Film Burn Effect

Film burn was really annoying all those years ago when we used to have actual film and it used to actually burn. Now its acquired chic status, and people want it to add it to their digital films. This video will teach you how to create film burn effects using the Adobe Premier ...more

In this video, we learn how to use food for special effects film makeup. Using familiar ingredients you find in the kitchen, you can make a scene from a movie that looks real! Food can be made to look like really gross things in movies, using the right colors and consistencies ...more

Way back when CS3 was introduced, Adobe added video editing capabilities to their flagship image editor. To say the least, people were skeptical. However, now that technology has evolved and folks have had time to see just how far you can push video inside of Photoshop, the po ...more

Make sure and watch this episode as we tackle another heavily requested effect... making someone look blown in half! Jam packed with cheap special effects, Frisbee fun, and a Test Film guest directed by Maniacal Rage!

For years, photographers have been creating cross processed effects with photos. It’s really easy to create this retro-looking effect in Lightroom 2. Join Colin Smith as he walks you through the process (excuse the pun) of creating cross processed film effects in Lightroom 2. ...more

Learn how to artificially age your digital photographs using a number of common filters in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular graphic editing program or a seasoned design professional looking to better acquaint yourself with the new features and functio ...more

Backyard FX show host Eric has an awesome new tutorial for all you aspiring film makers. He is going to teach you how to make your own fake glass bottles out of household products such as sugar, corn syrup and cream of tartar. This is generally for scenes where a glass bottle ...more

This is a creative idea for a great light effect for any video project. If you're a cinematographer and are open to knew and creative ideas (and cheap!), then this colorful, moving lighting effect is perfect for your film. You'll need three plastic cups, a 5/16-inch metal rod ...more

This Final Cut Studio software tutorial shows you a trick on how to achieve The Film Look on your videos. You will need the climatic glow plug-in from River Rock Studios to create this soft film look effect in Final Cut Pro. The final small addition to the film look effect wil ...more

In Motion, as in Final Cut Pro, masks are an essential special effects tool. In this software guide, you'll learn how to create a film strip effect. Whether you're new to the Apple's popular motion graphics editor/compositing application or simply wish to get better acquainted ...more

In this Software video tutorial you will learn how to apply the Film Look effect in Final Cut Pro. This is an advanced technique. This essentially takes a video and makes it look like a film. Select the video clip that you want to work with. Then select the ‘color corrector 3 ...more

This video deals with special effects used in movies or theater. The first tutorial deals with making a chopped off finger effect inexpensively. Start with some modeling wax and roll it into an upper finger shape. Next, you cut it to the desired length and paint the inside of ...more

This week, Erik shows you how to create the awesome effect of throwing a knife into a person's head! This effect is used in big budget movies like the "Matrix" and we're going to show you how to do it for less then twenty dollars!

You don't need a rotoscope or special lip syncing equipment - you can create the stop motion effect with any digital SLR - even a webcam! All you need to do is add an adapter, as shown in this tutorial.

Indy Mogul's Backyard FX series has another great video for making high quality props and special effects. In this installment, you'll learn how to make a destructible wall, perfect for the big action sequence in your next low budget film project.

This video shows you how to achieve the 'film look' for your digital projects by adjusting your depth of field to become more shallow. It also demonstrates the difference between the 60i and 24p modes of filming (the video says 30i, but the correct mode is 60i).

