Problems with overerexposed footage? Need to work in 32bpc for nice depth of field and motion blur? Now you can! Convert your footage from 8bpc to 32bpc with my new free plugin.

Click here to watch the video tutorial

We all deal with overexposed footage from time to time when doing postproduction, color correction, motiongraphics or visual effects. Usually theres not much we can do about it. In some cases we can replace the sky when it was a cloudy day and the clouds turned out looking like a white or gray solid. But what if the overexposed pixels are exactly what you need? Well… than you need to do nothing… until you start blurring the footage or adding color correction. In those cases you end up with areas that turn out gray while they should still be white. That causes a lot of additional work when compositing. At least that’s how thighs were until now.

Bitwiser is a concept I had in mind for quite some time that just came to life as Bitweiser Light Pixel Bender plugin. This “light” version is completely free, has no settings, and only works for overexposed areas converting them to superbright pixels in 32bpc mode. Let me know what you think of it, so I’d know if it’s worth spending more time on improving this solution. The Bitweiser Pro version (if it will ever be made) will have a bunch of settings for tweaking the looks, threshold, tinting colors, separate settings for highlights, midtones, shadows, and probably a lot of other features that did not yet came to my mind.

I’m always hungry for your comments, opinions and suggestions. Please enjoy this free release and let me know what you think.

Download: Bitweiser Light Pixel Bender plugin (After Effects CS4)

UV mapping finally available in After Effects. Check out this amazing tutorial to learn how to integrate your 3D artwork with After Effects to improve your workflow, save time and money. It’s a must-see!

Click here to watch the video tutorial

Dear Friends! This one is huge! From this day forward you are able to take your 3D render and replace textures or even add reflections and environment. Watch this tutorial to learn how to work with my new Youveelizer plugin.

In a nutshell all you need to do is to apply the Youveelizer to a layer with a UV render pass to apply a texture to a rendered 3d object, or to a Normal render pass to add reflections. All 3d objects should be rendered out from a 3d application such as 3d Studio Max, Maxon Cinema 4D, or any other 3d package capable of rendering UV and Normal render passes.However it’s sometimes difficult to render out a nice UV pass. A solution to that problem may be simply applying a texture that simulates a good UV map. That’s why I’ve included a nice 2000×2000 pixels “uvmap_texture.tif” in the product package. It’s a 32bpc texture representing UV coordinates. Please note that the UV pass needs to be rendered at least at 16bpc, and you should also work in 16bpc or 32bpc mode in After Effects.

Youveelizer is a great tool to help you with your 3D renders and composits, and if used wisely, it can in some cases completly elimitane 3D rendering process. It’s compatible with CS4 and above, and works on Mac’s and PC’s. Enjoy!

Further info
This is the post where it all started – UV Mapping with Pixel Bender. If you’re completely new to the concept of UV maps and Normal maps check out Lutz Albrecht’s article on Working with UV data

Get Youveelizer 1.2 (CS4, CS5) for only 29.90 USD

Add a classy film look to your footage by creating a Shutter Streak effect as seen in Red Giant Software’s amazing plugin – Magic Bullet Looks. Switch given features of the streak on and off for quick and easy adjustments.

Click here to watch the video tutorial

Some time ago I wrote a note on my Facebook Fan Page about upcoming tutorials. I’m happy to announce that the day has come – the tutorials are recorded and all will be released soon. This is the forth and the last tutorial (at least from the ones I announced so far) that will be focused on recreating some of my favorite filters from a great color correction tool – Magic Bullet Looks.

It’s really hard to say how Shutter Streak works, so what I did is I applied it to a couple of different images in Magic Bullet Looks and tried to analyse it to really capture the essence. Then I did my best to recreate the effect using standard plugins that come with After Effects. I hope this tutorial will not only show you how to create a great looking light streak, but also that it will broaden your understanding of some very simple yet powerful filters. Enjoy!

Download: Shutter Streak preset (After Effects CS3)

Learn how to make your keyed out footage blend better with the background by casting light on it from surrounding elements

Click here to watch the video tutorial

Light wrapping is something everyone should know about and learn how to do. It greatly improves the quality of your compositions by making them look more believable.

