It has been an amazing past year, we have seen some real genius come from the writers here on Aetuts+, and well… it’s been a great 2010. As we enter into a new year, I am going to be stepping back a little bit from my role as weekly roundup man, and instead just contribute from time to time when something merits a little “rounding up” 
I have loved writing for you guys every week, but with the new addition to my family, and life taking me by the armpits, 2011 is looking to be a bigger adventure than I could have imagined. I wish you all an amazing New Year, and I will see you around Aetuts+! In the meantime, enjoy the 90 top tutorials from the past year to recap on some of the goodness you may remember, and some you might have missed.
-
Adobe After Effects CS4 Keyboard Shortcuts
Denis Clepcha created this handy, printable cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts that you can use to assist you in your everyday AE duties
-
Who’s Who in the World of Design Studios and VFX Shops
I made this roundup of some of the more well known (and not so well known) design studios so that you can check out some of their awesome work!
-
Maya into After Effects Workflow
Any Maya artist that wants to utilize some AE in their workflow has to check out this tutorial from Mohamed Hafeez.
-
Enhance Your Images With HolOS
A sweet Plus tutorial from Quba Michalski, you can learn how to zoom, enhance, rinse, repeat like they do in Hollywood.
-
Create a Rockin’ Automated Slideshow
Using a ton of scripts our previous editor Lloyd Alvarez shows you how to make a sweet slideshow.
-
Quick Tip – How To Get Better Control Without “Particular” Emitters
Sometimes it is a little difficult to control your particle emitters, so this quick tip shows you a quick little way to make your life a little easier.
-
Create a Jelly-like Text Animation in Cinema 4D and After Effects
Originally published on CGtuts+, Alexander Alexadrov uses C4D along with AE to make a really cool jelly text animation.
-
Freeze Your Logo With A Snowy Transition
Eddie Bogdanov shows us this awesome snowy transition that you can use for all kinds of wintery graphics.
-
Photoshop 3D Into After Effects Workflow
This 2 part tutorial from Brian Cody shows some of the best ways of working with Photoshop 3D inside of After Effects.
-
Quick Tip – Add Lux To Your Lights (Without Lux)
The look of Trapcode Lux is awesome, but sometimes you don’t have the plugin, so Satya Meka has a workaround for you.
-
Create An Astonishing Butterfly Animation
Our editor, Adam Everitt Miller has a really cool tutorial on making butterflys appear from light emitters in this Plus tutorial.
-
Basic Footage Coloring And Object Removal
Learn how to color some old footage, and remove all the junk that comes with old, old footage.
-
Get Blown Away With An Explosive Corridor Blast
A widely used effect in action movies, this tutorial will teach you how to blow the doors off of a hallway with an explosion!
-
Simulate A Glowing Neon Light Sign Of Your Logo
Ever need to make a sign for a restaurant or nightclub… well this is the tutorial for you!
-
How To Create A Surreal Outer Space Nebula
If you have ever watched a space special on Nat Geo or History, you will probably have seen some effects like this every once in a while…
-
Create a Valentines Day Broadcast Animation
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, this tutorial will teach you how to make a cool looking V-Day animation.
-
Use Color To Control Your Textures
This is a very unique way of controlling the way your animations look, although when you work it right you can have some amazing results!
-
Leap Into Hancock-Style Super Jump Effect
There is no Will Smith that comes along with this tutorial, but there is an awesome way to break up a public sidewalk!
-
The 12 Basic Principles of Animation Day
There are twelve basic principles of animation, and Bryan Clark walks you through all of them in this amazing set of Plus tutorials.
-
Double Stuffed Tracking Walkthrough
If you have ever wanted to dive head first into motion tracking this is the tutorial to start you off right!
-
Give Your Video A Pencil Sketched Look
Just like it says, give your animations the look that they were just jotted down on a piece of paper!
-
After Effects vs. Nuke
Learn the differences and similarities between Nuke and After Effects, as well as the pros and cons of each.
-
Create A Beach Themed “Water Writing” Look
Writing with water can be an interesting technique to implement into some slippery situations, figure out how to do it with this tutorial.
-
Generate Your Own Splendid Spirographical Designs
Spirographical designs can be intricate, mind bending and also really hard to create with AE, well this tutorial demystifies the task!
-
Get Caught Up In A Spider Web Tutorial
In this in depth Plus tutorial, you learn how to make an amazing looking spider web.
-
QuickTip – Creating Circular And Spiral Motion Paths
Using some quick little expressions, and a little bit of math, you can create some circular and spiral motion paths.
