300+ After Effects Tutorials

DNM has collected its own old & new After Effects tutorials, mostly by Ko Maruyama, in 300+ Free After Effects Tutorials.

Last week in History: Malcolm X

The YouTube Blog noted the assassination of Malcolm X last week along with a video review of Spike Lee's biopic from The New York Times:



Democracy Now has had several programs on Malcolm, including an interview with Oakland Japanese activist Yuri Kochiyama and this one with Manning Marable:

Think 64-bit

Adobe seems to be advocating for 64-bit OS installs, and watching to see if there's any push back. Michael Coleman is asking for comments on what’s holding people back from 64-bit in his PVC post, in addition to explaining the performance benefits already built into CS4 Production Premium.

Windows users seem to be the ones lagging behind since the big cutoff for the Mac was Intel-only CS4 (OS X 10.5 is about a year and a half old). After Effects plug-ins could be an issue for some people. While rumor is that 64-bit XP works nicely, only Vista is supported by Adobe and by 3rd party hardware solutions like AJA. Based on a small sample of past releases, CS5 could be another year away so there's no rush. If you're looking in retails stores, the 64-bit Windows boxes are the ones with 4+ GB of RAM (except the next-gen Intel Core i7) -- and there are some not expensive portables with DDR3 RAM or 1GB nVidia graphics.

Update: Jan Ozer did some tests comparing 32- and 64-bit OS performance for EventDV a few months ago:
"After correcting for the 18% difference in processor speed, the 64-bit system was 67% faster on my standard DV test file, up to 63% faster on HDV-related tests, up to 50% faster on AVCHD tests, and up to 227% faster on tests using footage from the RED camera. The only format that didn’t seem to improve on the 64-bit system was DVCPRO HD, which showed only a 13% speed boost."

Tutorial fix

Just a reminder that you might get a tutorial fix by scanning VisualFXtuts.

I didn't know about the Scott Frizzle presets and projects for Trapcode Particular that include impacts, splatters, novas (shockwave), and sperm.

By the way, Andrew Kramer uses 2D displacement along with AE's built-in Particle World since there's no Turbulent Field as in Particular; see Particle Turbulence.

Makings of 'Watchmen'

Wired has a bunch of "making of" videos for the movie Watchmen. Go to Wired to see the collection; first up is Making Rorschach's Mask: 'Watchmen' visual effects supervisor John 'D.J.' Des Jardin explains the process that puts a very high-tech 'face' on the costumed crime-fighter.

Latenite Final Cut Studio 3 Predictions

Chris Hocking has some Final Cut Studio 3 Predictions that are similar to those the ideas of Stu Maschwitz for After Effects in What Should Adobe Do With Premiere Pro?

It would be good if AE at least had better previewing, disk caching, and rendering (make feature request at Adobe). After all Apple is looking for a Video Editor Product Designer, Pro Apps with "Expert-level knowledge of editing, motion graphics, and finishing suites like FCP, Avid, Smoke, Luster, etc."

Hopefully higher-end tools will continue to filter down to the desktop (see Flame & Smoke in action). A lot of these ideas were in the air after the Apple acquisitions of Shake & Tremor and then Final Touch/Color, but especially since a Think Secret article before NAB in 2006. Here's a flavor of Chris Hocking's wish for FCP & pro apps:

"So what will make this new FCX so different? Well, it’s our prediction that most of the Final Cut Studio (i.e. Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Color, LiveType, etc.) will be merged into the one application. We predict a MAsSIVE interface and workflow overhaul. No longer will you need to Send to Soundtrack Pro, or use XML workarounds to get your timeline into Color. Everything will be in the one “box”. In typical Apple style - we predict they’ll make things better, by making them substantially simpler.

So how the hell will this actually work? We believe the key is a new Universal Timeline and a set of different Rooms.

The Project Room will be the “hub” of your project. Taking media management to a new extreme, this will be were you can manage different versions of your project, keep track of scripts, storyboards, and other pre-production information. Taking on board features find in other packages such as Celtx, we predict that FCX will have a big focus on ALL stages of the film-making process, including Pre-Production."

Coleman and Ebberts videos on expressions & Flash

The Motion Graphics Dream Team videos -- geared for Flash designers -- from the Adobe MAX conference a few months ago are on Adobe.TV and on Videospider.tv.

