Repeat The Repeater (For Psychedelic Patterns!) - Adobe After Effects tutorial

Want to see the same thing over and over again? Well you're in luck. I repeat myself from a previous tutorial and repeat the repeater. I don't don't know know if that's ironic or what but in this tutorial you'll make arrays of shape layers into psychedelic backgrounds and patterns that will confuse, hypnotize, and annoy people all over the internets. Want to see the same thing over again? Well you're in luck.
If you have any questions just let me know in the comments.
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[@theswampbug]

Evan, your stuff is honestly, incredibly helpful. The specific tutorials themselves are great, but the basic concepts behind what you teach are really what make your stuff top notch.

[@whootoo1117]

New tutorials every week, lol coooool man! thanks Evan!

[@jeremysurls]

you are officially THE MAN

[@computerman4321]

This is not pretty good, this is AMAZING!!

[@onnaquest]

Sir, you are a boss. Best tutorials. Thanks.

[@garrswenson]

Your tutorials are really solid, but sometimes you move too quickly and click on things without saying it out loud. Keep on making tuts! I started learning motion graphics from you!

[@hoffmanart]

Great techniques man! Thanks for the tutorials

[@hmker218]

Great tutorial, thanks for creating and posting.

[@paulmc1993]

Stunning!!

[@gas0005007Maria]

Thank you so much I love ur tutorials

[@dhaeze]

EXACTLY what I was looking for! thanks!

[@vinceb2942]

I found this super helpful and used it in a recent video of mine! Thanks so much for this!

[@markomilanov3860]

Thank you Evan Abrams!!!

[@89smily]

thanku for all ur tutorials! they r really helpin me a lot!! :)

[@twotwoasjjuh1025]

Awesome tutorials men, just great.

[@dgbm]

Awesomely great! Thank you! Hopefully I'll manage to get this to animate to audio :D

[@AhmedMounir1]

Great! the second part especially :D

[@VersusMC]

You're the best man!

[@LunaTiButt]

Great tutorial,thanks :)

[@VivekLakhanpal15]

Awesome !! Just simply Awesome !!

[@DrMartens3]

Dear lord.... Thank you OMG!!!

[@Cigartutorials]

love u for this tutorial

[@nusphere]

brilliant, thanks!

[@jonsakas7043]

Great video. Cracking me up dude

[@lilfooX2]

this was awesome!

[@RazvanFlore]

great job, i really like it :D and it's useful :D

[@sirus3002]

Another Amazing Video :D

[@probsty999]

Thanks for the wisdom!

[@soportesestrategia4933]

Thanks for the tips and very friendly video, It blew my imagination,We will try to applied this for my video capsules..thanks for sharing.

[@saionjisan]

suuuuper coool and useful!!! you gave me a lot of new ideas!!!Thank you soooo much!!!!!

[@SuperJetrock]

love it!

[@LetsGoRoadTrippin]

I feel like I was in the sixties on the part 2 of that. I love using your techniques in my videos. Thanks for these great tutorials.

[@DiscoMcDisco]

Yo EC! This has helped me massively for my new intro plans... You're awesome, and obviously just read my mind. Kudos to you :) Daft question though, I haven't noticed any videos linking audio to these comps.. Is it possible to link these together without massive amounts of keyframe craziness? Loving the vids man, always inspiring

[@KittyClawson]

Entertaining tutorial, you sound so much like Seth Rogan. Thanks!

[@1982wig]

This is great tutorial! Thanks, i actually wanted this to look like an infinite tunel as you said, but it didn't seem to work for me. I increased the copies and moved the offset to animate it but it didn't move. I don't know what went wrong...

[@scar0071]

Thanks man :) easy and new stuff

[@MaximilianImaging]

Many thx for the funky inspiration! 👀 👅

[@Korbeing]

You are so funny! I always click around for the goods in a video, but you were too enjoyable, I just watched! And glad I did, thanks for the tips along the way without getting bogged down in anything.

[@ECAbrams]

Glad to hear it.

[@LeoBodelle]

Great tutorial! Very efficient! Thanks a lot! How can we apply this to a composition? Let's say I have a flying bird (with moving wings) and I would like to repeat it, how I can I do this?

