Motion lower thirds in After Effects

chromeboy007

chromeboy007

Well-known member
If there is one thing I want to learn to do badly in After Effects, it's this lower third thing:

http://www.ehealthontario.on.ca/media/videos.asp

Click the first video, the wavey silky blue thing from 6 seconds in, how is this done? I'm trying to get better at AE. I can do all the things in this title screen, just not this fancy lower third.

Thanks
 
chromeboy007 said:
If there is one thing I want to learn to do badly in After Effects, it's this lower third thing:

http://www.ehealthontario.on.ca/media/videos.asp

Click the first video, the wavey silky blue thing from 6 seconds in, how is this done? I'm trying to get better at AE. I can do all the things in this title screen, just not this fancy lower third.

Thanks
Click to expand...

First guess with no test to back it up... I'd say it was some sort of 'stock' wavy 'material' video, then using a blend mode or opacity setting, or both, to composite it along with the other items, placing the 'wavy' layer under the text but above both the stills as well as the 'meter' animation.
 
More times than not it is stock footage from products like digital juice (http://digitaljuice.com), it's easier to use premade things rather than spending time to create your own.

If you are looking to create stuff like that that, the best way is to learn the tools in AE and begin to reconstruct things that you like. Then you will start to get ideas on how to create your own unique designs. It would take a lot of time typing instructions on how to create something like that so instead I spent a few minutes creating something kinda similar for you to take a look at.

http://pixel1nk.com/content/eh/lower_thirds.aep

I created it in CS4, so as long as you have CS4 and above you can open it. Feel free to use, modify, or revese engineer it, but please use it as a tool to learn from.
 
Creating unique lower thirds takes understanding the concept of masking and compositing multiple elements together. I've created custom lower thirds but taking screen grabs of video and tracing a solid mask around that shape to get what I want. And like the Blue said, use track matte and precomps to get certain graphical elements to composite together. After that you can add bevels and drop shadows to give it depth and animation keyframes to give it movement. Lower thirds creation shouldnt be too complex as the point of them is to inform the viewer of who's talking and nothing more.
 
Yeah I kinda thought most likely the editor bought some stock and played around with it. Thanks Blue for the file. I'll definitely treasure it and learn from it.

Thanks guys.
 
Mr Blue said:
More times than not it is stock footage from products like digital juice (http://digitaljuice.com), it's easier to use premade things rather than spending time to create your own.

If you are looking to create stuff like that that, the best way is to learn the tools in AE and begin to reconstruct things that you like. Then you will start to get ideas on how to create your own unique designs. It would take a lot of time typing instructions on how to create something like that so instead I spent a few minutes creating something kinda similar for you to take a look at.

http://pixel1nk.com/content/eh/lower_thirds.aep

I created it in CS4, so as long as you have CS4 and above you can open it. Feel free to use, modify, or revese engineer it, but please use it as a tool to learn from.
Click to expand...

Hey Blue, I tried opening the file, AE gave me like 5 warning messages and didn't open.... do you use PC?
 
AE projects can be opened on from PC can be opened on Mac and vice versa. Did the warning messages say if you were missing effects or fonts?
 
1, AE: this project must be converted from version 9.0.3 (Mac Intel) and will open as untitled project. The original file will be unchanged.
2, AE error: chunk in file too big - probably unsupported file version (33::7)
3, AE warning: Unable to read project color settings. Color settings reset to factory defaults.
4, AE error: file is damaged (33::7)
5, AE warning: Reading past end of file.


I think #4 did it in... lol.
 
Sorry not too sure why it's not working for you. It was created on a mac, but it should open on a pc as well. I only used the fill effect which is standard to AE. I was working on a 32bit project when I created it that might explain the color issue.

Did anyone else have that issue? Maybe the download was corrupted. Try downloading it again, let me know if that still continues.
 
Mr Blue said:
Sorry not too sure why it's not working for you. It was created on a mac, but it should open on a pc as well. I only used the fill effect which is standard to AE. I was working on a 32bit project when I created it that might explain the color issue.

Did anyone else have that issue? Maybe the download was corrupted. Try downloading it again, let me know if that still continues.
Click to expand...

After the others made mention, I downloaded it, and go the same errors. Perhaps the 'upload' didn't do a 'binary' upload... I'm on a Mac.
 
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