After Effects & Flash CS4: Michael Coleman (fullscreen) shows techniques (Mocha, etc.) and shortcuts that can be used with After Effects CS4 and Flash CS4 Professional. 

 


Programmatic Animations in AE with Expressions & Scripting: Michael Coleman and Dan Ebberts (fullscreen) show tips and tricks with Scripting and Expressions in CS4. The parts on the video metadata pipeline were covered more full by Dan Ebberts in an article posted this week at Adobe, XMP metadata in Creative Suite 4 Production Premium.

more Pixel Bender resources

John Nack posted notes on Cool Pixel Bender experiments, resources along with a Kevin Goldsmith roundup of Pixel Bender instructional videos on Adobe TV and Some cool experiments with Pixel Bender.

Look for more Pixel Bender fun from Maltaannon and maybe even the AE team sometime. Other Pixel Bender resources can be found in previous posts.

Dollhouse opening uses tilt-shift

Catching up with the DVR... the new Joss Whedon Fox TV series Dollhouse has opening credits that use some tilt-shift; for background see Tilt-shift photography meme (Zoic didn't seem to do the titles but did do the Dollhouse Mind Wipe effects):



Plus another time-shift item, The Simpsons get new titles (Idents.TV has some better viewing options):

Boris AE new features: extrude & deform

Boris Continuum Complete 6 AE has some nice new features including extruded splines and text and deformations. You can see it in action at Boris TV.

Video Editor Product Designer, Pro Apps

Seems like a fun if demanding job:

"Apple’s Pro Apps Design Group is seeking a passionate video editor who understands the complexity of software product design. This person must possess a relentless attention to detail, a gifted eye for aesthetics and the ability to quickly grasp and distill highly complex matters...

Expert-level knowledge of editing, motion graphics, and finishing suites like FCP, Avid, Smoke, Luster, etc."

Speech-to-Text metadata in web video

Google Labs has its GAUDI speech-to-text program as reported by Beet.TV. Announced last June, it's only been used on some political speech videos. Maybe Google is waiting for some backend changes before they expand this feature on YouTube to improve search and captions & subtitles.

Adobe execs also dropped word on their own approach to some fanfare in May and August (again these are on Beet.TV). Adobe has even shown some of it at recent CS4 Road Shows, but it seems we'll have to wait for the Adobe Labs project just a little longer.

Hopefully, Adobe will have solution someday that's a bit more automated than what's shown in Dan Ebberts' article posted yesterday at Adobe, XMP metadata in Creative Suite 4 Production Premium (via Kopriva). Dan nicely steps you through metadata and speech features, if you want to understand the video metadata pipeline, though a final example video didn't seem to be posted. There's more info and tutorials on Adobe metatdata listed at the end of Dan's article and in previous posts here.

Delve Networks posted an experiment a few weeks ago using President Obama's inaugural speech in a Flash player. You can type what you’re looking for into the player searchbar below. When you mouse over the "heatmap" you'll see clickable tags related to your topic; the interface seems to be better than word meaning relations.



Update: Beet.TV says, Believe It: Transcriptions Will Drive Online Video Consumption and MSNBC.com is Paving the Way.

Update 2: via John Dowdell, it seems that Adobe's work on this for programmers is at XMP Library for ActionScript on Adobe Labs. And coming full circle, back at Dan Ebberts' article mentioned above, Todd Kopriva comments,

"Gunar Penikis has recently announced the availability of an XMP library for ActionScript, which can be used to directly access XMP metadata in FLV and F4V files:

http://blogs.adobe.com/gunar/2009/01/xmp_library_for_actionscript_on_labs_1.html

This library provides an alternative to the method that Dan's tutorial outlines, which uses an After Effects script to convert XMP metadata to cue points, which are then operated on by ActionScript code in the video player."

Adding Canvas Using the Crop Tool

Missed this one and like it, Adding Canvas Using the Crop Tool, from the blog of Adobe evangelist Julieanne Kost:

"To use the Crop tool to add canvas to your image, drag out a crop and release the mouse. Then, drag the crop handles outside of the image area and apply the crop. The area outside of the image will be added to the canvas. Note: to add transparency around the image (instead of filling the added space with the background color) convert the Background into a layer by selecting Layer > New > Layer From Background (or by double clicking on the word Background in the Layers panel)."

