01/15/2013

I just wanted to point out that it is actually kind of realistic that the light was on the wrong side of the water droplet thingy (That's a technical term). Because water refracts light, the brightest part of a drop is the part that is farthest from the light source. Where the light is pointing, the water refracts light away, and it is actually darker. Here is and example.

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_564/129222458416uEsr.jpg

12/19/2012

Owww! My mind was blown! Great job! I've learned so much.

09/05/2012

when will you reach your limit of awesomeness...

08/16/2012

"We don't actually want to look at it, we just want it to be there... That's exactly what my wife said to me the other day."

07/16/2012

hey Andrew..thanks a lot for normality....ur awesome...am learing many things from u apart from my classes...thnks a lot...

05/13/2012

HELP PLEASE, i made my own blob in cinema 4d, when i use the 3d channel extractor it shows me my normal map but it adds a black background. HELP

02/04/2012

@Tessa
You need to install Quick player to import .mov file

01/25/2012

Hello Andrew!...I desperately need to create this drop, but the drop supplied in the project files can not be imported into after effects. It comes up with the message 'cannot be imported- this .mov file is damaged or unsupported'. How can I get my blob! please help!
Thank you

12/22/2011

I cannot download the normality plugin.. i dont know why.. seems the page is not working.
Thank u teacher for the free lessons :)

09/20/2011

i want know about the channel ID like logo animation and more images are included.. with the help of 3d max and after effect,,, so pl make some tutoril on it.... and give some example.. May God Bless you

09/09/2011

Thanks for this great tutorials! so........thank y.......................................................................................................

08/30/2011

excelentes tutoriales

08/15/2011

Well, now I have to know what you talked about at the LA meeting, dude... ya big tease!

11/20/2011

Probably the fact that the reflection is inverted in the x... I'm not even sure how you could fix that. Maybe use a horizontally flipped footage as the reflect map. Even then, I think the reflection would be offset and possibly look worse. I watched Stephan Minning's normality tutorial and he mentioned using a reflection map that is already blurred to cut down the calculation.

07/03/2011

Now the Normal map generator is available at the same site! For free! minning.de

05/04/2011

Awesome Man To Good

04/27/2011

very good

03/30/2011

this stuff is great for learn more about after effects. I started doing kinetic typography, and now im doing this crazy stuff because of you and ur whole website. thank you very much!

03/22/2011

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv good man

03/14/2011

Dude, you are the best !!!!
Thanks for all this free tutorials !

Big hugs from Argentina !!!

03/13/2011

LOL i can better :)

03/03/2011

Crazybump beta for OSX. Awesome.

01/25/2011

good

01/16/2011

1000 word is not enough to thank you. you are the master :D
thank you for this great tutorial

01/05/2011

good tutorials, I never seen this before you are a master 3d,
I'm learning with tutorials
thanks for your tutorial

11/26/2010

Andrew,
Aside from the first few minutes, this is the most exciting thing I've seen in a LONG time. Could you add any further details about using Repousse objects to create normals? That way, the entire process could be done without needing a 3D program for modeling.
-bc

11/10/2010

Ok great tutorial...but also great film Idea! Have you made it into a film yet? If not I might just have to steal it. That water blob...getting into all sorts of starting fires, raising a family...it has all the makings of an academy award winner.

Andrei

10/21/2010

My name is Jc Stone. I come from the magic of China. I like Andrew's work very much. I will continue to monitor Andrew.

09/08/2010

It was 3 Seconds!

09/07/2010

"I don't want to get to technical" -- AK

To get very technical, a "normal" has a specific meaning in mathematics: it's a vector that is "orthogonal" to all of the vectors in the plane.

So, what the heck does THAT mean?

Imagine a dinner table. This is the surface, our plane. Within the dinner table, there are lots of vectors, going from one point on the table to another point. There are, in fact, infinitely many of these.

To create a normal, we have to produce a vector that is orthogonal to ALL of these infinite vectors.

On the dinner table, we set a candlestick. This is our normal vector. It's at a right angle to ("is orthogonal to") the entire plane.

So a normal map picks up the surface and maps out all of the vectors that are at right angles (sticking straight out of) that surface. Curved surfaces, of course, will yield a lot more of these. Picture a firehose with lots of spikes sticking out of it; each one completely perpendicular to the point at which it's attached.

