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This is an involved tutorial in which you will use a plethora of plug-ins to create a swarm of spooky rabid vampire bats that prey on the mind, coming at you through a thick terrifying fog.

So be brave as you complete this long tutorial, where you will learn some tricks and use plug-ins as they were never used before! (insert evil laugh).

Note:

• You will need the Foam Plug-in - a freebie that you can download when you register AE 5. You may be able to use a different particle filter. Give it a try!

Make the Bat

1. Create a new comp called "Bat" that's about twice as wide as it is tall. I made mine 500x240, 29.97 fps and 5 seconds long.
2. Create a new layer and make it black, 250x139. This will be your right wing, so call it "right wing", if you will. Double-click the layer so that the mask window appears. Use the pen tool to draw a bat wing. You can draw this in Illustrator, too, if you prefer. Move the anchor point so that it is on the inside of the wing, next to the body (which you will be making soon!) Close the mask window.
3. Place the right wing at the right side of your comp, so the tip almost touches the right side. Duplicate this layer and rename it "left wing" , then scale it to -100x100, so that it flips horizontally. Move the left wing so that the tip almost touches the left side of your comp.
4. Now we need to get the flapping motion and we will scale at 5 second intervals to achieve this effect. On the right wing, keyframe frame 0 to 100% x 100% scale. Keyframe frame 5 to 30% x 100% scale. Keyframe frame 10 to 100% x 100% scale, and keyframe frame 15 to 30% x 100% scale, and so on and so on. When you get to the end, apply easy ease to all of these scale keyframes. Click the motion blur box on the layer and on the comp.
5. Repeat this process with the left wing, except your scale will be -100% x 100% and -30% x 100%. Don't forget to apply easy ease to the keyframes. Don't forget to click the motion blur box
6. Create a new layer, also black and call it "head". Use the pen tool to draw a round head with little perky ears like a cat. You'll need to make it in proportion to the wings, so if you make it too big, just scale the layer to the appropriate size.
7. Create a new layer and make it red - call it "Eyes". Mine is 150 x 100. Use that handy circle mask tool to draw two beady eyes, parallel to each other. Again, if they are too big, scale them down.
8. Apply the glow filter to the eyes (Effect › Stylize › Glow). Set Color A to white and Color B to bright Red. I set the Threshold to 60%, the Glow Radius to 0 35, the Intensity to 7.7. Composite Original is set to on top, Glow operation to Add, Glow Colors A & B. Everything else is set to defaults. I keyframed the glow intensity and glow radius settings so that the glowing eyes would pulsate a bit. If you feel like doing this, go ahead.
9. Select the "right wing" and "left wing" layers and precompose them (Layer › Precompose). Call the new composition "Wings".
10. Go back to your "Bat" comp, if you are not already there. Now we'll set the position keyframes of the head and wings so that they bob up and down. I've keyframed them every 5 frames, so that when the wings are folded in, the head moves up and the wings move down. This is a slight move, only 20 frames for each. When the wings are spread, move the head back down 20 frames and the wings back up to their original position. Apply easy ease to the position keyframes on both layers.

Now watch your bat fly! Isn't he cute! I'm going to call him Bubba!

Onto Making a Swarm of Bats!

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