Creating a Kaleidoscope with After Effects

How to create a kaleidoscope in After Effects. No plugins needed. Project files available on Patreon.
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#aftereffectstutorial #kaleidoscope #motiongraphics

[@tika88ful]

I wanted to properly thank you in-class but i got shy and walked away. Thank you for the wonderful Semester you gave us and i was happy to hear we gave you a good one as well. I'm Grateful of your knowledge and I had fun, even if AE isn't really my field of work. It's sad to see you go already but c'est la vie. Thanks again and I'm positive I'll use these skills you taught us in the future!

[@CGStirk]

Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm glad you learned some AE, and hopefully you can apply the concepts later down the road. If you ever need anything, feel free to reach out here or via the contact info I send out on Canvas. Have a great summer!

[@Kyriannairyk]

Being a novice I'll have to watch this again and again, but I absolutely love your way to teach: quick and straight to the point. Beautiful kaleidoscope by the way. Keep it up!

[@CGStirk]

Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@chriscannataro7824]

lol dude you're like the bob ross of after effects. this was great.

[@CGStirk]

Ha ha, thanks!

[@likewahtzup]

This was super helpful, and you went at a pace that even a complete beginner was able to understand which I appreciate a ton!

[@CGStirk]

That's great! Really pleased you enjoyed it!

[@collinleix3180]

Oh my god! You went above and beyond. I've been using AE for years and you showed me a few effects I've never used. Gorgeous!

[@CGStirk]

Thanks! Glad you found it helpful!

[@jacoboswald5731]

This tutorial blew my mind I was just sitting on my couch with my mouth wide open! Thanks man great tutorial! After Effects is so freakin cool

[@CGStirk]

Glad to blow your mind, man! Yep, AE is awesome!

[@Lomaxient]

Great tutorial. One thing I found when experimenting, was that simply setting the RepeTile effect to Rosette and blurring the edges 100% works great for a really simple 4 way mirror effect.

[@CGStirk]

Thanks. That's a cool idea. There's also CC Kaleida of course, but use whatever method works the best for you!

[@Lomaxient]

@@CGStirk - Yeah, I've been using that a lot.

[@joelharrisstudio]

WOW ! - I'm so glad I found you! You have some awesome ideas about fractal kaleidoscope possibilities. I have to create a kaleidescope movie that will help people move into a trance state. I received a vision with some key qualities that the movie will need to have and I think this tutorial will get me where I need to go....Thank you again!

[@CGStirk]

You're welcome, and thank you very much! It's always nice to get such a positive comment on my channel.

[@AudioSoulHealing]

That was awesome, used some effects and masks in combinations I'd never considered. really great final output and fidelity!

[@CGStirk]

Glad you liked it!

[@tinajalali4856]

please make more videos like this!! This was the best tutorial, so easy to follow.

[@CGStirk]

Thank you!

[@davidwestphal2373]

beautiful. Amazing to see that workflow. Lots of good nuggets in there.

[@CGStirk]

Thanks! Yeah, I try to add as many little tricks in my videos as possible. Glad you liked it!

[@burtveracruz]

FIrst off, I love this tutorial and I'm super thankful I found it!!! If you want to build in some flexibility into your mirror angles, parent your reflection angle to the slider control then use the index function to set your angle so you aren't typing it in. Slider.control.blah.blah - ((index-1)*15). Then just duplicate that layer 24 times to get to 360°

[@CGStirk]

Thanks, I'm glad you found it useful! Yes, that's a good idea!

[@HuyLe2607]

Everything from this tutorial is so perfect. Cannot complain anything. Thank you very much

[@CGStirk]

Awesome, thanks!

[@hugorojas1538]

I learned more that i was looking for. Thanks! Awsome video

[@MajickRs]

My kaleidoscope image has an uneven corner. I can't figure out why the corner on the top right sticks out, all my angle values are the same as the example. As I move the timeline forward, it goes away and comes back. Any idea why?

[@CGStirk]

Perhaps one of the mirror layers doesn't have the correct expression. If you join the Discord server you can post your aep and image for me to take a look.

[@RaffaeleZarrella]

I hope you are still making videos and tutorials, cause you are great! Thanks so much

[@sirkarmart]

Thanks for great tutorial.

[@CGStirk]

You're welcome!

[@himadrivyas7826]

Hey! I have a question, to place second image you made your own layer but what if I want to use an existing image instead of that? Do I skip to adjustment layer directly?

[@CGStirk]

yeah, there's no need for the solid and fractal effects if you just want to use your own image 👍

[@joekaparkour]

Awesome tutorial man! So much great tips in this one effect! I'm gonna try it out right now!

[@CGStirk]

Thanks!

