December 21, 2009 by John Dickinson | 1,866 views | Comments (46)
Lloyd Alvarez, the talented and generous founder of aescripts.com, planned to be a doctor. Somehow that didn’t work out and these days he’s an in-demand freelance designer and creative director, working for some of the biggest name companies around. In this up-close and personal chat, Lloyd reveals how a willingness to set aside ego and do the most mundane tasks has lead to a successful career in motion graphics and visual effects. Lloyd shares his love for scripting, introduces us to aescripts.com and explains how scripts can be great time savers and give you edge in your productions.
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46 Responses to this post
December 21, 2009 at 8:32 am |
Another excellent interview again. One of the better ones.:)
December 21, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
You’re welcome Ryan.
December 21, 2009 at 9:56 am |
Hi John,
Great interview with Lloyd. I’ve been a big fan of AENHANCERS.com since I heard about it a few years ago. I couldn’t believe all the great scripts to help us out for free. I realized early on working in motion graphics that the more expressions you know, scripts you use, and plug ins you own, the more design time you have to experiment with projects. It was experimenting with AE (and now Cinema 4D) that got me hooked on motion graphics and visual effects. Those “wow” moments can slowly be buried by more mundane job related tasks. Anything or anyone that gives me back my “wow” time is a “rock star.” Keep the great interviews coming!
Brett
December 21, 2009 at 2:58 pm |
Gotta have that wow time for sure Brett! Cheers, John.
December 21, 2009 at 6:08 pm |
A guy who is taking his work serious rather than nitpicking his ego beeing a big sheen player in the big biz and a real hard working buddy you can hang around and have a laughter with few beer all night.
He is really reflecting people i’ve met in my life and they’re rare.
Big up! to both of you John and Lloyd. Great to have you on Planet Earth.
December 22, 2009 at 2:33 pm |
Thanks Thomas, great to be here! Best wishes, John.
December 22, 2009 at 5:52 am |
Here is yet another reason for artists in the NYC area to attend AENY (once a month). Lloyd was the guest speaker at one of the meet ups I attended and if I recall correctly he demo-ed “Zorro”?
Great interview, thank you both. Cool because I was going to ask John and his brother to discuss “fate” on the BOD show. I think I understand your philosphy regarding that now John. You create your own. And although I see the reasoning behind that there is probably more to it. A mental attitude of being open to your own fate and recognizing the direction it is taking you in and not resisting it is a difficult thing to teach and learn. On the other hand it’s possible your fate is set in stone and there’s simply no getting around it. It would be enlightenting to say the least if we could know what Lloyds alternate fate would have been had he gone into the career his father had imagined for him.
Here is a great Alvarez tutorial – Design a Breathtaking Body Shatter Effect – http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/design-a-breathtaking-body-shatter-effect/
Rock on!
December 22, 2009 at 2:35 pm |
Hi Jim, I always remember what Sarah Connor carved into the table in Terminator 2 – “no fate but that we make”
Best wishes, John.
December 22, 2009 at 6:48 am |
Great interview again! And of course it is very nice to get some attention for After Effects scripting and in particular the aescripts website.
I always wonder why people are keen on plugins but are scared of scripts. Scripts are as easy to install and use as plugins, are usually free and your projects still work even on machines where the script is not installed. It is really great that people start to notice that.
December 22, 2009 at 2:36 pm |
Right on Mathias. That reminds me, I have to pay a visit to aescripts.com… l8r dude
December 22, 2009 at 7:34 pm |
Imagine all Adobe, without, all of you …
(they (Adobe) don’t even have smart captcha in their blogs, so much for their “bilateral” thinking of serving quality: because big stuffed brains take much longer to respond and cause bloated apps)
They (Adobe) serve ground pizza – so it’s your turn for the toppings … unfair game i’d say.
December 22, 2009 at 8:06 am |
WOW! I must say I have been intimated about even approaching the use of scripts. When I hear the word expressions I am just now moving past channeling those discussions into the “Charlie Browns’s Parents dialog”. Now I want to give it a try. I have been using actions in photoshop for years and every time I have a redundant task in AE, I think there has got to be an easier way! But then I get into the time lock of either doing it this way, and knowing I can get it done (eventually), or surf the answer online and maybe not find it, or more likely get distracted and end up losing time on a project.
