After Effects Scribble Effect

Today we learned a very easy but super effective effect to apply to all sorts of footage. The effect includes drawing over frames of footage. This effect is mostly used for music videos, as it is very artistic and can be linked with the music and genre of song. To start the effect, you import your footage into Adobe After Effects and select the paintbrush tool. Then, you need to make sure the paintbrush is set to 'apply to current frame'. This means that the drawing that you have done on a particular frame only exists on that frame. After you have completed your drawings for a frame, use page down or page up to go forward or back a frame respectively. You can then draw another scribble on the next frame, more than likely, the drawing will be very similar to the previous frame, but in a slightly different position, because the frame is new. This effect can be used to follow a characters movement, for example, in a music video, you can outline a dancers body with a neon colour, by frame by frame outlining them with the paintbrush. After a while, you will create an outline of the dancer for lots of frames, so when you play it back, the outline is moving with the dancer.

This effect is relatively easy, although you can make it as complex and attention to detail as you like. The effect, when done to a high standard and detail does take a long time, but the finished articles look amazing and very professional. This effect works really well in music videos, especially with dancers, or for music videos inside a studio, with lots of lighting.

We experimented with a 4 second clip from Coldplay's Thunder. There were a few reasons why we chose this music video to experiment with. First of all, the video is black and white, meaning that any coloured scribbles we applied using the effect would stand out largely. Second of all, it is a very abstract music video, with lots of dancing and choreography. Fast movements and wide expressions and dances work best with the scribble effect, because it is easier to outline someone who has a wide pose, than someone who is compact and not moving very quickly.

I think the effect works best in a fast tempo music video, with genres such as pop, rap and rock. An example of the scribble effect being used in a music video is Bruno Mars- That's what I like. The scribble effect is used to emphasis the dancing, as well as mimicking some of the objects that are lyrics in the song.