Tutorial: Page (1) of 2 - 02/16/06

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Dazzling Fractal Noise A million and one uses for this effect in After Effects By Stephen Schleicher

The good thing about the Fractal Noise effect in Adobe After Effects is it has a million and one uses in creating background animations for your projects.  The bad thing about the Fractal Noise effect in Adobe After Effects is once I start playing and experimenting I can?t stop.  In this After Effects tutorial, you?ll create a dazzling display of light and lines.

While Fractal Noise can create an array of backgrounds by itself, combining other effects result in dazzling results.  In this lesson, we?ll use Fractal Noise, Mosaic, Colorama, and Trapcode?s Starglow to create a series of pulsating lines.

Step 1:  Create a New Composition (Command+N or Control+N).  For this exercise, I?ll use the NTSC DV Preset with a duration of 10 seconds.

Step 2:  Create a New Solid (Command+Y or Control+Y).  Make sure it is the same size as the Comp.  Color does not matter at this point.

Step 3:  Apply the Fractal Noise effect to the Solid Layer.  For speed purposes, lower the Complexity to 3.0.

Step 4:  With the Timeline Indicator at the beginning of the Timeline, create an initial keyframe for Evolution by clicking on the stopwatch icon.  Then, move to the end of the Timeline and change the Evolution amount to 3.

REMINDER:  If you want to create a looping animation with your Fractal Noise, turn on Cycle Evolution, and set your loop amount.

Step 5:  Apply the Mosaic effect to the Solid Layer.  The Mosaic effect breaks the layer into a series of rectangles that can be used to simulate a low rez computer screen, or for obscuring faces in those anonymous testimonials.  In this case, Mosaic is using the gray scale information of the Fractal Noise layer to color the tiles.

Now for the cool part ? change the Vertical Block amount to 1.  Voila, instant lines!   Increase the Horizontal Block amount to 15.  Finally, turn on Sharp Colors to make the contrast more pronounced.

If you make a RAM promo, you?ll see the lines move across the screen.

 

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