In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to create a nice looking transition and how to make it look more organic by using the Time Displacement effect.
1. Create Triangle Shapes in Adobe Illustrator
Step 1
Open Illustrator and create a new 130×130 pixels composition.
Step 2
Create a 45-45-90 triangle, then duplicate it pressing Cmd+C and Cmd+F, and reflect it horizontally clicking Object->Transfrom->Reflect.
Arrange the two triangles on the left side of the composition, and merge them using Pathfinder.
Step 3
Duplicate and rotate the triangle 3 times so that you can create a square that will perfectly fill your composition. Save it and name it “Triangles.ai”.
2. Set Up Transitions in After Effects
Step 1
Open After Effects, import the file Triangles.ai as a composition. The software will automatically create a new composition named Triangles, duplicate it two times, so you’ll have three identical composition named Triangles, Triangles 2, and Triangles 3.
Step 2
What you have to do now is choose how to make the triangles appear. This process it totally up to you and you’re free to play around and test different solutions. It will be fun later to see how minor changes in this step will create a totally different result in the final composition.
In this case, I decided to use Linear Wipe and Mattes in “Triangles”, Grid Wipe and Mattes in “Triangles 2” and just to change Rotation and Scale parameters in “Triangles 3”.
Step 3
Create a new 480×270 Composition, 25 fps , and call it “Multiple Triangles 1”.
Drag in “Triangles” and keep on duplicating it pressing Cmd+D until you have 15 copies. Arrange them until you fill the entire composition and sort them so the triangles on the right bottom corner will appear first with the top left ones appearing last.
Step 4
Duplicate “Multiple Triangles” two times by composition pressing Cmd+D. Now you will have three identical compositions named “Multiple Triangles”, “Multiple Triangles 2”, and “Multiple Triangles 3”.
Open “Multiple Triangles 2”, select all layers by pressing Cmd+A and drag them over “Triangles 2”. After Effects will automatically replace the layers.
Do the same on “Multiple Triangles 3”.
Step 4
Create a new 1280×720 composition, 25fps, and name it “Complete transition”.
Create a new solid by clicking Layer->New->Solid. The color is up to your taste.
Drag “Multiple Triangles” and apply the CC Repe Tile effect. This allows you to expand the composition, repeating its content in every direction. You have to tell the software how many pixels you want to expand on each side.
The tiling option allows you to make the expansion appear in different orders and with different rotation amounts. Choose the one the you like.
Finally, apply the Fill effect to change the color of the composition.
Step 5
Drag in “Multiple Triangles 2″ and “Multiple Triangles 3″. Apply CC Repe Tile (changing the tiling option if you want) and Fill effect to change their color. Feel free to duplicate them until you reach a nice looking transition.
Step 6
Import your logo, drag it in your composition, and use the “Multiple Triangle” composition as a matte to make it appear.
3. Create a Time Displacement Effect
Step 1
Create a new 1280×720 composition, 25fps, and name it “Matte”.
Create a new solid and apply the Gradient effect. Choose “Radial Ramp” as the Ramp Shape and black as the Start Color with white as the End Color.
Apply the Turbulent Displace effect, with these parameters:
Amount: 50
Size: 100
Under the Evolution parameter, insert this expression: time*400
Step
Create a new 1280×720 composition, 25fps, and name it “Complete transition with time displacement”.
Drag in “Matte” and “Complete transition”. Select “Complete transition” and apply the Time Displacement effect.
Like the Displacement Map effect, Time Displacement uses a displacement map, but it bases the movement of pixels in the layer on the luminance values from the map. Pixels in the layer that correspond to bright areas in the displacement map are replaced by pixels in the same position but at a specified number of seconds forward in time. Likewise, pixels in the layer that correspond to dark areas in the displacement map are replaced by pixels at a specified number of seconds backward in time. You can use any layer as a displacement map, though using a grey-scale image lets you easily see brightness levels and predict how pixels will be displaced.
Select “Matte” as the Time Displacement Layer, setting the Max Displacement to 1,0 and the Time Resolution to 300 (this parameter will increase the precision of the displacement, but will also require much more memory to render).
I hope you were able to pick up some interesting ideas from this tutorial that you can use in your next project. If you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment below. Thanks!
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