In this After Effects tutorial for Boris FX, learn how you can use Boris Continuum Complete 8 Match Grain, Film Glow and 3 Way Color Grade effects to transform an average looking shot.

In this special episode of Unplugged, I chat with Zax Dow of Zaxwerks about After Effects CS6 and what the introduction of the 3D ray-traced features means to Zaxwerks flagship products 3D Invigorator and ProAnimator. Use the code motionworks12 for a 10% discount on 3D Invigorator Classic, 3D Invigorator Pro and ProAnimator.

All Red Giant Software plug-ins are now CS6 compatible. Use the code “motionworks10″ for a 10% discount on everything from Red Giant!

In this walkthrough tutorial learn how I used After Effects with Trapcode Particular (use “motionworks10″ for a 10% discount), GenArts Sapphire and Noise Industries FX Factory Pro to create an alien meteor storm reminiscent of the film The Darkest Hour.

The 3D Material Template project I was commissioned by Adobe to create is now available for free download. It was created to give you some ideas when working with 3D ray traced scenes in After Effects CS6. Grab the project file here. Check out my tutorial on using the file here.

In this After Effects tutorial for Boris FX, learn how you can use Boris Continuum Complete 8 3 Way Color Grade and Film Glow effects to rescue a dull clip.

I was recently asked by GenArts to create some presets for the Sapphire set of plug-in effects. I immediately chose text as a subject since I use Sapphire all the time at work to create different kinds of text looks. The collection is available directly from GenArts, check it out along with other collections and individual presets in FX Central. View Collection

This tutorial walks through the template project Adobe commissioned me to create to help get you up to speed with the new ray-traced 3D renderer features in After Effects CS6. Download Project

After Effects CS6 includes a new ray-traced 3D renderer, 3D text and shape layer extrusion, environment layers, simple curvature of layers and more . In this walkthrough tutorial learn where to find the key new features and how to make the most of them. Download Project

Maxon has made available all of the presentations from NAB 2012.

Guest host and Cinema 4D R13 Cookbook author Michael Szabo demonstrates how to use the Collision Deformer to create an effect where bullets bounce off an object. Download Project

Countless times over the past several years, either myself or a co-worker has wondered “Why the hell do I have to re-import this entire After Effects project every time thereʼs a change?” Apparently, Chris Roe was thinking the same thing.

If you ask me, a good post-production product needs three things: ease of use, speed and great customer service. Chrisʼ upcoming release Project Sync has all three. The idea behind this Adobe After Effects plug-in is simple: import an existing project into your current working project, click Sync and your projects are now in sync. It’s as simple as that. 

Letʼs explore it a bit more. From your working project, import the master project from which you would like to use elements, comps, layers or the entire project.

Once the project is imported, click on its folder and sync it back to itself in Finder or Explorer. I emailed Chris about automating this feature and he said heʼd look into it.

Once the project is synced, you see a Sync folder in your Project panel. Iʼm assuming this is meant to be ignored, as I havenʼt needed to do anything with it yet.

At this point, any changes made to the external project will ripple through to the current project.

After a certain amount of time, designated by the user in the Option settings, After Effects will look for any changes and notify you with an iOS style notification window.

If you click on Manage, another window pops up that allows you to manage the synced projects.

So there it is, a simple app that does what most people I know, think should be a permanent feature of After Effects.

One last thing that Iʼd like to mention is Chris Roe himself. At the time of my install, Chris had yet to create a CS5.5 installer which is what we are currently running at the office. Chris promptly returned many emails from me regarding the manual installation process and even jumped on a chat service to walk me through it. He was extremely patient and helpful the entire time. Chris also stressed that he welcomes any ideas as I continue to put Project Sync through the paces.

I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Project Sync as soon as it becomes available. Youʼll wonder how you got along without it.

Learn more about Project Sync.

In this tutorial learn how to export an existing After Effects project to Cinema 4D to add a 3D logo. The background featured is from Digital Juice’s Animated Canvases 2 collection.