In this After Effects tutorial, I’ll show
you how to create pretty realistic liquid bubbles. All with standard effects. Hey everyone! My name is Manuel! And let’s dive right in. First of all, we need to create the basic
shape of the bubble. Therefore we choose the ellipse tool and double-click
on it. Are you using the latest version of After
Effects? A new window popped up! The property window. This is amazing! Instead of opening all the properties down
in the timeline you can directly access them here. So first of all,
let’s adjust the size of the shape. We uncheck constrain proportions and set the
size to 350 by 350 pixels for now. I guess I add it to the effects controls window
here for now. Where did you place it in your work area? Let me know in the comments. Let’s name the layer. bubble 1 No stroke. Fill colour. White for now. Next let’s distort this perfectly round
shape a little. We use the effects and presets window to search
for the turbulent displace effect. Select it and add it. Let’s adjust some of the settings… We set the amount to around 20. The size to around 90. Then we animate the evolution with a time
expression. We add an expression to the property and add: time*50 Which increases the evolution value by 50
degrees per second. A continuous linear animation in just a few
seconds. Expressions allow you to create complex animations
that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. In my new course, we start from 0. From basic expressions to responsive animations, Dynamic text animations And repetitive techniques. You’ll have a whole set of new tools which
will make you faster, better and stand out from the crowd! And I’ll add new bonus lessons each month. Reasons enough to check out the course. Link is in the description! Alright, let’s duplicate the bubble. And reduce the size to 200 by 200 pixels. We position it very close to the first bubble. Then we add an adjustment layer. To add some liquid attributes to the shapes. Let’s name it “liquid”. First of all, we add a Gaussian Blur effect
to the adjustment layer. We use the effects and presets window again. Set the blurriness to 40. And uncheck “repeat Edge Pixels”. Then we add a Matte Choker effect. Set Geometric Softness 1 to around 75. Choke 1 to -15. Gray level Softness to 2%. Now the shapes behave like liquid drops. This anchor point is messed up though. Let’s use the anchor point tool to move
it back to the centre of the shape. Hold command if you use a Mac or control to
let it snap. Awesome. Now we need to work on the style. Therefore, we use layer styles. Let’s choose the large bubble. And right click on it. We select layer styles and choose Inner Shadow
first of all. We open the property and set the Blend Mode
to normal. The colour to white. I think we need to change the fill colour
of the shape. To actually see what we’re doing. Let’s choose black. We better change it for the second shape as
well… Then let’s get back to the layer style. We set the distance to 7. The size to around 80. Next, we choose bevel and emboss. Open the property and set the style to pillow
emboss. The size to 30. We set the Highlight Mode to Normal. Choose Pink as a highlight colour. We set the Shadow Mode to Normal as well. And choose a neon green as colour. We add one more layer style, close some properties
here… Right-click on the layer again. Layer styles and choose Stroke. Let’s open the property. The blend mode is Normal already. We choose Blue as colour this time. It slowly starts to look like a bubble. I think.
Let’s increase the size is around 10
though. Awesome. We select the layer styles property and copy
it. Then we paste it to the second bubble. You probably need to reduce some of the layer
style values for smaller bubbles. Awesome. Real bubbly. Next, we take the pre-bubbles comp and add
it to a new comp. Let’s name this one “main-bubbles”. We need to add a background object that refracts
to make it look more convincing. First of all, let’s add a new solid. Which we name background. We move it to the bottom of the layer stacking
order and add a gradient ramp. Let’s use the effects and presets window
again, double-click to add it. We change the colours. Let’s start with a very dark purple. And end with a brighter purple. We adjust the start and end of ramp. Let’s give it a diagonal direction. Finally, let’s add some ramp scatter, to
avoid colour banding. Then let’s add some content. That could either be a comp or… Let’s add a text layer. We grab the type tool and add some text. Bubbles. All capitals. I use Bio Sans Bold, the font is available
on Adobe Fonts. If you want to use it as well. We align the text layer to the centre, using
the align tool. Then we duplicate the text layer. And the bubbles comp. Hide the top bubbles comp for now. We use the bottom bubbles comp as alpha track
matte for both text layers. Invert the track matte for the bottom text
layer. We’ve split the text up into two parts. Outside the bubbles and inside the bubbles. We need the separation, to distort the type
inside the bubble. We select the top text layer and add an effect. CC Glass. Double-click on it. To add it. Let’s adjust some settings: We select one of the pre-bubbles comps as
bump map. And set Property to Alpha. Softness to 75. Height to 100. And Displacement to 160. In Shading, let’s reduce Diffuse to around
20. Specular: 100. Finally, we make the top pre-bubbles comp
visible again and set its blending mode to screen. Awesome. All you need to do now is go back into the
pre-bubbles comp and animate the positions of the bubbles. Let me know on the comments what do you think
about the new properties window. If you want to learn more about expressions,
check out my course. Link is in the description. On the left side, I’ve added a video you
might like. Thanks for watching this one. See you in the next one. Bye everyone!
