After 8 years with Foxtel Design, I recently accepted the position of Senior Designer at Foxtel Box Office – On Demand Movies, here at Foxtel in Sydney. Together with Gareth Chang and Brett Morris, both talented young designers, we get to flex our After Effects and Cinema 4D skills working on a wide range of movie graphic styles across various genres.

Over the coming months I’ll be showcasing graphics created using After Effects, Cinema 4D and a variety of plug-ins, by the team, some original and others influenced by existing spots. [Read more]

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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In this tutorial for Digital Juice, learn how I used the Motion Designer’s Toolkit 2 with Cinema 4D and After Effects to create a detailed background and multi-layer text effect with a dynamic sci-fi look.

Watch Tutorial [Read more]

Alexander of Amateurmedia.net has created a stylish new font named Typograph Pro. Also check some of the great usage examples created within Cinema 4D.

Fontfeed.com has an excellent column “Screenfonts” which discusses the use of fonts in movie posters.

Font Squirrel is a great source of high quality, free fonts.

I’ve been noticing recently a lack of attention to detail in some work, particularly with type. In the example below notice how the kerning is uneven. [Read more]

Amateurmedia.net has some terrific type-based Cinema 4D tutorials.

In this two-part tutorial for Adobe, learn how to take basic Adobe After Effects presets and customise them to create your own unique looks. This section focusses on further enhancing the text animation, customising a background preset and adding finishing touches including a bloom and displacement.

Watch Example | Watch Tutorial [Read more]

In this two-part tutorial for Adobe, learn how to take basic Adobe After Effects presets and customise them to create your own unique looks. This section focusses on giving a simple text preset a touch-of-class, with a clear explanation of Text Animator Groups, Animator Properties and Range Selectors. Turning a simple typewriter look into something special. Watch Example | Watch Tutorial [Read more]

In this Adobe After Effects walkthrough learn how Red Giant Holomatrix was used to give grungy 3D text a dynamic sci-fi look. Grab a 10% discount over at Red Giant Software using this code “motionworks10”.

Watch tutorial (14min, 42MB)

I picked up this book recently and highly recommend it if you want to learn more about font selection, colour selection and type design and layout. Although print and web focussed, it is still highly relevant for motion graphics and contains instruction and inspiration for all designers. Also check out before and after magazine for a series of handy design articles.

A fancy disco ball created entirely within Adobe After Effects. Read more & download project

Motion Sketch is one of those Adobe After Effects tools that is often forgotten (at least by me) but is still a handy addition to the After Effects toolset. In this quick tip we look at how you can use Motion Sketch to add natural, organic motion to your layers.  Watch tip (7 mins)

In this Adobe E-seminar we walk through After Effects techniques and workflow for creating a grungy and moody boxing promo. Techniques include color grading for a poster-style look, creating an old, weathered look using stock images and blend modes and tips and tricks for creating organic looks.
Watch tutorial Watch Promo

In this video tip learn how to work faster and smarter when using duplicated text layers. [Read more]

Here are a couple of Form experiments. Both use the String settings; one for an amorphous background element and the other for an interesting text reveal. Click the thumbnail for large images.  Download Project

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

Text Anarchy includes the GridSquares and GridLines effects, previously part of Digital Anarchy’s Geomancy. In this tutorial you’ll learn the basics of using these surprisingly useful particle effects.

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Often when creating grungy styles I resort to stock imagery, as is the case with this weathered metal look. The base for the look is a metal texture, heavily treated in Photoshop, with an After Effects comp combining Roughen Edges and Fractal Noise for blotches and scratches. You’ll also notice I’ve color corrected the Text comp inside the Main comp to help it sit better with the background. The background was created by combining a couple of stock footage layers, which have been replaced in the download with a rendered still. Download Project