So in this tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a spray paint effect using After Effects. It’s a fairly simple process but I’ve got a few tricks that you may not have thought of. Here is a sample video of what you’ll be creating:
Here are the AE project files.
So let’s begin.
1.) Open After Effects
Lets create a composition that is 720×540 and call it “final stencil”.
2.) Make Paint
Now we are going to make a spray paint effect. There are lots of different ways to achieve a spray paint effect. I will show you two different techniques in this tutorial. First, create an adjustment layer that is the size of the composition and call it “paint 1″. Apply “vector paint” to this layer. Change your vector paint settings to look something like this.
Make sure the vector paint effect is selected and you should see a toolbar next to your comp window. Select the brush and paint on some spray paint similar to this.
3.) Animate Paint
Within the Vector Paint controls change the playback to “Animate strokes”. Once you do that the Playback Speed becomes available for you to change. Put it somewhere between 3.5 and 4. Now when you scrub in the timeline you should see the stroke you just made animating from start to finish.
NOTE: Where you are in the timeline when you make your first stroke using vector paint determines when the stroke starts animating. So if you were not at the begining of the paint layer when you made the stroke, you’ll notice that the stroke doesn’t start animating on the first frame of the layer. It starts animating when it reaches the point in the timeline where you first made the stroke.
4.) Roughen the Edges so it looks like spray paint.
Apply the “Roughen Edges” effect to the paint 1 layer. The trick here is to bring down the scale parameter in the Roughen Edges effect. Change your effect settings so you have Border = 20 and scale = 10. The “boarder” parameter controls how much of the edge it will roughened. Now our spray paint is made and your project should look like this:
5.) Add Paint Drips
Let’s add in some paint drips for a little more realism and styling. Go and grab the Spray Paint vector pack and isolate a few drips and copy them into a new Illustrator or Photoshop document. I’ve copied my spray paint splatters from Illustrator into Photoshop as pixels, this way After Effects won’t be rendering these layers as vector art. Save your isolated drips as “drip 1, drip 2, and drip 3″ and import them into After Effects.
Now let’s add these to our comp. Drop one of the Drip psds into the timeline and solo the layer. Take the elliptical mask tool and draw a circle mask around main part of the spray paint. It should look like this:
Now we are going to keyframe the “mask expansion” so the drip will animate. Keyframe the mask expansion to go from “-61 pixels” to about “74 pixels” with a duration of about 20 frames. Now when you scrub in the timeline you should see the solo’d “Drip” layer animating. Ok, click to solo button again so we can see our “paint 1″ layer. Depending on what colors you are using you may need to add a “Fill” effect to the “Drip” layer so it matches our original “paint 1″ layer.
5.a) Blend the Drip
Now that your drip animates and it’s the same color as our “paint 1″ layer let’s put them together. Here is how I did it.
5.b) Finish the Drips
Now do the same procedure to the other Drips and combine them with the “paint 1″ layer. You should now have something that looks like this.
6.) Do It Again for Variation.
Now, we are going to start from step #2 and create a whole new paint layer. One thing you want to make sure you realize is that we need to create another composition because the
“Roughen Edges” effect will effect all the layers below it when it’s applied to an adjustment or solid layer.
Create a new composition and call it “paint vers 2″. Do the same thing that is in steps 2-4 just make the stroke from right to left instead of left to right. You should have something like this:
7.) Combine the 2 comps
Drag “paint vers 2″ from the project window into the “final stencil” composition. You should now have something like this:
Now we are going to add drips to this paint layer as well. This time we can just duplicate the drip layers and add the “Fill” Effect to change their color so it matches the “paint vers 2″ color. Now you should have something similar to this:
8.) Making the Stencil Comps.
Make a new comp that is 800×540 and call it “paper”. Add a new solid layer and put a rectangular mask on it and then rotate the layer a bit. It should look like this:
8.a) Create a paper texture
Now we are going to use this shape as a track matte for our texture. Go and grab a paper texture from our texture pack and import it into the project. Drag the paper texture into the “paper” comp. Make sure the paper layer is underneath the solid layer and set the solid as an “alpha matte”. Now your paper layer should be using the solid layer as track matte. You can scale and position the paper layer to your liking.
