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Create a Realistic Flag Animation in After Effects

Create your Realistic Flag animation in Adobe After Effects. In this tutorial, you will learn to create your realistic flag animation inside Adobe After Effects without using any plugins or expressions. After Watching this tutorial, you will easily create your flag animation. Also, check out an outstanding Waving Flag Animation tutorial.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Realistic Flag Animation:

Step 1: Setting Up the Composition

  1. Open Adobe After Effects.
  2. Go to Composition and create a new composition.
  3. Rename it to “Flag Animation” (or your preferred name).
  4. Set the resolution to 1920×1080 pixels, frame rate to 30 frames per second, and duration to 10 seconds.

Step 2: Importing Files and Pre-composing

  1. Go to the File Menu.
  2. Import the required flag and waving texture files.
  3. Drag the flag image into the composition.
  4. Press S to open scale properties and increase the scale to fit the screen.
  5. Right-click on the flag layer and select “Pre-compose”. Rename it to “Flags”.

Step 3: Adding Waving Texture

  1. Drag the Waving Texture footage above the flag layer.
  2. Right-click on the footage layer and go to Transform, then select “Fit to Comp”.
  3. Pre-compose the footage layer.
  4. Hide the footage layer.

Step 4: Applying Displacement Map

  1. Select the flag layer.
  2. Go to Effects & Presets and search for the “Displacement Map” effect.
  3. Drag and drop the effect onto the flag layer.
  4. In the settings, change the displacement map layer to “Waving Texture”.
  5. Set Horizontal & Vertical Displacement to “Luminance”.
  6. Change Max Horizontal and Vertical Displacement to 15.

Step 5: Adding Shadows

  1. Duplicate the Waving Texture layer by pressing Control+D.
  2. Make the duplicate visible and change its blending mode to “Multiply”.

Step 6: Fixing White Edges and Adding Shine

  1. Select the flag layer.
  2. Press S to open scale properties and change the value to 2 or 3%.
  3. Double-click the Waving Texture layer.
  4. Create an adjustment layer.
  5. Go to Effects & Presets and search for the “Levels” effect.
  6. Adjust the levels slightly.
  7. Add the Gaussian Blur effect with a blurriness value of 10.
  8. Go back to the main composition.
  9. Select the Waving Texture layer.
  10. Press T to open opacity properties and reduce the opacity to 50%.
  11. Search for the “Curves” effect in Effects & Presets.
  12. Drag and drop the effect onto the Waving Texture layer.
  13. Adjust the curves to make it brighter.

Step 7: Adding Fabric Texture

  1. Drag the Fabric texture above all layers.
  2. Change the blending options to “Darken”.
  3. Reduce the opacity as desired.
  4. Drag the fabric texture just above the flag layer.

Step 8: Making Edits and Customization

  1. Go to the flag composition (inside the “Flags” pre-comp).
  2. Drag and drop another flag image and adjust the scale.
  3. Return to the main composition.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully created a realistic flag animation in Adobe After Effects.

Project File Details:

UpdatedMarch 25, 2024
CompatibilityAfter Effects CC
Required PluginNo
Size2.23 MB
CategoryAfter Effects Tutorials
PriceFree