-
Discover How To Recreate the Sherlock Holmes End Credits Effect
One of my favorite credit sequences from the last year was Sherlock Holmes, this tutorial shows you how to create the amazing effects that made it great.
-
37 Super Star Interviews – NAB 2010 Coverage
This is the video record of my trip to Vegas for NAB last year where I interviewed a ton of the awesome people I met at the show!
-
Create A Realistic Glass Reflection
A very hard thing to do is to create realistic glass reflections and refractions, this tutorial helps you get over that hump!
-
QuickTip – Find Your Way With Shapes and Modifiers
Learn how to make a cool looking compass animation using shapes and modifiers.
-
Quick Tip – Enhance Your Footage With 32 BPC
Learn the benefits of using 32 BPC instead of the standard 8 BPC.
-
Create A Techie Math Animation
It might seem difficult, but with a quick expression, some precomping and shapes, you can have an animation like this in no time!
-
Soak Your Logo With CC Glass
Use CC Glass to learn how to make your logo look as though it got soaked with water.
-
Build Some Sturdy Steel Structures
Learn how to create some awesome looking steel structure animations, using C4D and finishing up in AE.
-
Quick Tips – Understanding Memory and Multiprocessing
One of the biggest questions in the AE world, is learning how memory works, and how multiprocessing works. This tutorial really walks you through the guts of it.
-
52 Twitter People You Should Be Following
In this list I compiled I found 52 of the best people you should follow on Twitter if you are an AE user.
-
Audio Reactant Time Remapping
You like your footage to move with the beat of your music, well check this out for a quick tutorial on time remapping, waveform and some expressions.
-
Create Your Own “Green” Earth Day Animation
Learn how to simulate a raindrop rolling down a leaf, that also looks like an Earth.
-
Recreate The Matrix Chopper Scene
Remember that famous shot where the chopper is shooting the side of the building and the shells are raining down on the camera… yeah check this tutorial out.
-
Enter A 3D Samurai Chamber
Learn how to work with 3D in AE with 3D rooms, and layers in 3D space. Also work with the 3D camera a lot too.
-
Achieve a Microfilm Machine Look
You know those microfilms at the library? Learn how to simulate something like that in this awesome tutorial.
-
21 Motion Graphics and Visual Effects User Groups and Meetups
Check out this article to find a user group close to your location!
-
Chomp Out Your Own Pac Man Animation
Who doesn’t love Pac Man? Who doesn’t love creating their own Pac Mac ANIMATIONS!?
-
Dive Into A HUD Diver Mask Animation
Ever wanted to see the world through a diver’s eyes? Well with this tutorial, it makes the experience easy, without having to leave your computer.
-
Use A Jello-Jiggly Expression – Quick Tip
Another jiggly text animation, this one doesn’t use C4D and only After Effects.
-
Extending Your Set With Cinema 4D
Learn how to create awesome backgrounds and extend your virtual sets with a combo of AE and C4D.
-
Fluidic Designs Using Particular
If you have ever seen those water fountains that create images or characters by shooting water out at different times, this Particular tutorial lets you achieve just that.
-
An Inside Look At OpenGL Within After Effects
Take an in depth look at OpenGL, and exactly what it is, and how it works.
-
Control A 3D Deck of Cards Like Magic
Learn how to fan out a deck of cards and pick cards out all inside of After Effects.
-
Move Forward Using A Multi-Limb Walk Cycle
Learn how to create a walk cycle for creatures such as crabs, ants, and spiders.
-
Put Your Face Onto An Inanimate Object
The Annoying Orange was one of the more popular Youtube series this year, learn how to achieve the effect with this tutorial.
-
Advanced 2D Cartoon Lip Sync Animation
Learn how to do some interesting lip sync animations with this tutorial from Dave Scotland.
-
Program A Fallout 3 “Pipboy” Touch Screen
This tutorial teaches you how to make a UI screen similar to the Pipboy tech in Fallout 3.
-
Focus On Making A Simulated Microscope Field of View
If you ever need to have a microscope shot in a production for inspecting DNA… this is the tutorial that you want.
-
Ignite A Sizzlin’ Hot Fire Burst
Learn how to ignite someone’s arms with this amazing looking fire tutorial.
-
Convert Your Animations For Stereoscopic Viewing
If you want to make your footage stereo 3D, but not spend the money on the camera… this is a perfect solution.
-
Composite A Super Stellar Jet Chase Shot
Top Gun ain’t got nothing on these guys. Learn how to put together an awesome jet chase shot.
-
Use Music To Create A Particle Splash
Use your music to create splashes of particle for treble, bass, and then mix those together to make a trippy animation.
