Uses of the Circle
Posted on 20. Jun, 2008 by Jerzy Drozda Jr in After Effects
If you’re one of those people who think of the Circle effect as a useless plugin than I hope this tutorial will help you change your mind.
Click here to watch the video tutorial
Everything originates from a Circle. With that in mind I’ll do my best to show you how useful this tiny little effect can be. You’ll learn how to create vignetting, shade objects so they look more 3d, and also create some cool looking graphics elements, all withing as little amount of layers and masking as possible.
I use the Circle effect very often. I could even risk saying that it is the second effect that I use after Fractal Noise. Having all the controllers on the effects palette accessible at all times saves me a lot of time. I mostly use the Circle effect to do some masking, but it can also be used for different tasks.
If you find some other cool ways to use the Circle effect share them with me and the rest of us. Post a comment.
Now sit back and enjoy the tutorial.
Update!
I made a mini follow-up tutorial available on my YouTube Channel. Subscribe, rate and comment. Most of the videos are just trailers of my tutorials found on this site, but sometimes theres something extra, so stay tuned.
Enjoy!
69 Responses to “Uses of the Circle”
Leave a Reply
-
christian louboutin peep toe: Excellent site you have here but I was curious abo...
-
Paulette: I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest ...
-
ee.osm.za.gp: Do you have a spam issue on this blog; I also am a...
-
unemployed loans: WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by sear...
-
Rickie: My brother suggested I might like this website. He...
Maltaannon recommends:
patorikku
21. Jun, 2008
hey maltaannon
to be honest, I never used that effect, but with this little short tip tutorial you changed my mind :) it’s lot easier than masking out everything and animating the paths and stuff
thanks a lot
patrick from switzerland
illd
21. Jun, 2008
Nice one!
I actually never used the circle effect, obviously a big mistake…
One thing im wondering about. How the Hell you got water in your
ear during work? Do you own a swiming pool? Are you the polish Hugh Heffner? If its so, pleeeaaase invite me!
bigjoe
21. Jun, 2008
hey… Maltaanon this is nice again…
having a good knowledge and teaching the whole world 4 free …
u r gr8… God bless
UmairVFX
21. Jun, 2008
Hey George How are you buddy?
Amazing and i am wonder about it that yesterday i was watching you previous tutorials in which your were saying that you will make an whole tutorial on circle effect and when i come to office today and i just open your site i finally see it…
Wonder full effects amazing thank you very much my best friend! ;)
Take Care buddy and enjoy your vacations ;)
Regards,
UmairVFx
http://www.youtube.com/user/umairvfx
Cary
21. Jun, 2008
At the end I thought you were going to create a halo to go above his head. Not too bad.
See, my creativity is already spurring. Nice stuff.
vianz
21. Jun, 2008
Nice tutorial bro..thank for introduce me with this plugin.
MortallicA
21. Jun, 2008
Hey maltaaanon
You defenately changed my mind XD circle will be my best friend :)
I was wondering something, I don’t know if I should ask this here…
What type of video are you uploading?
I mean it is bufferung so fast and I can fullscreen it with all the detail!!!
thnx again for your help
cwws
21. Jun, 2008
Really great tutorial! Cool! Thanks a lot Maltaanon!
Noone
21. Jun, 2008
Awesome tutorial, I was wondering if there is any way to use the circle effect for sort of a spot focus, that you could move around. I’m trying to figure it out, but I can’t think of a way to get the blur to work only on the inverted circle, and preferably be all on one layer. Any ideas?!
Maltaannon
21. Jun, 2008
Sure. Take a look at the part when I use the Circle behind the actor. Using Circle along with CC Composite may be the answer. I’ll take a look at this on Monday, or maybe sooner.
Noone
21. Jun, 2008
hey, thanks for the responce so fast!
