AUTOMATIC Smears in After Effects?! FREE AE Tool

Get Schmeeer: help.battleaxe.co/freebies/sc...
Kbar: aescripts.com/kbar/
Smear frames allow you to emphasize fast-moving objects in animation by creating a distorted version of two or more frames. This technique is sometimes used by traditional animators as a way to mimic motion blur with their drawings, and gives the animation a very authentic and fun look and feel. Schmeeer uses clever expressions to drive the Echo effect as an automatic smear generator, with easy and intuitive controls for dialing in the exact look you're after.
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Chapters
00:00 Setup
00:51 Using Schmeeer
05:39 Applying Schmeeer to Precomps
08:33 Targeting Specific Layers
10:25 1 Frame Smears
11:44 KBar Icon
12:17 Thanks for watching!

[@BenMarriott]

Amazing! This looks like a fantastic tool :D

[@jaretanderson]

I watch a ton of AE tutorials and frequently think that stuff is cool, but rarely actually implement it. You have one of the highest success rates of communicating a concept that is immediately and easily applicable, love it.

[@alexfreedomroad]

9:50 When I saw you doing that, I ran into AE and made a test and I'm impressed by knowing I can control effects in multiple layers using a null object

[@TabletsAndTemples]

OMG, that just changed my life forever.

[@jonnysanders6186]

Just did exactly the same. How the hell did i not know about this? Incredible

[@JakeInMotion]

Guess I should make a dedicated video to that technique!

[@TabletsAndTemples]

@@JakeInMotion So many times I want to create an adjustment layer that only effects particular layers, of course AE doesn't have this function without pre-composing, which isn't always ideal. This little trick is the perfect workaround!

[@waylenmiki_1]

If you like that, Essential Graphics might destroy you entirely (as it did me!)

[@toddvanmeter]

I really appreciate you offering freebies. It is what keeps After Effects a community and drives growth.

[@FilmDat]

Man, what would After Effects be without you. All these tools have saved me so much time.

[@andrewbui7418]

Can’t have enough of these amazing tools! Thank you Jake & BattleAxe 🥰

[@cenkozmercan]

Motion 3 has something pretty close to this, but it also adds in chockers to play so kind of distorts the "smear" (but gives more control). Thanks for sharing this as it looks like this might be a better choice for cleaner results.

[@vineetpratapsingh1648]

great video! im super amazed of this quality of videos being your first one, keep going and youll make it far! :D

[@StoutPika]

Im workin on a project and this came in CLUTCH!! Thanks Jake and BattleAxe

[@Dossell]

Still new to AE I thought it didn't work until I got the keyframes close enough! Thank you btw! Learning the most about effects through your channel!

[@zohaibmalik819]

Really nice techniques and thanks for sharing everything.

[@jamesbali1300]

Incredible! Thank you so much for sharing the plugin and all that knowledge with us, I really appreciate it!

[@1WillyDAVID]

Really awesome tool, thanks for sharing Jake

[@konraddobson]

So awesome! Also thanks for that little tip about Property Links. That's going to become a major part of my workflow from now on.

[@tomaszkac1160]

Standing ovations from me! Good job guys. What a legends!

[@myvideoguy]

Great tool!! Great Demo Jake!! Thank you.

[@imran.ah1]

Hi Jake!! Love your works!!

[@knoxgordon9859]

I love the echo effect! I've been using it in conjunction with frac noise and time displacement to make some crazy dynamic smears. I also used it in a recent project to make an oscilloscope. I think I was rendering like 10000 samples at like one every .00001 sec. great advice in this video. I didn't know the workaround for echo with precomps.

[@Wolfmoss1]

Looks simple and intuitive, and a massive timesaver!

[@QuaverloveStudio]

Schmeeers to you, Jake and Battle Axe. Much appreciated.

[@michaelmuller6029]

This is such a gift to the community!

[@aaronboothproduction]

Wow thanks! I will literally use this all the time for my job.

[@squareinsquare2078]

Presents, and it's not even my birthday. Thanks Jake, you're the bestest!

