of the graphics to the tracked keyframes - this basically helps to keep the titles... Read more →

With the phase 1 changes to my site now live, I finally had the chance to work on some motion design work.

To get back into the swing of using After Effects I created the video below, it showcases some ‘kinetic titles’ as well as some other cool visuals,... Read more →

A couple of months ago I came across Greyscale Gorilla - a blog dedicated to all manner of motion graphics and 3D design.

Whilst traversing the wealth of posts over there I found out about the ‘5 second projects’ - basically they provide you with a theme and... Read more →

Now this is how you attack a castle in the 21st Century!

The effect was achieved by mapping out the castle and then creating the various animations to fit the map - it was then projected onto the castle using a very high intensity projecter: the Christie 25K projector.

The... Read more →