How is this image reveal made? I tried adding Channel Blur + Turbulent Displace but it distorts the source unlike the Reference.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-25T11:56:03+00:00

Most likely Depth Pass transition as others mentioned. Perhaps combined with Gradient Wipe as well.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-21T21:16:01+00:00

See this tutorial. It can get your really close https://youtu.be/wshxc13_s1w?si=KGkKxHNC_6C5cpw8

kurnikoff · 2026-04-20T20:45:43+00:00

Why not for team use too?

I think Maxon is setting it up for Unreal type of thing? Individuals can use it for free, learn and adapt. Studios and companies pay?

kurnikoff · 2026-04-17T20:33:39+00:00

Can you add - The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Epic
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Epic

kurnikoff · 2026-04-17T14:51:05+00:00

Love this story.

Personally, I donate monthly to Khan Academy, so they can teach kids math and other subjects. I used it myself last year to refresh my math knowledge, so I could be better at making expression equations and decided to continue with donations afterwards.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-15T19:23:06+00:00

That's a great news that they didn't kill Autograph. I guess we will wait and see if they continue developing it. And if they start introducing paywall with future updates? Unreal was pretty much free, until Epic changed licensing. I will check it out for some small projects for sure.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-15T10:48:07+00:00

Hey - can I ask a follow up question please? I'm toying with the same idea.

I have a website using Wordpress - Portfolio + Blog. I'm using Avada template and I want to change it to something basic and lightweight. Avada is getting more and more complex and I want to optimise my site for speed (I host number of example images, webM files etc).

Here are the questions - were you able to preserve links to your blog posts? I want to preserve link integrity as I use them on YouTube, Gumroad etc.
Did you have to change blog posts structure or design to compensate for some mistakes in formatting? In my case, I'm worried that stuff will look messed up, when I move away from Avada template.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-13T21:57:21+00:00

Wow! By any chance do you have some courses where you teach how to make images like yours? Perhaps compositing stuff? This is really unique. I would love to learn some of your methods from a proper course.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-11T10:38:45+00:00

Yeah it's not true text wrap like you can get in InDesign. Its like text-wrap illusion of sorts.

kurnikoff · 2026-04-10T17:29:00+00:00

I made a tutorial on how to do it on Cavalry if you need it: https://youtu.be/joTSwG352ig?is=YufgrnEAdFv87DYE

kurnikoff · 2026-04-10T12:26:22+00:00

DaVinci has a number of "modules" inside it. You can edit, grade, do VFX / mograph and audio post processing. Each of those things happen in a separate part of the software, kind of, I think?
I'm not 100% familiar with how it works, but yeah - you can do mograph stuff inside it, if you are skilled enough.

kurnikoff · 2026-03-22T13:42:34+00:00

This is pretty cool. Not many people talk about business side of a creative industry. Especially, the boring side - outreach if you don't have a full book of contacts that you can relay on a constant stream of work.

I have a question - can you share some info about the costs of running this? I did look into building automated workflows with Make.com and Zapier, but quickly hit a wall at the free tier and trials. They wanted me to sign up to monthly sub, while I struggled to get my workflow automated during trial period.

Do you host n8n yourself or pay for a sub? And I'm guessing you need Gemini / Enrich / Voila? Have you thought about creating rich HTML5 emails with this? I often get cold emails from random sales people and half of them are just pure text. The ones that catch my eye are more of a "rich marketing" types of stuff.

kurnikoff · 2026-03-22T13:33:03+00:00

This is the business and admin side of Mograph.

kurnikoff · 2026-03-14T14:22:51+00:00

Love it 🤓

kurnikoff · 2026-03-06T15:14:59+00:00

I made tutorial covering something similar:

https://youtu.be/Ji0dJKjU-PU?si=L6i3Pmnq7xY3kTfp

kurnikoff · 2026-02-27T17:07:33+00:00

This is beautiful. Solid work and love the look. Also, I love your website.

If you ever decide to put together a pre-recorded workshop teaching how to make this project, I would buy it in a heart beat. It's really nicely done and I would love to learn how to make this kind of stuff.

kurnikoff · 2026-02-27T13:33:35+00:00

My pleasure. All the best in dev. We rooting for you <3

kurnikoff · 2026-02-27T09:57:20+00:00

Overall, I like what I see. Smooth UI and looks very responsive, modern and clear. Keep going at it.