Let me know if there are any questions about this explanation, and hopefully it will help you understand what a normal map is a little more clearly!

09/07/2010

where was this tutorial for months vc i really like this 1 thanx andrew

09/01/2010

Thanks for a great tut, have done a few of yours now and always exciting. Added some sound and messed with it a little, the orb came out really good.
Thanks again!

PJ

04/01/2010

i found a great open source normal map generator... with cuda enabled...

http://ssbump-generator.yolasite.com/

03/08/2010

The new campaingn:
Oscar of best actor for Andrew Kramer!
Thanks Andrew, always a good way to pass time! Learning at Video Copilot, and listening the Andrew jokes!
Nice way you use to explain, and very nice effect! I never think that 3d lights could be so realistic at a 2d program! You're the man!

02/09/2010

sorry i fixed my last problem i just mixed up twist and not sorry but i am curios what happened in the LA meeting?

02/09/2010

adrew kramer is awsum but there is one thing that i find annoying when you download the project you cant just open the project and the names are diffrent wich makes it hard to follow along to in the tutorial

02/07/2010

Most underestimated tutorial ever, this is great!

Greets from Germany

02/06/2010

looks like the technique used in the terminator.
It is pretty sweet though, for movie FX anyway.

01/28/2010

Andy,

Rob again...I figured out the problem. There were two actually. In case anyone has the same problems I did, which made me pull most of my hair out:

First if you are using CS4, you will need to download the plug in to export AE projects for CS4, which you can get from Maxon's Website.

You will also need to check the "All frames" (duhhhhhh) button in the render settings. I only had "current frame" selected and didn't realize it. I came really close to throwing a coffee cup through my iMac! Anyway, problem solved and thanks again for the great tutorials on here!

01/27/2010

Andrew, I have been watching all your tutorials and learning a ton about AE, which I just started using. I have a question though:

I watched this tutorial and another I think from here or maybe somewhere else, (I don't remember. it's late and I'm tired) but anyway, I am trying to figure out how to bring in an animated 3D object from C4D and add the shininess and reflection like you did to the "liquid glob thing" in this tutorial.

I am having trouble figuring out how to do multi pass renderings to multi-layer files from C4D. Don't suppose you can help or at least point me in the right direction? It's driving me nuts. Only thing I can figure is to do each frame individually and that is just too much for me to deal with, in terms of what I am trying to accomplish.

Thanks in advance for any assistance and also for all the great tutorials here on your site.

Rob

01/18/2010

you have the best tutorial ever , tnx tnx tnx a lot.
yacine from morocco

01/18/2010

I am not able to download the plugin please help me

12/31/2009

This man is genius :)) Thanks for your sharing your tutorials.

11/28/2009

take a look at my screenshot as addition to the last post:
http://tenji.de/max.jpg
best
tom

11/27/2009

great tutorial! thx!
but there is a better way to create nice, clean normal passes in 3ds max.. using mental ray...
just change the type from 0 to 2 in occlusion/reflective rollout

11/19/2009

This is probably one of the most complex tutorials ever. But the result is most definitely outstanding.

11/19/2009

Damn I love your stories Andrew! And thanks a lot for providing the way most exciting AE tutorials!

11/17/2009

Stefan Minning added a normal map generator plugin to his website 'generator' very handy!!!

11/10/2009

la tizaaaaaaaaa...this mean wonderfull

11/06/2009

Great tutorial. Great software to normality. Thanks a lot for sharing this knowlegde. I would love if you make a tutorial on the Toon features of normality.

Thanks.

10/31/2009

Seems like a cool way to possibly create a T-1000 effect from Terminator 2 or even The Invisible Woman effect in the recent(ish) Fantastic Four films

Nice Job Anyways!

10/30/2009

Hi guys my name is yunus from Kampala- Uganda in east africa, I love your tuts, i have seen one after agreat hustle becuase of the bad internet connections we have this side of the world, Im requesting if you can also provide tutorials in txt in plane images, that way, with our messed up internet, we can also have achance of learning from the pros.thx

10/27/2009

thanks so much andrew this tutorial is awesome

10/21/2009

IT`s a Good Think All Graphic Workers so Do more
projects and tutorial to us

10/18/2009

Can u make a logo to for me??

I want it to stand "Dream pictures" and some cool effect.

