Window Watcher

I wanted to experiment with the idea of replacing the Reshape Effect within the script to Liquify - ended up messing up a bit so the tutorial will have to be done later.

Extras | no gif, only mp4. • Source: Girlfolio

This does use the J&G script, but has many additional things added on. That being said, almost all of the added on features use the expressions/control added by the script making my life a lot easier.

Also, finally fixed the random post thing over on the right to be https, so now we're all secure up in here.

Jiggle and Grow 4 Script Release

The Jiggle and Grow Script has made it out of beta! While I'm not ready to tell people of it's existence yet, outside of this blog anyway, because the last time I released a major version a major bug was found within an hour and many people thought it just didn't work. (How was I supposed to know everyone would delete all the starting keyframes?) Plus I haven't made the advanced tutorial.

The script is available for download here.
Walkthrough videos are available for download through the J&G page. If you run into any bugs, please let me know and I'll try to get them fixed asap.

To the people that use v3, please be aware this version has changed out you apply the Effects, it's much more lenient now and should make more sense once you see how it works.

J&G 4 - Beta

To try the beta script: Beta Folder
Download the beta script file and put it into your scripts folder (see current installation instructions for J&G3 for a refresher.)

Good news! It's pretty much done. Just need to test it on things and create tutorials.

• First, it does not require After Effects 2018, so any version of After Effects CC should work fine. (Sorry CS6 users) It certainly is more efficient and quicker if you have 2018 compared to earlier versions, but hey.
• Instead of using 20+ effects, it now uses around 8, so it's much, much quicker than before. (Regardless of which AE version you're running)
• No more precomposing, this does change up how the script operates though, so be aware of that:
  • You no longer create a certain number of masks on the layer and magic happens. You now work on layers directly, applying what you need appropriately and when you want.
  • The J&G effects are now visible on the layer itself so you can either put your own effects before them, or after them, or tie effects to them if you so choose.
  • All controls for the entire composition are on a single null layer called J&G Controls. Hopefully simplifying things.
• It does work on video, but I would highly suggest you rotoscope first before using the script! The tutorial will explain why.
• I'm going to try and get the Shadows tool into it before full release, but that may have to wait as my vacation is up soon.

If you try this out and run into a bug, please let me know in the comments so I can look into it. I will need your .aep file and a brief description of what you have selected and what you're trying to get the script to do so I can recreate it. Remember, it's a beta!

Bug fixes 11/26/2017:
Fixed: Expression missing ; for single bounce. [Added ;]
Fixed: Pendulum swings upside down when initial bounce angle was between -90 and 90 or variations. [Took that into account.]
Found bug: function CopyToComp() does not allow the Undo feature... known AE bug.
Found bug: You can apply the jiggle effect to the same layer, using different jiggle types breaks everything.
11/27/2017
Fixed: CopyToComp() by not using CopyToComp() and manually making a copytocomp that does work with Undo.
11/28/2017
Fixed: You can no longer apply the jiggle effect twice to the same layer.
12/2/2017
Fixed: Top Layer Jiggle could not be applied after a Reshape.
Fixed: Reshape was being placed in incorrect order if applied after Jiggle Effect.
Fixed: Top Layer Jiggle would delete Reshape if being re-applied to account for new layers with Jiggle Effect.
12/4/2017
Fixed: Applying Reshape (Altering DMComp) would fail. Similar to above, but not quite.
12/8/2017
Found bug:Pendulum gets out of balance after first pass when running in reverse or grav_direction > initial bounce direction...
12/14/2017
Fixed Pendulum bug: Took a long time to fix this, rewrote it quite a few times and each time it turned into a if/else nightmare. Finally got a method that works, not quite as pretty as before, but still worth it.
12/16/2017
Fixed Speed Bug: When using keyframes on bounce speed the first keyframe wouldn't propagate to the first frame of the comp like it was supposed to.

Jiggle & Grow 4

Off and on I've been working on J&G script 4. It's coming along quite well - at least the expression are.

This post is for those of you who want to try it out:

Beta Folder
You'll need both files. Keep in mind, this is just to test the expressions and effects, it doesn't have the script portion so this is literally just a file with fancy controls, you can't use it on your own image.

First: you'll need the newest version of After Effects (2018). This is because I'm abusing a new feature unique to this version. So yes, that does mean only the people running 2018 or newer will be able to run this script. Don't blame me that Adobe just now got around giving expressions access to mask paths.
Edit: This is no longer true for a couple reason I'll maybe explain later, but the short answer is now the script detects which version you have and will do different things accordingly.