I’ve tried several different combos of the circle, fast blur, and CC composite. I was able to get the effect using two extra layers, one with the circle for a matte, then the original footage below that, with the Track Matte set to Luma inverted (the circle is black) then the original footage again under that blurred out. It’s getting to be boggling to make it all be on one layer, but I’d like it like that so I can make a simple preset. I think this would be something good for people who want that nice low depth of field, but can’t spend all that cash on something like an adaptor.
Well, I’ll keep working at it, I’d be very interested to see what you could come up with. Thanks again.
Marcus Rhoads
21. Jun, 2008
Hey George, thanks for the tutorial. A can’t wait to start using the circle tool more often! And by the way, the traffic noise in the background didn’t bother me at all.
Valentin
21. Jun, 2008
Wow! I so never could think up independently. Thanks for really very useful lesson and I in delight! Yes, yes, yes Jerzy, you simply super! Thanks again.
cameron
21. Jun, 2008
Wow how easy is that. Thanks for the tutorial.
adam
21. Jun, 2008
Your tutorials are good, but damn, you ramble on and on and on and on and on and on before you finally get to it.
It’s difficult to criticise you because the tutorials are free, but man oh man, your tutorials could be half the time if you cut out all the rambling that you may find amusing, but annoys the hell out of your users.
PhSn
22. Jun, 2008
@the man above
don’t you understand the sense of the live-tutorials? No cutting, only spontanious recording!
@maltaannon
great tutorial again, dude! I didn’t know, that there’s so much power in this tiny effect^^ I think I’m going to use it more often in the future ;-)
Video Tutorial : Uses of the Circle | Blog.:.CGSutra
22. Jun, 2008
[...] If you’re one of those people who think of the Circle effect as a useless plugin than I hope this tutorial will help you change your mind. Everything originates from a Circle. With that in mind I’ll do my best to show you how useful this tiny little effect can be. You’ll learn how to create vignetting, shade objects so they look more 3d, and also create some cool looking graphics elements, all withing as little amount of layers and masking as possible. Source Link [...]
Antonyb
22. Jun, 2008
Hey M
Great stuff as usual – here’s another use of the circle you may have missed:
http://www.vertigo.co.uk/MISC/zips
Cheers
A
apollo
24. Jun, 2008
projects no add projects please :))
Maltaannon
24. Jun, 2008
Sorry. No project file for this one. At lest not yet. I’m a bit sick right now, I have a fever and I’m not feeling very well. But I think I’ll provide some kind of a project file when I’ll get well again. In the meanwhile check this link out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1R0YgBIY-Y
raj from india
24. Jun, 2008
Great tutorial… I have used circle effect couple of times but never like this…. this is just amazing………….. I like live tutorials.
One suggestion is just delete some comments. Visitors should understand that this tutorials are for one group or community of same interest. This are not for those individuals who cant even understand depth of the tutorial.
take care…..
raj from india
24. Jun, 2008
One more thing …. forget to mention…..
Forget about work some time and have rest…. we want you back with same humor.
Our best wishes are with you………
take care
Noone
24. Jun, 2008
Thanks so much, it ws that RGB only button that I over looked. damn you made it so simple, haha, thanks again for making a whole video to answer my (now) simple request.
Noone
24. Jun, 2008
and get well soon.
JD
25. Jun, 2008
Hey M. those flare elements are disks, rings and circle spreads.
eric
25. Jun, 2008
hey jerzy,
another great tut. there’s so many default plugins that i haven’t even taken the time to try. keep it up man. it looks like you’re starting to get coverage everywhere…even video copilot. I even saw your link at the bottom of motionographer.com
fantastic!
eric from Oklahoma, USA.
Bogdan Bucur
27. Jun, 2008
THE MALTAANNON MODE: is a new generation affx mental trauma – to not be confused with the romanian word: motaann (male cat)
Please be advised: Recent studies indicate that in some cases this can be fatal due to a high level of mental processing involved only in direct contact with Maltaannon’s skype hotline.
Symptoms such as insomnia, inability to think of anything else but After Effects and many other not yet determined mental instabilities will soon determine the world governments to take strict measures to prevent population of this new infestation.