Please send it to på Email : Smekarn_80@hotmail.com

10/15/2009

I am a new user of AE and i have to say all of the features displayed were so cool!!!

i will look into the basic tutorial being that im new but just wanting to say great tutorial and hopefully i will be at that kind of level when using AE in the not too distant future

10/14/2009

I completely agree. Imaginary friends are completely normal. Mine ride pink elephants that fly and squirt shiny bubbles out of their snouts :o Awesome work man. I usually render my fill lights separately, I can see this cutting my render times in half. Less time rendering, more instant control, my imaginary friends and I are very happy. Thanks dude.
Joel

10/14/2009

Andrew...u are the best..no doubt...Goog Luck.
if u can please make tutorial"How To make Transforming Robot"

10/12/2009

THANKS A LOT. THIS TUT HELPED ME A LOT. I was able to create some sweet stuff thanks to this. U DA BOMB

10/12/2009

grandioso tutorial desde colombiaa un abrazooo¡¡¡

10/05/2009

You just rocked my world! I've recently been incorporating C4D in my mo-graph/compositing work and any level of lighting/refraction/texture sends my render time through the roof. Can't wait to incorporate this and have maximum flexibility post-C4D.
Thanks!

10/05/2009

Andrew me gustaria ver algunos tutoriales aun mas basicos que los que tienes aca, si fuera posible te lo agradeceria............
saludos

10/05/2009

awesome

10/04/2009

thank you so much andrew, for this cool tutorial.
Greetings from greece.

10/04/2009

i'm from India and you rock man!!!!

10/03/2009

looks good can u make light sabers from it?(the tutorial seems to go on foreever)

10/02/2009

Amazing tutorial Mr. Andrew, we like your site and your things. Also the favicon is fabulous! The V is for Video. Any Corel tutorial to come? Danke!

10/02/2009

Thank you, Andrew.
But when we'll see new tutorial? =)

10/01/2009

Hey great tutorial but, what ever happened to the Death Man lighting tutorial. I saw it in the blog from Febuary 2008, and it really looked awesome. Just wandering.

10/01/2009

Andrew

I have been a faithful tutorial follower for a long time. This is the most ABSURDLY AWESOME TUTORIAL you have ever made.

Many thanks!

09/30/2009

hey andrew thanks very nice tutorial
lots of info and follow up but
cool saw how can I export from Cinema 4D to after effects?
wath kind of formats?
jpg or quick time or photoshop file

let me know

thanks
michael.

09/30/2009

Hi Andrew ! I'm French and my english is pretty bad.
I just wanna thank you for this tuto. I understood every words you said...

Continue like that
Best Regards

09/28/2009

totally mind-boggling!
How insane is that!

09/28/2009

As always....very informative!

09/28/2009

Andrew you're great.

I would like to ask, is it possible to exract the velocity channel of an RPF rendred from 3ds max.
I used to work on combustion wich has this feature, and it was really great to make motion blur in very less time.

09/27/2009

heyyy thnx for that... realy it's very usefull and it help to improve my skills on aftter effrct :)

09/25/2009

"my wife said the same thing" LMAO!!!!
Dude! wait til you see how I'm going to use what you taught in this tutorial!!! Sick!!!
You did some things in this tutorial that I don't think some people realize how it can be used!!!
wow!!!
maybe it's because this tut was "not very good" LOL!
that's actually the dumbest thing I have ever read my whole life! not to say how funny it was! LMAO!!!
Thanks AK!

09/23/2009

Great tutorial. BTW You can export as an RLA opposed to the RPF. It has a much smaller file size.

Cheers!

09/22/2009

Very good tutorial, thanks for these clear explanation.

Bur I've got a question: my "normality channel" (the layer with the normality fx applied) appears to be shifted on the right once I turn on the overlay mode. There is a problem with the effect or i my fault?

thank you

09/20/2009

hi, awesome tutorial, one question, are you planning to make any basic tutorials for 3ds max? it would be really helpfull

09/19/2009

Hey andrew you are full of surprises do you sleep?

09/17/2009

Incredible tutorial!!!!
sssssoooooo sweet~!!!
thank you so much~!

