From Zero to Cthulhu: After Effects VFX Tutorial for Phone Screens

Josh, Ryan and the Film Riot team walk through their cosmic phone portal effect. They skipped the VFX details in their previous episode (focusing on sound design), but now they're back getting into the nitty-gritty of the visuals.

Phone Screen Setup

They shot with a green screen on the phone without tracking markers since the movement was minimal. Smart move—saved them cleanup time. In After Effects, they:

1. Duplicated footage twice
2. Used roto brush on the top layer to isolate hand/phone
3. Applied Mocha AE to the second duplicate for tracking
4. Created a null object and a solid pre-comp for the screen corner pin
5. Used Key Light to remove the green screen

The tracking setup is interesting—instead of just corner-pinning content to the screen, they linked footage to the track null to get that authentic handheld feel. That trick where they pre-composed and scaled up to increase motion is pretty hacky but effective. They even flipped the motion horizontally by tweaking the value graph on the null's position.

Sky Portal Effect

For the cosmic portal, they built several layers:

1. Base energy ring using Saber plugin with fire preset (slowed down distortion and wind speeds to make it feel massive)
2. Separated front/back portions to sandwich the tentacles between them
3. Added energy assets set to screen with curves adjustments for tinting
4. Used adjustment layers with curves for selective darkening/brightening around the portal

Element 3D Tentacle Creation

The tentacle work in Element 3D is where things get interesting:

1. Used alien tendrils from Turbosquid but applied a "wet lizard" material from E3D Pro Shaders
2. Modified UV repeat, bumps, colors and enabled subsurface scattering
3. Used the replicator to position multiple tentacles
4. Added subtle animation similar to their Godzilla/Xenomorph techniques
5. Enabled ambient occlusion (dark red), fog, and strategic spotlights

That subsurface scattering really sells the organic feel. The multiple spotlights positioned to simulate light from the portal is a nice touch—always those small details that make the difference between "meh" and "damn, that's good."

Phone UI and Final Touches

For the phone interface:

1. Created custom UI elements inspired by streaming platforms
2. Animated comments scrolling up with feathered alpha mats
3. Corner-pinned the UI to the phone screen
4. Used advanced spill suppressor to restore screen reflections
5. Added a blurred/dimmed area behind comments for readability

Their box blur + dimmed curves combo for making text more readable is a quick solution that works well. Final glow adjustment layer to blend everything together—classic finish.

Pretty solid breakdown overall. Typical indie workflow with some clever shortcuts. Nothing groundbreaking technique-wise, but solid execution that gets the job done without over-complicating things.