8.b) Make a “Stencil” comp
Make a new comp that is 800×540 and call it “stencil”. Drag the “paper” comp into this comp. Now this is where we make our stencil. As you can see, I’ve used the Go Media logo as my stencil, but you can use practically anything. It’s probably best to use something that’s vector, like an illustrator file or a text layer within After Effects. This way you can use the alpha channel as a track matte. So create some text, or use the Go Media logo and on the “paper” layer select “Alpha inverted Matte” Now the Go Media logo, or your text should be cut out of our “paper layer”. Now you should have something like this…
8.c) Make More Spray Paint
So here is where I show you another way of making spray paint. This technique is less mechanical and seems more realistic to me. Create a black solid that is 400×400 and put a circular mask on. Now apply the “scatter” effect to the black solid layer. Set the scatter amount to around “70″.
Now we are going to animate the mask expansion to create the “spray on” effect. I’ve keyframed mine from -135 to -18 with a duration of about 5 frames. I also dropped the opacity down to about 80%. Once you have done this once, duplicate the layer and move the position to the next point you want to paint. You’ll also want to offset the duplicated layer in the timeline. Do this over and over until you have completely painted on your stencil. You’ll notice that I also used a “Drip” layer to add a little bit of style and realism to this comp. Here is how i did it.
8.d) Create the Bottom Comp
Create a comp that is 800×540 and call it “Bottom”.
Drag in the “stencil” comp and the Go Media Logo into this comp. Draw a rectangular mask on the stencil layer that subtracts all the paint and is the same size as our original paper comp. This will probably take a little manual tweaking. Make sure the text is in the same place as it was in the stencil comp. You can copy and paste the position attributes to make sure they are the same.
8.e) Create a “no paint” comp.
In the project window highlight the stencil comp and hit “comand+d” to duplicate that composition. Then double click on it to open it up. Then change the comp name to be “no paint”. Then delete all the paint layers so you just have the paper layer and the Go Media logo layer as a track matte.
8.f) Create another stencil comp? Yes!
Create a new comp that is 800×540 and call it “stencil build animation”. Now drag your “stencil” comp, “no paint”comp, and “bottom” comp into this comp.
Now solo the “stencil” layer. Add the “CC Page Turn” effect to this layer. Now keyframe the page turn effect so that the stencil folds into frame. You’ll want to keyframe the fold position. I keyframed the position from -128,270 to 705,270 with a duration of about 1 second. You’ll want to make sure that the paint in your “stencil” comp doesn’t start painting until the page turn transition is complete.
Now once the page turn is complete and the paint has finished painting, select the “stencil” layer and hit “command + shift + d” to duplicate and cut the layer. Now on the second “stencil layer” keyframe the “CC page turn” effect to animate out the way it came in. You can literally copy and paste the keyframe from the 1st “stencil” layer to the 2nd stencil layer. Now you need to make sure that the “bottom” layer is underneath everything and is positioned in the timeline so it only is visible when the page turn effect is animating out. Your comp should look like this:
Now you’ll notice that when our stencil animates out of frame, the backside has paint all over it.
This is where we want to use our “no paint” comp. as the backside in our “CC page turn” effect. Once you set the backside to be the “no paint” layer, you can hide that layer.
Once you set the backside to the “no paint” layer, your comp should now look like this:
Now make sure that the “bottom” layer is visible at the same time the Page Turn effect reveals the “bottom” layer. You’ll want to do some simple masking so you don’t see a jump in the black paint when the bottom layer becomes visible. The reason this happens is because both the bottom layer and the stencil layer have the paint layers on them. This is also because my original paint was set to 80% opacity. If it was set 100% this would be less of a problem. But just do a simple mask that follows the page turn as it animates and we’ll be fine. The image above shows the simple mask job I did.
9.) Combine the Stencil Build with our “Final Stencil” Comp.
Drag the “stencil build animation” comp into the “final stencil” comp. Align the “stencil build animation” layer in the timeline so it starts to animate after all of our red and yellow paint finishes animating.
10.) Adding a Little Bit of Style.
So now the basics of this tutorial are complete. The only thing left is to take this animation a bit farther and keep adding in elements and making this piece visually interesting. Create a new comp called “square paint comp”. Use the vector paint effect to create a nice background similar to the one I used. Don’t forget to animate the stroke like we had done before. I also created a stroke effect on the vector paint by duplicating the paint layer and making the brush size bigger. I then brought the opacity of that layer down to about 65%.