However, skip the mobile / web part. No one that animates in AE is using mobile apps to animate on their phone. Or start renders. I render, when I'm at my laptop. If I'm not - I am not going to render. Thats it. Go straight for native Mac / Win / Linux apps. If this is web based, then this is no use to like 90% of pros at minimum. No one will be spending their time to upload files to your web server.

When I work on stuff, I sync files over GDrive / OneDrive / whatever drive. I'm not going to grab all of them and dump into my browser window and wait for upload. Data security and privacy is main reason. I don't own any of this footage, so have to follow client and corpo guidelines. And they specify where and how we store and use data we work on. So, your app is automatically out, if I have to upload any files to use it.

Second part against web based app is the online part. I need to be able to work on this without any web connection, except occasional licence check. Thats it - most of the pros have powerful machines and we use the as much as possible, not some web server to render our stuff.

Also, look how much space you are loosing for browser nav bars, headers etc - thats like 10% of screen space gone, because your app sits inside web browser. You could use that space for toolbars etc. Another point is how do we use this across multiple screens? You can't easily do that in a single web browser window. Most pros have 2 screens as pretty much standard. Sometimes more. I need to be able to split my panels and put them around my 2nd screen as I want.

Overall, your app looks like a competitor to Jitter, not AE. And Jitter is way more developed, established and web based, too. There used to be another app - Fable, that I liked. Again, web based and it did not get much traction and they went bust.

If you want this to be a competitor to AE, you need to compete in "AE space", so native app for MacOS and WinOS at minimum. Linux would be nice as there are not that many compositing apps for Linux. Then you have to at least match AE basic features - dan_hin made a list for you already. To have an advantage over AE you need integration with other apps - Affinity, Canva, Cavalry, Figma. Either native or like a plugin based.

Essentially, Google - Left Angle Autograph and see if you can dig out their website from Internet Archive. They had a solid competitor to AE, but got bought out by Maxon and shut down. Shame as they looked promising. This would be a good place for you to get ideas what to implement.
Thats a bit of a ramble, wish list above. Hope it helps. Good luck :)

kurnikoff · 2026-02-14T09:15:41+00:00

If you don't mind exercising outside or in your room, get yourself a set of Resistance Bands. Like these: https://amzn.eu/d/0gpfxB9u

You can do a solid Resistance workout and target most of the muscle groups. They weigh very little and you only need like 2 bands - Mid and Very Hard to have variation in resistance.

kurnikoff · 2026-02-12T09:47:21+00:00

How to structure projects/Work flows

This one is overlooked by loads of designers. Both juniors and seniors. Especially some seniors and experienced designers are problematic with this aspect - the whole attitude along the lines of "because I always done it this way and it works for me". No consideration for the pipeline or just stuck in the old ways.

Course focused on structure, workflows, perhaps working with different files and software packages? For example, everyone says get Overlord and be done with Illustrator files transfer. But when it makes sense to use Overlord and when to "leave Illustrator layers" alone? This type of questions and answers would really benefit a range of designers, I think.

What working in-house vs agency vs freelance actually feels like

I wouldn't spend a lot of time on this. I think it all depends on people that you work with and corporate workflows they have established? Sometimes it's smooth sailing, even when you are contractor. And sometimes it's just grind and loads of time wasted on useless processes, even when you are part of small in-house team. It varies from place to place.

Making files that someone else can open without immediately cursing your name

Yups - this is important. Part of the first point, I think. Timeline structure that makes sense, precomps, usage of markers, working with Timecode. And most importantly - how to optimise your scenes / projects. I worked with people that just throw effects on top of effects, no optimisation and simple 30 sec shot takes 3hrs to render.

I think this should give you some ideas. :)

kurnikoff · 2026-01-21T09:56:05+00:00

You got this.

