make a realistic vhs / vintage look – after effects vhs tutorial

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When it comes to the VHS / Vintage style I found that a lot of tutorials I've watched seem to mostly be the same steps — colour grade, chromatic aberration, and then some sort of overlay to finish it off. And while that's probably more than enough for most people, I wanted to figure out what it was that made VHS footage look the way it did so that I could recreate the style more authentically.

So after watching some playlists of VHS footage on YouTube and taking notes on what stood out, I read some wiki pages, opened up After Effects and played around until I got a decent looking attempt that I felt held up decently next to real VHS footage.

The 3 main things I noticed and then tried to recreate were:
- A dark edge around many of the higher contrast shapes
- VHS footage that's been imperfectly deinterlaced that gives it a ghosting
- Chromatic aberration mostly on the edges of higher contrast shapes

The dark edge around many of the higher contrast shapes was something that I tried to recreate many ways but in the end it was really as simple as a cranked up blur and a cranked up sharpen. My guess is it's just a product of VHS footage not being particularly clear and either in-camera itself or in post production, the footage is sharpened to bring back more clarity. Specifically, the fast box blur and the Unsharp Mask together gave me the best results.

The imperfectly deinterlaced ghosting/aliasing was something I wasn't super clear on so I had to read some wiki pages on interlacing and ended up learning a lot about it (although I'm still clearly no expert) I read enough to feel somewhat confident in faking some interlacing in After Effects. All you really have to do is apply Venetian Blinds to a duplicated version of your footage at 50% transition completion and then offset your footage one frame to the left in the timeline. That doesn't sound too complicated but this only really gives you a somewhat authentic look if you shot at 60fps (technically 50). If your footage was 30fps like mine, you'll have to use some cheeky frame blending to fudge 60fps so that your interlacing doesn't create huge obvious ghosting.

Lastly was the Chromatic Aberration. I feel that most times I see tutorials people apply this a liiittle too much and after noticing it only appearing on higher contrast edges in a few videos in a row I got to work trying to figure out how to make that happen. My solution might not be the best (due to the limited properties that the Find Edges effect exposes to you) so if you know of better way to create Edge Mattes please let me know! Ultimately it's just a duplicated version of your footage with the Find Edges Effect applied being used as a Luma Matte for the Chromatic Aberration to only be shown on the edges it picks up! Much more subtle and much closer to real footage in my opinion!

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timestamps
0:00 - intro
0:59 - blur & sharpen
2:14 - chromatic aberration
4:02 - fake interlacing
6:18 - chromatic interlacing
7:09 - colour grading
9:20 - final touches

tags
after effects vhs, after effects, vhs, after effects vhs tutorial, after effects vintage, vintage, after effects vintage look, after effects vintage film look, ae,vhs after effects, retro after effects, after effects tutorial, adobe after effects, after effects retro tutorial, after effects retro, after effects retro style, after effects old look, vhs effect, no overlay, vhs overlay, no plugins, advanced vhs, old vhs video

[AcademyOfEdits]

hey everyone! if you liked the video i'd appreciate it if you checked out my channel and if you find another video of mine that you like, consider subscribing! :) I post less frequently than most but I hold my videos to a higher quality standards, unfortunately the youtube algorithm doesn't care unless you're PUMPING out videos haha

[lacku]

One of the best and most realistic VHS look tutorial. None of that overplayed and harsh vhs presets.

[Podel]

Best tutorial I have come across, thank you

[angelafabulous]

As someone who grew up in the 1980s constantly dodging parents and their camcorder, I absolutely love this! It looks so much more authentic than any plug-in or overlay. I've already tried it out on a video of my nephews and it looks so cool! Thank you! (For the record, my nephews are now the ones constantly dodging me with my iPhone).

[Marlon_Renzo]

thank you for also showing how to add the interlaced look, in the thousands of VHS look tutorials I've watched, not one has EVER mentioned how to get that look

[diyshow]

Honestly, this is the most realistic vhs effect tutorial, this video deserves 29, 060, 000 views

[ihateunicorns]

Interesting creation of the interlacing. However, this effect only exists on VHS footage that's been digitized and not de-interlaced properly. If you're looking to create a VHS effect that looks like an actual VHS tape playback, skip this step. Instead shoot your footage at 50 or 60fps and export the video at that frame rate. There were two interlaced fields per frame, but they didn't play at the same time (as shown here on alternate scan lines). They appeared consecutively, giving the appearance of twice the frame rate.

[seanseanseanh]

Everyone else is saying it, but I love the subtle nuances you throw in to this particular tutorial. This particular look on videos is one of my favorites and I think you explain beautifully what felt off with the other ways that this is done.

[im_Dafox]

By far, and I mean it, by FAR the best vhs tutorial I've seen so far. I'm more of a DaVinci user myself, but this was very informative and really realistic. This deserves way more views. Keep it up man. Bell's activated.

[ajcF]

The amount of time I have spent trying to find a way to fake interlacing... Thank you!

[gaymegayng]

this is probably the most detailed and comprehensive tutorial on VCR effects that i could manage to find. You give the parts that youre going to be using and what each part does before adding it on, with a focus on how you can check to make sure those changes are occuring the way you want them to. Not every tutorialist gets into that nitty gritty stuff.

[jabble_]

"Everything will be done in after effects with no plug ins and nothing to download"---THANK YOU FOR THIS. I love you 3000.

[mysticalmane]

This is the best tutorial for this, most "90s" tutorials are just cheesy aesthetic-BS and don't go into detail whatsoever, so thank you for this.

[thursdaymuse]

Seriously though, amazing tutorial. You can tell you put serious effort into researching it and not just plugging an overlay. Keep it up!

[DVincent]

finally someone does it right! there are far too many retro/vintage/vhs effects that looks cheap and digital but this is great

[gwakanaka]

I didnt even have to look for another video, I subscribed right away because your videos hold that quality very high up

[HenryGWalker]

Im really surprised this doesn't have thousands of views, dude. Amazing tutorial.

I'm having problems being a beginner with this software but you really make everything easier, thank you for your work.

[currenluna]

This is one of the most well-articulated tutorials I've come across for After Effects. There are one or two times where a layer was hidden without mentioning it, but I was still able to follow along. Thanks for making this!

[rammuertoanimations]

I love how you explained all that in detail in just 11 minutes, other channels wouldve taken 30 - 45 for complex stuff. I learned a lot, now time for a found footage horror video! Thank you!

[k.skraatch]

This is the most respectable video tutorial I've ever seen. No obnoxious intro, no senseless facecam, just straight to the point. And you acknowledge other tutorials as well. I will definitely check out more of your tutorials.