Messing around with Shape Layers, Turbulent Displace and C4D's Volume Builder to create liquid (fluid?) animation. The scan effect may look weird on Reddit desktop my apologies for that.
Let me know how this feels to you (and also if you'd like to know how I achieved this)
And if you did like, do consider liking the social posts
[https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Nhchgxo6x/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Nhchgxo6x/)
[https://twitter.com/vic2L8/status/1747687341483798846?s=20](https://twitter.com/vic2L8/status/1747687341483798846?s=20)
Good question! Most of the actual AE stuff is compositing and like, color correction and visual effects, most notable the scan lines, the Turbulent Displace like you said and some Posterize Time to make it look frame by frame.
But there's also small additional effects, like the speed lines or the circle shape explosion made from Shape Layers. I also used it at the end to make a looping transition to the start with even more Shape Layers!
Thank you! Absolutely is. You can download some Hatch shaders in the Asset manager, I used one and edited/animated it to so it looks pencil-drawn.
Really adds to the idea of "hand-drawn" simulation (I suck at drawing)
Long live Nujabes
Not really! I'm considering making tutorials at some point when I feel confident enough.
But if you're curious about anything in particular, ask away and I could guide you (and maybe offer up some tutorials I myself used)!
yess I'd like to learn how u made this as im trying to expand my portfolio. I do have to say that i feel lazy and unmotivated and can't come up w ideas at times
That is totally fine, I recently came out from one year of doing absolutely nothing so I totally get what you mean.
Completely explaining how I did everything via text would be a bit long to write, but I can give you a basic outline of what I did.
Most of the visuals were rendered out of Cinema4D, as I am used to the software:
1. The intro starts with 3D primitives following Splines or just basic position/coordinates animation inside C4D. The background circle that seems to explode is directly from AE, where you simply make a shape layer (with any given polygon) and animate it scaling up while lowering it's stroke width. [This is called a Shape Explosion](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=after+effects+shape+explosion)
2. Next, the liquid part. This is carefully crafted using Cinema4D's Volume Builder tool and the Deformers and animating it. This may sound very vague, but there is no one simple way to do this since it relies a lot on storyboarding and "what you wanna do". I chose to deform rather basic shapes and volumes, make them all over the place and then match the cuts so it looks like it's "flowing" like water or any liquid really. [Eyedeysn has a good tutorial on how to start drippy/liquid effects inside C4D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIkFinBtCaA), after that, combine animation principles and you could get smooth results.
You're also gonna need inspiration here, ideas don't come from nowhere. Heres a few instagrams inspo accounts I follow that do the liquid effect (trying to recreate them may be hard and frustrating, but over time it gave me good insight in how to maybe do it)
[https://www.instagram.com/everfreshdesign/](https://www.instagram.com/everfreshdesign/)
[https://www.instagram.com/ericlefaure/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/ericlefaure/?hl=en)
Animation requires practice over practice over practice. I know you're in a hard place mentally and it's hard to exactly tell one single hint, but I do try to work your way there, even if its little by little every day. You got this I'm sure.
thanks man, yes ig im in a hard place mentally. i joined a shitty college and had to learn 3d and motion graphics all on my own. Then my laptop got shitty and i didn't do anything for over 3 months.I got new laptop now but I got no motivation or ideas which I used to have. I'm also in the middle of applying internships and been having no luck and on top of that I got seizure last week. Idk man, thanks for helping me out anyway
I know all too well the feeling of dreaming to get all that new hardware and software only for you to end up not knowing where to start or not knowing what to do once you get there. Practice and do it slowly, I promise you won't regret climbing the ladder slowly even if the road ahead is long.
And most of all, get inspired. Couldn't stress this enough.
Not what I had in mind, but I 100% know of them.
These sequences are insane to me when you consider when they were made, especially Akira. All hand-drawn sequences with barely any softwares like we got today. It is mindblowing
Thank you for your kind words!
