In this 3.5 minute video tip learn how you can look through a camera linked to a light and see exactly what the light is pointing at, making lighting your After Effects scene easier and more intuitive.
In this 2 minute video tip learn how you can use the Link Active Object command to take control of lights and make lighting your Cinema 4D scene easier and fun.
Title and action safe guides are used to ensure that important content isn’t placed outside the viewable areas of a television screen. If you’re creating a project that will be seen on both 4:3 and 16:9 televisions, the best way to ensure that 4:3 viewers don’t miss any of the action is to use guides with a 4:3 safe zone. Up until After Effects CS4 I used a Photoshop file [Read more]
As a broadcast designer there are many terms one must understand in order to know what the hell a client is asking for. The problem is people use different names for the same thing. When I was first asked for a Clusterbuster I thought the guy wanted some kind of chocolate bar. So once and for all I’d like to create a list of broadcast terminology [Read more]
Sometimes After Effects does some crazy things that only deleting the AE preference file will sort out. Finding that file can take time but there is a much faster way. Restart AE while holding down the Command + Option + Shift keys (Mac) or Control + Alt + Shift (Windows), and you are presented with an option to delete the preferences. [Read more]
In this 2 minute video tip, check out how to use After Effects’ Leave Color effect to create the look where you footage is made black and white, leaving only a single color, made popular by the film Pleasantville.
Often when I post work here on Motionworks the movies have no audio. At Foxtel we rarely get the opportunity to have the music track at the beginning of a project. Most of the time the soundtrack is added once the graphics are complete and this can be a challenge because personally I feel the music to be a very important part of the design [Read more]
In this video tip learn how to use the Compositing Tag and Exclusion option inside Maxon’s Cinema 4D to control the visibility of objects and reflections in your scene.
To measure the duration between 2 keyframes or Layer Markers in Adobe After Effects, hold down the Option (Alt) key and click the first and then the second keyframe or Layer Marker. The Info panel (Window > Info) will display the duration between them. Cool.
In this video tip (no sound) you’ll see how I made the background in the TNA spot. Simple stuff but a good reminder not to forget about the presets that ship with Adobe After Effects and how you can save time by modifying them for your own purposes. Watch tip
The simple act of copying and pasting an existing mask onto a Shape Layer in After Effects CS3 can be tricky and frustrating. The key is to only select the Mask Path parameter before copying and only the Path parameter when pasting. Watch tip Update: Jeff Almasol has also created a cool script.
In this video tip (no sound) learn how to select all segments on a layer and reverse an object animation in ProAnimator. This technique is also for Camera animations but at present there is a bug that prevents it, although you can try dragging the poses manually. Watch tip
Beginners often ask how to loop layers in After Effects. While looping a footage layer can be done using the Interpret Footage option, looping an unrendered comp takes a little more work but is still easy. In this video tip (no sound) learn how to use expressions to loop a precomp. Watch tip
At present Photoshop Extended has no features for interpreting interlaced video but that doesn’t mean you can’t work with interlaced video. Here are the steps using After Effects for preparing interlaced video for use in Photoshop: [Read more]
To create a new project containing only the selected comp(s) and the files relating to that comp (and leave your present project untouched) follow these steps: [Read more]
When working with more than a few layers it can become difficult to select a specific layer in the Composition panel, particularly if you use adjustment layers. Sure you can click on the layer in the Timeline Panel or even use the numeric keypad by typing the number of the layer you want to select. But there is another way that can save time, especially if you already [Read more]
Adobe Photoshop Extended includes a range of great new video features which allow users to modify video using Photoshop’s extensive toolset. To apply an effect to the entire movie layer in Photoshop you either convert the layer to a Smart Object or use an adjustment layer. [Read more]
This quick reference guide shows you how to use Curves similar to the way you use Levels, but keep in mind that Curves’ real strength lays in the fact that you can add multiple points to each curve. Amongst other things, this allows you to make corrections to one part of an image’s dynamic range without affecting another. Keep in mind also that unlike Levels, [Read more]
Modifying the anchor point in the Layer panel with the arrow tool changes the anchor value without changing the position value. Modifying the anchor point in the Comp panel with the Pan Behind tool (Y) modifies both the anchor point and position values such that the content of the layer doesn’t move relative to the composition. [Read more]
The Levels effect is a standard tool for adjusting contrast and color values, but it can be confusing knowing which way to drag the sliders to achieve a specific look. To help myself I created a quick reference guide which is colour coded to make adjustments easier. View guide
