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These 8 tools are a great way to give your footage digital distortion in After Effects.
Adding distortion to your footage is a quick way to make your videos look awesome. In days past, motion designers had to create digital distortion in After Effects by hand, but now there are many helpful tools that we can use to create distortion and each has its own unique advantages. In the following post we’ll breakdown eight ways to create digital distortion in After Effects.
- Learn how to create a glitch effect without having to purchase paid packs with this After Effects effects tutorial. As a result, you’ll receive classic digital and analog errors like artifact compression, bugs, and digital code disruptions or physical manipulations of electronic devices.
- Long before the glitch effect found its place in science fiction and tech productions like Mr. Robot, we were basically creating them with VHS tapes! This pack simulates a very VHS style effect in Adobe After Effects thanks its grainy style and overlay lines.
This tutorial will guide you through the steps to create 4 popular VHS effects that will boost your footage and give it that retro touch in Adobe After Effects. Creating a glitch effect will give any media you produce an entirely unique feel.
1. Digital Distortion Free After Effects Template
Created By:RocketStock
Price:Free
You can create free digital distortion in After Effects using this template from RocketStock. Essentially the template uses a series of compositions to add distortion using only native effects, so you don’t need to install anything. Simply open the free template and drop your footage into the ‘Drop Footage Here’ Composition and your distorted footage will be outputted into a final composition. The free After Effects template can be customized using a series of sliders that adjust various effects like turbulence, color bars, and noise.
Here’s a quick demo of the various features in the free AE Template:
2. Dojo Glitch Script
Created By:CreativeDojo
Price:Pay what you like
The CreativeDojo is not only a great place to learn the basics of After Effects, but you can also find a big selection of useful tools that VinhSon has created himself. With this awesome Glitch Script for After Effects, users can easily create customizable glitch effects by simply pressing a button. Simply select your composition and click ‘Generate Glitch’ and AE will create a composition with a control layer which can be adjusted in a similar way to the free RocketStock template. This template is great for creating RGB chromatic aberrations.
(Quick Note: While VinhSon is happy to give his glitch script away for free, why not donate a few bucks to help him out?)
3. Fractal Noise Technique
Created By: Aharon Rabinowitz of Red Giant
Price: Free
This technique pioneered by Aharon Rabinowitz of Red Giant shows us how to create a distorted glitch box effect using native tools in After Effects. The technique is essentially a combination of the fractal noise effect mixed with a displacement map. It’s a pretty ingenious way to create distortion quickly. The tutorial also features a Red Giant tool called Holomatrix, but we’ll discus more about that below. If you know of any ways to take this distortion technique to the next level please share in the comments below.
The following tutorial shows us how this distortion technique is accomplished.
4. Stock Footage + Displacement Map
Technique By: Georgiiou
Price: Varies
Sometimes it can be easier create a distortion effect in After Effects be simply integrating digital distortion video with your composition. While this technique isn’t super customizable, it is incredibly easy to do. In a similar approach to the previous technique, you could integrate stock footage of a digital distortion with your composition. There are a lot of places to find such footage, like this example video from ShutterStock. Having a wide variety of footage is important if you decide to go that route.
This tutorial by Georgiiou shows us how to use this technique to quickly create distorted footage.
5. Twitch
Created By:Video Copilot
Price:$49
When it comes to glitch plugins in After Effects, Twitch is where it all began. Created by Andrew Kramer of Video Copilot, Twitch allows users to create glitch effects with a simple plugin. The glitch effects that you get with Twitch would be categorized as more organic than the others found on this list, but the end result is impressive nonetheless.
6. Holomatrix via Red Giant Universe
Created By:Red Giant
Price:$99 a Year
Holomatrix is a plugin developed by Red Giant used to simulate a hologram-like effect in After Effects. The style created by Holomatrix is more like a futuristic style distortion, but it should do in most circumstances. The cool thing about Holomatrix is it can be simply dragged and dropped onto your layers! No extra steps! Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this effect can’t be purchased without a subscription to the Red Giant Universe which includes dozens of other great tools and plugins as well.
