| Meet Grant Swanson, CreativeCOW Contributing Editor
Creative COW Contributing Editor
Grant Swanson is a film maker and visual effects artist from the inside out. He started making movies at 10 years old with his neighbor's hand-cranked camera! He started to incorporate special effects shots a year later and visual effects shots at the age of 13, and has worked on many large productions since then. Now, he runs a business in which he teaches After Effects lessons and tutorials to students of all ages, as well as creating various promos and videos for different events and activities.
In his spare time he enjoys cooking, especially grilling, playing tennis, skiing, video-editing, watching movies, rock-climbing, listening to music, and playing ultimate Frisbee.

Articles by Grant Swanson | | | |
Adobe After Effects
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Out of the Rabbit Hole - Text Transitions
Learn tips about working in 3D, using cameras, expressions, and the graph editor - all while making a unique Carroll-esque motion graphic title sequence.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Anamorphic Lens Flare in AE
In this video tutorial, Creative COW contributing editor Grant Swanson will demonstrate how to create anamorphic lens flares using only effects that are native to Adobe After Effects.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Bleach Bypass Effect
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson demonstrates a quick, easy and very high quality bleach bypass effect right inside of After Effects. Understand what the term refers to and how to simulate it in the digital intermediate process or on digital video, using After Effects.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Creating Digital Cinema
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson will explain how to simulate many elements to enhance your DV footage. Many techniques in this tutorial will show how to create effects similar to those in a popular software package.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Motion Stabilizing
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson will explain how to use the After Effects Motion Tracker to remove unwanted jitter and movement while still retaining the original motion of the sequence through the use of an expression or manual keyframes in After Effects.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Sin City Effect part 2
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson will cover important and useful techniques for working with alpha channels that are specifically derived from certain color luminance values. He will explain how to extract the color of a certain area of the image, turn it into an alpha channel, and use it to manipulate the image.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Mystic Text
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson will take you through an effective way of tracking Mystic Text onto a wall or screen. This technique can be used in horror films, commercials, or promos. He will cover the basics of the After Effects paint tools, some basic 2.5D motion tracking, and some simple yet effective compositing techniques.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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Adobe After Effects
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Creating the Sin City Effect
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson will take you step-by-step through the easiest and fastest (and extremely effective) way of creating the popular Sin City effect - colorized objects in a black and white world. You will learn basic techniques when working with color, and some useful masking/rotoscoping techniques.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial |
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