Filed under: iPod Family, Video, Odds and ends
Make your own iPod nano commercial
Creative Cow has posted a video tutorial detailing how you can create those light trails featured in Apple's latest iPod commercial. Be forewarned that the tutorial is using the Windows version of After Effects, but the same technique should yield similar results on the Mac version.Andrew was even kind enough to include the source files, so you really have no excuse for not adding these streaks to all your home movies, and any client work you have to do.

![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Russell said 9:45AM on 10-18-2006
Has Andrew released this under any license such as the GPL or simular that would allow us to reproduce his work?
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Ed said 10:12AM on 10-18-2006
Well the fact that After Effects has an RRP of almost $699 seems a good excuse to me...
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Martin said 12:03PM on 10-18-2006
how would you go about setting this as a screensaver? how cool would that be?!
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Mike Russell said 11:16AM on 10-18-2006
Step 1: Steal the look from a 2002 Paul Pope comic:
http://homepage.mac.com/merussell/PaulPopeTHB.gif
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John Williams said 11:25AM on 10-18-2006
I didn't realize that Paul Pope invented light streaks
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Dmitry said 1:01PM on 10-18-2006
It's After Effects, not After Effect :).
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Clark Goble said 8:39PM on 10-19-2006
Anyone saying Apple stole this from a comic and not from what one constantly sees at raves and dance clubs is really stretching.
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Emerson said 3:03PM on 10-18-2006
Actually this is much easier to replicate using Motion, which was probably used for the comercial anyway
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Hank said 5:26PM on 10-18-2006
Wow. How about an art history lesson?
Picasso anyone?
http://pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=227&ptp_photo_id=syn:life:121346&size=320x320_mb
Yes, there was art BEFORE comic books.
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kot said 12:27PM on 10-20-2006
Martin: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/10/18/5665
(strangely, I've already installed this screensaver on my PeeCee (work) butnot on my Mac (home)).
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Alex Grierson said 5:28AM on 10-20-2006
"Actually this is much easier to replicate using Motion, which was probably used for the comercial anyway"
Motion has extremley limited uses when it comes to comps like this. Sure, its great and quick for proof-of-concept but lacks any serious scripting/tweaking controls found in after effects. The price alone should show you that AE is a serious compositing application. This particular spot was created in AE, C4D and has had been finished in Shake.
Again, motion is great but not nearly as sophisticated as AE. Motion is also not capable of 3D, therefor limiting its uses for any serious compositing.
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