Motion Sketch is one of those Adobe After Effects tools that is often forgotten (at least by me) but is still a handy addition to the After Effects toolset. In this quick tip we look at how you can use Motion Sketch to add natural, organic motion to your layers. Watch tip (7 mins)
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.
30 Responses to this post
October 7, 2009 at 1:59 pm |
Nice tutorial, thanks Jhon
October 7, 2009 at 2:21 pm |
I bet that you already know what I’m going to say, John.
October 7, 2009 at 6:58 pm |
Thanks for reminding me Todd. I’ve posted the link in Adobe Help. Best, John.
October 7, 2009 at 6:53 pm |
The forgotten art of handmade keyframes
. Thanks for reminding that there is always another way – I think I relied to much on expressions in my last works. I believe that at some point even a non-Motiondesigner can “feel” if its pure math or handmade.
October 7, 2009 at 6:57 pm |
You’re welcome illd. You bring up a good point too, thanks. John.
October 7, 2009 at 9:44 pm |
this is really a helpful feature
Thanks john for the tutorial
October 8, 2009 at 10:14 pm |
You’re welcome Hassaan. Best, John.
October 8, 2009 at 7:36 am |
hey great tip and thnx for reminding me of this tool. maybe it works best with a pen like wacom.
October 8, 2009 at 10:22 pm |
Hi Peter, yes this would be easiest to control with a Wacom for sure. Best wishes, John.
October 8, 2009 at 10:20 am |
I recently rediscovered this effect too.
What ever happened to After Effects: A to Z?
October 8, 2009 at 10:22 pm |
Hi John, A-Z is still going, just waiting on Audio Spectrum to be completed. Best, John.
October 8, 2009 at 2:44 pm |
Fantastic tip John .. love it!
October 8, 2009 at 10:23 pm |
Hey Mark, you’re welcome. Best, John.
October 9, 2009 at 12:35 am |
Very Nice Effect..Thanks
October 9, 2009 at 5:32 am |
nother tip for this is to set the keyframes to ‘Rove Across Time’ if you don’t want the speed of the motion path to be determined by the speed of your mouse movements.
Thanks for reminding me of these great features
October 9, 2009 at 9:00 pm |
Good point Rove. Making the keyframes “rove across time” is a great way to create consistent speed of your layer along the motion path. Regards, John.
October 9, 2009 at 7:18 am |
Great tip as usual, thanks!
October 9, 2009 at 9:00 pm |
You’re welcome flashparagon. Best, John.
October 19, 2009 at 2:55 pm |
You can also create a Null and attach a camera to it for some realistic camera movements. As you can only move them on the x and y you can move your objects in 3D space to trick the camera into using either x or y as z… just a thought…
October 19, 2009 at 3:17 pm |
Nice one. Thanks for joining the sharing Jaffe. Best, John.
October 19, 2009 at 9:22 pm |
Great tip, JD! A nice alternative to creating a wiggle expression!
October 20, 2009 at 12:14 am |
And one I often forget! Thanks Ben.
October 22, 2009 at 1:31 pm |
Just had to stop by again and say I love this site. Had a client walk in out of nowhere asking me to write a name with particles and I thought… Oh, I can do that with Motion Sketch! I was armed for the job because I recently watched this tut and came back again today for a refresher. I dare say this is my most visited site. I check it every day. JD you rock.
October 22, 2009 at 1:39 pm |
That’s superb John. I personally think these shorter more focussed tips are more useful because they are easy to reference later when needed. Glad to have you hear and being involved with Motionworks. Best, John.
November 11, 2009 at 9:25 am |
Excellent tip!
the cool thing is you can use the position keyframes as a driver for a camera target point, which gives your 3D AE comp a handheld feel.
November 11, 2009 at 2:27 pm |
Yes that’s a handy way to add natural movement to the camera. Thanks Peter.
July 1, 2010 at 3:17 am |
ell mr. john, i find your tutorial so very great. mostly in my part, to help me understand more what is AE CS4 can do in regards to its tool and basic functions. i’m just a newbie outside the world of pro editors. i hope you can send some of cool start-up videos to help me learn more. i would be grateful enough to thank you so much. have a nice and blessed day always.
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