In this tutorial I will show you a quick and easy way of creating great looking light wrap effect without using any 3rd party plugins (with exception of CyCoreFX which you should already have by default). The results are fantastic and you can easily compare them to many expensive commercial plugins out there that do the same thing. But that’s not all…

After over a year of providing free content I thought it’s about time to give you a chance to say “Thank you”, so I also build a CustomEffect that you can buy for a low price. It’s even more advanced and powerful than what I show you in the tutorial. I provided some examples of what you can achieve when using ceLightWrap but to see the real power I really recommend watching the tutorial.

You can purchase ceLightWrap via PayPal. Sales are handled by a secure online shopping system – E-Junkie. After purchase you will be redirected to a download page. Each purchase is valid for two download attempts. The file you will be downloading will be a ZIP file with a polyCE file in it. You need to use CustomEffects Installer to be able to use the CustomEffect.

I hope you will choose the CustomEffect over the simple preset that I show you how to build in the tutorial and therefore you’ll take your part in keeping this site alive and providing new tutorials.

For installation instructions go to What CustomEffects are page.

Get CE LightWrap (CS3) for only 14.90 USD

Trapcode Lux, Shine, Starglow, and my CE PixelSampler. See what you can do with this amazing combo and learn to create this cool title sequence.

Click here to watch the video tutorial

I’m not really a fan of installing plugins. I believe that After Effects provides all tools required to complete any given task, but if there is something that you could do better and easier, it’s with the Trapcode plugins. And no… I’m not getting payed to tell you that.

This title sequence was created loooong time ago and I was thinking about recording this tutorial ever since, so I’m glad I finally found some time to do it. The original project file that was created when I was working on that title sequence is far to complex to be fully covered in this tutorial, so I focused on the main idea behind this technique. Luckily for you I’ve attached the original project file, so after watching the tutorial you can go in-depth on what I did.

The main difference is in the amount of layers used, but like I said – the idea behind all expressions and everything else is the same. It takes a lot of time to set the effects just right, and I simply didn’t want to waste your time on moving the sliders around.

The font used in this tutorial is called Viper Nora. If you want you can download it from DaFont.com. Click here.

As a side note: If you like the plugins used in this tutorial, then you can support this site by buying them, or simply just visiting Toolfarm Store. Here are the links to the products used in this tutorial: Trapcode Lux, Trapcode Shine, and Trapcode Starglow. You can also get All Trapcode Plugins at a lower price. Trapcode plugins are one of the few that I recommend for any After Effects user to have in his toolbox – whatever you do, at some point you will need it, so get them now.

Download: Tutorial project file (After Effects CS3)

See how to recreate something, that one of TV producers has indroduced in his FlatScreen TV Sets. You will also learn how to create a slideshow.

Click here to watch the video tutorial

Some TV sets now come with very cool feature of creating an ambient light around the screen that matches the color of whatever is on the screen. I thought this is pretty cool thing to do, and i tried to recreate this effect in after effects. In this tutorial we will simulate a FlatScreen TV hanging on the wall with ambient light option turned on.

You will also learn how to create slideshows fast, and how to use this ambient light technique to alter your slideshows background color to match photos used in the slideshow. No expressions, no scripts. Pure build-in effects.

This is very easy to achieve, and it will increase the quality of your slideshow, and visualizations.

Photos used in this tutorial come from sxc.hu. By the time they were downloaded, they were licensed as royalty free, and were free to use in any way you like (standard restrictions). Just to make sure, go to sxc.hu right now, or just click here to read the Standard restriction agreement.

Download: Tutorial project file (After Effects CS2)

Learn how to create volumetric lights without using external plugins. Enhance the “look and feel” of your projects by lightening them a bit.

Click here to watch the video tutorial

Volumetric lights are very simple way to add mood to your projects. Light going through the clouds, through the window, through the water surface, or whatever really. It makes a whole difference.

After watching this tutorial you will know how to create simple volumetric lights without using any 3rd-party plugins. Just match your volume lights with your footage, apply some blending modes, maybe even colorize the lights a little bit, and you’ll achieve next level of quality. You must try this one out.

Download: Tutorial project file (After Effects CS2)