Lately I’ve been using one After Effects colour grading plug-in more than most, and that’s Magic Bullet Mojo. Mojo is an easy-to-use plug-in from Red Giant Software, for giving footage the modern blockbuster look seen in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Transformers and Resident Evil.

Mojo includes a number of presets for popular action film looks which are great alone or as a starting point. But not all shots need heavy treatment and I love how just a touch of Mojo can make almost anything I’m working on pop and appear more filmic.

These are some recent projects by myself and team member Brett, that received the Mojo treatment:

And these are some terrific before and after shots supplied by friends of Motionworks:

Pierre Magnol (gkaster)

Jim Campbell

Oscar Beckmann

Mojo is available stand alone and as part of the terrific Magic Bullet Suite which also includes  Colorista 2, Looks, Denoiser, Frames, PhotoLooks, Instant HD and Grinder. Both Colorista 2 and Looks are powerhouse color grading tools and a valuable part of our toolset at Foxtel Box Office.

Often I’ll do an initial grade using Colorista 2 or Looks and add a touch of Mojo to finish. It really is the spice that adds that little extra to our looks. Using Mojo on an After Effects adjustment layer (above your other layers) is a great way to give your composites an integrated, finished look. Try adjusting the adjustment layer opacity and experimenting with blend modes for even more creative results. For a 10% discount on Mojo use the code “motionworks10″ .

In part 2 of this After Effects CS5 E-Seminar, we explore cool ways of using the Shape Layer Wiggle, Text Wiggly Selector and various automated effects.

Watch Part 2

Watch Part 1

Green Zone

Motionworks recently featured a shot from the Green Zone promo here, created by team member Brett. Below is another example where Brett integrated 3D text (created in Cinema 4D) using The Foundry’s CameraTracker plug-in for Adobe After Effects.

This super variation, integrates various satellite shots, playing on a key theme in the film.

Crazy Heart

For Crazy Heart the supplied key art was portrait and cropped at the sides, rendering it useless for a landscape packshot. However, the high contrast colour grade used in the key art was striking, so I replicated in that in Photoshop, using a more suitable, ungraded still.

Ungraded shot

The final packshot includes the graded shot and a stock image of timber sourced from DarkNews. The timber echos the weathered and worn nature of the lead character and compliments the high contrast grade.

Final Packshot (minus date and order details)

A Fast Blur adjustment layer, adds depth-of-field over the right shoulder, and Red Giant Software Key Correct Light Wrap and Edge Blur help integrate the talent. Key Correct is not only for preparing shots for cleaner keys, but also for creating cleaner, more believable composites of pre-matted imagery.  Check out some training, including a Getting Started tutorial by me here. You can get a 10% discount using the code motionworks10.

The timber is also used for the text and background in the super. The font is Clarendon.

World’s Greatest Dad

World’s Greatest Dad was simple and fun. The text was laid out in 3D in After Effects, with a single letter dropping forward, reflecting the “damaged” nature of the son and the less-than-perfect relationship with his father.

I keyframed the rotation and position of the letters manually. Each letter was tweaked slightly to ensure they weren’t identical. A simple Shape Layer gradient for a floor and reflection on the text using Video Copilot Reflect works well to give it depth. The font is Bebas Neue.

Gentlemen Broncos

Gentlemen Broncos could have been a forgettable project but the inclusion of a few expressions really added some personality to the type animation. Gareth and I worked to together using a combination of keyframes and expressions to give the letters a natural, organic feel as they dropped into place. The bounce was created using the Decaying Bounce expression available at Motion Graphics Xchange. The strings are actually the Beam effect, linked via an expression to the Anchor Point of each letter. Check out this short tip on how to use Beam. The font was cut from key art, so please leave a comment if you can identify it.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is a good example of taking a concept from a tutorial, in this case Andrew Kramer’s Animating a Still tutorial, and making it your own. Here team member Gareth used techniques from the tutorial to animate a key art image from the film, giving what might have been a dull flat image, depth and dimension. The font is Helvetica Neue 93 Black Extended.

The super features Video Copilot’s Action Essentials 2 dust and heat displacement created using FX Factory Heat.

In this 50 minute, recorded E-seminar for Adobe, we look at a range of must-know techniques, tips and gotchas for using Adobe Illustrator CS5 with Adobe After Effects CS5.

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Note: If you want to see the gradient on the text without converting to outlines, in the Appearance panel add a New Fill and choose the gradient as the fill. This will place the gradient fill over the Character fill. To remove the Character fill choose None as the fill for the Character layer. This removes any edge pixels caused when the Character fill is behind the gradient. Thanks to John Stanowski.

In this excerpt from a recent Adobe E-seminar, we look at the new Align and Distribute to Composition and Orient Characters Independently features in Adobe After Effects CS5.

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Wacom has posted a handy tutorial showing how to maximize productivity with your Wacom tablet.

If you’ve found a bug in After Effects or other CS5 applications, do us all a favour and file it. It only takes a moment and will help us all.

In a recent interview with Adobe I discussed my opinion of After Effects CS5. Check it and other customer showcases out here.

Workflow Update

Adobe’s Todd Kopriva on making corrective strokes: I think the reason that you were having some trouble cleaning up the top of the mage’s head is that you weren’t working outward from the base frame. Corrective strokes only influence the frames that are away (not toward) the base frame. Think of it as “working the bubbles out a frame at a time”.

Rotoscoping with masks: In the example shown I used one single mask but generally rotoscoping is more effective using multiple masks. That being said, it’s still very time consuming and labour-intensive.

What are the key new features in After Effects CS5?

After Effects product manager Michael Coleman discusses the amazing new Roto Brush tool and other standout features in After Effects CS5.

A handy new Adobe After Effects preset (and tutorial) by Quba HQ for creating paint splat effects.

Are you ready for 64-bit?

Michael Coleman is the product manager for Adobe After Effects. In this interview, Michael discusses his background and how he juggled a university major in economics and a career in graphic and motion design. We also discuss the evolution of Adobe After Effects, and with the soon-to-be-released CS5 version of After Effects being 64-bit, Michael explains in detail, exactly what that means, and why it’s important.

Watch Example | Watch Tutorial