Direct contact with this individual disguised under the name of Jerzy Drozda it appears to be fatal.
A cure was not yet discovered and it is recommended to seek medical care in at 1st sign of such symptoms.
Good help us.
Bogdan Bucur International After Effects Committee Free AFFX Plug ins Division CEO and Founder
Daniel
28. Jun, 2008
Hy my frend!
I have a problem with the nativ HD image (M2T) I can’t import in After Effects and I see in your last tutorial “Uses Of The Circle” you use this kind of movie. You can help me to find how it’s possible to import? Thanks for the help!
Janus
02. Jul, 2008
Great tutorial, and just so you know, the outside noise isn’t that bad on recording :)
Peace
1231
15. Jul, 2008
shut your f…. mouth you idiot maltaannon
gari
17. Jul, 2008
hey dats really cool man
bliuska
17. Jul, 2008
are you start to smoking at 16:50 ? xD
Aldie
18. Jul, 2008
I really like your tutorials bro!!!! It is useful and an enlightening idea….It made me say, Oh….I didn’t know that this effect is so useful!!!! Thanks Bro….
Enrique
21. Jul, 2008
Excellent tutorial. It is funny when you start talking about “water in the ear”! I intend to send some $$ your way.
Dhji
09. Aug, 2008
Nice tutorial. And quit saying that you are boring! we wouldnt watch your stuff if you were! Thanks!
CristalCube
30. Aug, 2008
Thanks for those circles tip George, and like Dhji says, stop saying you are boring, all those tip you are teaching us are pretty useful, every little thing.
So thamks again, keep it going and cheers!!… CC³.
Anon
01. Sep, 2008
I hate these stupid blog sites!! Where do I click to access the tutorial??!
wob
30. Sep, 2008
Awsome tutorial Jerzy. Its a quick and easy way to create great looking backgrounds and frames. This tutorial is a great help!
Thanks alot!
debjit
30. Oct, 2008
the website is too bad to see & is useless
branko
17. Dec, 2008
man…you suck so bad!!!
sachin
25. Dec, 2008
really thanks to you dear….
you improov my knowledge…..its work
emannoname
04. Jan, 2009
Great work, thanks for sharing the knowledge. And to all of you bitches out there that are complaining about this or that, I’d like to see you put your money where your mouth is and do a better job than this at putting together tutorials in a foreign language, if yours happens to be English. Try Polish for example, you jackasses. Again, awesome work and keep it up. One useful thing would be to show people how to save animation presets and apply them as part of a workflow.
Pinkhair
16. Jan, 2009
Nice tutorial! I like to use circle and ellipse inside precomps to create displacement maps for Displace, Wave World, and the like. It also can make a handy quick shadow for a composited element when it doesn’t need to be detailed.
Oh, and those extra circles and things in the lens flare are usually referred to as elements or reflections, depending on the software.
habeeb
09. Oct, 2009
gooooooooooood
hyea
11. Oct, 2009
hey maltaaannon,
how did u make the background of the person to just be plain and just focus on the person itself
i’m really trying to figure it out but always failed
can u please tell me that..
thanks
kusu
18. Oct, 2009
Hey, thanks!
really change my perspectives on the effects. haha.
Great tutorial!
dhwaja
01. Nov, 2009
u copied….copy cat :P:P
dhwaja
01. Nov, 2009
bull shit!!!!
theep
11. Dec, 2009
I believe U may receive some award or sort of Gift from Adobe corp( for promoting their product more than they do). what do u think? (haha..)
