Video CoPilot Graffiti Video

 I had to go to video copilot a tutorial sight for after effects and elements 3D. I had to choose a tutorial and make it useful for myself. I choose a graffiti tutorial.

Ways that I can use this is whenever somebody writes on a chalkboard and I want to have them write it or have it magically appear like in Harry Potter or any sort of writing that I would need this for. But I also think that I could use this to make things appear on a wall that weren't there before so I think I could have some fun there.
The first thing I had to do was get the font into after effects and choose what I wanted the graffiti to say, so I went with my name. That's a pretty safe thing to do and it personalizes it and makes it more applicable to myself.

The name of the font is Tags Extreme if you want it. Then I needed to mask my name. The purpose of this is to be able to make it look like I was writing my name on a wall instead of it just being there otherwise that would be no fun. After that I duplicated the text and blurred it so it wouldn't look so perfect and have the spray paint look that actual graffiti has.

In a new composition I needed to get a cracked wall and a cement floor. I made them 3-D layers so I could make it look more realistic and have that 3-D feel in a 2-D program. I went in to the 4 view panel so I could work better. After I set up the environment, I bring in the text and animate it so it actually looks like it's writing and I used the pen tool and created a mask so I could do that. Then I need to make the text a 3-D layer so it can be on the wall instead of in space somewhere. This helped with the realistically of the scene.

 After I get the text on the wall, I need to get the paint splatters into my animation. From video copilot you can get different effects such as explosions and paint splatters. I took a few of the paint splatters to put into my animation. I had to time it out to when I wanted them to appear. The paint splatters needed to be re-matted so I could see all the other layers and I needed to colorize them to the color of my text or a darker shade. Then they needed to be 3-D layers as well so they could be on the wall and behind my text.

I think the hardest part was getting the font into After Effects. That isn't very hard though. So that means that this tutorial isn't very hard but looks really cool when you do it right. I struggled to find the pen tool, but that was a personal struggle. The easiest part was timing everything out. The person doing the tutorial is nice and makes it really easy so that was fabulous! I enjoyed it.

This is the finished video that I made from this tutorial. I like it, but I think it would be fun to try again with different text and a different camera angle such as on top of a building across the street or across the narrow alleyway. The link to this tutorial is this: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/graffiti_writing/