Yo!

I'm super excited to have you - this is the first edition of the AE Pro Tips newsletter. Get ready to be PROOOOO!

I've found tons of rad After Effects tips and tricks but I always lose track of them or forget where they are. That's why I'm sending this email. Each week, I'll share the best tips I find (or create) in a concise, fluff-free format.

Let me know if there's anything specific that might be helpful to you - I want to make this as helpful as possible!

~Chris

AE Pro Tips of the Week

1. 3D renders in After Effects (with environment reflections)

Philip von Borries shared an awesome technique for creating 3D shapes with built-in After Effects features. Get complex 3D renders without leaving AE (if you're into that)

1. Set your renderer to Cinema 4d
2. Create a shape layer
3. Add an .hdr image and Right Click > Environment Layer
4. Extrude your shape layer with Geometry Options and adjust Reflections, etc in Material Options
5. Boom! Now you can add lights, animate in 3D, whatever you want!

Watch his dope mini-tutorial 👇

BONUS: If you don't have .hdr images, you can easily make your own as a precomp without leaving AE.

Philip has some follow-up tips with more ideas on how to use this technique. Go check his Twitter for more

2. Create non-smooth jittery animations (Script)

Sometimes you don't want everything to be smooth. Here's a little free scriptlet that Zack shared for creating automatic "stumbly" keyframes.

It can give a very natural feel to "too-perfect" keyframes. Looks really nice for a typing effect as well.

Get the script

by Zack Lovatt

I tried it out with my Typewriter Preset and it got a realistic typing effect in a couple clicks.

(that's cool!)

3. Eyedropper Color Pick OUTSIDE After Effects!

I've already shared this one a few times on Twitter, but I'm including it because you NEED to know this one...

To select a color outside of After Effects...

Hover over the color and press ENTER (instead of clicking.

It's that simple. I swear this one drove me insane, but hopefully now you don't have to be insane.

Other cool stuff this week

Mp4 renders straight from AE

Battle Axe released their new extension for rendering mp4 directly from After Effects! Plus, the promo video by Reese Parker (and team) is insannneeeee.

Anubis - mp4s straight from AE

I blew up After Effects on accident

I've been working on a really robust template for animating text/chat messages in AE. This week something bugged out in After Effects and now I'm really set back, but here's a sneak peak of some of the things I can make in like 5 minutes

Well...what do you think?

Thanks so much for checking out this first issue.

If you read this far and have 2 minutes to reply, I'd love to know:

Would you like to see more tips included in these emails or is this the right length?

I want to keep it digestible in about 5 minutes, but still filled with some beefy goodness. Hit reply and let me know what you think (or just say hi!).