Julieanne has many more tips and feature coverage in video, for example Photshop CS4 and Camera Raw; here's a braindump of PS quick tips:

Basic 2.5D rig removal with Mocha

Carl Larsen posted CreativeCow a video tutorial for basic 2.5D rig removal in After Effects which was recommended by Shain Ross of Imagineer Systems and Little Frog in High Def.

Larsen likes using Mocha (bundled with CS4) for jobs involving scaling, rotation, and perspective movements. In this instance he also uses Vanishing Point to Clone Stamp in perspective in Photoshop to help paint out the lighting rig. Then he shows you the steps in Mocha, then in AE. You can download the tutorial in iTunes if you want to avoid the Cow website.

For background he also mentions a Cow article The Importance of Invisible Effects, where Steve Wright runs down a basic overview:
"One category is removing things that were needed during the principle photography, but must be taken out for the finished shot. This would include wire removal and rig removal.

The entire category of scene salvaging is dedicated to removing things that were put into the images by accident, such as scratches, hairs in the gate, light leaks, and reflections of the film crew.

Then there are invisible effects designed to dramatically change how the shot looks, but still appear perfectly unaltered, such as monitor replacement, speed changes and shot stabilization. In this article we will explore the technology and techniques that go into these common invisible effects."

SF Cutters: Feb 17 at Adobe SF

SF Cutters is meeting tonight Feb 17! The doors open at 6:30 at Adobe Systems in San Francisco. You must pre-register; note membership changes. Agenda includes:

• Marek Poray on cinematopgraphy, editing, and DI in The Interrogation of Harry Wind, which is set in Zurich in the 1950s and based on a true story of espionage.
• Alberto Palacios of Create More demos CalDigit Storage
• Kevan O'Brien of Adobe on "Workflow Using FCP Import to Premiere to Blu Ray encoding"
• Charles Choi of Caachi.com an SF-based NON EXCLUSIVE online distibution deal for filmmakers where you take 75% of the revenue home.

• Location and monthly sponsor: Adobe Systems

• Vendor and raffle sponsors: CalDigit, Noise Industries, Reel Directory, Equilibrium, Creative Cow Magazine and Master Series, Peachpit Press, Pond5, DigiEffects.

Water purifies art

PrepShootPost notes that with a down economy the New York City art world is going back to the drawing board and links to a NYT article, The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art! Looks like many people will now have time for art.

Via Images to Live By is Bill Viola: ‘Ocean without a shore’, where Viola combines analog and high-def digital video of people passing through a water wall, akin to a wall of death. More on this can be found at Images to Live By; other work (and background) by Viola was at SFMOMA, which has interactive and video of all sorts archived.




Also using water to purify and reveal is reverse graffiti; The Huffington Post explained last October in Reverse Graffiti: Activist Art Extraordinaire:

"Reverse graffiti is form of street art that involves carving into the dirt and dust that surrounds us. Artists subtract from a surface in order to create a negative image within the positive, often quite dark layer of grime."

Composite Modes in Final Cut Pro -- and Premiere!

Chris Meyer discusses Composite Modes in Final Cut Pro at PVC, and now Premiere users can use the same ideas with Premiere CS4. As usual Chris adds related extras in sidebars on each page.

In Premiere, Modes aren't found in the Timeline but hidden inside the Opacity section of clip panel Effect Controls. For basics, there a video from Frank McMahon at Layers. There's also an AdobeTV video that explains the larger context of Premiere CS4 enhancements to Photoshop file handling.

Using Modes can help you make a quick & dirty color correction by playing with different modes and opacity of a duplicate on top of the original clip, or help you add a filmic glow by adding a blur to the mix on the top dupe. Learning in other apps can now be leveraged with synergy in Premiere; there's also a blending mode reference and a gallery in After Effects Help, and a video on blend modes in Photoshop is on Adobe Video Workshop.

Update: see the later CMG post, FCP Overlay Issue, since it seems there is a bug in the way Final Cut Pro handles the Overlay composite mode.

