I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Creative Cow podcast. You can hear the 20 minute interview here. The interview is a couple of years old now but will give you a good insight into how I got into motion graphics and the unusual path I took to get to where I am now.

Copying an expression and pasting it to other layers can be a hassle, especially when you have a lot of layers you want to add the copied expression to. So here’s a time saving tip:

• “Authentic, funny, experience-based discussion with killer take-aways. Can’t get that from the major networks. Can’t get that anywhere else…”
• “Thanks for actually discussing a topic most people run from!”
• “I really wish I had heard this when I was first doing freelance. Great knowledge.”
• “You two are inspirational. Very well presented, and great advice!”
• “…it’s given me the confidence to make a business out of doing what I love…”
• “I realized there is a lot to learn regarding business… it’s really easy to forget about the business side of the industry.”
• “I finally got proactive and sent my showreel to a bunch of places, had an interview at one of the major studios a couple of days later and now have a new job with them.”
• “BOD is a great resource for the creative person who wants to learn how to truly be successful while doing what they love.”
• “BOD has made me totally rethink every aspect of my creative business and makes me think about my decisions more critically.”

The Business of Design is a series of discussions and interviews focussing on business development and communication with specific reference to the graphic design industry.

When copying and pasting an Illustrator path into AE as a mask to use with the Stroke effect (EFFECT > GENERATE > STROKE) there’s a trick for allocating where exactly on the mask your Stroke will start/end. Use the Scissors Tool to cut the path at the point where you want the stoke to start and then when you copy and paste the path into AE, at that cut point Read more…

In this written tutorial learn how to use After Effects and Zaxwerks 3D Flag take a clean sharp Illustrator file and turn it into a weathered and tattered US flag. Of course you can replace the US flag with the flag of your choice.

Watch movie    View tutorial

Here’s a quick way to speed up your workflow. In Preferences (Preferences > Display) switch on “Disable Thumbnails in Project Panel”. This prevents AE from updating the thumbnail image at the top of the Project panel each time you select an item in the panel. This is useful when dealing with big images. To preview an image just double click to open it in the Footage panel.

The StockXchang is a great resource for free images that has saved my butt plenty of times. So I wanted to share an example of how I used some wall textures from the site as the base for Inside Terror on the History Channel, which deals with a number of infamous terrorist acts committed in recent history.  Watch movie