EASY Halftones in After Effects with ZERO Third-Party Plugins!

I created the most comprehensive intro to After Effects, ever. Join Launch Into After Effects today: www.jakeinmotion.com/launch-into-after-effects
This tutorial goes along perfectly with my latest Skillshare class. Learn more about Texturing in After Effects here: skl.sh/3PeqyL9
I've come up with a technique for producing halftones in After Effects that uses ZERO third-party plugins. This is a completely flexible and customizable technique that will instantly convert anything you'd like into a halftone screen. This effect even works with colors and is extremely easy to dial in to look exactly the way you need it to. It works great as a stylized shading method or as a creative design direction. Get that gritty printed look, save it as a preset, and use it as often as you'd like.
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Ben Marriott's Halftone Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpuki2agocujmsU
Texturelab's Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIq8pGNvhNBnirc
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🤝 Support more KZbin tutorials through Patreon: www.patreon.com/jakeinmotion
🎓 Learn from me in other places:
Skillshare: bit.ly/jbskill
Explainer Camp: www.schoolofmotion.com/explainer-camp
Photoshop + Illustrator Unleashed: www.schoolofmotion.com/photoshop-and-illustrator-unleashed
🚶 Follow me online:
Instagram: bit.ly/jbinst
Twitter: bit.ly/2tOX7ui
🏷️ Tag me on Instagram @jakeinmotion if you learned something from me!
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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:40 Generating the dot pattern
03:09 Dialing in the halftone look
08:41 Shading with halftones
10:49 Texturing in After Effects
11:46 Applying halftones to a more complex scene
14:43 More examples
16:22 Applying halftones to 3D renders
17:57 Stylized applications
18:29 Halftones on footage

As a son of a print operator this makes me so happy to watch. Great as always, Jake! Thanks so much.

[@GusLuxmore]

Many ways of achieving an effect like this but this has to be the most versatile approach. Awesome tutorial, thanks!

[@ElChinoCarlos]

"Shading with Halftones" segment is absolutely mind-blowing! Thank you very much for this amazing tutorial! Eres un crack!

[@erdmx.]

You and Brady from texturelabs are changing my life. Plus Sean Tucker who has a great photography channel (Just like you two, his videos are well-structured and more focused on the why with smart steps to do how). Just 2-3 days ago, i was exploring to transform my music related videos to comic/graphic style like from texturelabs. Whenever i need a very specific look or technic, i see a notification for a new video from one of you three. It's kind of funny. I really want to thank you. Great people, great work!

[@justinh4408]

Best soft soft tutorial for beginners on KZbin! I'm an absolute beginner and all the other tutorials I've found on KZbin have been so

[@cordelringani7429]

My jaw is on the floor right now. I've been wondering if one can mess around with halftone effects in AE, and then you come up with this video. It's as of you knew. This brilliant! Thank you, Jake.

[@jbb1798]

Jusy came out of your skillshare beginner class. Shocking with the stack of effect add on to it. Thx for the great class

[@RyanDaily]

This technique is very helpful to someone like me who has a laser engraver. Halftone pattern images look amazing burnt into surfaces. 👍

[@guytrefler5991]

Came here after seeing Marriott's tutorial and you answered all of my needs & more! Great work as always Jake.

[@apersingoptimist]

Super well done, look this look and the accessibility of it! Definitely will have to use this on a project!! Thank you!

[@demcny8941]

Awesome tut as always! You're the best, Jake 🙌

[@serchman1202]

Man, thank you so much for still making tutorial videos. You're the reason I pay skill share 🙂

[@MrBeaun]

tGreat tutorial! I love that you broke the effect then went through the problem solving steps to fixing it! I'm likely to break the effect myself so that was helpful! Take care!

[@benniilsen]

This is an absolutely phenomenal tutorial. Wow.

[@seniorbrinco]

im going to try this with color separation for CMYK to try to have that angle difference, really nice tutorial, big fan here

[@briantriesart]

The dynamism of the video is as good as the information itself. Thanks

[@travisj.turner9318]

I think I love you Jake, amazing tutorial as always

[@Brabldibrablmann]

damn the value you provide with these tutorials is crazy. you just think of all the little things that i will run into following youtube tutorials (like the white edge around the image) and you actually adress them all. only found your channel recently and it already came in handy dozens of times while working on animations. Thank you 👍

[@davidcastaneda6111]

Dude, calm down, give him a child or something...are you on crack?

[@Brabldibrablmann]

@@davidcastaneda6111 oh no you trying to be edgy or something? I was just expressing my gratitude towards a guy that does an amazing job for free and saves me time.

[@big-red]

Loved this tutorial, will definitely be giving this a go!

[@national_bread]

I've wanted to do this for such a long time. Thank you so much

[@BryanSchultzitis]

Such a fantastic tutorial (as usual)

[@yesthatsam]

Amazing tutorial and result ! Thanks a lot !