[##@$$ probably they might even think to remove circle on their coming release?@?!!?@)]
tian heng
11. Mar, 2010
a good stuff
yash mathur
03. Jun, 2010
circle ke baare mein btata h ki nhiiiiiiiii :p
wholesale mlb jerseys
16. Jul, 2010
Thank you for your sharing.I’m very interested in wholesale mlb jerseys.There are so many famouse mlb stars jerseys,we have New York Yankees Derek Jeter Jersey.So I an fascinated to the Philadelphia Phillies Chase Utley Jersey,no matter any one of mlb stars juse like Minnesota Twins Joe Mauer Jersey and Boston RedSox Dustin Pedroia Jersey,which are my best witness as the St. Louis Cardinals Albert Pujols Jersey fans!
ShockRing + shockwaves in After Effects | Wizpress.com
04. Jan, 2011
[...] Not especially on-topic but quite fun is Maltaannon’s video tutorial on the Circle effect, Uses of the Circle. [...]
Vignettes in After Effects | Wizpress.com
26. Mar, 2011
[...] more on the Circle effect see Maltaannon’s video tutorials on the 8-bit Circle effect, Uses of the Circle and Soft Focus (Circle tutorial Follow-up), which also showed making a [...]
youhua
23. Jul, 2011
Thank you for your sharing.I’m very interested in art painting.There are so many famouse mlb stars jerseys,we have abstract painting.So I an fascinated to the landscape painting,flower painting
g star jeans
09. Aug, 2011
i love you。
ブランド 腕時計
23. Aug, 2011
へようこそ。当社は2004年に設立され、2006年にインターネットマーケティング事業にコミットされました。 の大きな需要が常にあり、よく販売している。最近、我々はいくつかの新しいsac à mainして、当社のウェブサイト上でそれらを更新。ここでは見つけることができるいくつかの稀少ある、他のウェブサイトから見つけることは困難れた。NBAジャージはhotsaleで常にもです。
私たちは、お客様から多くの偉大なコメントを得て、外国のmakertsで良い評判を獲得している、90％以上のお客様は今すぐオンラインメンバーが80,000を超えてまで、当社の製品およびサービスに満足しています。今の時点で、我々は現在、18カ国以上から顧客にサービスを提供し、そして我々はまだ成長している。私たちは本当に世界中から個人や企業との協力を通じて事業拡大を願っています。—Er Cai
moncler jas
21. Sep, 2011
Come on. look at the moncler jas. Go to buy some.
packers jerseys
21. Sep, 2011
Your words in your article is wonderful and interesting, I have to say it is perfect.
ugg sko
22. Sep, 2011
show you the good uggs
sac vuitton
22. Sep, 2011
Fashional lv , just show yourself now
ugg laarzen
22. Sep, 2011
I am very happy to introduce australia ugg boots uk to you.
sac vuitton
30. Sep, 2011
Cher Louis Vuitton sac
Name (required)
19. Oct, 2011
http://blog.sohu.com/people/!MzcxOTQyNTUwQHFxLmNvbQ==/
http://zhuofei.blog.forexstar.com.cn/
http://linhuang123.fotopages.com/
http://linbinghuang1234.blog.163.com/
UGG Dames Laarzen
26. Oct, 2011
http://www.outletuggsaustralia4z.com/ugg-dames-laarzen-c-43.html UGG Dames Laarzen
Moncler Dames
27. Oct, 2011
Amsterdam jassen moncler dames online,
2011 Nieuwe moncler jassen online kopen,
Goedkope Moncler Dames Jassen,
Fashion kleding Winter moncler online winkel,
2011 Moncler Amsterdam verkoop,
Modieus jassen moncler online,
Fashion kinderen kleding Winter moncler kinderen,
Goedkope Moncler Heren Jassen,
http://www.jassenmoncleronline.com
Kopen Moncler Dames Heren Kinderen Jassen online! Kleding om te dragen Warm en comfortabel !tot 85% korting in winkel!
mulberry
27. Oct, 2011
i love ur blog and thanks for sharing such informative and fantastic post..
pandora bracelets
23. Feb, 2012
Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!I’m still waiting for some interesting thoughts from your side in your next post http://www.uspandorabracelets.com
Jason
01. May, 2012
I gave this tutorial 5 cirlces. Awesome work.