Rush: PDFs cannot be searched

Should Adobe expect a support call from Rush Limbaugh? A post by Media Matters could make you wonder how someone could miss both the Find and Search functions. Here's an excerpt from Memo to Limbaugh: Try CTRL+F before blasting Dems for purportedly unsearchable bill:

"During the February 13 broadcast of his syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Democrats 'have reformatted the bill -- they've made it a PDF [Portable Document Format, created by Adobe Systems] file when they posted it. Now, for those of you that don't use computers, basically what that means is that it cannot be keyword searched. A PDF file is essentially a picture of a page. And, so, you can read every page, but you cannot keyword search it. It's not a text file as legislation normally is as posted on these public websites. They don't want anybody knowing what's in this."

It does seem that somebody doesn't want those of us that don't use computers to know what's in the bill. You'd need a computer and a lot time searching to figure out what was in the 1000 pages or so that, like the Patriot Act, most legislators won't really read.

Who's Doing Good Work in Online News?

If you're into news, Recovering Journalist has a couple of nice posts on Who's Doing Good Work in Online News? There's a second part too. In other posts he notes that smartphones might finish off the newspaper by taking shares of local advertising, and that Google bought a paper mill.

YouTube testing paid downloads + zzizzl

YouTube is testing options that gives video owners the ability to permit video downloading and offline playing:

"Partners could choose to offer their video downloads for free or for a small fee paid through Google Checkout. Partners can set prices and decide which license they want to attach to the downloaded video files..."

There's more on Arstechnica, TechCrunch and Mashable, while Beet.TV notes that Blip.tv Pays Emerging Video Producers Well in to Five Figures.

Over on NewTeeVee, keywords (metadata) and search results are considered in The Great Video SEO Frontier.

Update: FreshDV mentioned zzizzl: The Indie film store with the unpronounceable name:

"zzizzl is a new marketplace for content creators that bills itself as the “iTunes for indie creators.” Independent filmmakers can upload their latest masterpiece and sell it in iPod and other portable media player formats. Profits are split 50/50 with the site."

YouTube: 100 tools & enhancements

Mashable runs down a YouTube Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Resources to Enhance Your Video Experience

Hotspots for After Effects

While it's unlikely that After Effects will rise to the top of Digg, Twitter, or Google Hot Trends, a search on Google Insights can be fun. Searching for "after effects" shows interesting trends -- like the popularity of Video Copilot and Trapcode Particular.

Here's snapshots of Google searches in the last year by Region and City; oddly the Philippines leads in the volume of increased interest as a region, and there's a rising interest among Russian speakers.

55 websites to download free sound

via on PSDTOP, an RSS aggregator of Photoshop tutorials... 55 Great Websites To Download Free Sound Effects. Free isn't necessarily free to use, so check the license; in many cases buying music and sound is less trouble.

Adobe.TV practices files

Most tutorials on Adobe.TV don't have practice files so it's easy to miss that some do. For example many of Mark Christiansen's tutorials come with practice files, which is good for beginners. It might be nice if more practice files were made available.

There can be some wrinkles though; one tutorial, "Rotoscoping using After Effects and Photoshop," from AdobeTV's Learn Photoshop CS4 series shows practice files but the duplicate listing from Learn After Effects CS4 doesn't give you the files.

A text and picture version of this tutorial appears on Adobe Design Center. This version showed up on PSDTOP, an RSS aggregator of Photoshop tutorials. Here's the video embed, which doesn't indicate that practice files are available; it must be a slow news day or something...

NASCAR “Underground” graphics

Graphics Mafia points out the Fox Sports Design bumper notes for NASCAR and the upcoming Daytona 500.

RSS feed for After Effects Help comments

Todd Kopriva tells how to utilize the RSS feed for comments on After Effects Help.

Update: Stephen Muratore shows you how to do the same for Premiere Help comments.

Ease and Wizz 2.0, now with Curvaceous

Update: Ease and Wizz is now offered through AE Scripts. 

Mentioned earlier was Ease and Wizz, an AE palette for new easing types. The script is basically the same in 2015, though with numerous incremental refinements. Here's the latest demo video:



Back in 2009, Ian Haigh announced the script on the AE-List:

I'm pleased to announce version 2.0 of Ease and Wizz, the After Effects palette for smoother easing. If you're not familiar with this script, it's an adaptation of Robert Penner's easing equations for Flash, and gives you more options when you're tweening values such as position, rotation, or scale.