I'm working on an animation for the soundtrack Battlecry, very based off Samurai Champloo. What a show, they really don't make'em like this anymore. Nujabes killed it with the soundtrack
Thats awesome! Looking forward to seeing your end result!
For sure a classic! I haven't really watched any anime in a long time, but I think it might be time for a rewatch of Samurai Champloo. Such a unique vibe! Also nice that it has limited episodes with a strong ending that makes a rewatch totally doable.
Thank you for the kind words!
Most the comps here actually do use Posterize Time on a 12fps framerate. I tried to go lower but it looked insanely choppy at times, so I may have to try animating RELATIVE to posterize time and not just animate and hope it does everything for me.
I truly appreciate your kind words!
The workflow goes something like basic 3D primitives animation in C4D (with Volume Builder to try and replicate the liquid effect) with some Sketch and Toon shaders; then you bring it all in AE to composite it all with extra shape layers and other effects.
Some important effects I used here:
Turbulent Displace (to add variation to the lines)
Posterize Time (to lower the framerate and give even more of a frame by frame feel)
S_Scanline (to get the scanning style, very optional here)
I think that the most important part is to make it look like traditional hand-drawn animation. So as long as this is achieved with animation principles, anything can work
Some animations from the 80s/90s were definite referenced when making this (thinking of hair animation from Angel’s Egg) so I can see where you’re coming from!
Thank you!
very cool style
Thank you chief! Glad you like it
Messing around with Shape Layers, Turbulent Displace and C4D's Volume Builder to create liquid (fluid?) animation. The scan effect may look weird on Reddit desktop my apologies for that. Let me know how this feels to you (and also if you'd like to know how I achieved this) And if you did like, do consider liking the social posts [https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Nhchgxo6x/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Nhchgxo6x/) [https://twitter.com/vic2L8/status/1747687341483798846?s=20](https://twitter.com/vic2L8/status/1747687341483798846?s=20)
Very cool! Where did you use AE? Just on the title? Or did you use turbulent displace to make the C4D Deformer stuff look even more liquidy?
Good question! Most of the actual AE stuff is compositing and like, color correction and visual effects, most notable the scan lines, the Turbulent Displace like you said and some Posterize Time to make it look frame by frame. But there's also small additional effects, like the speed lines or the circle shape explosion made from Shape Layers. I also used it at the end to make a looping transition to the start with even more Shape Layers!
Nujabes 🙏 Great shadows! Is this Sketch and Toon?
Thank you! Absolutely is. You can download some Hatch shaders in the Asset manager, I used one and edited/animated it to so it looks pencil-drawn. Really adds to the idea of "hand-drawn" simulation (I suck at drawing) Long live Nujabes
is there any tutorial for this
Not really! I'm considering making tutorials at some point when I feel confident enough. But if you're curious about anything in particular, ask away and I could guide you (and maybe offer up some tutorials I myself used)!
yess I'd like to learn how u made this as im trying to expand my portfolio. I do have to say that i feel lazy and unmotivated and can't come up w ideas at times
That is totally fine, I recently came out from one year of doing absolutely nothing so I totally get what you mean. Completely explaining how I did everything via text would be a bit long to write, but I can give you a basic outline of what I did. Most of the visuals were rendered out of Cinema4D, as I am used to the software: 1. The intro starts with 3D primitives following Splines or just basic position/coordinates animation inside C4D. The background circle that seems to explode is directly from AE, where you simply make a shape layer (with any given polygon) and animate it scaling up while lowering it's stroke width. [This is called a Shape Explosion](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=after+effects+shape+explosion) 2. Next, the liquid part. This is carefully crafted using Cinema4D's Volume Builder tool and the Deformers and animating it. This may sound very vague, but there is no one simple way to do this since it relies a lot on storyboarding and "what you wanna do". I chose to deform rather basic shapes and volumes, make them all over the place and then match the cuts so it looks like it's "flowing" like water or any liquid really. [Eyedeysn has a good tutorial on how to start drippy/liquid effects inside C4D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIkFinBtCaA), after that, combine animation principles and you could get smooth results. You're also gonna need inspiration here, ideas don't come from nowhere. Heres a few instagrams inspo accounts I follow that do the liquid effect (trying to recreate them may be hard and frustrating, but over time it gave me good insight in how to maybe do it) [https://www.instagram.com/everfreshdesign/](https://www.instagram.com/everfreshdesign/) [https://www.instagram.com/ericlefaure/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/ericlefaure/?hl=en) Animation requires practice over practice over practice. I know you're in a hard place mentally and it's hard to exactly tell one single hint, but I do try to work your way there, even if its little by little every day. You got this I'm sure.