[@Texturelabs]

Expert!! And thank you for the shout out! Nice elegant solution... love the way it looks on your logo reveal. I was also pretty stoked to see the Weird Al signature 🤘HARD MIX

[@JakeInMotion]

The hard mix blend mode from your tutorial was mind blowing; you're a wizard, Brady!

[@digitalArtform]

@@JakeInMotion kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHXMiY1jpc2MgJo

[@ccuny1]

Wow, you really picked the absolute best tuts on the subject for inspiration 5love those guys) and still managed to give it your own twist and personal touch. Looks great. Thanks a lot and now you're in my top three Hall of Fame for halftones with Brady and Ben. For what it's worth.

[@angelnievesphoto]

Absolutely awesome. Great stuff!

[@millthor]

Awesome tutorial as always! Thanks a lot!

[@estefaniahernandez1654]

Thank you Chris. I really appreciate it and that was exactly what I was trying to do. No fuss and helping people get on with what they need

[@chrispysaid]

...... who's Chris?

[@GrantMFletcher]

Absolutely stunning

[@roberthvala6459]

You killed it, again! Just awsome :)

[@avivar9353]

You are brilliant, Jake.

[@celestenana]

this is fire!!! thank you so much!!!

[@DIYBuilder]

Thanks for this video

[@gomaagamal6549]

Very helpful Video as always .

[@emnersonn]

i would have never expected that CC ball action would be in this video if i hadn't watched your effects of after effects series. look ma, i'm learning!

[@raerickson3470]

Wow - thank you for this!

[@spicy_burrito]

this is so creative... Thanks!

[@Totorus]

Incredible tutorial!!!... Thanks for sharing Jake!!!... Also i'll love to see some C4D tutorials!!!

[@n8theproducer]

So helpful thank you!

[@CatalinGulan]

Hey Jack, you keep doing a wonderful job! On top of that it was very nice you mentioned Brady and Ben who both have great channels. Bravo! You are a wonderful person too, not just a great professional!

[@chrispysaid]

Who's Jack?

[@snellbeast_jasonsnell]

WOW! Soooo good!

[@bobotube76]

GREAT! Thank you very much!

[@mitchstew]

Great Tutorial!

[@BenaliAmine]

Awesome Tutorial ! thanks a lot

[@MOGRAEMPIRE]

Thank you very much, I loved the video. Just one detail. In the halftone, the black is the one that draws the round dot (here it's upside down) I solved it by inverting the reference image, and placing another adjustment layer with another "invert" effect on top of it.

[@cretinatube]

you sir are amazing!

[@MUDHD]

Nice, thanks for this

[@ricflomusic]

the fountain of AE knowledge, thank you!

[@jso2332]

Oooo these textures are squishy and bubbly!

[@AndrewMarston]

Halftone with color! Very nice.

[@altable]

Very cool! Thanx!

[@MazzyTheGreat]

Very helpful video thanks

[@mrCetus]

wow I was thinking about doing something like this with three different layers with different sizes of ball action whose transparencies are controlled by a super posturized video layer. I thought it'd be cool to have distinct layers like block printing with different blocks. honestly I like your method better but I'm still going to try to finish mine.

[@johntnguyen1976]

This was so 🔥...gonna be using this method real soon! Also, I've been conditioned now to hear Film Riot's Turbulent Displace song everytime I hear someone say the name of that effect 🤣. ANd then finally...I've never payed attention to your Weird Al shrine lol...it may be the best thing I've ever seen in my life!

[@arsen_wasted]

This channel is a real gem of knowlege :) Peace

[@hellohogo]

That’s the most horrific thumbnail I’ve seen in a long time. Love it 😎🖤

[@patuta_design]

Super cool!!!! You're AE THE MASTER mate :)

[@netofacci.animations7512]

Thanks GOAT!

[@akhilae.t9273]

Will stay tuned to your channal! Cheers!

[@arthurmoura3485]

The best!

[@PericlesCosta28]

Amazing 😎

[@waylenmiki_1]

Awesome advice here. Thanks Jake! I've been wondering how to wrangle the half-tone effect properly and could not for the life of me figure out how to get gradients to work in conjunction with Ball Action. If you have time, could you do all of my work for me? That'd be great.

[@ericandreski3025]

If you want the black and white halftone look without the crunchiness of threshold, use a Levels filter instead. It gives you far greater control over the hardness of the edges and preserves more of the integrity of the original image since you don't need to blur it again.

[@sofia_robloxeditz]

This saved my life

[@paulvansommeren]

This is exactly how i do my halftones! I like to split them up in cmy channels, then process them individually and multiply them back together for a more print color look

[@JakeInMotion]

What's your technique for splitting up the color channels?

[@paulvansommeren]

@@JakeInMotion Use the levels effect on a precomp of the footage (makes swapping easier). Set the Output Black to 255 for two channels, repeat two more times. I also have the halftone dots in a precomp so I can easily change parameters. Transform sandwhich with rotation as essential property so I can change it per channel. Also, you have to exposure down your source footage or it will blow out.

[@blablubb4817]

You just deserved much more thab "just" over 300k subbers.