[@scottsimmons6814]

Great video! I'm doing a lot of cartoon work now so I'll definitely download some Schmeer! Thanks.

[@ondrejstindl431]

COOOOL ! Thank you :) BTW your collaboration with battleaxe is very nice project..

[@RomanDexty]

Threshold option is a time saver, nice tool

[@user-wi1dy5yb3d]

That was so helpful! I just started using soft and was so overwheld!

[@lopsangdlama]

Interesting preset, I can already see how it will make my workflow more efficient

[@fabricioalveswork]

This is awesome! Great video too! Thank you!

[@AmrAmin86]

Amazing!.Thanks so much guys.

[@jakewilliams7671]

Neat tool, looks super handy!

[@Raul3Fullea]

Dude, your content is so good it give me chills

[@JakeInMotion]

🥶

[@psychod74]

so cool thx i will check this tomorrow

[@nerm0557]

Thanks for your time!

[@yuvrajsingh-gm6zk]

a huge thank you, man!

[@milossubotic3659]

Very useful tutorial, always a pleasure listening to you! Just for some reason it won't work on my after effects 2022 version. I placed ffx. file to the Presets folder (MAC), but it won't appear in program, even I restarted laptop. Do you maybe know what could be the case? Thank you :)

[@hanneshuber3d]

Thanks!! Great tool :D

[@paulvansommeren]

This is exactly like what I posted under your Echo EoAE video!

[@yushashrestha4555]

I had no idea tNice tutorials blew up until now holy sNice tutorialt

[@ultravioletidea]

Another great lesson!

[@ArisMelachroinos]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@Animotion1]

Ooo thanks so much for sharing!

[@winstonsgmx]

Wow, the thing I was surprised the most in this video was not the schmeer but the copy with property links function. WHY DID I NEVER USED THAT BEFOREEEEE?

[@leemeyers8352]

I'm on windows using Adobe AE 2023 and I had some similar issues as other commenters, but I was able to fix it on mine. First, you HAVE to follow the link that comes up in Reveal in Explorer 0:36 in AE and copy and paste that in Windows Explorer OUTSIDE of the pop-up window that comes up for him here. Do not select Schmeer from this first pop-window because *for me* it replaced the effect I used to open up "Reveal in Explorer" initially and preformed the function of what the other effect did instead. If you don't have a User Preset Folder (I didn't), add it to the PRESET folder instead and make sure it sits OUTSIDE of any of the other folders within the original Presets Folder (EX: Backgrounds, Behaviors, Image-Creative etc.). This fixed all issues I was having for my own personal use.

[@streetmonkeyTUBE]

Great tool - thanks.

[@DiggyKalborn]

Thanks for the tutorial, Jake! How would I get this to work with a Rubberhose layer? I try applying it to a hose, but nothing happens.

[@chandrashekharnehete2623]

Nice tutorial

[@johnnytriumph8283]

You are a Fucking genius... I've watched loads of these videos now and I am crying with laughter each time. Keep doing what you're doing I haven't laughed this much since I was in high school. Just totally hilarious keep them coming

[@williammease]

Is it possible to schmeeer between to different pre-comps? For example, if you had a car at 45 degrees off the front and another from the side, it would be great to "schmeeer" them together looking like a fast movement/turn. I did download it. It's great. I just don't know if there's a way to do that.

[@angel_7250]

Thank youuu so much!!!

[@Gprolico]

thank you brow

[@johnalmighty]

Wow, you’re a real animator.

[@jaredtomkins]

This is so great

[@RyanDaily]

I love sphere schmeeer!

[@Derekwwest]

How are you animating your main camera (talking head) scale and position? Are you doing that manually? Do you have a plugin? Also, how are you warping your face in your thumbnails? Great video, left you a like!

[@eduardonegrini955]

Any tips? I’m a newbie learning

[@Totorus]

Awesome, thanks for sharing!!! (Copy with property links is a life saver and time saver!!!... Also with the null!!!).

