November 13, 2009 by John Dickinson | 1,140 views | Comments (31)
In part two of this must-see interview with Chris & Trish Meyer, Chris and Trish talk about the transition from book to web publishing via the ProVideo Coalition, live presenting, the price of training and downside of free content on the web, getting inspiration away from the computer and balancing technical knowledge with design skills, plus plenty more.
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31 Responses to this post
November 14, 2009 at 2:20 am |
Eight or Nine years ago at one of the NAB shows, I saw Trish demonstrate a cool plug-in package from Profound Effects (which ceased operations since) it was called “Useful Things”, a series of shapes driven to create cool and unique animations, almost like 2d particles systems. There was nothing like this back then and I was blown away from what I saw. I spoke with you, Trish for a hour or so and you were kind and patient. You pointed me to the man behind this tool – Jeff Almasol (if I’m not mistaken).
I guess it is never too late to say Thank You both for letting me in to this wonderful world of After Effects.
So I spent the rest of the day trying to find him with no luck. This was the day, I fell in love with After Effects and ditched flame for couple of years to learn and master it. I never got the chance to thank you Trish (and Chris) for starting this spark in my life.
Few years after that we met few times, but it always seems ridicules to me to try and remind you of our past conversation, I didn’t think you’ll recall me and I was a little bit embarrassed that you wouldn’t remember what I want from you
November 14, 2009 at 9:38 am |
Wow, thanks for that Eran. After Effects changed my life and it’s always nice to hear how others also saw the light – despite the “flame” you already had, AE is just more fun! I loved Useful Things; it had an awkward interface but you could literally build your own effects with little building blocks. You could add a ‘weighting system’ to the color palette too (i.e., 95% of the colors could be analagous blues/purples, and 5% were red, etc). Cinema’s MoGraph is probably the closest thing I’ve seen to UT; I think they even added some of those color controls (not sure if my raving about UT’s color module influenced them, but I like to think so!). When PE went out of the business, we also lost the set of GAK effects; these were like normal AE effects and very easy to use. Big shame. By the way, Jeff Almasol went on to work for Adobe and is responsible for much of the scripting additions.
November 15, 2009 at 2:41 pm |
It’s always a bummer when you invest in software and the company goes belly-up
November 14, 2009 at 7:38 am |
I could listen to you guys all day.
thanks John
November 14, 2009 at 9:46 am |
Thanks Denis. We could talk all day too! We’re so fortunate to get to do what we love while still learning new stuff all the time.
November 15, 2009 at 2:38 pm |
Me too Denis. Best, John.
November 15, 2009 at 11:35 pm |
I second that… kinda wish the interview had gone on for at last another hour or two
November 16, 2009 at 2:38 pm |
I’ll have to have Trish and Chris on Unplugged again!
November 17, 2009 at 9:31 am |
We’re up for it! Maybe next year…
November 14, 2009 at 7:56 am |
Good stuff.
Design – yes – this is my issue – just because I know how to use a hammer does not mean I can make the next move to building a worthy home. Anyone have a suggestion for resonably priced or free online training or (shudder) a good book involving the basic concepts commonly used in “design”? My wife (illustrator) tired of trying to ’splain me.
Rock on…oh, one more thing…before you brand the show Jon…and you know I love it…but…consider a title change…personally I feel I’m getting “plugged in” as opposed to “unplugged”. I think I get where you’re coming from…the tutorialist’s unplugged from their normal mode of communicaton…but…eh..maybe it’s a hemisphere thing with terminology…Rock on!
November 15, 2009 at 2:40 pm |
Hi Jim, yes the idea is that viewers get to see guests beyond their normal online persona… best, John.
November 14, 2009 at 10:40 am |
As just one example of how you can be inspired by museums and galleries: In 2005 we saw an exhibit at the Guggenheim in NY featuring scuptures by Jorge Oteiza http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/oteiza/index.html. After seeing his intriguing shapes, all we wanted to do was model shapes in 3D and fly a camera through them! Google “Jorge Oteiza images” and check out his work. He was from the Basque region, so European readers will probably see more of his work than we do here (I saw a couple at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art last year). Cool stuff!
November 14, 2009 at 11:49 am |
Great points on the foundation not just the style de jour and on a greater sense of creativity. Nice to listen to the conversation thanks for sharing.
November 15, 2009 at 2:43 pm |
Thanks JT, glad you found it inspiring.
November 14, 2009 at 4:54 pm |
Thanks so much for all of this! The topic really hits home for me, as I have just last week printed a frame of one of my AE projects on a T-shirt. The client was floored to say the least. Sold out in 1/2 hr.
Cheers to all, Steve.
November 14, 2009 at 5:18 pm |
How fun! Would love to see an image of your T-shirt!
November 14, 2009 at 8:06 pm |
Chris & Trish thank you for sharing your stories with us
really made my evening, especially at the end with the client experiences.. oh how i could so feel that 
Thank you john keep up the fantastic work.
November 15, 2009 at 2:44 pm |
Thanks Murat.
