Procedural 3D Motion Trail | After Effects Tutorial

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a fully procedural 3D Motion Trail. Once you’ve set it up, all you need to do is drop in your cut out or rotoscoped footage, and it outputs a motion trail effect. You’ll have controllers to create a dynamic animation, and add your own controls depending on what you’re animating. This rig is ideal for dynamic sports motion graphics. So I’ve used footage from the 2024 Olympics, with gymnast Simone Biles and skateboarder Tom Schaar. But this rig isn’t just for American Olympic athletes! You can use it for pretty much anything. Collage style animation or kinetic type. Think of it like a free plugin. ============================================================= Get $50 off Motion Array [Affiliate link]: https://bit.ly/3Vsv4LV Get $50 off Artlist [Affiliate link]: https://bit.ly/43UKqgU This video isn't sponsored but if you subscribe I will receive a small commission. ============================================================= EXPRESSIONS USED IN THIS TUTORIAL Please note that unfortunately youtube doesn't allow angled brackets in their titles or descriptions, so you may get errors with some of these. I've replaced the instances of angled brackets with greater than and less than (remove the spaces either side) but let me know in the comments if you still have issues. It's highly likely that I've missed some. For Time Remap value: td = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("time - difference")("Slider"); x = effect("x")("Slider"); ts = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("time - start")("Slider"); ts+[td*x] For Slider Control (rename “x”): n = thisLayer.name.split(","); n[1] For Transform effect (Position property): seedRandom(index,true); xran = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("position wiggle - X")("Slider")/2; yran = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("position wiggle - Y")("Slider")/2; x = random(-xran,xran); y = random(-yran,yran); [960+x,540+y]; Layer Count: layerNumber = 0;//start the counting of layers at 0; layerStartWith = "footage"; for(i=1;i less than =thisComp.numLayers;i++){ if (thisComp.layer(i).name.slice(0,layerStartWith.length) == layerStartWith) layerNumber =layerNumber +1; } layerNumber For Transform effect (Opacity property): x = effect("x")("Slider"); y = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("layers - start")("Slider"); if(x&lt=y) 100 else 0 Opacity (for layers - end): x = effect("x")("Slider"); y = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("layers - end")("Slider")+1; if(x greater than =y) 0 else 100 Transform Effect Opacity (for layers - start): x = effect("x")("Slider"); y = thisComp.layer(":: control ::").effect("layers - start")("Slider"); if(x greater than =y) 100 else 0 ============================================================= Custom Motion Trail Rig | After Effects Tutorial: ► https://youtu.be/aKMRZiUNTT0 Procedural Ripped Paper Effect | After Effects Tutorial: ► https://youtu.be/Je11oKmuUwY This After Effects Expression will BLOW. YOUR. MIND.: ► https://youtu.be/vuFduwWzaTE ============================================================= ► Download free motion trail rig file: https://thevideoshop.gumroad.com/l/hnmtta ► Download other free project files from my gumroad: https://gumroad.com/thevideoshop ============================================================= Chapters: 00:00:00 - 3D motion trail in After Effects 00:00:12 - Fully procedural - just drag and drop footage 00:00:23 - Customisable controls 00:00:37 - Free After Effects project file 00:00:53 - Rotobrush v AI 00:01:17 - Breakdancer motion trail 00:01:31 - How the rig works 00:02:08 - thisLayer.name.split expression 00:03:00 - Adding a Control Null 00:03:18 - Time Controllers 00:03:34 - Time Remapping Expression 00:04:24 - Adding reference timecode 00:05:13 - Adjust Time Difference 00:05:37 - Match Timing to Comp Framerate 00:06:13 - Framerate controller 00:06:55 - X Position Expression 00:08:23 - Z Position Expression 00:09:34 - Layer Count expression 00:10:31 - Layers Start / End 00:12:50 - Tom Scharr animation walkthrough 00:13:17 - Knowing what footage to work with 00:14:07 - Camera tracking 00:14:35 - Animating rotoscoped footage 00:15:25 - Isolating the rotoscoped footage 00:15:46 - Animating layers start and end value ============================================================= ► Subscribe for more tutorials like this: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCuJz7_aphxhoq8RdKbFE9Q?sub_confirmation=1 ============================================================= ► If you have any questions just let me know in the comments. ► Find me: https://linktr.ee/TheVideoShop #aftereffectstutorial #collageanimation #sportsgraphics #rippedpaperaftereffects #animation #learnaftereffects #motiondesign #learnmotiondesign #learnanimation