[@Kotorichan]

I'm all in for ugly sweaters as well. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@tusharpatel8477]

Cool, Cool,Cool, Thank u ECAbrams

[@maxsternlicht9096]

Hey Evan! Is there a way to offset the repetitions by a set amount? For example if you have your original square rotate, then the first offset iteration rotates 5 frames later, the second iteration 5 frames after that, etc. Almost like a rippling effect instead of things moving together?

[@Dingle_]

lovely as always! I actually have been doing some similar stuff lately! ps they are pretty good.

[@kgyangela]

i love your tutorials and its helping me a lot! :) however, could you show me an easier way to make the repeaters to zoom out? The circles here are getting bigger but i want it to make it smaller again. Getting bigger then smaller. Thank you!

[@99tropix]

Dude... you're hilarious

[@fdre3wsd]

thanks for the more details. so tutorial.

[@etiavanhell1547]

Thank you! Super efficient tutorial :)

[@ECAbrams]

Dank je. glad you enjoyed it.

[@commentbox123]

hello everyone, can anyone explain to me how to copy the size and stroke width which happened on 6:16 ? Everytime I tried control D it just appears separate layer. Thanks!

[@Joao-Pessegueiro]

Great! Thanks!

[@iavids]

Hello thanks for the tutorial, but I don't see a 'transform rectangle' on my AE CS5 is that only on CS6?

[@xradical89x]

this is awesome

[@VMeys]

Awesome video ! Nice stuff for Vj's to

[@iEditStuf]

Hey, would you use the repeater or another tool to create the effect where something (in my case i'm doing it with a video) moves across screen, but as it does it leaves a copy of itself behind it creating this kind of trail

[@themisterjordan]

6:40 "Lalala la la la Holidays! Lalala la la la...schmolidays." This part got me pretty good! 😂

[@Pako679]

u are god adobe after effects

[@angelescresthwy]

1Really good tutorial. I have to watch a couple more times before try it. Thanks

[@dododoyoutube]

Thank you!

[@ECAbrams]

+sunwha Kim no worries

[@TERRAMOUNT]

very nice!

[@relinkus3253]

Hi there! Maybe you can help me sort this out.. I applied the repeater to the shape however when I did that not all the shapes are selected with the same layer controls blue box. Only the original shape has the layer control little blue squares. How I can apply the repeater and get all the shapes inside the same layer controls?

[@SpaceKingDinosaur]

Wow. I had to pause and laugh at the "very toothpaste-y Christmas" comment. On top of that, another superb tutorial. Keep being awesome!

[@fenlie123]

great video, awesome channel

[@xMEanimations]

luvin it

[@nick3777]

thanks brother i used your example

[@DanieleTrapani]

Repeaterception, thanks Evan!

[@MazeCSGO]

How could i make a rectancle surrounded by many small particles which would move?

[@whootoo1117]

Yeah, can you make a 3d news intro in AE? I would like it!!

[@TheRealEve]

hi when i rotate the shapes in the transform: rectangle 1, they turn with the anchor point being in the centre, how do i change this, your talking to fast so its hard to keep up

[@shenellepereira8649]

yeah same here, how do i change it? v.v

[@italko]

Don't create the repeater inside of the shape layer (rectangle). Instead create the repeater outside of the shape layer and it will rotate the squares individually in rectangle 1. I was having the same problem but I read in one of the comments the solution and I can sure you it works! Good luck and I hope it is not too late.

[@CharlesMeriot]

if its the same problem as me, I think it was that you didnt double click on the top Rectangle Tool... then the transform rectangle appears

[@JeffersonsSpirit]

Good shit, as usual.

[@Jamirobruno]

thanks!!

[@cotharsis]

lolol this is helpful and funny to watch, nice

[@Boukloman]

I don't know if I like the great tutorials or the hilarious commentary better..

[@kulak8548]

When he got to editing the graph, I was confused for a minute because the Y scale on my graph was in units, rather than units/sec. I found out I had to go down to the bottom of the graph editor, and click the button next to the eye called "choose graph type and options", and change from "Edit Value Graph" to "Edit Speed Graph". edit: I made a clarification.

[@BillDWP]

Thank you Kulak! How did you copy the repeater?

[@jacobtomlinson1980]

great!

[@GUUUUU2099]

All my repeaters have origin at the center of the composition insted of having it's own center.. do you know why? thank you

[@dejantjetjoo3126]

did you get a solution

[@EA-by2he]

this might be a little too late to answer but i'll answer anyways, transform layer for repeater transforms the repeater it self and not the rectangles, if you want to animate shapes from its own center you have to adjust in the transform: rectangle (or whatever shape it is)

[@douglascarrillo5390]

La rotacion no voltea los cuadros individualmente :S como haces tu?

[@bonitanee1]

Cant you make this with images?? I would love to make the cirkel repeater with flying heads :D But I'm new at AE and don't know how to go about it! But thanx for at good tutorial, love that you are so natural but not boring or slow :D

[@mtrari]

Hey, I don't Have money on Paypal and it want more than 0$, can you upload the template on mediafire or other ?

[@AnimatorMXOfficial]

Marwane114 lol i have 0$ on my paypal to

[@Tonymalon]

Nice

[@smkfairy6615]

Hi can i do that in after effect cs6?

[@Bageru]

hey abrams, when i want to make a square shape. why it always keps making the rectangle one? i already unlink the size and make it 250x250 but it stills come as a rectangle, not square. do you know why? thank you.

[@ECAbrams]

+Bageru's Channel did you scale the layer? There must be more to this story if you're putting in square values and a rectangle comes out.... also are you using square pixels or some other aspect ratio and not working in a corrected view?

[@commentbox123]

+ECAbrams I tried copy pasting the repeater it doesn't do anything :(

[@ECAbrams]

+comment box are you sure? Is it not pasting a copy of the repeater somewhere?

[@gangd4807]

hi abrams thx for make tutorial. i have a question... when i was add repeater and changing rotation, my square is turn each other, each angle(exactly , jump over. 1st square is 45 degree, 2nd square is 0 degree, 3rd square is 45 degree..). what's the problem..plz help!

[@ECAbrams]

Should it not be changing each angle? Why should it not do that?

[@KspManiac]

ECAbrams I use sony vegas pro 13, and I'm wondering if there is a way to do a trippy color effect? (I'm making a montage parody and I want the video clip to change colors through the rainbow spectrum) red to green to blue etc What is the best way to do this without buying another piece of video editing software

[@mantofilms]

ECAbrams Kyoungyun Doh I'm having the same problem too! Any idea on how to fix it?

[@ECAbrams]

Manto TV Well, I'm not sure what the problem is. When you change the rotation something should indeed rotate. What did you want to happen? What did you do to accomplish that? And then when happened that you didn't expect.

[@katarzynadrozd3473]

Hey, I've had the same problem. You probably changed the rotation in "transform: repeater" instead of "transform: rectangle" property

[@davidp158]

Evan - Thanks for another cool and useful tutorial. I always learn something new. As you often tweak the influence handles of easy-ease'd keyframes in the graph editor, I was wondering if there is an expression that you could apply to expedite that step. Yeah, it only takes a few seconds to tweak the handles, but I bet an AE wizard like yourself would like if there's a way to apply that with an expression.

[@ECAbrams]

Hey Dave. I can't think of why I would use an expression instead of having manual fine control over the expected curve of the motion. Expressions are good for things that the curve cannot do well like bouncing based on inertia for example. Those are things that are faster for a computer to do. When it comes to the manual alteration of motion control over time I feel I am more capable than an expression in refining the graph to be what I want.

[@BradMagnus]

Hey Dave, your comment got me thinking, like Evan said, expressions are great but you have no custom control, which may be ok for your project. If you're looking for a great one check out Ease and Wizz: aescripts.com/ease-and-wizz/ I recently found Keysmith: aescripts.com/keysmith/ It allows you to create repeatable influence handles quickly, but you don't lose the ability to customize! Hope that helps!

[@ShadowCalibre]

Thanks for the vid, I have a quick question Is it possible to use a repeater or something similar for images or footage?

[@ECAbrams]

The repeater can only be applied to shape layers. It is not an option for anything else. You would need to apply an "effect" to other layers. Motion tile is one such effect you may enjoy.