This has been one of my favorite interviews for the topics of timeflow, the hardship and tenacity of success in the field and as always the generosity of the AE community as a whole. Thanks Loyd!! And thank you John,! I wanted to get your ideas on “Avatar” I just sat through it 3 times in a row yesterday, And it is Amazing! Inspiring! Cameron is the da Vinci of our generation! John why don’t you have a forum on your site? I hate to high jack other topic’s, as it seems seedy and unprofessional, well I guess that’s a personal style of mine, so maybe it’s something else ;O)
Merry stuff to you and fair dink um???
December 22, 2009 at 8:46 pm |
Hi James, I’m yet to see Avatar but I hear it’s great. A forum is a good idea and something I’ll definitely look into James. Best wishes, John.
December 22, 2009 at 9:16 am |
He has a voice of John Mayer. I wonder if he can sing just as well.
December 22, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
What? Oscar Mayer maybe. Is that who you meant?
December 22, 2009 at 10:33 am |
Cheers, this is great. I seriously agree about the AE community being helpful and sharing knowledge. Right on.
December 22, 2009 at 8:46 pm |
You’re welcome Bran. Best wishes, John.
December 22, 2009 at 7:46 pm |
@James
haha no not the meat company, the musician! When he speaks he sounds like John Mayer speaking.
December 23, 2009 at 2:28 am |
Such a cool guy! Great interview John, I enjoy that you’re not afraid to make interviews run long as it’s nice to hear the subject speak at length about themselves. Thank you!
As for Lloyd sounding like John Mayer…I don’t know. We need to hear Lloyd sing for us sometime soon.
Merry Xmas!
December 23, 2009 at 3:07 pm |
Thanks Ivar and merry xmas to you too. Best wishes, John.
December 23, 2009 at 12:41 pm |
Thanks again John for doing these interviews, it was a pleasure to chat with you. As for the John Mayer comparison, let’s leave the singing to him
December 23, 2009 at 3:08 pm |
The pleasure was all mine Lloyd. Best wishes, John.
December 23, 2009 at 2:39 pm |
I have a very specific function that I have been trying to write a script for and having a heck of time trying to do it as I have no idea what I am doing.. Any thoughts on who I may be able to share what I need with?… oh and as always great interview.. great knowledge.. great great great… Thanks for keeping the community together John!
December 23, 2009 at 2:45 pm |
I would think watching the interview again, especially the part about posting, on his site, this type of challenge.But it’s just a guess.
December 24, 2009 at 7:58 am |
You know James… pointing out the obvious is not going to win you any points in life.. LOL… I was watching the interview at work and seemed to miss the parts that I probably should have been listening to… Thanks for the knock on the head.. I’m home now… HA!
December 24, 2009 at 10:11 am |
As we come to end of the year and another decade, I take stock of my plan, for as it has been said “if you are playing the game of life without any goals, how do you know what the score is?”. At 50, I have mastered 3 different trades, and am now beginning a 4th. With each new challenge, I am mindful of the personal courage to leave behind success, and begin again. Reinventing myself, for as it has been said ” life is not about mastering a single skill and staying with it. But moving on to other challenges and in the end having succeeded in several challenges.” Nothing I have ever done, came without hardship, competition and a fair group of people, who were quick to underestimate my resolve.
In NYC it is said “they didn’t care enough about him (or her), to tell them the truth.” It is much easier to tell people what they want to hear. For it has been said “to seek critique not compliment”.I simply care enough about you and this community of creatives to help when I can. I am still very much a noob in motion graphics, yet with tenacity, and the helpful support of all these talented people, I hope someday to create material that will inspire legions of creatives. To take back our day rates and rise again to the power our ancestors were so very foolish to bargain away with shwag from Wallmart. Yes! Yes my friend, my goals are lofty! But if you vote for me … :O)… Merry Stuff to you and yours from the City!
December 28, 2009 at 1:06 pm |
Your a good man James.. Back at ya!