November 15, 2009 at 10:47 am |
John: Your website, training, tuts, and unplugged series are outstanding! After 40 years as a practicing neurologist I decided to learn video editing, mainly to begin to archive our family’s life for the benefit of our 5 grandchildren. So, at age 68, I started with the Cassablanca system which allowed me to ease into the skill, I soon found it limiting and decided, with great trepidation, to jump into after effects. So, I purchased total training 6.5, and since have purchased every Cow series, Meyer’s books, total training series thru 7.0, many of lynda.com dvd’s, as well as in/out monthly membership to lynda.com, and take all tuts from you, and messrs.Rhabinowitz, Malaannon, Kramer, Velez, Holmes, etc etc and purchasing almost all of their and your products.
Trying to get into after effects in 2003 would be like you deciding today that you wanted to be a neurologist: I thought “alpha” was a dominant male, “channel” was something that held water, “mask” something the Lone Ranger wore, “transparency” something that defined a shallow person, “matte” something you wiped your feet on, and “travelling” something you did when you retired. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around “layers” and “duplicating”, etc. It all seemed counterintutive to my medically trained brain. Being color blind didn’t/doesn’t help any! But all of you helped me get from After Effects Ground Zero to 0.005% above ground zero, where I now still labor tring to learn this stuff. It’s great fun, and now I mainly continue in order to keep my brain challenged and stave off Alzheimer’s Disease.
Many thanks to all of you who have helped me acieve my limited AE skills that have made my 74 year old artistic life happy and fulfilled. The free stuff is terrific, but the bought stuff even better, and the two complement each other. I use Adobe CS4 with every plug in known to man/woman even tho I use almost none of the special effects when I produce a video since I don’t want the FX to be the story. But just knowing I can do some of the stuff is all the reward I need. On rare occaisions I use FX just to have fun. If you want, here’s a link to some intro fx stuff I did last week :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCpsAK0uYE
November 15, 2009 at 10:35 pm |
When I moved to the states a while ago; my goals were to learn motion and visual effects; I come from a graphic design/web background.
I remember I was at Barns and Nobel; saw your books; honestly it was a different language to me but I know these 2 books are one of the first steps to help me; lots of information I did not understand , also I couldn’t afford them at that time; I used to go to Barns and Nobel 4-5 times a week; browsing your books and other books too; after taking a class at UCLA my instructor mentioned your name and your books; I bought them and I couldn’t tell you how happy I was just to have them next to me.
I agree with you; books are important; as well as video; but books needs to be around.
So thanks for your knowledge and information.
John; you are doing a fine job, keep it up.
November 16, 2009 at 12:17 pm |
Thanks Eyad, and glad you found our books useful. Funny story: We were at a party once and got chatting to a lady who worked at our local Barnes & Noble. When we mentioned we were authors she asked us what the name of our book was. When we said “Creating Motion Graphics” her eyes lit up and she exclaimed “that’s our most stolen book at Barnes & Noble!” I guess that is a compliment – or maybe not (never did find out if we get paid when a book is nicked!)
November 16, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
As they say; if you want to go to jail steal something worth going to jail not just a $10 or a snack ; i believe going to jail stealing your books worth it.
November 18, 2009 at 2:10 am |
Hi Eyad, I wouldn’t want to go to jail for any reason! Best, John.
November 18, 2009 at 4:45 pm |
John; I guess your right; no one likes to go to jail.
November 16, 2009 at 2:38 pm |
Thank you Eyad.
November 16, 2009 at 3:40 am |
Thanks for at great interview!!
//Klas
November 16, 2009 at 2:37 pm |
You’re welcome Klas.
November 17, 2009 at 6:08 pm |
Just wanted to thank Trish and Crish because they quite simply changed my life.
Today my work revolves around After Effects because of their passion for video and motion graphics and because they were kind enough to share their knowledge with the world.
Eight years ago I stumbled across after effects and was hooked… I just needed to learn it the best way possible. So I bought your book and never looked back.
Today I own a multimedia company with 18+ people and I can honestly say that part of the success has to be credited to them. I have to thank them for opening my eyes and allowing me to do what I love.
November 17, 2009 at 11:31 pm |
It’s stories like that which sustain us over those long months when we’re writing – many, many thanks. And best wishes for the continued success of your company!
November 17, 2009 at 11:40 pm |
thx……
February 15, 2010 at 3:19 pm |
dought if any of the principles will read this but what the hey;
back in 93 Boulder Colorado was a hot bed of new technology. apple had their super secret online testing,oneworld i think they called it. anyway.we on the on the edge of these great notions were doing our best,shovel ware most of it was called,get as much data on a cd as you could,biggest title that year was dogs, followed by cats,if you sold 1000 disks you were considered a success,we had a disk on the shoemaker levy comet that hit jupiter, terrible packaging hurt us, ok all that leads to a word, mediature, i created that word in the late 80’s to represent what you guys have talked about with the combination of books and video in one. just a note for posterity.
don
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