Animating a Logo with Particles in After Effects
In this series of After Effects tutorials, we will learn how to animate a logo using particles and animated videos to reveal and enhance the logo presentation. Software required: After Effects CS6.
What you'll learn
In this series of After Effects tutorials, we will learn how to animate a logo using particles and animated videos to reveal and enhance the logo presentation. We will learn how to manipulate a video using effects and the simple transformation properties to cause it to perfectly fit on top of an element we would like to reveal. After changing it's track matte, we see how quickly you can use the effect in multiple ways. Then, we move on to creating particles. We use a few different particle systems throughout this tutorial depending on what we need the particles to be capable of doing. Some systems are easier to use than others, while some offer more customizable options. No matter what though, all of the particles we use in this tutorial come with After Effects, so no need to worry about expensive plug-ins. By the end of this training, you will have a mastery of using luma and alpha mattes as well as how to manipulate a particle system to create many different looks. Software required: After Effects CS6.
Table of contents
- Setting up the Logo and Background 10m
- Revealing the Water with a Luma Matte 15m
- Revealing the Mantra Letters with a Luma Matte 11m
- Creating a Particle System as an Alpha Matte 6m
- Making the Particle Producer Follow a Path 10m
- Creating Interest with Appropriate Textures for the Logo 16m
- Building a Particle Trail of Sparks 16m
- Refining the Particles and Causing Them to Bounce and Reflect 16m
- Using a Flare to Lead the Particle Trail 14m
- Making a Background with Bokeh Particles 13m
- Creating Reflections and Glow for the Other Elements 9m
- Animating the Drops 10m
- Perfecting the Close of the Animation 12m
- Adding a Camera Move 6m
- Using Lens Effects to Add Reflections and Blur 11m
About the author
Laura is a passionate visual effects and motion graphics author at Pluralsight. Ever since her first exposure to After Effects in college, Laura has had an eternal drive to learn more about motion graphics, and teach others what she has discovered. Laura began working at Digital-Tutors (now a Pluralsight company) as a motion graphics artist, creating visually-appealing advertisements and informative art for the site. Throughout her time at Digital-Tutors, Laura contributed greatly to both the ... more