The big change in this version is that now you can tween along a curved motion path, which was previously impossible (the expression would effectively ignore the bezier curves, and the resulting motion path would be linear). Also, you can now apply easing expressions to mask paths and shape paths. I call this monumental addition "Curvaceous" :)

It's available for (FREE!) download at http://ianhaigh.com/easeandwizz/. As usual, please let me know if you experience any problems, although it has been tested in a production environment for some time. You'll also find a screencast demonstrating this new feature, if you're interested.

Note that when using Curvaceous, you will no longer have access to Back and Elastic tweening. The (slightly techie) explanation for this that rather than tweening the actual *value* of the property, Curvaceous tweens the *time* of the property, using the valueAtTime method. As the Back and Elastic easing types actually overshoot the original keyframes, Curvaceous has no way of knowing how to extrapolate the extra data to move past the last value. Simply turn off Curvaceous if you require Back or Elastic (the palette updates when you toggle Curvaceous, so you don't need to commit this to memory).

Forgotten AE Paint shortcuts

Michael Coleman has some Paint shortcuts we might have forgotten to tell you about.

AE LiveDocs Help has the other shortcuts for CS3 and CS4, and of course covers Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Erase. The current basics of paint in AE is discussed at Lynda.com in After Effects CS4 Essential Training; it may become free at some point on AdobeTV but now the CS3 training for AE Paint is free on the Adobe Video Workshop.

Update: For Photoshop, John Nack has Layer-related shortcuts you might want to know, and Scott Kelby hosts It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Bryan Hughes! to remind you of the useful features in PS CS3 and CS4.

AE tutorials for projecting, reflecting, & arranging 3D layers

Chris and Trish Meyer have a new tutorial at Artbeats.com: Projecting a 3D layer onto others in After Effects, which uses the 3D property Light Transmission in AE. Thy had another recent 3D tutorial there too, on ways to fake reflections in After Effects. Artbeats also has video tutorials for AE 3D by Steve Holmes, including Shadowvision: Create a 3D Scene.

Red Giant TV has Creating and Working with Complex 3D Projects, a stalking horse for PlaneSpace, the relaunch of the very handy 3D layer assistants from Digital Anarchy. Happily, PlaneSpace doesn't add red tints to everything.

Red Giant relaunch sale on DA filters

There's a sale on five former Digital Anarchy products on Tuesday, February 10. Red Giant Software is promoting the re-launch:

• Sale includes Datamator, PlaneSpace, Text Anarchy, Psunami and Toon It
• All hosts with the one purchase
  
• Mac and Windows version with each purchase
• Known issues have been fixed and a few more features added
• Existing customers get the FREE updates
• Red Giant TV will have tutorials
  

Viral Video Film School on using AE

InfoMania's Viral Video Film School on using After Effects (did the AE team really wear tin foil hats?):

Short primer video on Colorista and color correction

PrepShootPost has a short primer video on Colorista and color correction done for Red Giant Software when Colorista was released. He says "the ideas apply to FCP's 3 Way Color Corrector and pretty much all primary color correction tools out there on the desktop."

The rest of Eric's Colorista tutorials for FCP and AE are at Red Giant's tutorials section, and there's more at The Edit Blog and Prolost (which also has a side by side demo, pictured above).

It seems like it wouldn't take that much for Adobe and Apple to add the missing controls to their own filters, since Colorista's were probably inspired from higher-end tools themselves -- or they could just license the filter.

A few more AE tutorial resources

There have been several uber-tutorial sites that attempt to collect every link. Some use mostly brute force like VisualFXtuts.com by Topher Welsh, who is now also writing for AE Freemart. That association might help the newish VisualFXtuts keep up steam in collecting so many previews and links to tutorials (it's a bit like an expanded FriendFeed).

Other uber-tutorial sites are more automated, like Tutorialfind, Directory of Tutorials (dead?), and others. And some sites deal just in video, like Wonder How To, YouTube & Vimeo, Instructables, etc.

