Hey, welcome back to my new video.
This is EZ Tutorials, and for those of you
who are the first time in this channel, please
consider subscribing.
The season of joy and happiness is here, and
the holidays are coming soon, so, I have decided
to show you how to make a nice Christmas Greetings
video so you can wish all the best to your
friends, clients or subscribers.
So, today we'll be creating this:
Before we start, I'd like to invite you to
support me on Patreon.
You can also get access to all my premium
content.
In this tutorial, we'll be using the EZ Tool
script, which is free to download.
You can get it by clicking the link from the
upper right corner of this screen.
You can also download the project files and
the template separately.
This way you will be able to create this wonderful
christmas intro, even if you don't want to
download my template.
I also included the version with prerendered
snow for those of you who don't own the Particular
plugin.
You can find it here.
So let's start.
Import the files you need into After Effects.
Let's create a new composition and name it:
Christmas Greetings.
I'm using a FULL HD 1080 pixels preset, with
30 frames per second, and 9 seconds long.
We'll begin by dragging the Christmas footage
inside our composition.
Grab your text tool, and start typing your
greeting message.
I am using the Lobster font, which is free
to download, but you can use any other Christmas
style font.
Align the text in the middle of your composition
and let's stylize and animate it.
Go to your effects and presets panel, search
for bevel alpha and apply it to your text
layer.
Also, search for the drop shadow effect and
apply it too.
Let's change a little its settings, to make
it more discreet.
Change the softness value to 20, and the opacity
to 30%.
Now, let's animate our text layer, so, open
it, click the animate button and select: enable
per-character 3D.
This will allow us to animate the letters
individually in the 3D space.
Will work with 3 different attributes, so
click again the animate button and add: the
position attribute, the rotation, and the
opacity.
Change the z position value to 200, the Y
rotation value to 130 degrees, and the opacity
value to 0%.
Click on range selector 1, open the advanced
tab, and change the shape value to ramp up.
This will make the characters animate one
after each other, and not all at the same
time.
Change the ease low value to 50%, then, set
the offset value to -100% and create a keyframe,
move to 4 seconds and 15 frames, and change
the value to positive 100%.
Select this last keyframe and easy ease it,
open the graph editor, grab this handle, and
drag it half way to the left.
This will smooth out our text animation.
Let's see what we got.
Looks nice, isn't it?
Grab the ice image from the assets folder,
bring it into your composition, and place
it on top of the other layers.
Apply the tint effect to it, open the effect
controls panel, and change the tint amount
to 50%.
Looks more realistic now, isn't it?
Search for the optics compensation effect,
and apply it to your layer.
Change the field of view value to 100, move
to the first frame, and create a keyframe
here.
Move to the last frame, and change the value
back to 0.
Bring the ink matte file inside the Christmas
greetings composition, and change the track
matte of the ice layer to luma matte.
If you don't have this track matte panel here,
click on this button to make it show.
Let's check our result until now.
Nice...
Our next step will be to create the snow effect.
To do this, we'll need the Particular plugin,
which as you already know it's a third party
plugin.
If you don't have it already, you can download
the trial version from the red giant's website.
The link is in the description.
Create a new black solid and name it snow.
Search for particular, and apply it to your
layer.
Let's solo this layer, so we can work better
on it.
Open the emitter section, and change the number
of particles per second to 200.
Change the emitter type to box, and the Y
position value of it to 0, so we can make
the snow start from the top of our screen.
Change the emitter size to individual axes,
then, set the x value to 3000, the Y value
to 1500, and the Z value to 2000.
As you can see we don't have snow from the
first second, so, open the emission extras,
and change the pre run value to 70.
Now, let's take care of the appearance of
the snowflakes.
Open the particle section, and change the
life to 12 seconds.
This will make them last a little longer than
our composition.
Change the particle type to cloudlet.
The size to 4 pixels. and the size random
to 50%.
It looks more natural already.
Change the opacity to 30%, the opacity random
to 50%, then, open the opacity over life,
and use this preset for our snow effect.
Let's now take care of the snow movement too,
so, open the physics section, and change the
gravity value to 20.
Open the air, and change the air resistance
to 0.1, and the wind Y to 20.
Finally, open the turbulence field, and change
the affect position value to 30.
Wow, we have created a really nice snow effect.
If you want to see how to create even a more
realistic one, check out the dedicated tutorial
from my channel.
Create a new camera.
I am using a one node camera, with the 28
millimeters preset.
This will give a better depth of field to
our snow effect.
Unsolo this layer, and let's see what we have.
Looks great.
Create a new adjustment layer, and rename
it: CC, which stands for color correction.
Search for the vibrance effect, and apply
it.
Change the vibrance value to 30, and the saturation
to 10.
Create a new black solid, and name it: fader.
Move to the first frame, open the opacity,
and create a keyframe.
Go 15 frames forward, and change the value
to 0%.
Move to the 8th second and click here to create
a hold keyframe, then, go to the last frame
and change the opacity value back to 100%.
Bring the audio file into your composition,
and you are done.
Let's check the final result.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to
create a Christmas intro animation in After
Effects.
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and comment.
It would be great to know your opinions on
my tutorials.
Also, you can make requests for new tutorials,
on interesting effects or animations that
you would like to learn.
See you soon!
