This video is brought to you by Storyblocks video.
Hello guys, it’s Yannick here from the past for cinecom.net
and welcome to another Copy Cat Friday,
a series where we recreate effects from famous movies and music videos.
And today, we are recreating this cool scribble effect
from the music video Crown, by TXT.
[Music]
Before we jump into it, I would first like to thank our sponsor Storyblocks Video,
which is an online library packed with video effects, transitions,
After Effects templates and high quality 4K stock clips.
Everyday new video assets are added to the growing library
and you can download everything you like without having to pay extra.
For more information, check out the first link in the description below.
Yes you heard correctly, it's me from a few weeks ago!
You're probably wondering why we pre-recorded this episode.
Well, we are currently so busy with shooting our short movie,
that we have no time to make a Copy Cat episode this week.
However we didn't want to let you down, so we stepped up a few weeks back
and made this episode while making other ones.
Currently, I don't know how it's going with the short movie,
because it's a month away.
But if we followed our schedule, we are probably shooting at this very moment.
That also means that Eric, the writer, is here to assist us as director,
and we already built two cool sets.
So, we are very busy, as you can see,
but we don't like to skip Copy Cat Friday,
and that's the reason why we decided to recreate the scribble effect from TXT,
as it's quite easy to explain, fast to make and requested very often.
The scribble effect is something we already did
in an older Premiere Pro video about Bruno Mars.
But this video is outdated due to updates by Adobe.
So the first thing we try to do with this effect was making it in Premiere Pro.
Sadly, this wasn't possible, as you need to animate the scribbles frame by frame,
and this is near impossible inside Premiere Pro.
Luckily, we still have After Effects, which offers us a very simple solution
to create these awesome scribbles.
But before we jump in After Effects,
we need some footage to create the scribbles on.
In the TXT video clip they use the scribbles in combination with dancing.
And that is exactly what we are also going to do.
Last month we made a video about 5 Epic camera movements.
If you want to learn about this movements there’s a link in the description below.
For this video we had a special guest, a dancer named Mjay.
His dancing style is popping and perfect for scribbles.
That’s why we are going to use this footage again for this week's video.
Now, after I made this small montage of Mjay dancing,
I imported it inside After Effects.
From the project panel we can now create a new composition
and drag the montage inside it.
Now select the montage layer and double click on it.
Now you will switch from the composition tab to the layer tab.
And this is necessary if you want to paint the scribbles on it.
Now you have to open up the brush and the paint panel,
on the right side of After Effects.
If you can't find these panels, go up to Window and enable them in the list.
From the toolbar on the top select the brush tool
and now go back to the paint panel.
Between the settings you can switch the duration
from Constant to Single Frame.
The other settings you can leave them as they are.
Except for the color.
This you can change it to your wanted color.
We are going to use orange.
Most of the time I also set a second color,
so we can easily switch between them during painting the scribbles.
Now go to the brush panel and select the brush size you want.
If you are working with a drawing tablet,
you can choose to switch off the pen pressure under the size option.
I'm working with a mouse, so it doesn't matter for me,
as it's not pressure sensitive.
Then it's time to start painting.
Go to the point you like to begin and start painting away in the layer tab.
Just use your mouse and click and hold to paint the line.
If you draw a line on your shot the effect will make small layer from one frame
within that paint effect.
And this is quite handy as you can select a line layer
and move it to a different place in the timeline.
Or make it longer than one frame, if necessary.
This is also handy when you want to change the color of a line
when you are further in the project.
When you have drawn your first lines and want to go to the next frame,
just press page down for the next frame or page up for the previous frame.
This way you can work fast while painting your scribbles.
It also doesn't matter what you paint.
We just imagine something that would work with Mjay’s dancing.
You can go as wild or simple as you want.
It's completely open for you to decide.
What we really love to make is an animation of a line
that is going somewhere and then forms an object like this lamp,
or just simply explodes, like it does right here.
And this is easily created by moving your lines slightly to one side frame by frame.
And when creating an object you can let it start in a mess
and then, frame by frame, let it gain its shape.
Do now gain an animation of a line going to a point
and breaking up in a certain object.
This is the main principle of creating such animations
and can be used for several variations.
Okay, now that you know how to make the scribbles
it's time to explain my workflow.
I like to work scene-by-scene.
This means, when I have made all the scribbles and animations for one scene,
like this one, I move the scribbles to a different layer
than the original montage layer.
For the different layers, I use a simple solid layer.
Which you can create under Layer, New and then Solid.
The color of the solid doesn't matter, as we are not going to use it.
Then go to the montage layer and use the drop-down option to go into the effects.
Here we can see the paint effect.
Select this and copy it.
Then select your solid layer and paste the effect to the solid.
Sometimes while copying and pasting it,
the times of your scribbles change by a few frames.
Don't worry, these can easily be adjusted back to normal.
Just select all your scribble layers and align them with the original ones.
Now that they're back at the right timing,
you can delete the paint effect on the montage layer,
as you don't need it anymore.
But if you look at the result now,
you only see the solid color with the animated scribbles on it.
Well, to remove that color is just a setting that we need to enable.
Just go to the Effects Control panel
and within the Paint effect you can enable the ‘paint on transparent’ option.
This will remove the color of your solid and will only leave your scribbles.
Okay, now the scribbles are done and animated.
But you can give them some extra effects to make them more unique.
For this we use the Rough and Edges effect,
as it will make your lines more random.
We didn't really use certain settings, we just played around with them
until we had something we liked.
You can also add different or more effects to it,
but the last effect that is needed is the glow effect.
Again we played with the settings until we liked the look.
You can make it as a subtle or flashy as you want.
And that is all there is to it to create this awesome scribble animations.
Now you can start your next scene
by, again, drawing your scribbles on the montage clip.
But there is one thing I want to add,
and that is how you can use tracking in combination with our work method.
If, for example, you want to color an eye,
and let it move with your dancer.
Well, you don't need to repaint every frame.
Just paint it once.
Make the line layer as long as it needs to be,
move it again into a new solid layer, like I showed you before,
then select the original montage clip and go to the tracking panel on the right.
Select the track motion and enable the position and scale options.
Place the tracker points on the eyes and press Analyze Forward.
After it's done with tracking, go up to the menu,
select Layer, New and create a Null Object.
Then go back to the tracker panel,
click on ‘Add a Target’ and select the null object between the options.
Now, press Apply and OK.
The last thing you now need to do is use the ‘parent pick whip tool’
to parent a solid layer with the null object.
Now your colored eye will move perfectly with your actor,
without having to paint it over and over again.
[Music]
And that was it for today, guys, I hope you learned a lot,
and I hope you're also excited for the short film.
Just like us.
Thank you so much for watching, thank you Storyblocks for the support
and, like always:
Stay Creative!
-So, Eric, what do you think about Cinecom?
-So far the experience at Cinecom has been great.
I was really worried because, one, I only speak English and bad English,
and Jordy only speaks bad English.
I was very nervous but all the guys were really cool,
it’s been a lot of fun, now I just have to make sure I don't screw it up.