7. Glitch via Red Giant Universe
Created By:Red Giant
Price:$99 a Year
For a more TV style glitch, you can use the Glitch plugin developed like Red Giant. Glitch has very similar effect controllers to that of the RocketStock template. However, Red Giant’s Glitch is a plugin that can be used with any layer without opening or importing a separate project. Glitch focuses on colored bar distortion rather than sharp distortions. So if you are looking to get a good ‘signal’ distortion this plugin might be for you. Red Giant offers a free trial of their Universe subscription so you can try these tools before you buy.
8. TV Distortion Bundle
Created By:Rowbyte
Price:$149.99
The TV Distortion Bundle is another good option if you are looking to create a distorted TV effect in After Effects. The bundle includes Data Glitch, Bad TV, Separate RGB, Dot Pixels, and TV Pixels — all plugin’s that can be easily applied to your footage. The cool thing about the TV Distortion Bundle is the fact that these distortions can work in both After Effects and Premiere. Don’t let the high price-point scare you — these effects are great!
Want to learn more about creating distortion effects in After Effects? Check out a few of the following resource:
- Digital TV ‘Cliff Effect’ Distortion – via Creative Cow
- Cool After Effects Tutorial: Distorted Type & Data Glitch – via PremiumBeat
- Free After Effects Template: Digital Distortion – via RocketStock
Adobe After Effects Glitch Effects
Know of any other great distortion tools in After Effects? Share in the comments below.
Giving the Liquid Glitch transition look has become very popular in recent months, as it has been consistently applied in both amateur videos and professional productions on different screens.
One of the benefits of this effect is that it can be applied to different visual aspects , such as text, images and specific designs.
Due to its continuous application, many editors have decided to integrate such visualization among their animations. So Adobe could not be left behind in this regard.
Adobe After Effects works as a tool used on a professional level. Offering the sequence of tools necessary to create this effect on any layer or aspect that you want to integrate in your video.
That is why it has been decided to dedicate today’s article to him. So that you can learn to insert it and thus attract more attention to your content.
Is the Liquid Glitch transition effect enabled in Adobe After Effects?
Since this type of animation can be inserted on any style and design that makes up the audiovisual file. There is no default setting to do this.
In itself, After Effects is responsible for being a program designed to create or modify the composition of a video. As well as it can improve the quality of graphics and special effects that can be displayed within it.
Thanks to this, you acquire the professional use that we have mentioned above. Because it has a high-efficiency operating method, in order to create high-quality results.
Its degree of specialization as far as special effects are concerned, makes achieving the liquid Glitch transition possible on the number of layers on which it is made. Although it clearly requires applying a series of previous steps to achieve it.
Insert the Liquid Glitch transition effect into After Effects
To begin with, each new project requires creating a new composition to begin editing the content. In this case, the new composition will be made from scratch and without importing external files.
At the end of configuring the composition and accepting it , you must insert what you want to apply the effect to. Whether it is a text, a logo, an image or a design, it must be located within the composition box, preferably fully centered, in order to start editing.
The layer that has the object that will execute the Liquid Glitch transition requires that its channels be separated. So you enter the effects tab and within the “Channel” section you will find the “Shift Channels” option.
This executes the color scheme (red, blue and green) that is displayed within the video. To properly create a Glitch effect. For each layer of object, a single color must be kept activated , in order to give the impression of interference. In other words, copy and paste each of the layers of the object, so that each one corresponds to a color.
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It should be noted that each layer must obtain an animation (only if the user wishes) and the series of effects that the editor prefers to improve the visualization of the object.
Adobe After Effects Glitch Effect Generator
Liquid transition
As for the liquid transition, it will be necessary to create a new layer. Which must be applied to all numbers of objects within which the effect will be established.
The name of the transition that creates the desired effect is called “Scale Wipe”. Within which you can configure the style, angle and direction to perceive the desired ” liquid ” state .
These two settings are the main ones to create the Liquid Glitch transition effect easily. So it is up to you to insert new animations to improve the result.
One of the greatest benefits of After Effects is that despite being a software for professional use, it has no difficulty in understanding or usability. So even a novice can achieve quality edits if they practice enough.
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Now through these simple steps you will finally be able to obtain the ideal visual for your videos. Attracting more people to review your multimedia content through platforms such as YouTube or public spaces that are willing to play them.
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