09/16/2009

Hi Andrew, yet again a great and amazing tutorial.
But I was wondering if you knew and would find it interesting, in making a tutorial about adding real time reflection to a 3D object. I know you touch on it briefly in this one. but a more serious 3D object like a car driving on a street or smilar scene with precis recreation of reflection. I have nothing against that sweet family of blobs in this one? :o).. But I have been searching the net for tutorials on this matter, But have never come across one with live moving footage reflection. every time someone mention it, it is with a HDRI still images and then using that for lighting and reflection in the 3D programs. I have always be curios on how they do it "at the movies". SO is there anyone else that would find a tutorial on this subject awesome and helpful, if Andrew would do it?

Anyway Thanks for all the inspiring and helpful tutorials on this site. video Copilot rocks.!

Thanks
from a Dude in.
Northern Europe

09/15/2009

just wanna tell u that i love your stuff... bought every package. love your work. and alos might wanna track this kid down Andrew...he is giving free products from video copilot..........here is his website.

http://www.youtube.com/forsakentutorials

09/15/2009

Would this technique work with Zaxwerks Invigorator?

09/15/2009

Hey, altough I really apreciate what you are doing and you've been doing this really well all the time.
I would recomend you to at least add a difficulty level or an annotation how long the video is going to be.
This would help beginners like me very much. Thank you for taking the time to read my comment.
:)
greetings from germany

09/14/2009

I love this feature thanks for not only presenting it at DMALA, but also for making a tutorial and multiple blog entries.

So, I understand this will work with what you have shown, but is it also correct to assume that you could use it for textured 3d models and not just flat surfaces like the wall.

Would you bump map your normal pass and layer it with your actual texture for that to work?

09/13/2009

hey Andrew thanks allot
saw is the normality plugin is it only for SC4 or does it work with
AE? saw in Cinema 4D how were I export a 3D model
to after effects? because I try many times but it recognize
it as 2D? do you think you could help me with Cinema 4D

09/13/2009

I really wanted to know how to make the blobs :/ But a good tutorial none the less, that plugin is amazing.

09/12/2009

Wicked! Saw the first fifteen seconds of this and I've already decided to make use of this technique to help automate lighting in a short animated film I'm working on.

The set and character animation is all hand-painted (in Illustrator). I figure I can create normal maps for those elements pretty quick in Illustrator too, using a quick render of a normal-mapped sphere as a color palette, and with that I'm hoping to light my characters right in AE-- it's a tech puzzle I've been working on for several weeks. Thanks for all the great tips, and wish me luck!

09/12/2009

Hey I was wondering on that blob thing you imported at the end of the tutorial how did you render it as a .mov format and still have a normal?

09/12/2009

Andrew, this was fantastic! I didn't think I'd be interested but it really roped me in. Last year I worked on a show that combined 2D animation and 3D animation and had I seen this tutorial back then it would have had a dramatic affect on the look of the show. Good work!

09/11/2009

Yes, Cinema 4D can export a normal map pass with .rpf's.
Thanks Andrew, you've taught me so much.

09/10/2009

You gonna love me, hahaha

Here is a normal map generator for mac, and it works!!!!

http://www.smart-page.net/smartnormal/fl10.htm

OOOOh YeaH!


Thanks again for the wicked work Andrew!!

09/09/2009

Thank you so MUCH TO PUTTING THIS UP~

09/09/2009

Thanks for such an informative tutorial. These are the ones I like best: when you cover detailed basic usage of a standard feature or compositing concept that can be applied to a vast number of projects.

09/09/2009

oh this one was very usefull. i like it!!!
ofcourse there are some detail question.
are there some experiences for OS X open source normal generators?

09/09/2009

Very Very useful tutorial!!!!
Thanks!

09/08/2009

Lol @ myu. guess you where in a pretty bad mood or you just need to follow the basic tutorials for AE... But don't say at anytime that AK's tutorials suck, cause then you need some serieus Basic Training lessons or just go somewhere else...
I haven't watched this one yet, but will do soon. I've already donwloaded the Normality Plugin and inserted into my folder, can't wait to start this one!

09/08/2009

Quality of tutorials expression - (thisSite.AndrewKramer/eachNewLesson) (time 100)*2
In short excellent work and thanks for the years of great tutorials every increasing in their greatness!

09/07/2009

Hello Andrew... u're the greatest... but can u do a tutorial about RPF sequences (z depth, fog, id mattes etc...)

From Colombia whit love jajajaja