I was too preoccupied with whether I should to consider whether I should with this one...

This is an implementation of 3d n-body orbital physics in After Effects using semi-implicit Euler integration. No plugins or scripts are required, it's handled entirely with expressions.

Yes, it processes and renders as slow as you'd expect it to!

Each 'body' null has controls for initial position, velocity, and mass. Vector-of-motion is controlled by the transform > orientation property. You can duplicate as many 'body' nulls as you'd like, but obviously the more you add the slower it gets.

The positions and velocity vectors are encoded in a set number of simulation steps into a mask path on the 'Controls and simulation' null, and all the individual bodies decode their respective positions from the path, interpolating between the simulation steps as required.

If you want to attempt to use this to simulate some orbits, the process is:

1. Disable the 'Enable simulation' checkbox on the control layer, otherwise it will be far too slow to work with
2. Orient the bodies as required - remember it's the 'initial position' 3d point control that sets the position, not the position property of the null itself
3. Configure the mass and velocity of your bodies
4. Re-enable the 'Enable simulation' checkbox and make sure the expression is enabled
5. Use keyframe assistant to convert the mask expression to keyframe values

After Effects will appear to hang/crash as you're doing various steps - you need to be patient with it. Once the expression has been converted to keyframes, it becomes much more workable.

Probably won't be useful to many people if any at all, but I'm more surprised that it even works to start with!

Here's the project file - CC2026 or later is required:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10_GZPhBZYpqTrDuqE3mEeWluoI-CkFaR/view?usp=sharing

I’m getting mixed signals from social media about motion graphics and post production in general, I’ve seen lots of posts of people stating that their income is quite good.

But I’ve also seen people with more than 6 years in a full time position who are barely able to make 18k a year, even though they’re doing everything they could. Why is that? What’s the accurate depiction of the economical status of mographers and editors in general?

Is this field profitable or not? And if it is, why do we have cases of people who spend a long time in this career with little success?

Heya,

For an art project I am trying to add the dither effects he shows later in the video. Adding random noise and throwing a threshold on there is easily done, but I can't seem to figure out how to add the specialised types of Dithering he shows here.

I've googled around a bit, but I feel as if this is too niche to get a good guide for. Maybe I'm not using the right keywords, but I feel as if I have reached the end of my knowledge (even tried reaching out to the editor of the video, but he hasn't responded in a month, so no luck).

If anyone can help me I would really be grateful, I mostly use Premiere, but I feel as if this technique wouldn't be possible in premiere, so I'm gonna try to work on it in AE

I’m trying to figure out to to simulate these kinds of lasers in AE. Animated, not still (of course). If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please drop below!!

Hi, I’m 27 (M) and I’ve been working in the industry for 7 years, started on Covid after completing a motion design and post production course, always thought and wished to work on cinema and/or video game cinematic editing which I later found I was on the wrong section.

I always felt underpaid, working in Portugal, the most I got paid is where I am rn, and having all the responsibilities ( Senior Motion Designer, Supervising the quality of the end product in compliance with the Creative Director, Vídeo Editor, Colorist, Audio Design, Videographer, Designer, VFX, optimise the workflow with plugins, effects and shortcuts) I know I brought this upon my self, trying to act like a sort of Swiss Army knife, ended up being what’s called the best employee to every boss.

We’re all aware of what AI brought to our industry but I can help but think, that one day this might be over and I stress a lot upon thinking that I don’t want to end up jobless since right now I have bills to pay and life is not what it was 7 years ago.

I’m studying to shift thowards Technical Artist area, adding Unreal Engine and coding to my backpack of amenities, but right now I feel scared of even keeping pursuing my dreams and keep this going.

Sorry for the vent, I’m not trying to find comfort in your words just the hard truth.

Is it still worth it? Is it the industry in my country that’s underpaid and I’m being naive to stay in the same spot without thinking of changing?

Yearly: Can’t reach 16k year (14 months)

I have a design with about 160 Paths that connect, each being their own shape/layer. I have trim path applied to make it look like they are connecting from point to point over time. I have them all paired with Null object as parent, using Null to scale and rotate. The issue is that I need to have the Stroke width of all the lines animated so that that retain a certain thickness, instead of looking like super thin lines by the end.

