Now into week 4 of the latest term at fxphd.com. After Effects Grab Bag so far has been interesting as far as workflow but a little light-on as far as technique goes. Cinema 4D and Design is full of great techniques, Tim really know his stuff. I will say though that the audio on those movies is a little rough. Introduction to SynthEyes is really great, learning how to track in 3D has really opened up a world of possibilities. After Effects Paint and Roto Secrets has coursed me to look at roto shots in a whole new way; I’m now looking more closely at shots before jumping into rotoscoping and giving greater consideration to what other methods might be more suitable. I highly recommend this strand. And remember, it’s not too late to join up, once you sign up you’ll get access to all the lessons made available so far, and the forums give you direct access to the instructors. If you do sign up please include “Motionworks” as your referral 
Twitter Updates
The Foundry has released 3D Camera Tracker and Kronos, two exciting new plug-ins for Adobe After Effects.
Alexander of Amateurmedia.net has created a stylish new font named Typograph Pro. Also check some of the great usage examples created within Cinema 4D.
Red Giant Software has released Colorista 2, with some exciting new features and improvements. Use motionworks10 for a 1o% discount.
Fontfeed.com has an excellent column “Screenfonts” which discusses the use of fonts in movie posters.
Industrial Light and Magic has a new site. It’s quite amazing just how many productions ILM has been involved in.
Urban Dirty has terrific free grunge stock images and also provides color themes for various images with a downloadable .ASE file. You can import the .ASE file into After Effects using Swatch You Want.
10 Responses to this post
February 4, 2009 at 5:56 pm |
I’m also enjoying the AE Grab Bag but finding it light on technique… is it just me or does it feel like this course has a slight “we forgot to do something for AE so lets just chuck something together” feel? Still, I look forward to each lesson.
C4D and Design is great. Tim shots through everything really quickly but thats the beauty of QuickTime… just rewind and listen to it a few more times!! The Bone stuff was great! Really looking forward to adding some more 3D animation into my TVC clients logos!
Still havent decided on the third course though!! SynthEyes or Rotoscoping.. both would be great!
February 4, 2009 at 7:46 pm |
Hmmm,
Im still thinking about to join. I just bought syntheyes and have only some basic knowledge about tracking … Thanks for your reports JD
February 4, 2009 at 8:40 pm |
I agree Ben, feels thrown together, but there are still interesting things to pull from it – more approach wise i’m finding. I’m enjoying roto the most right now. Overall though I have been a little disappointed in the quality as well.
February 4, 2009 at 9:29 pm |
Hi Jonathan,
Yeah, I think C4D is a standout for me, made me less afarid to venturing into MoGraph and Xpresso. Im going to take Roto I think, seeing I dont have access to SynthEyes for commercial use anyway.
Grab Bag is great for the workflow part, but I could see it getting old pretty quick over 10 lessons… plus I can get great workflow and technique tips from here! Im sure they have some more great stuff coming up.
February 5, 2009 at 1:45 am |
I love the Roto course.
There were some shots in his class that I cringed when I first saw them, and I was pleasantly surprised at how minimal an effort was needed to pull-off some of the things he did.
Especially in some of the “Attila” shots.
This term I’m taking:
AFX301 Guerrilla Filmmakers Guide to AE
RTO210 Secrets of paint and Roto
NUK202 Intermediate nuke
i love them all and will probably do the next term as well.
I’m thinking of taking johns Flame course or the Davinci course next time, not sure.
i highly recommend fxphd…. after buying Johns dvd’s of course, hehe:)
February 5, 2009 at 6:36 am |
Yeah, loving Tim’s C4D stuff too, some solid project stuff, but getting workflow things in at every turn.
Are you not doing Guerrilla Filmmakers Guide to AE too? I’m finding it a real eye opener and again he gets through so much in each class.
February 5, 2009 at 1:59 pm |
Yes I am doing Guerrilla Filmmakers Guide to AE and plan to watch class 2 today. I’m a little behind
February 5, 2009 at 5:33 pm |
The AE Grab Bag is a bit of a disappointment – there is not much in there that is like Wow – how did they do that … I need to know now!!! kindda stuff. That said, I am still learning stuff so won’t complain too loudly.
February 6, 2009 at 8:38 am |
I’m also in Guerrilla Filmmakers’ Guide to AE (Gareth Edwards) and Secrets of Paint and Roto (Wes Ball). Both classes are taught so well and the information laid out so thoroughly…this is my second term and these two are definite highlights. I’m pursing my interest in color as a storytelling variable with Grading with Apple Color (Kelly Armstrong), and that class is also a delight to watch. I feel all three instructors have pitch-perfect paces for their given topic, knowing what to skip and when to drill down. The ability to preview the first two weeks of all the classes proved essential in finding the best marriage between instructor and course.
March 31, 2009 at 8:35 pm |
Im curious if anybody is doing fxphd this semester?, i noticed Tim is teaching another class which sounds good in its brief description… and that Mark Christiansen is taking a class also..
Anybody taking classes and if so what classes are you taking?
Trackbacks