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

Stu Maschwitz has a brand new tutorial showing the ins and outs of Mojo. One cool tool! For a 10% discount use the code “motionworks10″.

AEtutsplus has a nifty script by Mathias Mohl, that allows you to link Adobe Kuler themes (and other .ase files) to your Adobe After Effects layers.

Convert your footage from 8bpc to 32bpc with this free plug-in for After Effect from Maltaannon.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be holding informal chats with various plug-in developers, designers and people of interest in our industry. This first interview is with Sean Safreed, the co-founder of Red Giant Software. Red Giant Software offers some of the most popular plug-ins on the planet including Magic Bullet Looks and the various Trapcode [Read more]

In the final part of this series learn how to use After Effects’ Color Link effect to integrate the can into the background, work with various Layer Styles, create a 3D text animation and add other finishing touches.   Watch tutorial

Fox Classics is always a great client to work for simply because I get to work with some great movie footage. This project completed by myself and Dan Creighton was created completely in After Effects and took us about 8 days. As usual when I’m approached to undertake this type of project which – required a deal of rotoscoping, I request an edited base from [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.

Watch tip

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.

Watch e-seminar

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

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]

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

In this Crime Investigation Australia promo for the Crime & Investigation Network I made my first attempt at color grading using After Effects’ 32bit color space and it was very easy to do. I switched from 8bit to 32bit in Project Settings then used the Exposure effect to crush the shadows (Offset) and highlights (Exposure) along with a little noise. [Read more]