One of the most influential films of my childhood was Poltergeist. I think I saw that movie about 50 times on HBO. Man, I love that movie. If you don't know how it relates to tv snow, which is what you get when you're on a nonexistent channel, Carolanne got sucked into the tv and communicates through a tv snow channel. You have to see the movie.

Note: There are lots of third-party plug-ins that can also make snow, with much more control over the parameters. Check Snow in our Plug-in Finder for more information.

This tutorial teaches you two ways to make tv snow two ways, one totally within AE, the other using Photoshop and AE.

You will learn the following AE skills - how to import a series of files and how to use the interpret footage dialog box.

Tutorial #1 - Create snow using Photoshop:

This is the longer way to do it, but I think the results are better and the speed is easier to control.

You will Need: AE Standard Bundle

1. (pops) Download a quicktime movie of this snow to see what the final looks like.
2. In Photoshop, create a new image. My sample was created at 320x240, 72 dpi, RGB.
3. Fill the layer with something (white, black, a color) if it's not already filled.
4. Apply Filter > Noise > Total Noise.

Tutorial #2 - Create snow using AE

1. Create a new layer (layer > new > new solids) in your comp, the same size as your comp.
2. Apply noise to the comp (effect > stylize > noise). Turn the amount of noise up to 100.
3. Check or uncheck the check boxes to your liking.