[@ZeeJohansen]

Hahaha I had to try and see if I could make something myself with box blur and a simple choker, and for a circle going back and forth in a straight line that worked, for anything more complicated I'll just use that tool! xD

[@diegogamba7825]

Amazing!

[@OngKinh_Review]

how to animate the character's head and arms wobbling? Is there any expression that can create animation like The Infographics Show channel.

[@ahmedadel-ow2iw]

I tried using the effect in AE2022 and 2019 and it doesn't work, when i apply it on a shape layer I don't see any effects to control it jus adds 2 path points to the shape

[@emnersonn]

this is so cool

[@Ratphoria]

The best sponsor 🐐

[@henryperezfuentes8145]

I think you are the world�s best brother. You are an awesome friend, guide, and teacher in my life. Thanks for being a wonderful brother. Happy Birthday and God bless you.

[@fajarzildan249]

you gotta tune the instrunt, by right clicking on it in the channel rack

[@juliannoor4864]

very much your efforts to help us noobs out.

[@user-kn6uv5yo7s]

hey,bro,long time no see.thank you.

[@The8BitDuke]

Since Echo doesn't work on pre-comps like normal Shapes and such like you mentioned, what about items like Pictures or Footage itself? (I'm thinking of a PNG still of an artwork that may move suddenly where a smear might accentuate the movement, especially in a more cartoon total environment, but the PNG itself may be of a famous painting, for example.) Would applying Echo to something like that be ill-advised? I tend to have less Shape work in my AE projects since I'm doing more animating rasterized items for effect, but this stuff makes me want to get so much more into proper Shape and vector motion art as well. Excellent explanation and looking forward to experimenting!

[@JakeInMotion]

It actually works really great on raster images, you just have to precompose them and then enable the collapse transformations switch. I just tried with the Mona Lisa and it actually worked better than I anticipated.

[@The8BitDuke]

@@JakeInMotion Amazing, thank you so much!!!!

[@barbaraoliveira517]

Nice tutorial-5 Bro!

[@aciyedi]

I can't seem to install in CC 2022.Can you help me?

[@ayabtoen]

How did you make this video Thumbnail picture?

[@coopervacheron]

Awesome

[@SouthernShotty]

Amped to see this channel blow up! Time to Collab soon :)

[@justGoscha]

Ooh that's schmaaart!

[@dwaynereedBK]

Great plug-in! Just a note that it doesn't work when applied to a text layer that uses text animators. Confused as to why that happens since I see a result when I apply the echo effect by itself.

[@JakeInMotion]

Thanks! Yes, that's because Schmeeer needs to "read" the motion in order to trigger the Echo effect. Since the motion from a text animator doesn't have that data readily available, it's not able to trigger the effect.

[@rameshsaini5901]

But how do I make s in tNice tutorials using my midi keyboard?

[@jippalippa]

Similar to what the "Motion 3.0" script does (among an other million things)

[@BozzyBot]

One question/suggestion (take it as you will), I'm using the most current version of after effects and this tool is only working for shape layers, which means I can't use Photoshop layer artwork or pngs images with this tool. If there's a way to fix this that would be great to know!

[@JakeInMotion]

Sorry I forgot to mention the workaround, but it's the same problem as with precomps. AE sees footage layer differently. To get around it, precompose the layer and then collapse the transformations.

[@tyson9759]

Sorry if this is too heavy a question- what’s up w battle axe? Something I need to like… buy / join to get effects? What is it

[@JakeInMotion]

I'm so glad you asked kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGeUgp1-m8qVf8k

[@xpez9694]

schmeer.. bagelize your after effects workflow...

[@bakhtiyaraghabalayev4078]

Thanks for such a great tutorial and tool! Does it works in M1 Pro?

[@JakeInMotion]

Yes.

[@bakhtiyaraghabalayev4078]

@@JakeInMotion I have checked it and it didn't :/

[@JakeInMotion]

What happens when you try?

[@emiliowav97]

I'm having trouble applying schmeeer to my artwork while using limber? Think limber might be interfering in any way here? I applied the schmeeer fx straight to the arm of my character and nothin. I've adjusted threshold to 0 and nothin and I definitely have tons of movement in the arm. Gonna keep trying to see how I can find a fix.