And here are two more websites with After Effect tutorials by accomplished users not mentioned before:

• Chris Zwar's After Effects projects and downloads, plus his articles on After Effects mostly on Creative Cow. Chris' great article on the Fractal Noise filter was mentioned in Spare time for Fractal Noise.

• Pixelguy's AE Tutorials at aetutorials.net, which is heavy on expressions.

Note: AE tutorials will show up on searches of all kinds better is they include relevant keywords for objectives and techniques & filters used. Getting found easily in AE Community Help seems to help the ranking on regular Google searches too.

Update: Someone noted motion graphics eXchange in comments. Also, Creative After Effects Tutorials and Showcase references AE tutorials in an automated fashion.

Update: Here's another listing that has tutorials not already linked to through the links here, 40+ Adobe After Effects Best of Tutorials & Resources.

'21-87', an inspiration for Lucas

From Wikipedia:

George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars films, has attributed the origins of "The Force" to the 1963 Arthur Lipsett abstract film 21-87 which used samples from many sources.

"One of the audio sources Lipsett sampled for 21-87 [a film that had a great influence on Lucas] was a conversation between artificial intelligence pioneerWarren S. McCulloch and Roman Kroitor , a cinematographer who went on to develop IMAX. In the face of McCulloch's arguments that living beings are nothing but highly complex machines, Kroitor insists that there is something more: 'Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of force, or something, behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us, and they call it God.'"

"When asked if this was the source of "the Force," Lucas confirms that his use of the term in Star Wars was 'an echo of that phrase in 21-87.'"

RED @ SFMOGRAPH: Feb 26 at Adobe

It would be great if this was posted on Vimeo or PVC, like AENY's recent meeting...

SFMOGRAPH is having a meeting on February 26th at Adobe on Townsend Street in SF. You must pre-register for this event. Here's an almost verbatim description of the agenda:

'The February SFMOGRAPH meeting will revolve around Red Camera workflow in After Effects. Mark Christiansen [author of After Effects CS4 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques] will be kicking off the meeting with an in-depth look. Mark has worked extensively with .R3D files along with a long history working with film, so he has an in-depth knowledge of the "old" process compared to Red. Hopefully, Matt Silverman will chime in too.

Plug-in of the month is going to be comprised of numerous plug-ins that go hand in hand with the Red workflow. We'll take a look at the standard built-in color correction tools in AE, and explain where 3rd party color correctors like Color Finesse, Colorista, Frishcluft Curves, and Magic Bullet Looks fit into the picture.

Lastly we're hoping to see Red work done by anyone in the audience who can bring in clips to share. Please make sure these clips are in Quicktime format.'

Note: Mark's findings should help iron out any wrinkles of this ".01" update; for a prefiguring, see the post by Michael Coleman, After Effects product manager, Tips for Editing and Finishing RED Raw Files with Adobe CS4 Workflows on Studio Daily. To use the updates (from both Adobe and RED), you'd need to meet the hefty system requirements -- and don't forget to change AE’s “interpretation rules.txt” file. It seems that the only color space supported RED's CS4 importer software is Rec709.

There's more on Red Camera workflow from various other sources in previous posts; here's a video (loud to start) on using RED Camera RAW and CS4 by Dave Helmley, which can be viewed fullscreen at Adobe TV:



Update: Final Cut Pro-L has a nice thread on RED workflow. Also interesting is "The Truth About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels" by John Galt at Creative Cow, and the Red User Discussion in response. Jim Tierney at Digital Anarchy has additional thoughts and links to an article that explains the difference between sensors.

SF Cutters: Feb 17 at Adobe SF

SF Cutters is meeting Feb 17, doors open at 6:30, at Adobe Systems in San Francisco. You must pre-register; note membership changes. Agenda includes:

• Marek Poray on The Interrogation of Harry Wind, which is set in Zurich in the 1950s and based on a true story of espionage.
• Alberto Palacios of Create More demos CalDigit Storage
• Kevan O'Brien of Adobe on "Workflow Using FCP Import to Premiere to Blu Ray encoding"

• Location and monthly sponsor: Adobe Systems

• Vendor and raffle sponsors: CalDigit, Noise Industries, Reel Directory, Equilibrium, Creative Cow Magazine and Master Series, Peachpit Press, Pond5, DigiEffects.

A disturbance in the Force

Stu Maschwitz announced that The Orphanage will be suspending operations indefinitely.