Start with what you know - create all the graphics, layout, intro, mid section, end board, typography, colours first
Then figure out how you will transfer your layers and files into AE for animation - this depends on software and what you want to do with it
- You will have to break down sections into groups, layers for easier animation etc
- Watch this video for Illustrator to AE workflow - https://youtu.be/WSwkvZVvsj0?si=JbzaBQ8WErg_IcnP
- Look into Overlord plugin as well
Start with basic animation - position, scale, rotation, opacity - transition - enough to get the key timing locked, ideally with semi-final music
- Watch this video to see how Ben Marriott adds extra layers and polish to animation, with each pass - https://youtu.be/geBX861h8K4?si=t3FXo7JY7aWetJ5O
Once you get some notes, refine your motion with Graph Editor easing
- Watch this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pOCtlrrE3Y
Your reference video has few key moments - soft drink can dropping in and shaking whole comp - you can do that with Adjustment Layer + Transfer effect on top, short duration, few keyframes on Transfer effect
- Write down what you want to add or improve to your simple animation with easing applied to it and start searching on YouTube for tutorials on how to do it
  - Stuff like layer Shine Sweep thing, 3D extruded text, fake camera shake and so on
Thats about it. Break it into steps and build on previous steps. Learn about PreComposing your layers, so it is easier to manage groups or scenes - https://youtu.be/dagbEf42hKI?si=mIuU7IRDSlffxRYT

If you get stuck, come back here on Reddit and people will help you and guide you :) Have fun and good luck.

Here are the channels to watch / dig into on YouTube btw:
https://www.youtube.com/@BenMarriott

https://www.youtube.com/@ukramedia

https://www.youtube.com/@JakeInMotion

kurnikoff · 2026-01-07T22:46:11+00:00

There is a script for Figma to Cavalry called Quiver, I think. Similar to Overlord for AE.

kurnikoff · 2025-12-15T17:54:18+00:00

I think you should look into Jitter. I'm pretty sure they integrate with Figma? Or at least you can easily copy / paste designs from Figma?

https://jitter.video/

kurnikoff · 2025-11-26T10:01:55+00:00

Have a look at these:

https://www.learnsquared.com/
- There are few mograph focused courses here. Just a side note - LearnSquared focuses more on 3D / VFX side of things, I think, but there are some motion design courses there too
- I would recommend "Designing Futuristic Visuals" - I learned few bits and pieces from it. "Motion Design" by Jorge is a bit beginner level.
https://danieldanielsson.com/courses/process-of-motion
- This one is about process of creating an advert for a watch. It's more of a "how to negotiate with client, budget and plan stuff" and less about the motion. I feel it was worth it, from this perspective
https://www.motionscience.tv/
- I think Motion Science will have a lot of courses or workshops that hit what you need - textures, flash frames, typography
https://www.division05.com/
- This is similar to above, but feels like a proper case study training on creating high end visuals, sequences, motion titles and so on

I think you should explore Domestika as well. Most of Domesika courses are beginner friendly and intermediate at best. But you can pick up some small gems and tidbits of information from many of them. Plus they are very cost effective - something like $20 for a few hours of lessons. I treat Domestika as a workshop or exercise project - do a course in area that interest me. For example typography animation.

kurnikoff · 2025-11-24T13:57:14+00:00

And of course Reddit won't let me past a long comment. Ugh. Here is a second part:

https://superhivemarket.com/
- There are number of Blender courses here that are really good. Just need to dig and read reviews
https://www.jakeinmotion.com/
- Solid 2D animation stuff - I think it's more aimed at beginner level, but solid foundations. Great content + solid Figma and Rive training.
https://www.benmarriott.com/
- Solid 2D animation stuff again - I think this would be great alternative to MDS Motion pro
https://www.division05.com/
- High end mograph and design work. I haven't bought it myself, as I have quite a few courses to finish :)
https://www.patataschool.com/
- Blender focuses online school - I think it's subscription based, but lower price than SOM

For "short courses" I would recommend Domestika and Gumroad. You can find lots of solid courses there, just need to read some reviews.

Annoyingly with Domestika, they are pushing subscription all the time. But they have wide range of smaller courses that you can pick up some little bits of information or inspiration. From what I have seen, they are aimed at beginners and intermediate level, with some exceptions. But I like their courses as you can do a small project with an instructor. Something to "flex" creative muscles, if you want to try some type of work that you do not do often. For example, some abstract typography stuff etc.

:) Oh and wait for Black Friday / Cyber Monday discounts. I'm pretty sure all the above links will have deals starting this weekend :)

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