Best Tutorials For Cinematic Visual Effects

• By Vailancio Rodrigues
• May 4th, 2009
• Adobe, CG, Tutorials
• 64 Comments

It doesn’t matter whether you are a designer, a developer, an artist or an amateur learner – at some point you need to improve the quality of the original picture or video. You may want to retouch and enhance his or her photographs and videos, make it look better, more spectacular and more original. It could be for personal or commercial use. Most of us know how to edit and enhance the digital photographs using our favorite image editing software. But when it comes to videos, the techniques are completely different from that of classic image editing.

In this post we present best tutorial for visual effects in movies (with Adobe After Effects, 3DSMax etc.) that will (hopefully) teach you how to create impressive videos which can be used for your presentations or websites. Visual effects are used in post production which involves integration of live-action footage and computer generated imagery. You can use it to enhance or manipulate videos, just the way you usually do with image processing tools.

Best Tutorials For Visual Video Effects

The 007 Intro
This tutorial shows you how to achieve the classic introduction of James Bond films using only basic After Effects plug-ins.

Create a MoGraph Urban Jungle
Use 3D Match moving to create stunning Urban Jungle effect where vector graphics are perfectly tracked to a city footage.

Energy
Create a complex energy scene with CC particle world in Adobe After Effects. Also learn to animate particles in 3D with multiple instances.

Droste Effect
This tutorial demonstrates the use of new Pixel Bender plug-in to obtain “Droste Effect”.

Light Streaks
This tutorial shows you how to create light streaks inside live action footage

Car Racing Scene
Create a scene of cars racing down a road towards camera. This can be added to your car chase footage. Although the title states the use of photographs, it can be also used with your moving footage as well. Part 1 and Part 2

3D Shadows
Learn how cast 3D shadows onto live action footage.

Disintegration
Build a furious procedural disintegration effect in Adobe After Effects.

Futuristic HUD
Create 3D interface display in Adobe After Effects inspired by Iron Man’s helmet.

Underground Blast
Simulate a dramatic underground explosion that ripples and dislodges the ground.

Aurora Borealis
Learn how to create the Northern Lights.

The Juno Opening Credit Look
Adobe After Effects tutorial to create famous handmade juno opening sequence.

Artistic Look
Creating an Artistic Look with Minimax and Overlay in After Effects .

Realistic Camera Move with Parallax
Need to add realistic camera moves? This tutorial will help you to achieve it. Also you can refer to “Virtual 3D Photos” tutorial to get more deeper into it. “Virtual 3D Photos” tutorial will teach you to create a video footage from photos with “realistic camera move” effect.

Historic Naval Battle Scene
This is another tutorial that will teach you how to create a VFX naval battle scene from an ordinary footage.

3D Crater
Create a realistic crater into a live footage. This tutorial has been divided into 3 parts – 3D Crater p1, 3D Crater p2 and 3D Crater p3.

Creating an interior scene
This tutorial shows you how to make an interior scene using 3dsmax with realistic rendering in Vray. It could be used with your green screen video footage later.

Better Compositing with Particles
This tutorial shows you a technique for placing layers inside the middle of a particle system – crucial to truly integrating your CGI effects with your live action footage or motion graphics.

Realistic Car Hit

Old Film look

Particle Half-tone Effect

3D Rain
This tutorial will teach you how to turn an aerial video footage into a cold nighttime storm with torrential rain and lightning.

Lightsabers
Apple Motion tutorial for creating lightsabers.

Healer
Adobe After Effects tutorial to create a realistic self healing effect.

Time Freeze
Adobe After effects tutorial to a create illusion of frozen world around a person.

Breathtakingly Awesome Rain Scene
Adobe After Effects tutorial shows how to create the dramatic slow motion rain drops falling scene. Part 1 and Part 2

Slow Motion
Create a slow motion video footage without use of high speed camera.

Car Light Trails
Create car light trail effect in Adobe After Effects with help of 3d stroke effect.