After Effects Tips Installment 4 at PVC

Trish & Chris Meyer posted another installment of AE Tips, Installment 4, at PVC. Topics covered include: Expand active panel to fill screen, Floating Panels, Replace Layer Source, Rename and Revert Name, Update Markers from Nested Comp Source.

Other recent tip collections were mentioned earlier in Even more AE quick tips.

Red Giant Warp "3D Tools" project

The inscrutable Mylenium has posted several possibly useful After Effects project files lately, and the latest is Red Giant Warp 3D Tools. He says:

"Since this feature is not implemented yet in Red Giant Warp, some expressions to tie in the Reflection and Shadow effects with After Effects 3D layers might come in handy. Fancy photo frame included."

Update: Mylenium may ponder about donations for "free" stuff but downloading something doesn't mean it's used. A little explanation might help, and maybe even opening posts to commenting for feedback. Or expand the explanations into tutorials -- they'd be good -- and blog on PVC or follow the lead of other 2nd generation AE tutorial authors.

Christiansen on Mocha with RGS Warp

At PVC, Mark Christiansen takes a brief look at After Effects tracking and Corner Pin in Red Giant Warp: Get more out of MochaAE. He notes that today is a 50% off sale on RGS Warp.

This follows previous posts Motion blur for Mocha corner pin data and Mocha for After Effects +Corner Pin thread. Other Mocha tutorials were mentioned here.

Ecosystem for news video supports the experimental

,Beet.TV notes a recent event hosted by YouTube, "Broadcasting the World: The New Ecosystem for News Online," and a panel video from the event embedded below, "Reeling Them In: Building an Audience for News Video." Google may be picky on some level in choosing employees, but they sure fall flat in communications on the handling of video tech (note the aspect ratio on their own stuff).


Beet.TV also posted a nice discussion, along with back story, of Left Behind, an atmospheric five-minute documentary of sorts about poverty in Mumbai by Dai Sugano, a multimedia editor at the San Jose Mercury News.


Update: Cab Drollery adds fun to the already fun comments on an LA Times opinion column asking for an antitrust exemption for an extremely concentrated industry that wants to charge for the Web content that it's now giving away. They can charge if they want without government assistance. Since news staff has been cut for decades now (to keep profits at around 20% until recently), are most newspapers really producing good content or alerting society of problems? Even the "papers of record" need independent bloggers as watchdogs to unknot the spin. In calmer waters, Walter Isaacson has an idea for a standardized micropayment system (a la iTunes) over at The Huffington Post and Time magazine.

Update: Slate notes that iTunes really just sells iPods and 95% of us want free songs in Micro Economics: Why Steve Jobs and micropayments won't save the media.

YouTube's January Fair Use Massacre

Watching TV Online notes YouTube's January Fair Use Massacre from Electronic Frontier Foundation, which notes that YouTube's automated copyright filtering system ("Content ID tool") even censors teenagers singing "Winter Wonderland."

Also, from the cloud, the Wall Street Journal talks about "transformative" vs. "just stealing" in Color This Area of the Law Gray. Other recent news items in copyright and fair use were posted here.

Turbulence 2D: a filter for After Effects

Turbulence.2D, from Jawset Visual Computing, brings fluid dynamics to After Effects, with 7 channels of video input, one texture coordinate channel, and numerous other controls to help create organic textures, animations and typographic effects. You can find samples in their gallery, more about features, and a demo version at Jawset.

A similar filter in public alpha testing from the same company was mentioned last year in AE smoke filter(s) in alpha.

Update: BTW, there was similar filter Fluid Dynamics filter from Electrocolor that was released for AE 7.0/CS3. And Kevin Goldsmith noted that David Lenaerts has created a smoke/fluids simulation in Pixel Bender utilizing 49 Pixel Bender kernels per frame; he's giving out the source code.

'Capitu' titles on Motionographer

Motionographer has a nice piece on the Dada decollage title sequence for a Brazilian TV miniseries called Capitu. It might be best to view the the title sequence to Capitu first, then watch the nice narration-less ‘making of’ video, and then look at a write-up from the creator about the conceptual and aesthetic rationale behind it. They used After Effects but not exactly in the way some may expect.