Totally Useless Experiment
Posted on 28. Feb, 2009 by Jerzy Drozda Jr in After Effects
Want to waste some time? Get to know how to embed hidden images into existing footage and learn few cool tricks on the way.
Click here to watch the video tutorial
This tutorial is completely useless. I can’t stress that enough. Who would ever want to put a hidden message in a video, right? Well… maybe James Bond would, but he told me he’s not much into After Effect. Encoding a hidden message in a video is pointless especially because it message might get distorted after compressing the video. There are hundreds of different reasons why you shouldn’t do it.
However, you can still learn few cool tips and tricks while watching this short tutorial, so if you have a few spare minutes to waste make sure to watch it anyway. I kind of like showing cool techniques with such extreme examples like this one. Let me know if you like the idea, I might make more totally useless experiments in the future.
Happy AfterEffecting.












Nick D. Clements
28. Feb, 2009
really cool! and it was quite informative. and actually, with this method, since the “message” is only being displayed in one row of pixels, and doesn’t effect the rest of the video, and since (maybe not so many of the new flat panels) but some, and surly all older tv’s crop way more than just one pixel – so it would hardly ever be seen, it could be used to embed a “signature” into your video. who knows, if there is ever a time when you had to prove that a video was originally yours, it would be a pretty convincing argument when you placed the video into aftereffects and revel a hidden picture of yourself or copyright statement. honestly, i think i might put one of these into every video i do from now on! :) crazy how one idea leads to another. (true compression could create some problems – but even if the image was all distorted, if it was at least somewhat readable – that might be even cooler, it would make you feel like a forensic scientist on a crime show who just extracted a video clip from a severely damaged video tape that was pulled out of the river… and all you have to do is say “let me clean that up” and press a button and everything is magically crystal clean and in hi-resolution again. it makes me smile every time that do that. And everyday there seems to be a better codec that returns better quality video with smaller file sizes, (while at the same time the hard drives keep getting bigger) and even youtube is accepting HD video post now which puts the odds in your favor that the message will stay intact. (really the biggest issue with compression would be “key” frames, you would want to adjust the speed at witch the “message” scrolls in relation to how many “key” frames you plan on “keying” during compression… (i think) but ok enough from me. thank you maltaannon for another fun filled tutorial.
illd
28. Feb, 2009
Crazy stuff…I like it!
Btw. your screencapture has an amazing quality! It looks even sharper than my own Desktop :)
Rafael Guerra
01. Mar, 2009
that was really interesting…perhaps on your training series, you could investigate those subliminal messages in real movies….
Bartłomiej
01. Mar, 2009
Thx maltaannon ! ! !
khaled
02. Mar, 2009
great tutorial i hope to see more tutorial my lazy teacher
thank’s
khaled
khaled
02. Mar, 2009
hay
i forget
i wan’t atutorial from you in motion graphic some design you make it
and you like it
please i hope this will be soon no’t the next year
thank’s my lazy teacher
aldie
02. Mar, 2009
i really love your tutorials!!!!
qwerty
06. Mar, 2009
piece of shit
CoreKeys
28. Jul, 2009
And a spammer strikes again…
SOSA
08. Sep, 2009
somebody needs some education!! or better attitude
Around the Web After Effects Tutorial Roundup | Feed Reader (Beta)
09. Mar, 2009
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Ei_b3low
24. Jun, 2009
video not found mr. jerzy
Jerzy Drozda Jr
25. Jun, 2009
Fixed. Sorry about that.
qsalas
24. Jan, 2010
no video found again =(
Jerzy Drozda Jr
24. Jan, 2010
nah man. it’s all there. i don’t know how you’re doing the things you do that you don’t see the video, but it’s there.
qsalas
24. Jan, 2010
sorry!…it was my comp…thx!
Sergey
12. Feb, 2010
Tenk ) Спасибо! Жаль что не до конца, но суть ясна.)
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15. Jul, 2010
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-from the BBc news website re: the 10 Russian Agents.
So where could the Russian agents have learned such a thing… perhaps the clue is in the next paragraph…
“Using data and a 27-character password gained by searching a New Jersey property in 2005, US agents accessed a steganography programme that led them to websites where they found certain images, the court documents say.”
Do you see that…<>…. Jersey?! JERZY!! AH-HA!
You need to keep an eye on George. I think he’s been up to no good while you’re ‘asleep’….
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