Film grain is a necessary part of visual effects and used commonly in motion graphics to add a more natural look. After Effects has great tools for adding film grain that are based on real 35mm film stock. The only problem is that it renders very slow! There is an alternative plug-in called noise that creates nice random but somewhat sparatic grain that can look a bit ‘digital’. The add grain is a much more fluid formula. Only problem is that it renders very SLOW!

What I like to do is create a grain video loop that I can place on top of my video with the overlay transfer mode. Similar to our free fast film grain preset found here, except the quality of the grain is much better.

Quick Tip:
When matching grain of CG elements with Live Action footage it is sometimes hard to see grain detail in dark areas for accurate matching. What you can apply a temporary adjustment layer to the top of your comp and add the equalize filter. This makes it easier to see the grain frequency more clearly. Yay!

Steps:

1. Create a new comp that is 150 frames
2. Apply Add Grain and adjust the settings to your taste
3. Render the video out to quickTime PhotoJPG
4. Import to AE and set the loop to 10 in the interpret settings

In addition to After Effects there are other great tools I found myself using frequently on this latest project:

Trapcode Horizon
This great little After Effects plug-in makes it easy to add environments to 3D scenes and saves a ton of time. I use it almost as much as Particular. www.Trapcode.com

Lenscare
Probably the best tool for creating realistic blur for individual layers or by using a depth matte. http://www.frischluft.com/lenscare/lenscare.php

HDR Shop
This program is hard to describe but I use it to create spherical environment from digital still images to create 3d Environments and backgrounds. http://www.hdrshop.com/ Learn as much as you can on this subject it is great.

Nodal Ninja
This tool makes shooting still images for panoramic easy and consistent. Be sure to check it out all the helpful resources within.
http://www.nodalninja.com/

Here is a great site where you can watch intro title sequences for feature films. Get ready to be inspired!

http://artofthetitle.com/

Be sure to check out our forum for other inspirational links or post some of our own.
http://www.videocopilot.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=12

Here is a fun method for creating translucent glass frames in After Effects that I”m working on.

When I record this tutorial I’ll probably add a little more detail to make it look even better. Although the simplicity makes it very interesting and who knows maybe for the tutorial I’ll go out of my way to make it look worse just for fun. You never know : ) Enjoy.

Here is the CS3 project file

Watch Sample Video

In this new (not-so-short) Short-Cuts Episode we’ll take a look at creating sparks in AE with CC Particle World and uncover some hidden features as well. This tutorial uses the new Per-Charachter 3D in AE CS3.

Be sure to stay tuned to the end for a sneak preview.

Watch Tutorial

Our first Short-Cuts episode is online. Now there is an outlet for all the little things that would otherwise get buried in my backyard.

In this new Short-Cut tutorial, I’ll cover a cool tip for generating bump mapping with 3D light as well as utilizing 3D position with 2D effects.

This one ran a little long but in the future expect 1-5 minute videos with short tips and tricks.

Watch Now

Here is a sample of what’s coming up on Video Copilot. The idea is to make your CG objects cast shadows in the real world. The first image shows a Text Layer in AE casting a shadow on the street using a transparent solid layer. The second example is a 3D object with a matte/shadow material on a floor plane. This material allows only the shadow to render on the object so you are able composite in a live action scene.

Years back, I was working for a studio on a very complicated shot. The supervisor explained what was needed and provided the source material. After a moment of reluctance I was suddenly hit with a rather impressive solution.

The supervisor was still standing over me and I began to explain my brilliant solution. Then while in the middle of divulging this master plan, he interrupted and asked “So you’re all set?” I replied “Yeah, no problem”, and then he said “Great!” as he walked away.

I wanted to explain to him my incredible solution and further impress upon him that I was a valuable member of the team. But he didn’t want to hear it; he wanted to see the shot finished.

The following morning after dailies, he casually told me “Nice job with your shot.” as we all walked to our posts. There was no congratulatory announcement or trophy at my station, just a friendly “nice-job” in passing. If they only knew what I went through…

Then later, I was asked to come back on another project so I guess they liked the work after all, despite the lack of my creative explanations.

I learned that supervisors don’t really care how you get your work done; they just want to see it completed. They have other things to do just like you so don’t worry that your hard-work will go unnoticed because it won’t.

Soon you’ll be known as the guy that gets things done, and that is like the MVP of VFX.

READ SIDEBAR

When you create a title or graphic in After effects, you may want to composite the render over footage in your editing application instead of AE. To do this you need to simply export your video with the alpha/transparency information.

To render it this way, add your comp tot the render queue (be sure to have no background layer) and use QuickTime as the output format. Select a codec like Animation or PNG and be sure to change the depth to RGB + Alpha. This option is not available for all codecs.

Some editing applications like Vegas video require you to set the properties of the footage to premultiplied so that it will interpret the transparency correctly.