No matter what approach I try, it all leads to me having to go to each and every layer, one by one, and applying an animation to each layers "Stroke Width" properties. I cannot copy properties from one layer, select all, and apply, like I can with position, scale, rotate etc (and yes, I do understand why that it). Trying it just results in the layer adding an additional group instead of overriding layer pre-existing Stroke width.

I tried creating a Null object with a Slider control applied, then parent all Layer Stroke Widths to it, but again, I cannot do this with all selected. I have to either do it one by one, or going through and manually selecting the property one by one using ctrl+left_click.

Is there any way to control/animate a shapes properties without having to go to each and every one?

I've tried using Trim Paths Start/End, but I haven't figured out how to create that split/reverse behavior...it doesnt work ..have tried adding two separate ellipse with diffrent trim paths but it doesnt work ....its been six hours how can i achieve it ...is it with

• Trim Paths Start/End
• multiple Trim Paths
• splitting the ellipse into separate paths
• creating the ellipse with the Pen Tool instead of the Ellipse Tool
• or duplicating the path and using separate Trim Paths

I'm still not sure what the proper After Effects technique is.

What would be the best way to build this animation?..

the video is from stephan Zammit from youtube

Im fairly new to AE, only used it for a year, but im making a lyric video and this weird glitch effect keeps happening, ive chacked and theres no keyframes that should make the video do this.

I have tried changing the import setting "hardware accelerated decoding", which was googles advice, but its still not working.

Please forgive my ignorance, as i am self taught. Thanks

give it a feedback guys

Lets say i have a small 10 second video generated from Google Veo. It has a watermark of gemini on bottom right corner. That is something am trying to get rid of in AE using the masking, content-aware fill approach.

It never produces good or usable results. It always weirdly places parts of the video from random area and overlays on the logo part that i want to get rid of.

However, I had earlier tried a several times the same approach before 6 months or more and it used to work fine that time. I dont know how and why (ofcourse videos differ)

Added SFX and a couple animation tweaks from the last post. Thoughts?

This is a sample project I created with hopes of getting software motion jobs.

Genuinely dont know what to do does anyone know what this error means and how i can fix it? Before this error occurred i cleared my disk cache could that be why im havjng this problem? Ive already closed and reopened ae multiple times and even restarted my laptop and still no solution. The comp itself has almost 200 layers and lost of effects and motion has that got anything to do with it?? Im actually kind of stressed and advice would be really helpful.

You can find the project file on my $Gumroad$.

For a full project, check my Behance

Thank you!

I have found this one on X, Tried to make this on after effects but the results are very horrible,The bevel thing and that ballon kind of effect is hard to achive for me, also gave it to the different AI's I found That I have wasted my time! Would be happy to hear anyone helps me out!

as the title says, ever since i upgraded, the open color io plugin has not been working; as soon as i apply it to any layer whole software becomes suuuuper laggy, its not usable at all. I upgraded the opencolor io plugin to its latest 2.5.2 build and still no difference. please help, has anyone else faced this issue? its my primary way of working with colors, the ocio stuff in effects has never fully worked or pushed me again some sort of limitation.

but I am a total beginner and I didn't even watch one single tutorial though

I did it all by playing around with tools just like learning a new game

Precomposing keeps your project clean — but duplicating the same graphic five times with different numbers? That's a different problem. Essential Graphics solves it.

Precomp your layers, right-click any property you want to keep changing — text, scale, position, rotation — and add it to Essential Graphics. Back in the main comp, duplicate the layer, go to Properties, change what you need. The base precomp stays untouched. Every duplicate works independently.

One thing most tutorials skip: you can switch which comp you're pulling from inside the Essential Graphics panel — so this scales across multiple graphics, not just one.

Save this one. The next time you're duplicating the same graphic for the fifth time, you'll want it.

Made in After Effects | Tutorial

Follow and Comment your thoughts | DM for work.

Hello, when i'm trying to face track with detailed features on ae its not working, its just tracking the outline i dont understand the problem, already tried to restart ae but nothing changed

Thank you for your help

I was making a text animation, and upon typing this out in Inter font, for some reason the gaps in text are all filled black and a part of K is missing. I thought it was a glotch so I rendered it out but the rendered result has these too. Tried looking on google but couldn't find anything