After Effects CS4 includes numerous less obvious features that are great general time savers. In this tutorial, we’ll take a quick look at the new 4:3 inside 16:9 safe guides, Separate Dimensions, Centre in View, Flip Horizontal and Vertical, Shape Layer’s new Wiggle Transform and more. Watch tutorial
In this recorded e-seminar I walk through the techniques used in Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator to create the silhouette look used in the award winning Bond Classic Bond teaser. Topics include working with green screen, preparing footage for clean vectorization and batch vectorization of sequences using Illustrator and Bridge. View Gallery post Watch e-seminar
CS4 introduces us to 3 new effects: Cartoon, Bilateral Blur and Turbulent Noise. Bilateral Blur and Turbulent Noise are very similar to the existing Smart Blur and Fractal Noise effects. In this tutorial, we’ll take a quick look at these new effects and see what makes them different. Watch tutorial
Up until CS4 the only way to work with true 3D objects in After Effects was to use a plug-in such as Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator. Now thanks to Live Photoshop 3D, 3D objects can be imported directly without the need for a plug-in. As you’ll see in this tutorial, it’s still early days but certainly gives an idea of the direction in which After Effects is heading. Watch tutorial
Complex projects with many nested comps have always been a challenge to navigate, but the new Composition Navigator and Composition Mini-flowchart make it so easy you’ll wonder how you worked without them. In part 2 we take a look at the key techniques for using these new features. Watch tutorial
In this video tutorial series we’ll take a look at all of the great new features in Adobe After Effects CS4 plus many smaller updates and tweaks that you’ll probably never find in the manual. Part 1 includes the welcome screen, general interface enhancements and the new search features. Watch tutorial
Text Anarchy is a particle generator specifically for text that allows you to create some pretty detailed text-based looks very quickly. In this tutorial you’ll learn the basics of using two of the key effects: Text Matrix and Text Grid. Watch tutorial
In this tutorial you’ll learn the basic work flow for Red Giant Software’s Radium Glow plug-in. This was the first time I’d used the effect and have been pretty impressed with the results; you have a lot of control over exactly how and where the glow appears on your footage. Watch tutorial
In this recorded e-seminar you’ll see the techniques used in Adobe After Effects and Photoshop to create promo graphics for the film “Enchanted”. Topics include creating gold text in Photoshop using Layer Styles, using custom emitters in Particular, creating a light sweep and enhancing the sweep with Shine and color grading. Watch e-seminar
In this recorded e-seminar I walk through various techniques used in Adobe After Effects and Photoshop for creating the grungy, dark look of Saw 4. Topics include sourcing and combining stock images, using Photoshop brushes to give text a grunge look and create blood splatter, color grading and lighting.
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In this tutorial you’ll learn a simple technique using grungy brushes in Adobe Photoshop to make some grungy text. If you like this you may like the on-demand e-seminar where I discuss this and other techniques used to create the graphics for a Saw 4 promo. Watch tutorial
In this recorded e-seminar I’ll show you how to build a simple yet dynamic type-based animation. Topics include working with Illustrator files, setting up simple relationships using expressions, per-character 3D type, setting up 3D layers, creative use of shape layers, Brainstorm, modifying and saving a preset. Watch e-seminar
In this tutorial you’ll learn the basic workflow for using Magic Bullet Frames. Formerly part of the Magic Bullet Suite, this plug-in for Adobe After Effects that allows you to create high quality progressive frames from interlaced footage. Other effects include Opticals for beautiful film-like cross dissolves and fades to black or white and De-artifactor. Watch tutorial
In this free introductory video tutorial from the Creative Background Design in After Effects series, your host John Dickinson demonstrates how to make a simple, seamlessly looping Fractal Noise background and variations. John uses innovative techniques and explains several shortcuts that will help your workflow. Download tutorial
In this recorded e-seminar you’ll see some of the techniques and workflow I used to create the award winning Fox Classics image spot. Topics include creative color grading, rotoscoping, creative lighting and camera techniques.
This tutorial covers everything you need to know to get started with Knoll Light Factory, one of the must-have Adobe After Effects plug-ins in any motionographer’s toolbox.
You may have been wondering what the ProAnimator Importer plug-in that ships with ProAnimator actually does. It’s actually a great creative tool, allowing you to harness the fast and powerful ProAnimator animation features and apply them to your After Effects 3D layers. The eyeball image is by Martin Walls (http://www.sxc.hu). Watch tutorial
In this tutorial we look at how to add flare to your graphics by creating the effect of “light” moving across your Zaxwerks ProAnimator or 3D Invigorator objects inside After Effects. In fact it’s not light at all but an animated reflection map. Watch tutorial
In this tutorial I demonstrates how to use Final Cut Pro to create this motion graphics animation, using Trapcode products combined with various Final Cut Pro settings. Yes, it was a little strange creating this in Final Cut Pro but overall I’d say it was a good experience. Even if you don’t use FCP you might find it useful. Watch tutorial
This tutorial covers the basics of using Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet Looks plug-in for Adobe After Effects. This is an easy to use yet powerful piece of software that is well worth the money if you do any kind of color grading.
