Adam Everett (from AE Tuts Plus) guest hosts Motionworks‘ After Effects A-Z tip series with a look at CC Ball Action. If, like me, you just keep forgetting that effect is even there, you’ll see plenty of potential – and diverse – uses from 3D effects, text transitions and background design. Click here to watch.
Adam also mentions two other places to go for more Ball Action. A previous tutorial he’d done called Give Your Type Some Ball Action, and Video Copilot‘s 3D Ball Dispersion.
From Dennis Radeke’s The Genesis Project:
Stu Maschwitz is really one of the top guys around in the world of After Effects and he evidently is also a scripting genius since he strung together a bunch of Cycore effects that are included with After Effects to give you a color correction tool with out putting out some coin.So this is a plug-in, but only kind of, since you access it through the scripts folder. Don’t let that scare you off though, because you don’t deal with ‘scripts’ at all. I like the Rebel CC because it gives you a step-by-step process to better color, but in very easy, small steps.
Here’s the video that David Basulto did on the Rebel CC, and I recommend that you give it a look before you download the Rebel CC script.
If you’re the kind of person that doesn’t care about ‘no stinkin’ videos,’ you can get to the Rebel CC page here.
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Using CC Sphere and the grid effect, you can make some really cool looking globes in After Effects. I’ve used this on MANY occasions. It’s so much quicker than jumping to a 3D app. If you put a little spin on the globe and auto-orient it to the camera, you’d never tell the difference, visually. I’ve already set these things up in the comp linked below. Enjoy!
John Dickinson, as you probably know, produces amazing tutorial content for our Toolfarm Expert Series. This one is a project that wasn’t included in the training.
After Effects Backgrounds #1: Wire is "a seamlessly looping background based on the Cell Pattern effect and includes a number of adjustment layers you can use to modify the basic look."
Download After Effects Backgrounds #1: Wire from Motionworks.com.au and please check out Toolfarm Expert Series. Only $5 per training video and they are a really great learning tool!
Here’s a quick project on how to make a 3D egg in After Effects. I used the Sphere plug-in in Boris Continuum Complete, but the Sphere tool in Cycore FX would work just as well. I just didn’t have it installed at the moment.
Anywhoo, this project uses BCC Sphere and the regular AE plug-in known as Transform to make the orb more oblong, or egg shaped.
Download Project File (AE 7) | Try Boris Continuum Complete | Watch video sample Pops
Yes, this is the AE Freemart, but this training is almost free at just five bucks. This is the sixth in the Toolfarm Expert Training Series: Creative Background Design with After Effects: Rose Window and it is gorgeous! John Dickinson walks you through a variety of Persian-style designs using Fractal Noise, Colorama, CC Kaleida and several other plug-ins. Simply beautiful.
Whether you’re new with After Effects or have been using it since AE 3, you will learn some cool tricks and expand you’re repertoire of quick effects.
Get some killer training for only a Lincoln! Get Lesson 6: Rose Window Now!.
If you missed Method #1 of making text rotate around an object, it’s here. This is basically the same procedure.
I put a bit more effort into this one 
. This method combines masking, path text and the CC Cylinder, one of the Cycore FX. The standard version of Cycore FX is included with After Effects Professional Edition. Put the text you want in front of the tree, in front and set the render settings to outside for CC Cylinder. Duplicate the layer and change the render settings to all or inside. Drag the layer behind the tree or your object.
Download project files (AE 7)
Harry Frank has put together a very cool video tutorial for Toolfarm called Rippling Circles. He makes an interesting effect which could be used as a transition, background interest, or just eye candy. He uses a multitude of effects built into After Effects 7 Production Bundle, but users of the Standard Bundle can also follow the tutorial with a free demo of Cycore FX HD (or maybe you already own Cycore FX HD, in which, hey, you’re good to go!)
This is a sneak peek of the kind of training you can expect from Harry’s soon-to-be delivered Toolfarm Expert Training Series on Expressions… and I know many of you can use a little help in that department. The training will be available very soon. We’ll announce it on Toolfarm’s home page and in our newsletter! In the meantime, watch this training segment.
This effect uses the Radio Waves effect, CC Radial Blur and Ramp. Change the colors to whatever you like by changing the Ramp colors and position and the background color.
View movie (pops)
Download Preset (AE 6.5 Pro)
AE Freemart is Stephen Fry proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache