Turn Footage into Emoji with Adobe After Effects

The first 1000 people to use this link will get 30% off an annual Skillshare Premium skl.sh/ecabrams04211
Make any footage into a grid of emoji. Using after effects, we can convert any layer (video, animation, photo, text) into emoji. Or any image really. These procedural methods will open up new ways of thinking about effects and procedural graphics in after effects. Using a simple conversion and simplification of footage, organization of elements, and a little clever use of utility effect, you'll be making procedural grids of emoji in no time!
If you have any questions just let me know in the comments.
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[@BenMarriott]

Amazing! I finally understand my there was always more colours when I used Posterize :D

[@Plaayaa69]

love ur stuff!

[@ECAbrams]

Now the real question, is it pronounced Po-sterize like a poster. Poh-sterize like pot?

[@OhhYasssh]

@@ECAbrams it pronounced something like "pasteuriz"ation coz i got a milk brand ad on this video

[@KyleZager]

@@ECAbrams The p is silent.

[@Poppaneedsanap]

Love both of these channels! I've learned so much from both of you guys.

[@Mathing]

Wasn't particularly interested in turning footage into emojis, but the techniques I've learnt from this are sooo damn awesome! Thank you for this!

[@ECAbrams]

I'm glad to hear it. I hope there are a few takeaways from this thing for everyone :)

[@athykier]

Soooo much great knowledge and amazing tuts! Great work Abrams💪🏼 love your channel - quality content all the Way.

[@slaynormous1732]

My guy is just too good. So simple but so effective.

[@EmoMFr2]

Omg thank you so much!!! This effect is awesome! I’ve been using after effects for so many years and your tutorials, just like andres Kramer, always open my eyes to just how powerful the software is (I’ve been using it for over 10 years but due to lack of formal training, couldn’t even pass the expert level certification if I tried). I’m probably gonna have to watch it one or two more times just really wrap my head around these concepts, but I absolutely fucking love procedural effects. As an audio engineer, I love creating sounds and FX procedurally, using as many elements from the track to create effects and filters and whatnot, and being able to do it with video is great!

[@TommoCarroll]

Damn Evan, I learned so much juicy goodness from this one tutorial

[@ECAbrams]

That's awesome. I hope they can all be dense nugs of knowledge around here.

[@andrewbredlan417]

Great stuff as always, thank you! Your humble titles really undersell just how much you teach in every video!

[@ECAbrams]

Glad you think so! My hope is that the titles are a hook, and then people accidentally absorb more than they bargained for.

[@gutobernardo7457]

Pure genius!! I'll try on some project soon!

[@beMOTIONdESIGN]

Loves me some good ol' After Effecting with Evan Abrams! Another great one!!

[@ECAbrams]

Welcome back to "After the Effects" on PBS.

[@Pirohne95]

Oh God, thank you Evan! Best AE sempai ever!

[@SharellJ]

Ridiculously cool! Love it!

[@jurijpuc5752]

Thanks a million! I love your teaching method where you explain the process so it can help people emulate and not copy the technique. Grade A+ teacher. Do you do live classes? Cheers!

[@andrewriss8845]

as always, mind blown!!! wow

[@MotionNations]

Such a clever way loved it :D

[@jconway2907]

Wow, Evan, cool idea and so much to digest. Always learning tons from you, thanks!

[@ECAbrams]

My pleasure!

[@EvanFotis]

Great tutorial! Reminded me one from ayatoweb some 20 years ago but this one you’ve really showed all possibilities available! Kudos

[@sheldondrake8935]

really fantastic, thanks so much!!

[@kylemaven5956]

Amazing once again!

[@TheMusicDiscoveryChannel]

So cool ! i wanna try this

[@reedzimmerman2]

brilliant!!

[@DJTwinky]

Brilliantly clever!

[@ufukzayim6689]

Thank you great tutorial

[@cute_doonge]

Amazing lecture!!!!!!!!!!

[@jkell42]

I love your tutorials! I am going to have to find a reason to make this

[@ECAbrams]

Well, I can only stand on the shoulders of those who came before me.

[@abraranimations3786]

Amazing effect.

[@AcademyOfEdits]

Evan's back at it with another banger 🔥

[@ECAbrams]

I suppose there is a lot of overlap in procedural graphics and audio. A source, routed into modifiers, modifying those modifiers,; all inputs, outputs, selections and conversions. At a certain level maybe all things become the same thing. Or I'm overthinking it.

[@paramoires]

your channel is so helpful man, im so thankful for every video of yours

[@ECAbrams]

I'm so happy to hear that. Stay tuned. There's always more to come!

[@paramoires]

@@ECAbrams please tell me you answer ig dms i need ur help

[@alideep9656]

Thank you

[@WayneofGames]

love it!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Love it! I think posterize means make like a poster and since poster rhymes with toaster...

[@juanmonge5937]

after doing this tutorial I will feel a pro hahaha, thank you for sharing

[@ECAbrams]

That's fantastic! I always hope this channel makes people feel very powerful and confident in their abilities.

[@Rabhia_Draws]

Thanks for this tutorial & the discount.

[@ECAbrams]

You’re welcome 😊

[@State7Studio]

Really clever 👌

[@abhijeetingle6486]

Thanks a lot.

[@spookyec]

AWESOME!!!

[@Agency-1001]

this is very cool and surprising needed video

[@andrestamashiro]

This is amazing! You my friend are a very very good person

[@ECAbrams]

I'm glad you enjoy the content.

[@valhalasi5655]

Man thaaaaanks

[@yjh6220]

Amazing!!!!

[@zohaibmalik819]

Really great & interesting tutorial.

[@ECAbrams]

Glad you liked it!

[@motionbynick]

absolutely brilliant

[@ECAbrams]

Thank you so much!

[@ibrahemodel7084]

great video

[@sharatk20]

Amazing 😀🔥

[@ECAbrams]

🤗🙏

[@tahatdh]

Amazing

[@fkfung07]

Hi, been watching your videos lately and they are so informative.thank you so much for that. I was making a motion graphics project and it involves a man pulling something with a rope and it was so frustrating since the rope is so hard to line up with the man’s hand and the object itself. I was wondering if you can do a video on this topic teaching us the best way doing it;)

[@ECAbrams]

I can look into it. I can't promise that the possible solutions would be particularly satisfying though. Either you'll be running simulations and leveraging 3rd party tools, or doing frame by frame work. But, I can look into it. It might be an interesting subject to examine from a few angles.

[@Flashback-Gamer]

That would make an amazing plugin in AE. fantastic work!!

[@ECAbrams]

Well now I'm wondering if it isn't one already. Pastiche is actually pretty close.

[@UnDo75]

@@ECAbrams Yanobox probably have the most underrated motion graphic plugin for after effects, at least they are not very well known. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZ29fpJuot5mb80&ab_channel=FxFactoryFxFactory

[@ckngmad1357]

Ure the god of aftereffect

[@keithhopkin]

amazing

[@ultravioletidea]

Love these vids where you’re like, “Hmmm, got a problem...oh, let’s try these fx.” Might be fun to pick 3-5 more obscure ones and see what interesting things you can do with them. Pronunciation: Posterize, Taco, Outdoors, ... location, location, location

[@ECAbrams]

That's sort of what goes down on the live shows every weekend over on Behance.net/ECAbrams it's worth checking those out if you're interested in a more freeform exploration of techniques and tools.

[@renatosoares144]

You're a genius.

[@ECAbrams]

I'm not sure about that. But I'm happy to hear people enjoy the techniques I post up here.

[@kutaynurel]

Thanksssss! :)

[@ECAbrams]

You're welcome!

[@burtveracruz]

How you even discovered this technique is mind boggling.

[@vesto6864]

Thanks

[@ECAbrams]

you're welcome.

[@dsalainti]

2 years of using after effects im feeling like a pro. after watching ur videos now im feeling like a total newbie 💀

[@ECAbrams]

If we're really pushing ourselves and our craft, things should feel new most of the time.

[@EdWutke]

You're the MotionTUTGodfather!

[@richochet]

This is brilliant. Cheers! For some reason I thought there'd be expressions involved ) could using them potentially make this even more easier/streamlined?

[@ECAbrams]

Anything is possible. But, imagine if you have a wall of 2000 emoji, and each one needs its own expression to say which image it should display. That's 2000 expressions evaluated on every frame, and 2000 layers. So, it's quickly getting less streamlined. But perhaps there is a better way.

[@richochet]

@@ECAbrams Thank you Evan, good point.

[@arjunrsrivatsa]

that essential properties trick.......🤯

[@ECAbrams]

Essential properties is a game changer. Best new feature since the shape layer says I.

[@bush9686]

like magic!)

[@ECAbrams]

🧙‍♂️✨💥 magic!

[@kavkakiandre9595]

hello i have problem, i could not add the image to the essential graphics panel how fix it in adobe 2020?

[@HotraOfficial]

This is like a cheat sheet of how to make another Bad Apple! MV cover

[@Geancg]

Wooooow!

[@imiy]

Wow

[@user-ux6de2or5h]

How can I re-create the computron/screen effect, shown at the end of the video?

[@evanabrams2735]

in this case i've got a few layers of the wall of emoji, pushed in 3d, with a camera moving through with a pretty extreme DOF, a few blurs and opacity adjustments and the deep glow plugin over the whole thing. I hope that gets you started in the right direction.

[@matteomenini9001]

excellent work, I only have a very fast doubt, when I open essential graphic wall of emoji and try to transport the PNG I can't do it I can only change parameters such as color size etc ... I don't see the problem

[@ECAbrams]

are you using the lastest version of After Effects?

[@matteomenini9001]

@@ECAbrams i have After Effects 2018, you advise me to install version 2021 for apply this Effects?

[@ECAbrams]

I would advise that, yes. This is a newer feature, so you'll need to update to have access to media replacement.

[@matteomenini9001]

@@ECAbrams thanks so much

[@Big_Llama]

Trying to figure out a way to be zoomed in on one pixel, then pull back to reveal the full grid. Running into resolution issues though. I guess the solution would be to increase the resolution on the pixel size?

[@ECAbrams]

Generally, that's the way to go. Make the smallest thing that you'll see the closest as large as you can tolerate. There is some finessing that can be done with vectors and collapsed transformations. But, anything raster is still going to get strange and you might want to set the control layer to have linear quality so it doesn't get muddy edges. Another thing to consider is to take a "video gamey" approach. Meaning, have a large hero element, and a central patch that is also large, but it all fades imperceptibly into the largest grid that will be of lower-quality sprites.

[@Big_Llama]

@@ECAbrams Ah wow this is so helpful, thanks for the detailed response!

[@guldhaar]

any easy way to download multiple emoji images - or is it one by one?

[@ECAbrams]

Not that I know of. I just saved the specific images I was interested in from emojipedia.org

[@NastohEdit]

How can we create cone from rotation of sraight line in the case that one line is constant

[@ECAbrams]

I'm not sure I undertand exactly. Are you looking to create 3d geometry in after effects?.

[@NastohEdit]

Exactly I want to teach geometry with graphics

[@shingimel]

Sir You are a Mathimagician.

[@danielethomasarginelli6883]

Hello ECAbrams, are there specific rules for dragging and dropping an image in Essential Graphics? Is not working with my versione 17.6.0. Thanks for your attention.

[@ECAbrams]

This tutorial was created using version 18.2.0 so I would recommend updating to the newer version to take advantage of the newer feature.

[@danielethomasarginelli6883]

@@ECAbrams thank you very much for the support and the sharing!

[@Matt-py5ko]

@@ECAbrams Thank you! I was having the same issue on 17.5.1

[@satryadanto]

Hi..why i cannot drag my emoji png into essential graphics? Can someone help me..thx

[@ECAbrams]

Which version of Ae are you on?

[@satryadanto]

@@ECAbrams i already try on mac CC 2019 & 2020

[@ECAbrams]

@@satryadanto Right. I'm asking because the feature that allows for media replacement was a later addition to the essential graphics system. You may need a more recent version of After Effects.

[@ox4eth44]

who artist manually did it?

[@ECAbrams]

Sadly it's one of those things that flashed through my feeds and could not be found again later. I hope someone out there can find it.

[@rykstudio]

i could not add the image to the essential graphics panel

[@ECAbrams]

Sounds like you're using an older version of After Effects. You may want to update to 18.2 to enjoy the latest features.

[@rykstudio]

@@ECAbrams im using 2020 one

[@ECAbrams]

@@rykstudio If that's 18.2 things should be operating the same. Are you getting an error? What's going on when you make the attempt?

[@rykstudio]

@@ECAbrams its not like uploading in that panel

[@ECAbrams]

@@rykstudio okay. I would update to after effects 2021 then, version 18.2

[@ismailcanguven5837]

beyond our time

[@dischc]

😍

[@ECAbrams]

❤️❤️❤️

[@KyleZager]

My mind is exploding.

[@ECAbrams]

🤯🤯🤯

[@KyleZager]

⠀ ⠀ 🤠 　 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯　🤯　🤯 👇 🤯🤯 👇 　 🤯　🤯 　 🤯　 🤯 　 👢 👢

[@TheFPSChannel]

😲

[@AndrewMarston]

💻🎞️❤️✨

[@andre.video.]

[@johnodunayo6728]

is there a template to download... pweeeese

[@liusjuliano5694]

1st :p

[@ECAbrams]

You're number 1.

[@liusjuliano5694]

@@ECAbrams thanks guru! I love your channel :)

[@AudioPervert1]

es que guao !!