[@AmitBatra205]

You my dear sir are Awesome!

[@CGStirk]

Thanks, man!

[@Ausinast]

Thank you so much for this vid!! I'm gonna nail my AE class

[@twowirelessbrains4728]

one more question: i get the error: "Error: effect named ´Both Channels´ is missing or does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, deleted or the name may have been mistyped". any ideas what the problem could be?

[@CGStirk]

Are you using audio? "Both Channels" seems to indicate that you are. Without seeing the comp, it's a little hard to diagnose. Can you provide more info?

[@twowirelessbrains4728]

@@CGStirk omg so sorry i postet that question under the wrong tutorial hahaha thanks anyways and thanks for the great video!

[@CGStirk]

@@twowirelessbrains4728 Haha no problem

[@garag9]

Nice tutorial dude! thanks you for share !

[@CGStirk]

Thank you for watching!

[@kaleidoscopebeats9958]

Really nice tutorial, what is the benefit to using mirror over the Kaleida preset?

[@CGStirk]

Thanks! The Kaleida preset is good too! This method in the tutorial allows for more control and you can have as many mirrors as you want. Plus you could animate them differently and make a weird kaleidoscope if you wanted.

[@kaleidoscopebeats9958]

@@CGStirk Thanks for the explanation. Will definitely look at the mirror tool going forward.

[@onceuponakillteam-sean]

Seriously good stuff man !

[@anarchist]

You're the man, man.

[@BassdropTheory]

thank you kindly for this tutorial good sir

[@CGStirk]

You're welcome!

[@aodhanmorrissey]

Thank you for this! happy to be your 1000th sub :)

[@CGStirk]

Hurray! Thanks so much and I'm glad you enjoyed the tutorial!

[@aodhanmorrissey]

@@CGStirk Quick question, any idea how you might transition between multiple combinations of blending modes and images smoothly? if you wanted to incorporate more than one kaleidoscope in the video?

[@CGStirk]

@@aodhanmorrissey One way would be to make multiple Image comps inside the Kaleiodoscope comp then animate the opacity of these Image comps. Not sure if that's what you mean...

[@aodhanmorrissey]

@@CGStirk Will give it a try and let you know, cheers!

[@gv0zdysh0k]

gorgeous!

[@CGStirk]

thanks!

[@liennez]

This is just amazing!

[@CGStirk]

Thank you!

[@slycullen7596]

Can you do this with any old image? Im making a short film with psychedelic effects and this would be really cool to transition between real life and animation

[@CGStirk]

Yeah, any image or video!

[@syntheticfauna]

Subscribed, Very Good Tut, keep them coming...

[@CGStirk]

Thanks!

[@lemelissalp]

Спасибо! То что было нужно

[@CGStirk]

Пожалуйста 👍

[@STONJAUS_FILMS]

very nice tutorials. thank you!

[@biblicalbee2082]

goodness me!! liked and subscribed good job

[@CGStirk]

Thank you!

[@sofiakearney8773]

I really liked your weird glass texture. Any chance you can put a link to download it in the description box? Thank you for the tutorial. Its amazing :)

[@CGStirk]

Sorry for the super late reply. It's available here: abduzeedo.com/tuesday-total-textures-169

[@lutosfera5008]

love it! ty so much

[@kuznetsov_denis_alexandrovich]

Thank You!

[@honnashankara3681]

Thanks man :)

[@cj20bear]

How do you add music to it so that it moves with the kaleidoscope?

[@CGStirk]

Drag in some music file (or a video with music), right-click on it > Keyframe Assistant > Convert Audio to Keyframes. This creates an Audio Amplitude layer. Select this and press 'U'. From there you can attach whatever animation channel you want. Here's a link to another tutorial I made on this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXm9lmp7l61keZo&ab_channel=CGStirk.

[@Judefir]

AMAZING THANK U

[@CGStirk]

You're welcome!

[@rachelhorst547]

This is so great! I'm getting a blur when I rotate and I can't figure out how to resolve it. Thoughts?

[@CGStirk]

Thanks! Too much motion blur, meaning you're rotating it too fast? Not really sure, sorry!

[@rachelhorst547]

I realized the blur was only in preview and was resolved once I rendered the video :)

[@gghbgtdg8047]

sweet bro keep making tuts I hate watching dumb ppl like eva or someone I mean it's what you present to ppl that make them respect you.

[@CGStirk]

I've got a few good ones coming soonish, I hope.

[@androthebot]

whats the difference to using the kaleida fx?

