Radio Detection And Ranging
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Radio Detection And Ranging

Posted on 29. Apr, 2007 by Jerzy Drozda Jr in After Effects

Collision detection and audio triggering. Learn how to build a radar that actually works using only four keyframes! This one is a must-see!


This tutorial is no different from the others. It’s not creating a certain effect. Oh no. It’s about solving common and uncommon problems, and about finding solutions to situations that might occur in the future. All to help you work more efficiently by saving huge amounts of time. It’s not about the final visual result, but the way to get there.

So… what is this tutorial really about? We’re going to create a radar that really works! Draw the radar, animate the target over it, and watch how the radar detects the object by itself, marks it on the grid and even makes a beeping sound.

This whole project consists of only four keyframes, and few expressions, that will detect the collision between the target and the scanning line. When the collision occurs, the target will become visible, and a beep sound will be generated.

You must see this one! I hope you’ll like it. Enjoy!

Update
There is an update for this tutorial. If you’re using After Effects CS3 than you should check out the CE PixelSampler tutorial, where you can learn how to use my CustomEffect to detect collisions.

Download: Tutorial project file (After Effects CS2)

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39 Responses to “Radio Detection And Ranging”

  1. marra182

    29. Apr, 2007

    The expressions for the collisions are pretty clever.
    Thanks for all the tutorials, I always learn a lot from them.

    Reply to this comment
  2. SG

    20. May, 2007

    Thanx 4 all da gr8 stuffs.
    You are just awesome with your every tutorials.

    Once again thankyou & keep going.

    Sandy —-> SG

    Reply to this comment
  3. lovenara

    01. Jun, 2007

    thn for let us use your tutor in our own work
    BTW i change the color,look
    and use it here ( with your credit included )at
    http://www.lovenara.tk
    thnx

    Reply to this comment
  4. AnferTuto

    29. Jul, 2007

    Hola faretaste
    mekodinosad

    Reply to this comment
  5. Antonyb

    29. Jul, 2007

    pure gold, thanks

    Reply to this comment
  6. videoman

    30. Jul, 2007

    just GREAT!

    Reply to this comment
  7. Aron Duby

    31. Jul, 2007

    oh man, that is sweet! I went through the pain of doing all of that by hand a few months ago, not that much fun. This definitely goes in the tool box. Thank bro!

    Reply to this comment
  8. eric

    31. Jul, 2007

    very very nice, thankyou for your time putting this together. One can never say “sweet” enough! SWEET!

    Reply to this comment
  9. PEDRO

    31. Jul, 2007

    GOOD STUFF! THANKS FOR THE TUT.

    Reply to this comment
  10. kurtmo

    31. Jul, 2007

    Nice Stuff! Thanks for creating this. It’s informative to see how different people use different techniques to produce same effects. more great tools here for my work.

    Reply to this comment
  11. Sonny

    04. Aug, 2007

    Hey Maltaannon great video tutorials! It was good to see some expression work, and it shows that it’s not too difficult to work with expressions,in fact you made using them seem essential. Entertaining too can’t wait to see more.

    Reply to this comment
  12. Shalom

    27. Aug, 2007

    Just WOW

    Reply to this comment
  13. Wise3

    03. Oct, 2007

    Excellent. Thank you for all.
    I discover your site by Videocopilot Site.

    Reply to this comment
  14. Merstzik

    24. Oct, 2007

    I observe you for some time and I have to leave at least one comment! I’m pretty amazed by your tutorials. On one side they are very advanced and on the other you present it in a very simple way without any useless steps. Thanks for your “creation”.

    By the way.. it is nice to see some fellow countryman who do his best to pass his wisdom to everyone. CHEERS! AND DO YOUR BEST!

    (another one who came here thanks to videcopilot ;))

    Reply to this comment
  15. Jay

    31. Oct, 2007

    Great Tutorial. Love the fact that it is all generated in AE. please keep them coming.

    Reply to this comment
  16. Isha

    21. Nov, 2007

    Wow. You’ve got those expressions down. I made a radar a long time ago, with keyframes and it was quite tedious to make a small change- based off of just keyframes. Thank you so much for this expression-oriented tutorial. Have a great day!