-
Free 3D Matchmoving Alternative For After Effects
A lot of people can’t afford expensive matchmoving plugins and programs, but this quick technique will help out some of your matchmoving woes.
-
Introduction To Writing Scripts
Learn how the masters write scripts for all of use to use in this huge 5 part series.
Visit Part 1 Visit Part 2 Visit Part 3 Visit Part 4 Visit Part 5
-
The Projector – Old School Movie Intro Walkthrough
Old school movies are always fun to watch… and they are even more fun to make!
-
Play An Intense Game Of Human Pong
Pong with two paddles is awesome, but pong with a paddle and a tennis player is doubly awesome! Check out how to make this awesome effect.
-
33 Books To Reference On Your VFX and Mograph Journey
If you are in the market for reading, you need to check out this list of books to keep in your library for some handy reading.
-
16 Essential Things to Have on Set For the Litte-to-No-Budget Filmmaker
This is a cool little list of things that are really to handy to have if you are a low budget filmmaker.
-
Make Your Own Smooth 3D Outlined Text Using Particles
3D text is something we all like to use, although without plugins it is hard to create. Learn how to create this awesome effect with particles ONLY!
-
Rewind Your Animation Like An Old VHS Tape
Learn how to simulate your video rewinding like an old VHS tape player.
-
A Handy Hassle-Free Stop Motion Look
Learn how to treat your footage so it stutters and skips a bit to make it look like a handmade stop motion video.
-
Recreate Your Own “Tron” Title Opener
The Tron titles are awesome, no doubt about that. Learn how to recreate them with some C4D and AE.
-
Quick Tip – Shoot Your Own Stereoscopic Footage
Learn how to shoot your own stereo footage, right in your own backyard.
-
A Funky Introduction To SoundKeys
Soundkeys is a robust, albeit, not as revered plugin as it really is. Learn some really cool techniques using this plugin in this awesome 3 part series.
-
Splice Together A Quick Filmstrip Animation
Ever need a filmstrip floating through the air for a logo reveal or a credit sequence? Fabio Cunha has you covered.
-
Work On Developing Your Running “Form”
Learn how to map a ton of particles using Trapcode Form to a runner to make a really interesting animation.
-
Drop In Your Logo With Some Bouncing Ropes
You can learn to act like the puppeteer with this tutorial letting you drop a bunch of letters into a scene like they are on ropes.
-
Make Some NOISE! Jumbotron Noise Meter
Those animations at sporting events where the noise meters explode because the crowd is so crazy is exactly the type of animation you will be making in this tutorial.
-
60 Wing Flaps At 60 Frames Per Second
Slow down your hummingbird (that you create in AE) so that you can actually see him flapping his little wings.
-
Jump Into An Animated Freeze Frame Sequence
Learn how to create the look of a person in action being echoed behind them.
-
Capture The Moment With A Bullet Time Muzzle Flash
This awesome looking muzzle flash is something you would see if you were able to freeze time at the exact moment a gun fired. Pretty epic.
-
Engage In A Harry Potter “Priori Incantatem” Duel
Spells and Curses oh my! This 3 day wandwork lesson will teach you how to recreate the popular Priori Incantatum effect from Harry Potter.
-
Form An Attractive Energy Ball
Using Trapcode Form, Stefan Surmabojov shows you how to create an awesome looking energy ball.
-
Unfold A Magical Pop Up Book Simulation
Pop up books are things you just don’t forget from your childhood. Learn how to recreate that effect in AE to share with everyone!
-
Enough Lower Thirds To Feed A Small Country
This is an amazing tool if you make a lot of lower thirds with the same look, but don’t want to keep messing with text. Huge time saver.
-
Dealing With Spontaneous Particle Combustion
Another reall cool fire text disappearing effect. This shows something burning up.
-
Aetuts+ Hollywood Movie Title Series – Prince of Persia
Another Hollywood movie title effect, this time Prince of Persia, and again using C4D and AE. Learn how to recreate the look of those titles in this epic tutorial.
-
Quick Tips and Hints Inside of After Effects
This is an article I wrote trying to show some of the not-so-well-known features of AE.
-
Grow From Young To Old In 2.5 Seconds
Learn how to create the look of rapid aging inside of After Effects.
-
Switch On This Casino Style Text Effect Tonight
Casino lights are always fun to use in titles, learn how to make a really cool twinkly casino light effect.
-
Compositing a CG Building Leap
Learn how to create a epic looking building leap, like the one seen in iRobot.
-
How to Track Live Video to a Postcard
This awesome tutorial (before Mocha) is a great way to track footage to a postcard or any planar surface for that matter.
If you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks! Also make sure to add your own ideas and gadgets in the comments below!