After Effects CC: Beginner's Guide to VFX Visual Effects

Explore the perspective cc cylinder visual effect to create distortions, while learning how effects interact with transform properties and controls, building foundational visual effects skills for any effect.

Learn how layer transformations precede effects in After Effects, using a shape layer and the CC Cylinder to see how position, rotation, and scale influence the cylinder.

Explore the CC cylinder controls in After Effects: adjust radius, position, and rotation to wrap a layer into a 3D cylinder, and compare outside versus inside rendering and lighting effects.

Explore light controls for the cylinder by adjusting intensity, color, height, and direction; light is fixed to the cylinder, moves with it, and illuminates the outside as it passes through.

Explore shading in after effects by adjusting ambient light, diffusion, specular, roughness, and metal mixing to create realistic shadows and life-like surfaces.

Import footage, create a 5-second 1920x1080 composition at 30 fps, arrange three videos into a slide video cylinder, and apply the cylinder effect with gradients and rotation.

Adjust light and shading settings in After Effects to optimize video color, specular highlights, and mood on a cylinder, experimenting with light height, direction, ambient light, and material roughness.

Animate a cylinder in After Effects CC using rotation keyframes, 120-degree steps, and the graph editor to shape speed with the speed graph for a smooth, complete 360-degree rotation.

Create a dynamic background in After Effects by building a cylinder scene, cropping to region of interest, and applying bevel alpha with gradients and window elements.

Apply advanced techniques in After Effects to fix borders and integrate bevel alpha with cylinder content by pre-compose layers, adjust bevel alpha, and explore perspective.

Turn a large image into a video with a 360-degree rotation using the cc cylinder effect, and learn to use a camera on layers to expand your skills.

Turn a flat image into a 360-degree view by applying the six cylinder effect, making the layer 3D, and using a camera to orbit and reveal depth.

animate a 360-degree lighting and rotation in After Effects by keyframing the y rotation, light height and direction, and intensity to simulate sun up or down.

Add text to a 360-degree animation, handle inner surface mirroring by inverting the text on the text layer, and animate forward or backward to match the panorama.

Explore the cc sphere effect in after effects cc to create spheres and planets with video or text mapped in 3d perspective space, using image maps and seamless images.

Explore the CC Sphere in After Effects, learning how radius, rotation, and offset drive its shape and lighting, with shading, ambient, diffuse, specular, and reflective maps for realistic renders.

Build a four-rectangle beach ball map, apply the sphere effect, then crop a precomp region for motion.

Animate a bouncing beach ball by keyframing rotation in x, y, z and switching to x, z, y for seamless motion; use pre comp scaling and a motion path.

Learn how to use seamless JPEG maps in After Effects to wrap images around spheres, preventing seams and achieving 360-degree rotations with seamless textures.

Apply CC Sphere to a video and text to create a rotating sphere using video and text maps, with careful rotation to avoid seams and outside rendering and drop shadows.

Explore radial and perspective shadows in After Effects CC to create moving light, perspective illusions, and apply region and drop shadows with the adjustment layer for motion graphics and videos.

Apply radial shadow principles in motion graphics by adjusting a light source, projection distance, and opacity to create moving shadows and a glass edge in After Effects.

After Effects CC: apply a radial shadow with an adjustment layer to multiple layers, so the layers underneath inherit the effects and you can adjust light source, color, and softness.

Apply radial shadow to the alpha channel in motion graphics using After Effects CC, using an adjustment layer or precompose for dynamic light movement.

Apply a radial shadow to a camera-shot video with an alpha channel, drop it on the hand, adjust softness, and keyframe the moving light source for motion.

discover why and how to use the drop shadow in after effects, including adjustment layers, layer styles, and alpha channel behavior.

Master the spotlight effect in after effects cc, using light renderers and gel renders to create dynamic spotlights from video or image sources and animate perspective spotlights.

Learn to master the cc spotlight effect by adjusting the from and to points, height, cone angle, and intensity to reveal and animate video lighting.

Explore spotlight in after effects cc, using the light only option to render only the light, adjust color and intensity, and mix solid layers with multiple lights.

Learn to create a spotlight gel in After Effects CC by layering a gel composition and masking it to control light, color, and animation.

Create a cc spotlight effect using gels, images, and videos by adjusting masks, feathering, and intensity to shape realistic lighting in a new composition.

Explore the subgroups of the generate group of effects in After Effects, focusing on the audio spectrum to visualize audio waves, explore controls, and apply it to text and shapes.

Explore the generate group of effects in after effects cc, and see five subgroups: audio, light, shapes, background, and decoration, including audio spectrum and waveform.

Learn to apply the audio spectrum to a solid, link it to a pre-composed audio layer, and adjust start/end frequencies and maximum height to shape the spectrum.

Explore the audio spectrum effect in After Effects CC, mastering frequency bands, thickness, colors, blend, hue interpolation, and audio duration and offset for precise motion.

Explore the audio spectrum effect controls, adjusting thickness and frequency bands, using duration averaging, and try side A and B, digital or analog lines and dots for dynamic audio visualization.

Explore the polar path in the after effects audio spectrum to create dynamic visuals, adjusting start and end frequencies, audio duration, and hue to craft animated, disco scene motion graphics.

Explore the audio spectrum in After Effects by shaping it with a path mask on a rectangle solid. Adjust bands, height, hue, and mask settings to create dynamic visuals.

Apply the audio spectrum to text by turning text into masks and outlines, then adjust bands, height, and hue on the outer and inner outlines for animated visual effects.

Practice building an audio spectrum in After Effects using provided assets to create three spectra with the same parameters except the maximum height, and explore exclusion and vivid light composites.

Build and animate an audio spectrum in After Effects CC from the song, using a solid layer, adjusting start and end points, frequencies, height, and blend modes for dynamic visuals.

Explore the Radio Waves effect in After Effects, building polygon waves on a solid layer and manipulating the producer point, birth parameters, render quality, and stroke for dynamic visual effects.

Explore the polygon wave type in the radio waves effect, adjusting polygon size from 64 to 128 sides, and use curve size and star depth to shape motion.

Explore wave motion in After Effects, mastering frequency, expansion, orientation, direction, velocity, and spin to animate waves, then apply lifespan and reflection for ripple-like water effects.

Explore how the stroke controls shape a polygon wave, adjusting profile, color, opacity, start and end width, and fade in/out to manage lifespan.

Explore how birth versus each frame affects animation parameters in After Effects, using keyframes for color and start depth to create radiowave visuals.

Apply radio waves in a solid layer, link them with the liquid to the spaceship’s position, and tweak the tail and speed to complete the practice activity and challenge.

Create a moving spaceship tail with the polygon waves effect, linking to the ship via a producer point expression and adjusting frequency, lifespan, and color transitions.

Learn to create radio waves with the mask wave type in After Effects, shaping waves by mask position and anchor point, and adjusting frequency.

Create an animated earth visualization by combining CC Sphere with radio waves on a world map in After Effects, mastering rotation, zoom, keyframes, masks, and wave effects.

Start your journey into visual effects in After Effects with a complete course covering all effects across many projects, and participate by suggesting the effects you want to learn next.