Instant Freeze
Adobe After Effects tutorial will explain how to add instant freeze effect to footage. Also shows how to add camera lens frost over and crack to give it a realistic look.

Futuristic Floating Hologram Effect
This tutorial will show you how to make a futuristic floating hologram over a cellphone.

Track Live Video to a Postcard
This tutorial shows how to track video to a Postcard using scripts which are freely available. Also shows how to recover highlights from the tracked footage and apply them back over the moving video for a very convincing effect.

Compositing Fog
Daniel Broadway shows the correct way compositing fog elements in a video footage.

War scene
This tutorial shows you how to create a realistic war movie from a video footage shot using only one actor and a camera man. This is an advance tutorial in which color correction and effects like realistic camera shake and bullets hitting the ground are used to give it a realistic look. Part 1 and Part 2

Soul Removal
Create soul removal effect using particle system in Adobe After Effects. This tutorial also shows you to add facial Distortion and handy expressions to make it more realistic.

Object Removal
In this tutorial you will learn techniques for removing unwanted objects from the footage.

Body Shatter Effect
This shows you how to create a body shattering effect.

Meteor Crash
Create ground destruction using 3D Max and Adobe After Effects. Tutorial has been divided into 2 part Meteor Crash 3D p1 and Meteor Crash AE p2.

Simulated Lighting
Make explosions and muzzle flash.

CE ColorCorrection
Adobe After Effects tutorial will teach you to change the look and feel of your footage easily with Color correction plug-in.

Kamehameha
Learn how to make a kamehameha using Adobe After Effects with Trapcode’s Shine.

Day to Night Conversion
Tutorial to transform daylight footage to night footage along with artificial lights and illuminate windows.

Bleach Bypass Effect
This tutorial shows you how to get bleach bypass look to your footage in Adobe After Effects. You can also have a look at similar tutorial which uses color correction filters available with Final Cut Pro.

Lava from dry field image
This tutorial shows you how to create lava from a dry lava field image.

Sky Replacement
One of the most useful tutorial for your everyday videos, to fix blown out sky.

3D Eyeball
Tutorial for creating a 3D eyeball that can look around the room, using CC Sphere to create a material of the eyeball.

Demon Face
Very useful tutorial if you want to create a horor film. You can also have a look at the similar tutorial Vampire fang growth.

Water Drops
This tutorial will teach you to create water droplets on the camera lens with DOF.

Old TV Footage Effect

Skin Displacement
Simulate the look of bugs crawling under the skin using Adobe After Effects.

Turning to Skittles
Tutorial is quite detail (but no explanation) which shows how to create those skittles using 3D Max and compositing it in Adobe After Effects. It makes use of many techniques like rotoscoping, tracking etc. The final output it similar to Hilarious Skittles Commercial. This tutorial is split into two parts Part 1 and Part 2

Sin City look
Tutorial for adding sin city look to your footage. This tutorial makes use of Silhouette Roto plug-in.

Blemish Removal
You must have gone through several skin enhancement Photoshop tutorials before. But when it comes to video, the technique totally differs to that used for digital photos.

Blood Splatter
Learn how to make blood stick to things.

Assisted Suicide
Tutorial for compositing digital blood burst and a muzzle flash.

EarthQuake
Tutorial to add earthquake effect in a video footage.

Flashback Effect
This tutorial shows you how to add flashback look to your footage, like in the film “The Bourne Ultimatum”.

Set Extensions
This tutorial will help you to customize or extend a live action set with custom matte painting. You will also learn to link several motion trackers into one null object.

Frosty Breath
Create the illusion of cold breath on a warm day.

Orbing and Beaming Effects

Talking Head
The fastest way to create talking creatures without the use of keyframes.

Invisible Effect

About the author

Vailancio Rodrigues likes to learn new things and share them with others. He likes to work in the creative field and is constantly improving his skills. You can follow Vailancio on Twitter.

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