Two powerhouse workshops packed with expert techniques for Adobe After Effects, Zaxwerks ProAnimator, Zaxwerks 3D Flag and more
Take your design and production skills to the next level
The Making It Look Great ProAnimator bundle includes the Making It Look Great 1 and Making It Look Great 4 video workshops. Both hosted by After Effects expert and Zaxwerks demo artist John Dickinson.
Learn more about Making It Look Great 1
Learn more about Making It Look Great 4
About your Host: Based in Sydney Australia, John Dickinson is a cutting-edge motion graphics artist who is in demand. John combines 12 years of industry experience with a proven teaching ability to provide high quality learning resources that encourage and challenge participants to break through to new levels of excellence and impact in their work.
The so-called global financial crisis seems to have hit some countries harder than others. Here in Australia it’s in the news almost every day but apart from a diving share market and dollar value, reduced business and consumer sentiment, and the threat of increased unemployment, so far things seem to be generally unchanged. My job seems as busy as ever, with plenty of work coming through the door. How has the crisis affected you? Have you lost your job? Are you freelancing and finding it harder to find work? I’m curious to know how the motion graphics industry is being affected around the world.
Psunami 1.3 was recently released by Red Giant Software after their recent acquisition of Digital Anarchy’s After Effects plug-ins. A recent project required this style of FX treatment, and I have been thoroughly impressed with this plug-in, both in its ease of use, potential for creative extension and use in non intended ways. 
Title and action safe guides are used to ensure that important content isn’t placed outside the viewable areas of a television screen. If you’re creating a project that will be seen on both 4:3 and 16:9 televisions, the best way to ensure that 4:3 viewers don’t miss any of the action is to use guides with a 4:3 safe zone. Up until After Effects CS4 I used a Photoshop file 
Last year I had to sell all my studio equipment, including my trusty PowerMac with all its lovely RAM. The only computer I have presently is my trusty PowerBook G4 with 1 Gig of RAM. Lest you feel sorry for me, don’t. Rendering may take a lot longer than it used to, but this little power house has helped me produce some wonderful motion graphic designs. 
Making It Look Great 5 hosted by Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) is almost here. The following is a list of all 10 tutorials included in the workshop, with Quicktime movie examples. This training is over 7 hours long and is packed with After Effects techniques, tips and tricks. More details soon. 
Here is the After Effects project for Unbreakable. The look is based on graphics from the original movie trailer; read the Gallery post for more details.
We are working hard on Making It Look Great 5 so I thought I’ll let you in on a little status update. We are already halfway through. If everything goes well we should be releasing it in no more than 6 weeks. Unfortunately I became very sick and sometimes I have to give my plans up, go to the doctor and lay in bed for a few days. But I’m not giving up, oh no. 
CS4 introduces us to 3 new effects: Cartoon, Bilateral Blur and Turbulent Noise. Bilateral Blur and Turbulent Noise are very similar to the existing Smart Blur and Fractal Noise effects. In this tutorial, we’ll take a quick look at these new effects and see what makes them different. 