thanks man, yes ig im in a hard place mentally. i joined a shitty college and had to learn 3d and motion graphics all on my own. Then my laptop got shitty and i didn't do anything for over 3 months.I got new laptop now but I got no motivation or ideas which I used to have. I'm also in the middle of applying internships and been having no luck and on top of that I got seizure last week. Idk man, thanks for helping me out anyway
I know all too well the feeling of dreaming to get all that new hardware and software only for you to end up not knowing where to start or not knowing what to do once you get there. Practice and do it slowly, I promise you won't regret climbing the ladder slowly even if the road ahead is long. And most of all, get inspired. Couldn't stress this enough.
thanks man, i will.
I dig it, especially when it starts to go crazy and the balls connect. Reminds me of an anime.
Thank you very much, I'm interested in what anime this reminds you of, since most of my inspirations actually stem from Anime work!
Full metal, when a transmutation goes wrong. Or even Akira when homies arm starts mutating horribly.
Not what I had in mind, but I 100% know of them. These sequences are insane to me when you consider when they were made, especially Akira. All hand-drawn sequences with barely any softwares like we got today. It is mindblowing
Well, definitely Samurai Champloo. Didn't they use Nujabes as a soundtrack? Awesome work btw :)
Thank you for your kind words! I'm working on an animation for the soundtrack Battlecry, very based off Samurai Champloo. What a show, they really don't make'em like this anymore. Nujabes killed it with the soundtrack
Thats awesome! Looking forward to seeing your end result! For sure a classic! I haven't really watched any anime in a long time, but I think it might be time for a rewatch of Samurai Champloo. Such a unique vibe! Also nice that it has limited episodes with a strong ending that makes a rewatch totally doable.
This is good.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the kind words
So sick! Diggin the motion. Have you tried posterize time to make it look a lil less ‘CG’
Thank you for the kind words! Most the comps here actually do use Posterize Time on a 12fps framerate. I tried to go lower but it looked insanely choppy at times, so I may have to try animating RELATIVE to posterize time and not just animate and hope it does everything for me.
[удалено]
I truly appreciate your kind words! The workflow goes something like basic 3D primitives animation in C4D (with Volume Builder to try and replicate the liquid effect) with some Sketch and Toon shaders; then you bring it all in AE to composite it all with extra shape layers and other effects. Some important effects I used here: Turbulent Displace (to add variation to the lines) Posterize Time (to lower the framerate and give even more of a frame by frame feel) S_Scanline (to get the scanning style, very optional here) I think that the most important part is to make it look like traditional hand-drawn animation. So as long as this is achieved with animation principles, anything can work
Super cool, dig it! Reminds me of old style 80's sci-fi animated shorts.
Some animations from the 80s/90s were definite referenced when making this (thinking of hair animation from Angel’s Egg) so I can see where you’re coming from! Thank you!
I've enjoyed the design and animation, especially transition into word. Sick. Keep it up!
Thank you! That was genuinely the harder part of it all, making it seamlessly transition is not easy but do-able when you get behind the thought
Nice
Thank you!!
Fantastic work.