[@hongannguyen8000]

you're a god

[@simbiosisestudiodediseno4415]

SO COOL

[@ScratThunder]

PSA: This works only in 8 bit mode. If you work in 32 bit, be sure to add the "HDR Highlight Compression" directly after "Brightness & Contrast". I also tweaked the Brightness and Contrass a bit to get the (almost) same result as in the video.

[@user-jd6py1bg6j]

Спасибо большое, дружище😊 Ты мне очень сильно помог выйти на новый уровень

[@AR-nr2ix]

Jake you most probably know it... But i'll say again that you are one of best AE expert in the world

[@zohaibmalik819]

Really cool and amazing tutorial. Thanks for sharing. Also, one request if you could share the project files as well. Because creating the file from scratch in a short time is difficult. So, it's also easy to check the file and see how everything works. Thanks!

[@chrispysaid]

You really only have to do it once, what I do is create effects like these and save them as templates in a folder that I can go in and paste into whatever project I'm working on. Plus, putting it together helps you to understand all the different parts and how they function, making you a better motion artist, rather than just a dude who uses a bunch of assets other people made.

[@muexxl]

Mega mega mega!!!

[@AmerMiftari]

beauty is in the details 7:17

[@cretinatube]

would kill for a full tutorial of the bubble gum comp haha

[@ScribblyProductions]

So do we have to have this kbar thing? And is it $50?

[@uRick101]

- OMG it's GREAT!! :^o

[@useyzzz7]

Amazing tutorial What version of AE are you using to run kbar?

[@lumaspelzon9664]

Ily

[@atishuk]

Thank you Jake for the amazing tutorial. Just a small suggestion from my side on the video...nothing to do with anything with your amazing teaching skills but when I watch this video on mobile or laptop it sounds fine but when I put my headphone on, I can hear the subtle thud when you hit the keys on your keyboard which just sounds a smidge bad. Don't know why this is happening, maybe it's got to do with where you have placed your mic. 😶‍🌫

[@GiorgosRoussis-ov9hf]

wow nice and easy but if you want another shape of halftone lets say instead of ball a cross is it possible?

[@JSHFilms]

Are you able to change the size of the balls, so that you can have small ones than large ones throughout the video?

[@mohammedsalman292]

I've a learned alot from you, thank you, can u do more expressions too. Whats ur PC specs?

[@JakeInMotion]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYXCYZaVh857gKs

[@hanzlagonewild]

How to rig characters which were not made for rigging basically characters with no elbows and torsos and no leg connectors, please how can we rig them and also how can we do some fake 3D with them..

[@tilius.xyz_]

Using Overlord plug-in is my career. Don't know how I feel you revealing this magic plug-in.

[@lisafitri5415]

How do I pull up those effects slots on the left of the setuper?

[@JK9Monster]

Can you guide me how to use Boris FX Continuum?

[@nicocorrea3193]

Is there any tips you can offer?

[@jasonk9770]

Amazing. Is there a way to create halftone text with an alpha channel? I'm trying to create halftone text over clean video but the Solid Composite effect fills everything.

[@themysteriousunknownrevealed]

What are the chances we could get like... Maybe a Halloween special with Jake, you, Ben M. And Brady from Texurelabs solving a mystery? Maybe add a talking pet? I think it would be a hit!

[@gustavogranha3163]

Its attractive how calm tNice tutorials guy is

[@Cadence24]

what if I want this effect on a specific element and not on the whole scene? the solid composite make it that it will affect everything

[@d.s_status2694]

Where I found the Kbar in After Effects?

[@kasperrubin9078]

Seems to me Kbar is a plugin which I do not have!

[@skraghav22]

Hi Jake, I need to know when I was working on 4k comp & try to scale it down to 1920X1080 with the help of script scale composition, it actually scales down the whole composition but a few items on the comp doest fit... why it happens...I try to search many places for this problem but didn't get any answer...

[@AvantR]

hey jake, can I download the project file anywhere?

[@raerickson3470]

I scanned below to see if this question came up - but your halftone uses a white circle with black edges. How to reverse so black dots with white edges? I've tried invert over cc ball but no luck - thanks ahead of time

[@haizyaep]

fucking love ur background

[@jefferylawson9409]

Jake how did you make those custom icons in K bar with different colors?

[@JakeInMotion]

In illustrator! Kbar supports SVGs. I think. It might just be pngs

[@murtazahashimi3258]

hey Jake, I was wonder if there is a way to export after effects scene with visible paths and motion vectors (which is normally not visible during rendering and previewing the project) . I have lately been seeing projects on behance in which those attributes are visible to show the animation's behind the scene. waiting for your reply!

[@JakeInMotion]

Yes! It's a script called Cyclops www.kyle-martinez.com/cyclops

[@murtazahashimi3258]

@@JakeInMotion Very helpful, Thanks!

[@JoshuaMDy]

is there a setting Called Program*, its default is set to *Agressive TEwNice tutorialch is making that sNice tutorialtty static soft, change that one, once to