[@CGStirk]

CC Kaleida is a good effect too! This way you have more flexibility to customize a kaleidoscope effect though :)

[@Sen_Rida]

ahh i love this but i don't understand why i cant add another image and have the kaleidoscope effect on it and its the same with effects ;( please help

[@CGStirk]

Hi. I'm not sure what the problem is without seeing the comp. If you get one image to work, you can place as many image layers as you want in that comp and the kaleidoscope will work on all of them at the same time. Can you explain the issue in more depth?

[@Sen_Rida]

CGStirk strange 🤔 idk then...

[@harshitsharma7771]

I am not able to attach the reflection angle to the mirror slider ...the expression thing doesn't come up...nor is the 300 turning red ...where am i going wrong?

[@harshitsharma7771]

NVM got it

[@CGStirk]

Are you holding down the alt key when clicking the stopwatch?

[@elia3419]

hey i have a question in comp main i cant play the video or make it one it says after effects error:cached prewiew needs 2 or more frames to playback how can i make this normal again or a video

[@elia3419]

found it!

[@CGStirk]

@@elia3419 yeah, your work area was just one frame probably haha

[@elia3419]

@@CGStirk yep noticed that im starter in after effects that got me scared :D

[@elia3419]

@@CGStirk thanks for the good tutorial it was good and you explained it simple and easy thanks!

[@CGStirk]

@@elia3419 You're welcome

[@BonitoXv]

Lovely. How do you open the texture library?

[@CGStirk]

The texture library is my own, opened with Windows Explorer. Not sure if that's what you're referring to.

[@genovajonas]

Nice vid and nice keyboard too lol

[@CGStirk]

Gotta have a mechanical keyboard lol.

[@morganbouldes9762]

I keep geting an error message when I try to make it rotate 50 degrees every second. is there an alternative for Time "50

[@CGStirk]

The expression is " time * 50 ". The code has to be exact and is case-sensitive. The alternative is manually animating the evolution.

[@morganbouldes9762]

@@CGStirk Thanks my guy

[@roisinmartindale7810]

Is it possible to import video clips in the place of images/textures?

[@CGStirk]

Of course!

[@thosearepinklemons]

How can I do this kind of kaleidoscope but with the image rotations expanding out to the edge of the document? I do not want the black background.

[@CGStirk]

You could just make kaleidoscope comp bigger than you need and then zoom in by increasing the scale of that comp layer.

[@thosearepinklemons]

For some reason this just altered and shrank all of the adjustment layers as well. the only way I found to do it (and I'm definitely a noobie rn) was to crop to the region of interest. It did work to do that but let me know if that's not right. I'm familiar with Ps and Ai but just diving into AE. I applied this kaleidoscope effect to some abstract artwork I made and it turned out great! Thanks for making the video and replying to my question

[@CGStirk]

You're welcome. It's kind of hard to know exactly what the issue was without seeing the comp, but I'm glad you found the video useful.

[@mightymaurya2987]

how can i add hue to it?? i mean do i need to create an adjustment layer to do that??

[@mightymaurya2987]

i don't know what expressions to use.

[@CGStirk]

Yeah, add an adjustment layer over the kaleidoscope image or the entire comp, then add a hue/saturation effect. The expression to use depends on what you want to achieve. If you just want it to cycle, enable Colorize, then add a time expression to the Colorize Hue like: time * 90

[@mightymaurya2987]

@@CGStirk this was much needed reply. Thank you so much man, much respect ❤️

[@CGStirk]

@@mightymaurya2987 You're welcome!

[@DankFranks]

You smoke DMT or what?

[@samueljordan7081]

How to make it react to audio?

[@CGStirk]

It's pretty easy, but there are several steps. Here's a tutorial I made about it. The subject is different, but the concept can be applied to any animation. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXm9lmp7l61keZo

[@samueljordan7081]

@@CGStirk ok thank you

[@CGStirk]

You're welcome

[@angwenyimark]

my computer keyboard doesn't have a num-pad area

[@Sharpdus]

don't understand why you just don't show your final result at the beginning of the video

[@CGStirk]

I do that now. This is an old video.

[@michaelmuller6029]

or you just use cc kaleida xd

[@sidscubemedia7810]

full hard

[@CGStirk]

💯

[@drorlevy2916]

Nice tutorial, thanks I like most of your tutorials though it's pretty hard to understand what you're saying. please try to speak a bit slower so you wont swallow so many words :)

[@CGStirk]

Sorry about that. More recently I've edited out any stutter or pause, but I still talk quickly. Hopefully the subtitles help if I talk too fast 😬

[@AstronoizeOfficial]

Dude......... 🤯 🤕

[@CGStirk]

Hopefully the damage is reversible 😂

[@psychi7080]

lsd

[@TohkaNation]

It cud of been 5 mins ^-v

[@CGStirk]

🙄 lol

[@TohkaNation]

@@CGStirk in my opinion, no hate