    Reply to this comment
  17. Maltaannon

    21. Nov, 2007

    Check out the updated version at the end of the CE PixelSampler tutorial. There are no expressions involved, and it still works.

    Reply to this comment
  18. Mickey

    28. Nov, 2007

    Very awesome. This is my first time here and you are truly a master at what you do and I will be watching everything you do!

    Reply to this comment
  19. ameth

    17. Dec, 2007

    Very Very good and excelents tutorials and stuff, i live in cuba and tha after effects and all the programs of adobe are my passion, thanks one thousand maltaannon you are icredible, good luck for you, ameth

    Reply to this comment
  20. Artillusion

    15. Feb, 2008

    This is really great tutorial thank you.
    You use some Pro expressions, really sweat.

    Reply to this comment
  21. Faisal

    06. Apr, 2008

    Hi, this is really amazing and very informative tutorial. But i will be thankful if you would kindly tell me the expression that you used on the opacity of the aircraft. thanking you.

    regards

    Reply to this comment
  22. Maltaannon

    06. Apr, 2008

    The expression is in the tutorial and in the project file. Like I’ve explained in the tutorial…. it’s hard for me to explain it in Polish, not to mention explaining in English so you’re on your own. Sorry.

    Reply to this comment
  23. TGD

    26. May, 2008

    [...] Collision detection and audio triggering. Learn how to build a radar that actually works using only four keyframes! This one is a must-see! (more&#8230 [...]

    Reply to this comment
  24. kobygold

    27. Jul, 2008

    Great and inspiring Tutorial! Very cleverly built animation and expressions!
    You’ve made me think if it is possible to trigger audio, which is not created in AE, but is a WAV file that would repeat itself automatically after each collision detection…
    I wanted to ask you if it’s possible, but then I came up with the solution!
    So, thank you for the inspiration, this could lead to more great animations !

    Reply to this comment
  25. CristalCube

    03. Aug, 2008

    Thanks for this awesome tutorial Maltaannon, keep it going.

    Greetings.

    Reply to this comment
  26. Apex

    19. Aug, 2008

    I cant help but wonder where i could get the expression code you used in that tutorial, you said you copy and pasted it. im using a mac so maybe thats the problem but i dont know. all i know is that when i extract everything from the .zip file all there is are the project files, no mention of where to get the code and you dont stay over it enough to pause the video and copy it. cheers!

    Reply to this comment
  27. Maltaannon

    19. Aug, 2008

    the code is applied to the layer – just where I pasted it

    Reply to this comment
  28. suppa

    01. Sep, 2008

    could someone paste the expression which animates the opacity from 100 to 0 at every collision detection? i’m baffled, cant think of anything. im using some other effects along with opacity, and the echo doesnt give a good result.

    thanks

    Reply to this comment
  29. Maltaannon

    01. Sep, 2008

    Just download the project file. Or even better – check out the PixelSampler tutorial and check the update of this tutorial at the end.

    Reply to this comment
  30. suppa

    02. Sep, 2008

    thanks for the swift reply, but i was referring to what you mentioned in the original tutorial (“we might write an expression that would animate the opacity to go slowly from 100 to 0″ or something of the sort). i’m using glow effect and some other stuff on the detected objects and echo only multiplies the object, while i’d like to animate the glow properties and such along the opacity.

    Reply to this comment
  31. Kakarot

    03. Oct, 2008

    napraede niezle :) moze poziom ang to nie Adrew Kramer ale tutki naprawde niceowe :)

    Reply to this comment
  32. olarenxxx

    25. Oct, 2008

    hi man what the encryption password of the project thanks

    Reply to this comment
  33. Maltaannon

    25. Oct, 2008

    There is none. You must be doing something wrong.

    Reply to this comment
  34. nageswra rao

    17. Jul, 2009

    thats good

    Reply to this comment
  35. kwame

    15. Dec, 2009

    An amazing tutorial. Great stuff . Thanks for time and efforts into making such tutorials for us.You are a star.
    Thanks

    Reply to this comment
  36. chakri

    04. Mar, 2010

    i need code to display targets in display and that display is in computer and the code is in C# language…Is it possible to do like that??? The problem here is : we just get the target values from radar or radar display.The user can show the radar anywhere in the world by using a web browser or a standalone application.

    Reply to this comment
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