It doesn't take long to create some truly interesting and immersive liquid backgrounds using shape layers in Adobe After Effects. Toby Pitman dives in.
Displacement Mapping might sound like a concept from a Sci-Fi novel, but in After Effects you can use it to create interesting distortion techniques right now! Richard Lainhart maps out the basics.
After Effects CS5 now includes Digieffects FreeForm AE, a powerful 3D distortion plugin that can do all kinds of warps and displacements in true 3D space that have previously been unavailable in After