10.a) Use 3D Space and a Camera
I then turned all the layers into 3D layers, added a camera and started to do some keyframing on the camera. I added a simple wiggle to the point of interest which give the camera a little shake. You can also add lights, motion blur, depth of field effects and anything else you can think of…go crazy! I hope you enjoyed learning about these techniques! Have fun!
October 9th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Awsome tutorial. Very helpful to all the aspiring motion graphics people out there. Keep up the good work.
October 10th, 2007 at 3:03 am
Great tutorial. I’m just beginning to see what Adobe After Effects is all about.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:50 am
really nice work
thx,you are so nice a guy to share AE skills
October 11th, 2007 at 12:12 am
U Da Man! (sorry about the rant)
peace [m]
October 18th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Great effect, would be easier to follow as a video tutorial though.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:38 am
@Ben - agreed. It’s also a lot easier to make a video tutorial. From now on, I”m only going to do video tutorials. The next tutorial will probably be on expression basics.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Good Tutorial, but where can i get your plugins “Grid”, “Starglow”, “4-Color Gradient”, “Magnify”. I Don’t have this.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
When I add the paint drips and combine them with the paint 1 layer the “drip” part shows the roughen edges too. Its not smooth and does not look like a drip. It looks like spray. What did I do wrong? I finished steps 1-5.
October 25th, 2007 at 8:56 am
@Don - You need to have your drip layers on top of the paint layer. The paint layer is an adjustment layer so it alters any layers below it. Take a look at the screen shot from step 7… it shows how my layers are set up in the timeline.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:01 am
@Vincent - I don’t think I used any of those plugins. Grid, Magnify, and the 4 color gradient all come stock with after effects pro. Starglow is put out by a compnay called Trapcode.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Thanks, yeah your right…
November 6th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Hi! I’m new to this software and I can’t seem to understand how one actually does “Keyframe the mask expansion to go from “-61 pixels†to about “74 pixels†with a duration of about 20 frames.” in section 5. Help appreciated!
November 13th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I am looking at this stunning tutorial but am upset that I cannot find the vector paint effect in After Effects. Can someone help me with this as I love this tutorial and would love to do it myself.
Cheers
Myke
November 13th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
@Matt - what you are doing in this step is keyframing the “mask expansion” property on the mask itself. Select the layer that has the mask on it, hit the letter “m” on your keyboard to reveal the mask, then twirl down to see the mask properties. There you’ll see mask shape, feather, opacity and expansion. This is where you keyframe the expansion to reveal the “paint”.
@Myke - you can use the effects and preset window to search for effects. Go to window>effects and presets. A panel will pop up allowing you to search for effects and presets. Vector paint can also be found by going to Effect>paint>vector paint.
November 14th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Having looked at my After Effects preset plugins i have not found the ones I need to do this project. Do I have to buy some effcts to make this project as I am eager to recreate this effect for myself.
If I do have to buy them can I have some links to them! Cheers!
Myke
November 20th, 2007 at 12:58 am
correct me if im wrong but i can’t seem to find the ‘cc page turn’ effect in AE CS3
is there a new name or another way to go about getting this same effect?
November 20th, 2007 at 11:00 am
@cole - Effect>distort>cc page turn. You’ll need AE pro and you’ll need to have installed your CC (cycore) effects. I think CS3 installs the cc effects automatically.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:02 am
@Myke - you should download the source file that I provide at the beginning of the tutorial. Open it up and see if the effects are missing. But if you have AE7 Pro, all these effects should be stock.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Very very cool animation !
and very nice to know this, how to make.
Thanks so much for tutorial !
November 28th, 2007 at 10:33 am
it’s very nice tutorial.Thanks for your tutorial.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:47 am
good..!!
November 28th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
hi love this tutorial but i’m stuck in point 5 i’m sorry to bother you but can you please tell me in more detail how was it that you added the drips of paint? i’m i supposed to do it in a photoshop file and then imported into after? using what brush? thank you i would love to finish this
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:17 am
@maria - what you are doing is taking a spray paint drip from one of the arsenal packs and isolating the drip into it’s own file. It can be an Illustrator file or photoshop file, it doesn’t really matter. Once you have a few isolated drips, import them into after effects and apply a circular mask to them. Add a feather and animate the mask expansion property. Keyframe the mask expansion property so you reveal the drips - something like -100 to 100 should do the trick.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Good, Bravo !!