[@scooterdesignworld]

You da man

[@ruvc]

Great tutorial, Seth Rogen ;)

[@cliffclof]

Watched a few of these. Any way to change the colors of the repeated objects?

This guy has so much character, I love it lmao

[@ECAbrams]

And yet I try to avoid characters in my work so strongly. What an irony.

[@caterinaulivi3068]

HI! A question.. how can I add a title in background at the square like you did at the end of your semple? Thanks a lot!

[@ECAbrams]

I just put a layer above a text layer. The layer that is on top animates to fill in everything. That's about it.

[@caterinaulivi3068]

Thanks!

[@DoubleCustardFace]

yESS THANK YOU!!! 👏🏻💕

[@ECAbrams]

You are welcome. Also, how to you make emoji in youtube?

[@DoubleCustardFace]

I commented with my iPhone using the KZbin app (:

[@samueljwalter]

Thanks so much for this tutorial, really appreciate it! :) If you have the latest OS update for your mac, you can hold control+Command+Space to make an emoji selection window appear. 👌🏻

[@KanagJ]

how do you duplicate repeaters? you kinda just cliced it and bam, now there are two of 'em, how?

[@ECAbrams]

The keyboard shortcut is command or ctrl D.

[@KanagJ]

thanks

[@p4nickvj]

great

[@DGoresWorld]

I need this animation to loop! For about 2 minutes! Do I keep copy and pasting my key frames or is there a better way?

[@ECAbrams]

I've got a tutorial on here that might help. It's about the loopOut() exlression: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqjRoYBte91_m9E it's very old though.

[@DGoresWorld]

thanks!

[@martinboumans]

Evan, Great tutorial! Very clear for me. However, I have one little question. Is it possible to randomize the scaling in the repeated shapes? Like, each visible square gets bigger and smaller on his own?

[@ECAbrams]

They have to be sequential values in a repeater I'm afraid.

[@martinboumans]

Aw, too bad. Thanks for your fast response!

[@TheDarkWolfKnight]

Evan, do you always create your video elements from scratch? Or do you use raw videos too?

[@ECAbrams]

Sometimes it's best to make from scratch. Sometimes it's best to use footage. It really depends on what you intend to make as a final product. I do all things as they are needed of me.

[@joannacopperman3244]

Hi every time i try to do this my graphs look totally different to yours! Do you know why this might be / what i can do to change it?!

[@ECAbrams]

you are likely looking at a value graph instead of as speed graph. You can change that in the graphs settings down at the bottom of the graph.

[@joannacopperman3244]

Yes! Looks like I was :) Thanks!!

[@rafaelpayumo9066]

Hey ECAbrams, great tutorial! however I'm kinda lost when I rotate the square but the way they rotate comes from the center of the original square in diamond shape. Instead of each square are rotating, they are dependent on the middle square so when they are rotated, the copy squares will follow in different position (eg. when I rotate it, the position becomes slant) but hope you get my point. I managed to follow your tutorial but it is still the same. Hope you can help great vid btw.

[@ECAbrams]

I'm not sure I follow. What's happening for you, and what do you want to have happen instead?

[@Katalystic]

Yay!

[@helmhoard]

Want to see the same thing over and over again? Well you're in luck. I repeat myself from a previous tutorial and repeat the repeater. I don't don't know know if that's ironic or what but in this tutorial 。。。。。。。。。。hahaha~~~love the intro~~~

[@Raw-addict33]

man Amazing Tutorial !!! learned a lot , but I dont know rotation in the repeater is different in after effects cc someone has a tip for it ???

[@ECAbrams]

It's the same in all versions. Just remember the hierarchy of things in the shape layer contents and where things are in relation to their anchor points.

[@Raw-addict33]

thanks again my anchor points were wrong duhhh!!

[@celinelin1305]

I've encountered the same problem! How can I change the anchor point? In your video all the repeated square seems to have it's own anchor point, but mine is growing and from the center one...

[@edgarestrada3701]

Thanks for the tutorial -- and your voice, man --- you sound much like Carl Sagan! I bet you can impersonate him with a little practice! ;)