December 24, 2009 at 6:01 pm |
It’s funny to finally see a familiar voice:)
Seriously,Lloyd’s scripts are unbelievably useful.I love particularly,what he’s done with kuler.Maltaanon also had some kind of solution through a template,if I’m not mistaken,but Lloyd’s script was just all you need!And Of course BG renderer was a first script I ever used and was and is crazy useful with working under pressure!
Aescripts is the most respected sources to find best scripts online!
Keep on working,bro!Hey Jack,thnx, for wonderful interview
December 28, 2009 at 2:00 pm |
Great interview. I work for a local TV station in Arizona and we use Invigorator a lot; I had come across Lloyd’s website awhile back when finding his BG Renderer to use in place of Nucleo Pro since Nucleo causes a flickering issue with Invigorator when rendering, among other render issues. I remember looking for Mr. Alvarez’s personal website afterwards and was absolutely blown away at his stunning art direction and motion work. Lately I had to come up with a “mosiac animation into a logo” effect for a freelance job and Lloyd’s 3D layer distributor and Random 3D shifter scripts were perfect and saved me hours of work doing it by hand. Thank you John and Lloyd.
December 30, 2009 at 2:00 am |
Hi Danny, thanks for that, it’s always great to get feedback and I’m sure Lloyd appreciates it too. Best wishes, John.
December 29, 2009 at 12:16 pm |
Podcast stops about 8 minutes in. Can’t download past 7 MB of file from iTunes either. (err = 9006) Corrupt file?
December 30, 2009 at 2:01 am |
Hi Nathan, perhaps my host was having issues. It seems to work fine now. Best wishes, John.
January 5, 2010 at 9:33 am |
Totally enjoyed the interview and will make a deliberate effort to start using scripts
January 7, 2010 at 6:57 am |
Lloyd, Thanx for being so open and sharing!
Grtz from The Hague.
January 19, 2010 at 1:54 am |
Nice One John….Unplugged really inspiring…
John how long you practiced after effect before you came to this field?
January 19, 2010 at 3:14 pm |
Hi Siraz, I’ve been using After effects for 14 years. Best wishes, John.
January 20, 2010 at 11:04 am |
Thanks a lot to share all these amazing interviews with us John, really interesting life stories here, very inspiring!.
Cheers from Barcelona, Spain
January 21, 2010 at 3:26 pm |
Thanks Federico, I’m glad you are finding the valuable. Best wishes, John.
February 5, 2010 at 3:12 pm |
I’ve combed through the scripts at Redefinery.com for the script that links effect properties between layers and I can’t seem to find it. Did you mean it automatically links all the properties of all the effects? Could you point me to this resource? Thanks much.
February 8, 2010 at 2:54 pm |
Hi Andres, I got it on the After Effects CS4 Studio Techniques book by Mark Christiansen. It links properties from one layer to another. Best wishes, John.
May 23, 2010 at 2:23 pm |
Hey !
thanks for this wonderful interview !!!
) by BG render !!!
I am one of the many ” SAVED ”
In this FASTER-BETTER-CHEAPER economy time, it s good to bring into our work those noble values of sharing and helping each other!
And like you mention in the interview, I totally agree with you, your precious scripts help us to focus on the creative !!!
Not to mention get back home earlier and have a life !! hahaha!!!!
Life saver!!!
PS > i guess i am the same generation of you guyz! I discovered AE 3.1 on a mac a LONG TIME AGO working in video game in France at the time!
Well my point > It s really great to highlight the HUMAN STORY factor behind the scene type of thing !!! I have always loved the making of / story telling / biography aspect of great characters! and mister Loyd is definitively an inspiring ONE !!
Totaly agree with
Thomas
December 21, 2009 at 6:08 pm | Reply
A guy who is taking his work serious rather than nitpicking his ego beeing a big sheen player in the big biz and a real hard working buddy you can hang around and have a laughter with few beer all night.
He is really reflecting people i’ve met in my life and they’re rare.
Big up! to both of you John and Lloyd. Great to have you on Planet Earth.
August 18, 2010 at 2:15 am |
Great interview and Lloyd Alvarez has a brilliant attitude. I’m less fearful of scripts now and look forward to doing some investigating!
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