December 8th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Thanks alot for the tutorial, but whenever I use a CC effect (like the CC Page Turn), I get two big green lines going through the comp diagonally (Like an X).
It even shows up when I make the final render.
Do you have any idea what it is?
December 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
People who can’t find the Page Turn -effect, go to http://www.cycorefx.com/ and download it
December 14th, 2007 at 6:49 am
Actually, don’t. It generates the green X across the screen. This is very frustrating to do the tutorial all the way to section 8f just to notice that you don’t have the Page Turn -effect. I have the AE7 Pro, but there’s no Page Turn effect.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:10 am
@matt and anyone else getting a red or green X through their comp when applying any CC effect. You need to buy a legit copy of after effects - If you bought AE7 Pro, you’ll need to install the CC (cycorefx) effects separately from the actual program. What the red or green X means is you didn’t register your copy of that plugin, so it renders a X through the image allowing you to still use the effect as a “trial”.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I have after effects 7.
I cannot instal after effects cs3 because I dont have enough virtual memory.
The problem I dont have vector paint and scatter can you give me a link download it I cant find it.And it doesnot instal me the update of 8.0.1 fro adobe.com
December 16th, 2007 at 10:49 am
@carmi - you know it’s hard for me to troubleshoot others software and setup issues. I’m not sure why you don’t have these effects. I would say contact Adobe’s tech support or re-install after effects. I’m not sure if you illegally downloaded your software or what - but i’d say contact adobe because it sounds like you are missing effects and didn’t get what you paid for.
December 19th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Thank you for the tutorial I take some of you ideas and stuff because I need it for mu little movie thank you very much you have the credit from me.
Hope to see more tutorials like that.
January 12th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
where is the alpha track matte thing [[ae 6.5 pro]]
February 8th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
HI,
Thanks for the tutorial. I´m following it up to the CC page turn effect, can´t find it. I am using version 6.5
February 9th, 2008 at 3:15 am
and I have downloaded and installed CycoreFX HD 1.6 Mac (CFM) which is supposed to include this page turn effect
February 9th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Ok, I found the turn page effect but still dont manage to finish this tutorial, so I started from the top again, and first:
I do not manage to paint on the adjustment layer, so I imported a blank psd footage and painted on that,but if i switch it to an adjustment layer it goes blank again, so i’ve just kept it as an ordinary layer, and with this i made it to 8.d: I draw a rectangular mask on the stencil layer, but it doesnt subtract anything only leaves a yellow frame.
February 9th, 2008 at 5:10 am
to darrick:layer:track matte:alpha track matte
February 19th, 2008 at 10:15 am
please send me a tut. on this my e-mail id.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hi
This tutorial looks wicked, but I’m having probs painting onto my adjustment layer, I just cant see my results or the vector path, once I’ve finished painting my results just vanish even tho in the info box its says strokes: 1, weird… What am I doing wrong (I’m a newbie so apologees if its something simple!)
March 7th, 2008 at 5:21 am
Doh! dont worry I’ve figured it! although saying that, my vector paint effect is buggy as hell. If I want to delete my paint and start again it freaks out and wont work so I have to delete my adjustment layer and create a new one…
March 19th, 2008 at 1:56 am
so, if you have a registerd copy of After effects and a non registerd copy of the plugin , will it still show the x? or do you have to actually buy the CC (cycorefx) effects? is there anyway to get rid of the x without buying the effect?
April 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I have changed your logo to my logo how do i publish this
thanks in advance
April 17th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
@ste - so you’ve downloaded the proj files, replaced our logo with yours, and want to call this animation your own? If you are having troubles figuring out how to export this animation, then this tutorial was NOT for you and you should pick up a basic after effects book or check out the cow(moooo). One word of advise - NEVER tell clients, friends or anyone else that you can do something that you clearly cannot. It will only come back to bite you in the ass when a clients asks you to create something original.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Can someone PLEASE make a video tutorial on this and send me the link? I would love to create this myself but I am not good with following written directions. Great effect and tutorial though!
-chez