New After Effects Templates Looking Good in February! (View All Files in Video Above)

I Really Would Love to Tell You This After Effects Template Success Story, But I Can't....

Well, I can tell you some of it, but names must be hidden to protect the innocent!!

I recently talked to a long time RevoStock user who has her own production company and is doing quite well! Around the end of last year, she released a new project she had been working on.  When I saw the project posted online, I quickly recognized that she used one of our RevoStock After Effects templates within the production.  Frankly, the template looked awesome, and fit in well within the scope and design of what she was trying to accomplish.  It is always great to see our templates out in the wild, especially when used by accomplished professionals like her.

So, I asked her if she would mind if I shared her story and how and why she used a template, and her response was a gracious, "Ummm. No...."

You see, she was in a pinch both in time and budget and while she might not have normally used a template, she found one on RevoStock that worked perfectly, so she bought it. Understandably, however, she didn't want to broadcast that she used a template.

So, because I still thought the story would be useful, I asked her if I might post this story, but not use her name and she agreed. Too often, professional creatives feel that templates are "below them" or that it isn't ethical to use them, however, while they may not be the right tool in every situation, they are a perfect tool for many others!

Using Templates as a Starting Point

While I believe it is perfectly legit to use a template as is, they can also just serve as a starting point allowing you to modify the template in such a way that you are able to make it your own.  

While I think this probably deserves a full post in the future, here are a couple of ways to mod a template to fit into the design specs of your own production. The most obvious ways to do this are colors and fonts.

Changing Fonts

Changing fonts is as simple as... well... changing fonts!  The only tricky part may be tracking down the layers where fonts need to be changed.  AE provides a search bar above the project window which helps you find "Missing Items".  More often than not, especially with templates, the template creator uses fonts in the template that may be free to download, but for copyright reasons may not be included in the template.  In this case, when you open the template, you will receive a "Missing Fonts" error.

When you type "Missing Fonts" in the search bar above the project window, AE will display all of the compositions containing the missing fonts, making it relatively easy for you to find and modify the fonts used in your template.

If your template doesn't contain missing fonts, and your project uses a LOT of font instances, it may be worth it to you to temporarily remove (copy out of font installation folder) the font from your system solely to use this 'missing fonts' feature and locate all of the instances of the font in question for change.  Then once you are finished, simply copy back the font.

A simple font change to match up with your current project can make a huge design impact.

Matching Colors

Another obvious mod is color change.  Whenever someone who is relatively new to After Effects calls in and asks us about changing things about templates like color or length, we always say color is the easiest to modify, and it is.  The truth is, some templates are simply WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get...)  It just isn't easy to change individual lengths of photos, videos or text.  However, color, at least to some degree is simple to change on a grand scale by applying an HLS adjustment layer to the entire project and shifting the color one direction or another.  

However, not all templates are locked in, and many, as long as you have the skills (and we are talking about pros here, yes?) are customizable in many other ways, allowing you to give the template an original look that compliments the project you are working on.

With a few tweaks, most people won't even know you used a template, and in this particular case, the only reason I recognized it is because I see these templates every day!

So, whether you are an expert in your field or a complete newbie, I hope that our AE Templates can be of use to you in some way or fashion just like they helped __________!!

If you are a pro, if you feel comfortable sharing, it would be great if you would share in the comments how our templates have helped you and how, if at all, you customize them to fit into your own productions,  Thanks in advance!

While We are On the Subject...

The After Effects Templates rolling into Revo as of late have been rather exceptional!  While we have always been known for quality templates, sometimes we get batches that are a cut above in the design category especially and we have been more than happy to welcome these beauties into our bevy of template goodness.

This particular batch features a number of animated logo templates including "HUD Logo" which uses various heads up display effects to display a logo, "Cinematic Logo" which uses a 3D look and bevelled edges to produce a slick Cinema style feel, and "Logo Slice" which literally slices up the logo in a unique way.

In the effects category, we have a plug-in style template with "Ink Bleeds and Blots" which allows you to add ink 'Rorschach test' style effects and overlays to your project.

There are a few cinematic trailer/intros including "Cinematic Action Opener," "Epic Hybrid Trailer," and "Intro Grid."

If you need a sports promo, "Good Sport" is a great pick, although it would be good for anything where you need fast motion and bright colors.  It's an upbeat and peppy template that has a very nice and clean design.

For a parallax style photo display, check out "Inverted" which is another clean and modern template, good for a mixture of photos/videos and BIG TEXT!

There are a few more great templates in this MediaBox and you can check them all out there:

Early February new After Effects template MediaBox.