Recently on Twitter I asked followers which After Effects plug-ins they own but no longer used. I received some interesting responses and thought it would be worthwhile opening up the forum here on Motionworks. Are there plug-ins in your toolkit that have fallen out of favour, perhaps you used to love them but the “look” is old? Maybe another plug-in or application has taken it’s place? Are there plug-ins you’ve purchased but not even used!? Personally I have found fewer reasons to fire up Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, with Cinema 4D taking it’s place in my tool kit; and effects like 3D Stroke, which was once all the rage, are gathering dust. How about you?

This comment was written by Sean, a Motionworks reader:

“I was viewing an article on Creative Cow a few months ago, and like usual got side tracked and looked at some of the demo reels. The first demo reel i clicked on started with a 1:1 copy of Andrew Kramers submerged tutorial/effect. I left the site and haven’t been back since. I just watched a world cup game on the BBC and guess what, Andrew Kramers Ancient Titles had been copied, and not even that well. Pathetic.

I think that you guys have actually devalued graphic design and opened a pandora’s box scenerio in pursuit of your own self interest and ego. [Read more]

Okay, you’ve got After Effects CS5, you’ve watched the Roto Brush tutorial, and you know I love it. But what are your impressions of Roto Brush now you’ve had a chance to play? Is it what you expected? Have you used it in production? Is Roto Brush really that cool?  I’d love to hear about your experiences.

This week I received an email from Max Bretherton titled “The Never-ending Tutorial Chase”. Max finds himself overwhelmed by the abundance of tutorials available on the web and asked the following questions:

“How do you see these attractive and well devised ‘tutorial’ sites fitting into an artists work flow? Do they at all or are they just a detour – like watching a movie – that eats into valuable time? Or could we be wise and use them for the advancement of our own creative lives, work and knowledge? I struggle to find the best balance of watching great tutorials and getting work done.” [Read more]

I started in this industry in 1992, working with my brother Robin in his fledgling business development company. It was a small setup, basically Robin, myself and my father Allan in the front room of Robin’s house. More on that in an upcoming post but what I wanted to share with you now is my first motion graphics project (created in After Effects). [Read more]

Recently I was chatting with Aharon Rabinowitz about how I get value out of Twitter and Aharon suggested I record a tutorial to share with everyone. This tutorial will give you a rundown on how I’ve been using Twitter to add value for those who follow Motionworks and as a powerful business tool. [Read more]

At NAB I had a chat with John Nack (Photoshop Product Manager) about the video features of Photoshop Extended. John asked my opinion and also what features I would like to see added. I told John that I don’t use the tools much; occasionally importing footage to use a Photoshop filter that isn’t available in After Effect or exporting movies as gif files [Read more]

There are a lot tutorial sites on the web now, including Motionworks. I take time every morning to watch at least one tutorial as a way of keeping my skills sharp and up-to-date. When watching tutorials I’m generally not looking for design ideas but rather technique and workflow. If it’s something that looks like “the next big look in motion graphics” [Read more]