What's new?

• No more Precomposing. It's all handled up front.
• All expressions have been re-written from the ground up, so they are better in efficiency and readability.
• New Gravity feature. As the bounce amount crosses the threshold of the gravity amount, the bounce will transition into a more pendulum like movement to behave more like breasts.
• No more 37 Smears. Instead, I've opted to use a displacement map to achieve a similar effect - way faster than before. (This uses a thing that was added in the early 2017 version of After Effects)
• "Heftiness" has turned into Stiffness. Similar setting, but does a bit more.

and...

• This version will support video! The reason is because I'll have access to the mask paths in the expressions, letting me control many more things on the fly.

I'd love to switch to liquify; however, I'm running into issues with that because with liquify there's no way for me to figure out how the user moved the "growth", so... I'm still using reshape for the main expansion effect.

Vixen

Two versions: Extended scene and just BE versions.

Extras | [gif version] • Source: Kendra Sunderland for Vixen

Extras | No gif, too large. • Source: Kendra Sunderland for Vixen

This was the first time I've worked with 4K footage while using Re:flex, it definitely hurts the computer. I'm sorry for the jump cuts in the extended version, but to get it to make sense it kind of required it. If you watch the source video the jump cuts are really jarring, so I did what I could to tone them down without causing some position changes during cuts. The 4K really saved me in the end with the shadows, I took too many shortcuts, but after resizing you can't really see them.

StepSwap

Another age swap thing!

Extras | [stationary gif version] [stationary gifv] • Source: Brandi Love - Cali Sparks

I spent a long time transitioning the ages in Photoshop and wanted a way to show off the details, but I think that ended up being more of a distraction.

There is a whole image set with pictures like these and I wanted to make a whole story, but after the time it took to adjust just one image I lost interest. So use your imagination!

Frills

I just wanted to play with the frills on the bottom - everything else I got pretty lazy about.

Extras | [giant gif version] [small gif] • Source: SelFrie -Self Friend-

Heidi Klum

Extras | [gif version] • Source: link

Aniss A

The test was: how big can Re:flex go without causing artifacts around the edges?

Extras | [gif version] [small gif] • Source: Aniss A

Pretty big.

Larisa Krylova

Short, but very effective. I tried to keep it within reason, but still big enough.

Extras | [Medium Gif] [Small Gif] • Source: Larisa Krylova

I was originally going to go pretty complex using Re:flex and the whole kit, but decided not to because the source was already small and blurry on some frames. So everything is just Bulge/Liquify. The only tricky part was keeping the arms and hands out of the effect and replacing the underlying layer with still when the arm crosses over.

Sophie Mudd

Two versions: Extra large & just normal.

Extras | [gif version] [gif version - less expansion] • Source: Sophie Mudd

Short, simple, but nice.

Snapchat

You could say something about a snapchat filter, but it's just better to watch.

Extras | [gif version] [for ants] • Source: Vicki Li - [reddit post] - [imgur]

I've never actually seen the snapchat timer circle thing animated, so I just guessed at it. I really like this one, it's got a lot of little things here and there. Took about a week, working an hour or so each night. I'm sorry about the flash at the very end causing an imperfect loop, I'm not sure what happened there during the export but the last frame decided to darken.

I don't use the jiggle and grow script, despite making it. The video is actually 1080p, but it's being resized to fit the block.

Jiggle and Grow 3 Released

I've finished all the tutorials I wanted to get done - and with that the new version of the script can be released.

If you tried the beta version, this version has a couple of fixes, but nothing major. If you're trying this from version 2 the biggest new things is now it pops open in a window and has a Tools section.

The only thing left for me to do is create a tutorial on using UberKey for morphing videos. This will be the last version of Jiggle and Grow, except for minor bug fixes, because I think it hit its limit.

Script 3.0 Beta

I'm going to be testing Jiggle & Grow 3.0 beta over the next couple days.

For those of you who use it, or want to try it, it is here: 3.0 via Google Drive

It "installs" the same way, drop that in your After Effects script folder (see current J&G installation instructions if you need help). Though now when you run the script a window will pop up and you control the script from there. No more blindly running it multiple times! Please just keep in mind this hasn't been fully tested, so if you run across a bug please let me know. I'll be fixing them as I run into them.

Soon...

Main script works - presets function works, just need to program in more of them besides default. Tools section also needs UberKey added to it, which was also corrected and finished, but won't be too bad.
Then it's off to the tutorial races. The main script itself is relatively unchanged, most were changes to try and get it to work in other languages.