[@JakeInMotion]

Hmmm, I haven't used limber yet. Let me know if you find what's causing the issue, and I'll see what I can figure out too.

[@trevorwoodco]

So useful. And it's FREE?? Now I'm craving bagels 🤤

[@JakeInMotion]

YOU get a free bagel and YOU get a free bagel!

[@xueqingmao8717]

When I apply it to my layers, my AE pops a window saying"After Effects error: Could not convert Unicode characters" , and another time" After Effects error: internal verification failure, sorry!" Does anyone know how to fix it?

[@andreanrivanno2111]

Goat

[@ricksarq22]

TNice tutorials was the first video I saw to get into soft soft, tNice tutorials year in May. Today I published a Resetup from XXXTentacion "Moonlight".

[@bomberutkrec]

my dude! what about the echo decay? that's the best part of using the echo effect as motion blur! it makes it blend better when you are not going for a cartoonish look(:

[@JakeInMotion]

True, but smears are when you are going for a cartoonist look 🙂. You could always implement the decay value though!

[@liuwen62]

Ｍy AE is version 22.4 The circle shape layer appears using Schmeeer After Effects error: internal verifiaction failure, sorry ! {Duplicate match name found during FillnSreamFromCanonicalLayout} (29::0) Also KBar1's Schmeeer doesn't work either I don't know what's wrong

[@richard_beerens_designs]

Is there a way to make the Smear length larger/longer than 200%?

[@JakeInMotion]

No. We kept it from getting any longer because the point of the preset is to replicate traditional smears, which would never be longer than 100% in the first place. Plus that would take a LOT more echoes to pull off.

[@GuilhermeMello1]

I have applied the effect to a vector layer that moves from one point to another but my number of echoes controller is red and keeps returning to the default value. What am I doing wrong?

[@JakeInMotion]

You're not doing anything wrong. Red values means they're driven by an expression. The echoes value will always be zero unless your layer's speed is greater than the threshold value.

[@meganlopez6626]

I thought it was another trojan, but I got lucky, thanks dude

[@shawnsmith7375]

Thank you so much to everyone at Battle-axe!

[@apersingoptimist]

Bout to smear the hell out of some animations!

[@matteofeo7501]

Very cool. High five Battleaxe.

[@JakeInMotion]

I cannot recommend you ever high five a Battleaxe, unless you don't need your fingers.

[@LawsOnJoystick]

So iv roto'd an object thats moving..will this work with this?

[@JakeInMotion]

Not exactly. Schmeeer needs motion data from AE in order to trigger the echo effect. It's not going to smear anything from frame to frame because rotoscoped footage is just an image sequence. If you animate the position of the footage, then the echo effect can smear that motion.

[@LeighWilliamson]

I’m gona smear this spread on everything!

[@JakeInMotion]

🥯

[@rawls101]

For anyone using this on a Vector image or "Solid" layer, you likely won't see it working. You need to turn "Continually Rasterize" on.

[@johnlistertoraneo4325]

mine just got thermal shutdown

[@timaging]

Does this need an update? I'm not seeing the expressions changing when I change the percentages. I'm also not seeing any schmear at all

[@JakeInMotion]

Make sure you're applying schmeer to a vector layer, or a precomposed raster layer with the collapse transformations switch enabled.

[@timaging]

@@JakeInMotion I tried both shape layer and illustrator layer. I also turned on Collapse Transformations on the Illustrator layer and it didn't change anything either

[@timaging]

OK wait, I see something now. It's just not producing enough schmear to get past my mask.

[@leftclot]

It doesnt seem to work well with text animations. Anyone has a solution for this?

[@JakeInMotion]

It won't work with text animators, because Schmeeer has to be able to calculate the motion. Text animators don't have that motion data accessible, unfortunately.

[@leftclot]

@@JakeInMotion Ahh. Thanks a lot. Love how you understand AE well enough to break it down like this. Appreciate it.