Master the Art of Retro Titles: How to Animate 3D VHS Text in After Effects

In this tutorial I’ll break down how to create a timeless retro animated title / logo. The techniques used are perfect for eternalising old 70s and 80s Scanimate idents📺 📼VHS Emulator – Colorama Effects – Subscribe to master the art of Motion Graphics! Chapters: 00:00 Overview 00:34 Make it 3D 01:43 Cool lighting trick 04:28 Smooth fly in movement 05:01 Swirly side patterns 06:02 Nice added touches 08:11 Secondary text 09:14 Layering glows 10:15 Emulating a VHS effect 13:18 Final outcome SOURCE LAB ⓢ Written breakdown: 1. Add text, check the 3D box, extrude it 2. Add an orthographic camera setup 3. Centre align the anchor point 4. Add spotlights to the left, right, and 4 underneath 5. Tweak light settings to get a nice balance of shadows, highlights, and midtones 6. Use C to navigate around the text 7. Add rotation and position keyframes to create the smooth fly in movement 8. Precompose everything and add a colorama effect 9. Add the expression ’time *100’ to the phase shift of the colorama effect 10. Adjust lighting to suit your preference 11. Duplicate the text comp in the project panel and the timeline, remove the extrusion in the new comp 12. Remove the colorama from the new comp 13. kayframe the extrusion of the side comp, so it resolves as 2D text 14. Make sure all keyframes are easy eased 15. Add a ramp, and a colorama effect to the front comp 16. Keyframe the ramp to bring it in towards the text 17. Add the layer styles: bevel emboss, stroke, and inner glow to the front comp 18. Add secondary type, add easy ease keyframes for tracking. 19. Now align so it appears behind the big text 20. Add an echo for a slight retro touch 21. Add glow threshold keyframes to 3 stacked glow effects on an adjustment layer 22. Drag in the VHS emulator from and tweak to tailor it to this project 23. Overlay the VHS Textures & Transitions, using screen / colour dodge, opacity and a levels effect 24. You now have a nostalgic VHS Retro Title! Elevate your motion graphics at for premium motion tools! Thank you for watching :)