Spooky fog-emitting items like coffins and cauldrons are iconic parts of many haunted houses, but are terribly expensive to buy premade. If you're got some DIY know-how, watch this video for a guide to building a coffin fog chiller for your fog machine yourself for a Halloween ...more

This video shows you how to apply a makeup prosthetic made of gelatin that gives a horrific burn and or scar effect. You can easily do this at home for a great effect Part 1 of 2 - How to Apply burn scar makeup SFX to the face. Part 2 of 2 - How to Apply burn scar makeup SFX ...more

If you've ever played through Valve's amazing first-person puzzle game Portal, you probably have dreams and nightmares about orange and blue portals appearing in the walls around you. Do you want to recreate the effect in a film? This video will show you how to create your ver ...more

If you've seen Sin City, what you probably remember most is the way color isolation was used throughout the film to reveal single colors in otherwise black-and-white scenes. This video will show you how to create the same effect for your own film in After Effects. Using this b ...more

Check out this instructional video that demonstrates how to create a meteor crash landing effect using After Effects software. Using a skylight is an easy solution to soften shadows, but for faster rendering try using an array of point lights in a dome pattern above your scene ...more

In modern action movies, the night vision goggles effect has become as much of a staple as exploding heads. This video will teach you, the budding action film editor, to create the night vision effect using Adobe Premiere Pro. Download project file here.

Tomi shows you home to create that cool bullet ricochet dust effect for your low budget indie film.

Replicate the Predator-style video camouflage in After Effects by using displacement maps. This uniquely stunning and groundbreaking visual effect has been seen countless times in film and television to show video camouflage, invisibility, heat distortion, holograms, and stati ...more

Shooting good footage with handheld cameras that wiggle, bounce, and fall onto rocks on a regular basis is tough. Sometimes, though, you may want to make it appear as if film that you've shot with tripods and such was actually shot with a handheld, like in some horror films. T ...more

The Northern Lights is a beautiful meterological effect, but it can be difficult to capture this beauty on film. This tutorial shows you how to use the Sony XDCAM (because it has a slow shutter) and a time lapse techique to photograh the Aurora Borealis. Shoot effective photog ...more

The film Jumper may not have been critically acclaimed, but few can argue with how awesome the special effects that allowed the characters to teleport at will are. They looked great and were applied with great aplomb. This video will show you how to mimic that effect in After ...more

Photoshop is the photo-editing software of choice for just about everyone these days. It is very complex; but you're in luck! We have many videos here on site dealing with how to use Photoshop's many functions. This video will teach you how to display a picture inside of text ...more

Love the look of animated 35mm film? It can be tricky to really replicate this effect, but it's nevertheless possible. This tutorial shows you how to use Adobe After Effects to create your own clip of 3-D animated film footage. Part 1 of 3 - How to Create a dynamic, 3-D moving ...more

Adopting a style that favours the body's stronger muscles is important when climbing. On steep rock, the most effective way to increase your performance may well be to change the way you climb. When climbing slabs and vertical walls it is not uncommon to be face-on much of th ...more

This video tutorial is about adding an infrared effect to an image using Photoshop. First of all, open the image to which you wish to add the effect. After that, create a duplicate layer. Then go to the image option and click on it. A drop down menu appears. From that menu, cl ...more

Welcome to our Indiana Jones special. This week, we've been challenged by Eric Zala, the director of "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation" to create an awesome face melt effect for cheap! This is probably Indy Mogul's grossest effect yet, so you better not get nauseous or ...more

Very few effects can be considered standard in After Effects, many are unique creations made by combining After Effects many tools. This video will show you how to create one such effect, an audio particle spray that will looks very cool in either titles or ending credits for ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

A quick and easy way to achieve the effect of fountains of the red stuff flowing forth from a zombie-bitten neck. Your film will look so real, for what it's worth, that nobody can deny your greatness.

