Software Used: After Effects

Overview: In this tutorial I look at how we created the character walk cycles in the Groupon videos over at Daily Planet ltd. The character is animated using a combination of parenting layers and the puppet tool. This character was built entirely in After Effects but the same concept can be used if you were bringing in Photoshop layers. This tutorial is recommended for beginners. Some basic commands and effects are covered.

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Download: After Effects File

Software Used: After Effects

Overview: In this tutorial we look at the basics of keying footage in After Effects using the plugin Keylight. This tutorial doesn't go over all the buttons and switches of the plugin but gives you enough to get started and understanding how it works.

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Software Used: After Effects

Overview: In this After Effects tutorial focus on two simple expressions. The two expressions used are; loopOut(); and Wiggle(2,2);

For more information on expressions in After Effects check out AE Enhancers and the tutorials by Harry Frank over at graymachine.com.

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Software Used: After Effects

Overview: In this tutorial we look at the basics of rotoscoping in After Effects. This tutorial is for beginners and should give you an idea of what rotoscoping is and how essential it can me to any project.

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Software Used: After Effects

Overview: In this tutorial we look at creating a wipe by animating masks in After Effects. This tutorial is for beginners and should give you an idea of how to animate a mask and what alpha channels are.

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Software Used: After Effects

Overview: This is my first After Effects video tutorial so please take that into consideration. In this tutorial I go through the basics of how you add an expression in After Effects. I focus on setting up a simple counter expression using an expression and the slider control effect. Here is the expression used;

val = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
numDec = 0; // digits to right of decimal
numDigit = 2; // digits to left of decimal
if (val < 0) sign = "-" else sign = ""; s = Math.abs(val).toFixed(numDec); while (s.length < numDigit + numDec + 1) s = "0" + s; sign + s

For more information on expressions in After Effects check out AE Enhancers and the tutorials by Harry Frank over at graymachine.com.

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Software Used: RealFlow

Overview: In this first of hopefully many RealFlow tutorials I go over the basic user interface and layout. I show you how to navigate around and manipulate objects in a scene. This tutorial is just to get your feet a little wet and introduce you to RealFlow and understand where all the basic buttons are.

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Software Used: Photoshop, Illustrator

Overview: A 3D style pill made in Photoshop and Illustrator.

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