Red Giant Software has released Colorista 2, with some exciting new features and improvements. Use motionworks10 for a 1o% discount.

With a Stars theme, the campaign includes a competition to win a trip for 2 to Cannes Film Festival. Given the theme, I suggested we use the tagline “follow the stars”. This has the dual meaning of following the logo stars throughout the promo (which represent FBO), and mingling with movie stars on the red carpet in Cannes.

The background is a combination of a C4D Floor object – lit using a large softbox from Greyscale Gorilla’s excellent HDR lighting kit, and Background object with a gradient texture from black to dark orange. The stars in the sky were created using a Star spline, the MoGraph Cloner Object and Random Effector, with a Plain Effector (-1 Scale,with Falloff) to clear stars away from the text and logos.

The extruded stars were created using MoGraph Spline Wrap. This was far more flexible than a using a Sweep Nurb along a spline, and allowed me to animate the Offset of the Star extrude rather than simply the Start and End points. Thanks to Tim Clapham for his expert guidance here. The particle trail is a Particle Emitter linked to the Spline Wrap Offset value using Set Driver/Driven and was set-up by Michael Tan, who assisted me with this project.

After Effects CS5 Rotobrush was used to do some quick roto work where the stars fly behind people. The shots aren’t perfect but with this tool I wouldn’t have even bothered given the tight deadline. The final project included 5 x 30 second spots and 2 x 60 seconds spots. The following example movies include the fully graphic 30 and a selection of shots from the other spots, and the fully graphic 30 with final audio mix.

Watch movie

Watch movie (final audio mix)

Sapphire, MonstersGT, ParticleIllusion
and a new direction for Tinder for After Effects

For over a decade GenArts had a single product – Sapphire – plug-ins for high end systems such as Flame, and in more recent times, After Effects. Recently GenArts has begun to diversify, acquiring Monsters GT from Speed Six, Tinder from The Foundry and Particle Illusion from Wondertouch. In this candid episode I discuss each of these products with GenArt’s Steve Bannerman.

Since this interview it was brought to my attention that GenArts has decided not to port Tinder for After Effects to 64-bit. This is quite a revelation as it effectively ends the life of these plug-ins in their current form. Below is Steve’s unedited response to my query about this decision:

“Hey John, here’s the situation: the Tinder code base is very old and hasn’t been updated in many years. It’s slow and lacks many of the new features found in current products. One of the key reasons that GenArts acquired Tinder was to breathe new life into the product and its brand. We want to take the old Tinder technology and evolve it into an exciting new product. A modern product with a modern, code base and modern features (such as 64 bit and GPU acceleration).

Adobe’s move to CS5 created quite a conundrum for us because it breaks Tinder for those users that upgrade. Therefore, we were forced to choose between porting the old, neglected code base to 64 bit (with no new features), or focus on getting our new product to market as fast as possible.

Porting the old code would have taken many months (given the state of it), and would have seriously delayed our ability to get the new product to market. In the end, we decided that the best thing for our customer base as a whole was to focus on the new, modern product. It was a very difficult decision, and we labored over it for quite some time as we exhaustively tried to find another option.

We would love to have continued with Tinder until our new product was ready, but Adobe’s move really forced our hand. Once we made our decision, we felt like it was important for us to communicate it as quickly as possible so that our customers could also make their decisions. Cheers, Steve.”

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

Genarts has just released the latest version of their top-shelf, 220+ After Effect plug-in set – Sapphire, with CS5 compatibility.

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

Related Links

After Effects: Creating magic from presets – part 1

After Effects: Simplify your workflow