Making titles in After Effects is fun, relatively easy, and sure to make your film make a better first impression. This video will show you how to make a cool light ray text swipe effect with particles, like the one in the thumbnail. This isn't too hard as far as our After Eff ...more

Need some smooth pan shots for your indie film? How about a cool dolly zoom effect? Well, you don't need to be a professional filmmaker to use such a device, but you do need the money for the gear. But—if you can work your way around the workshop, you can probably build your o ...more

If you've ever wanted to make an even slightly fantasy-flavored film, you've probably wanted to make one of your characters fly. Unless you're working with a bird or some really crazy rigging, you're going to need to make this special effect happen in After Effects, or whateve ...more

If you've seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, you'll know one of the greatest special effects of the film is where Mola Ram rips the heart out of someone's chest. In this episode of Backyard FX, Erik recreates that effect with the help of his family members. Don't forge ...more

There is not limit to the amount of cool title effects that you can create for you film using After Effects. This video will show you how to create a cool digital futuristic title effect by making use of a plane of particles animated based on your audio levels with the Fractal ...more

If you've seen the 2005 film Sin City, you most likely remember how most of the film was black and white, but some objects were rendered in livid color. This video will teach you how to create the same effect yourself using After Effects! The creator of this two-part video wor ...more

Apple's iconic silhouette people-dancing-against-colored-background iPod commercials may not rule the airwaves anymore, but they still look really cool. This video will show you how to recreate the effect of these commercials in After Effects using greenscreens. Now all you ha ...more

In this Apple Color tutorial, Richard Harrington along with color expert Robbie Carman create the Pleasantville effect in Apple Color. Using the secondary curves, specifically the saturation curve, to isolate just the yellow in a taxi cab everything else in the video clip can ...more

In this Apple Color tutorial, Richard Harrington along with color expert Robbie Carman teaches how to use tracking to have vignettes follow a person around the screen to simulate a spotlight effect. Creative Cow is a support community for digital video, video editing, and med ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

Film Noir, or black film, is a type of film that can easily be attributed to classics such as the Humphery Boggart films of old (Maltese Falcon, King of the Underworld, ect.). If you're looking on how to create the effect yourself without a big budget, check out this video! Jo ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

The Trapcode suite is a set of plug-ins for After Effects that allow video artists to create a variety of effects for inclusion in video and film productions. This particular guide demonstrates the power of Trapcode Particular and Trapcode 3D Stroke. Specifically, Wes Ball fro ...more

Gambit is one of the coolest X-Men, and his kinetic energy powers are awesomely powerful. If you want to depict them using special effects in a film, this video will show you how to do it using three free pieces of digital editing software: Monkeyjam GIMP And our old friend ...more

Photoshop might be the best software out there for creating effects on text and other still images. This video will show you how to create one really cool effect in Photoshop on a title. The creator calls this a glowing particles dust effect, and that sounds about right. The e ...more

In this video tutorial, Creative COW contributing editor Carl Larsen shows you how to create a whip pan (swish pan) effect using Adobe After Effects built in tools. Creative Cow is a support community for digital video, video editing, and media production professionals in bro ...more

In this video tutorial, CreativeCOW contributing editor, Nelson Fernandes demonstrates a method to obtain a quick and dirty mask using the find edges effect combined with the auto-trace feature. Creative Cow is a support community for digital video, video editing, and media p ...more

In this video tutorial, Creative Cow Contributing Editor Eran Stern will show you how to create a simple morph effect using time remapping and pixel motion. Creative Cow is a support community for digital video, video editing, and media production professionals in broadcastin ...more

This tutorial goes over the Video Effect 'Film Effects' as well as the similar effect 'Film Grain' and how to create them in Sony Vegas 7. Difficulty: Novice/Easy Prior Knowledge Needed: None

In this video we learn how to get your heart torn out with film effects. First, go to the butcher's section of your market and find a gross piece of meat. Then, cut a hole in your shirt and grab some fake plastic blood. Soak the meat in the blood and then place it into the shi ...more

In this tutorial, we learn how to jump over a car with film effects & tricks. First, you will take a long shot of someone pretending like they are jumping over a car, make sure they add in excitement. After this, you will take a long shot of a car driving over in the same area ...more

See how to snap a person's neck for a film effect, complete with sound. This requires just two easy steps. First, get some peanuts. Second, synchronize the head movement to you crushing the peanuts into the microphone. Snapping a neck on camera is nothing as long as you have t ...more