Editable Star Wars Title Crawl AE PROJECT Hey fellas! I recently began a FFG Star Wars Edge of the Empire campaign with my friends on Discord, and being a video editor, I prepped a special surprise for our first session. I will show you an easy way to create this effect using After Effects CS6 and above. This Star Wars Crawl tutorial is also available for free download via the link below. You can take this After Effects template and change the text to whatever you like.

UPDATE: 09/16/2014

All the links below are dead. Someone uploaded the files to megashares: http://d01.megashares.com/dl/bwX4ssO/Taolars_SW_Crawl_0.4.zip

It should work fine with AE 6.5. But I haven't tried importing into newer versions. Let me know if you try it!

-T

UPDATE 09/1/2008:
Version 0.4 is located here: Taolars_SW_Crawl_0.4.zip. See the included README file if you have any questions.
It now can output NTSC, PAL, and HD, the SW logo is now a vector graphic, and its easier to tweak colors, glow, text speed, and the tilt angle. I think it looks better too.
SD Video Example: SWCrawl_0.40_demo.avi . Note: The DIVX compression tweaked the colors and generally degrades the picture. See the still images below to get an idea of how it really looks.
HD Still Examples:
HD_Out _LOGO.jpg
HD_Out_CRAWL.jpg.
These are larger than most people's monitors, so if the edges of letters look jagged its because it was shrunk to fit your screen. Zoom in.
Let me know if you use it, and if your project gets released a mention in your credits would be nice, but not required.
Please PM me if you find any errors. Have fun!
-T
ORIGINAL POST:
Here's a crawl template that I put together for another fan editor. It's pretty accurate, easily adjustable, and I included instructions. Feel free to use it to your hearts content. Just please drop me an email if you use it in a finished edit. And a mention in your credits would be nice, but not necessary.
Taolars_SW_Crawl_0.2.zip
And here's what it looks like:
testcrawldivx.avi
The Divx compression made some of the colors fluctuate as it fades away. The uncompressed version doesn't do that...
Have fun,
-T

Create visual effects from a galaxy far, far away with these fun After Effects tutorials.

Star Wars undoubtedly features some of the most iconic visual effects in cinematic history, and while they were groundbreaking initially, many of them have become easier to replicate than you might think. In fact, with these After Effects tutorials, you can have all the skills you need to put yourself in the Star Wars universe.

1. Title Crawl by Nick Khoo

Where better to start than the signature title crawl that kicks off each Star Wars film? One of the simpler tutorials on this list, this effective introduction to creating a 3D text crawl through space is useful beyond the context of Star Wars – it is also a good way to introduce beginners to text layers and how touse them in 3D space.

2. Lightsabers by Flawless Films

This wouldn’t be a complete list of Star Wars visual effects without the inclusion of the lightsaber. Easily the most recognizable effect of the franchise, the lightsaber is an extremely enjoyable visual to create, making the learning process of rotoscoping in After Effects much less tedious. This also doubles as a great excuse to get silly with your friends and bring your own duels to life!

3. Holograms by Ramone Hulet

This effect is a bit more universally applicable than those previously mentioned. While holograms are now featured in most science fiction films, Star Wars was among the first to bring them to life on screen. There are presets and plugins available to instantly create this effect, but you can generally achieve similar results with vanilla After Effects, as seen in this detailed tutorial.

4. Light Speed by Graymachine

Jumping from one part of the galaxy to the next would not be nearly as enthralling without the signature visual effect that Star Wars showcases in each film. Even now, it still provides a sense of wonder and anticipation every time. There are a number of tutorials that can walk you through this process, but this one is especially cool in that it even shows you how to replicate the stunning revamped hyperdrive jump shown in the trailer for The Force Awakens.

5. Planets by PremiumBeat

What is Star Wars without its stunning outer space visuals? With this tutorial, you can create a custom 3D planet scene without any plugins! It even demonstrates a technique that allows the camera to animate in 3D space relative to the planet created by CC Sphere.

6. Matte Painting by Krisco Art Productions

After Effects Star Wars Crawl Template Download Word

We’ll conclude with a tutorial that, funnily enough, isn’t actually focused on Star Wars. This introduction to 3D matte painting does require a prerequisite of basic After Effects competency, but it does a great job explaining the logic and basic techniques behind creating a virtual 3D environment. You can even implement the previous space scene technique here by adding background planets and other atmospheric details to the sky.

With your newfound skills, you can bring your own creativity to the Star Wars universe just in time for The Force Awakens — and learn some things while you’re at it!

Create A Star Wars Crawl

What visual effects from a film do you want to learn in After Effects? Let us know in the comments below.

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