Todd Kopriva posted a pictures of the original plabt in the birthplace of After Effects. Here's an attempt to peek at 14 Imperial Place, Providence, RI:
This January was the 17th anniversary of the release of After Effects 1.0 (codename Egg). Last year Motionworks posted a PDF of the story of CoSA by After Effects engineer Dave Simons, which was originally published in an edition of Creating Motion Graphics by Chris and Trish Meyer.
In Creating Video Portfolios with Flash Catalyst at Adobe TV, Karl Soule demonstrates Flash Catalyst, a new tool in CS5 Production Premium to create interactive designs without coding. There's more at the Adobe TV Flash Catalyst channel; in the sample below Terry White runs through his 5 favorite features.
EfectoHD shares his process and project files for making a slideshow of photos without keyframes in After Effects: "More than a tutorial, this is the explanation of a technique that I can be of use when creating these slideshows easy in After Effects without creating not a single keyframe.The technique involves creating a series of zero, each with a basic motion: zoom in, zoom out, panning left, panning right ... all with a constant speed then we will provide a basis to encourage the photos." ...via Lester Banks.
RSS to Twitter delay, so let's call it Saturday...
Several tutorials, tips, scripts, and news items were mentioned around the web not discussed here at AEP. Here's some websites and resources with a different mix of news this week:
"Say no to presets and tutorials! All works end up looking the same. Realize that your weakness *is* your strength." -- a Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind type tweet from Peder Norrby of Trapcode (@rymden). [Later, a discussion ensued at Trapcode Facebook, and Peder explains Your weakness is your strength at the Trapcode blog.]
Since Mattrunks very creative tutorials are only in French and under a Creative Commons license, someone might post these to Youtube to get transcribed captions in English -- though any alteration or transformation requires a license identical to the one used by Mattrunks.
There's more via the tag AE camera, including alternatives to Maltaannon's script like Sure Target (Videocopilot's free AE plug-in) and a script by Hypoly that works with Sure Target. Here's the Netvibes Showcase:
Tim Clapham (@helloluxx) has a new After Effects tip, Moving AE Templates, which reminds you how you can move Render Setting and Output Module Templates in After Effects.
Magic Bullet Grinder (US$49) is a new standalone application for the Mac that batch processes footage from a Canon DSLR:
"It can convert to ProRes, add timecode, and even create low-res with window burn proxies for offline editing. You can also use it to conform (not convert, i.e. no frame blending or motion interpolation) a bunch of clips to one frame rate, so your 30p and 60p shots can become slow-mo clips at 23.976fps."
"Why did we make something to compete with all the free options [Mpeg Streamclip, EOS 5d FCP log and transfer plug-in, etc.] out there?
Grinder's strength is its singularity of purpose and its simplicity. Yes, there are many free ways to convert media files. Some are easier to configure than others. Grinder is a zero-config, drag-and-drop app with a few carefully-chosen options custom-tailored for the needs of HDSLR shooters.
It doesn't do much that's unique, but one feature it has that I like a lot is the parallel proxy rendering. I like to work with low-res offline clips with TC window burn and then master back to my camera originals. Grinder makes that a breeze.
Frame-rate conform is another biggie. I love that I can go shoot 24, 30, 50 and 60p and conform it all back to 23.976 without any effort. Makes slow-mo a simple thing.
Grinder is not expensive. It's for people who want something that works right every time with no fuss."
"Noise Industries offers a range of [Mac-only] GPU-accelerated plug-ins for After Effects and Final Cut. In this episode Niclas Bahn demystifies the FX-Factory platform and introduces three of the key plug-in packs available from Noise Industries, including FX Factory Pro, MoType and Nodes."
CS5 includes built-in support for the RED camera format, and today there's an update to the RED camera import CS5 plug-ins for After Effects and Premiere Pro to include support for the new Mysterium-X sensor and the latest "Color Science."
In a new After Effects tutorial, Scrolling LED Text, Quba Michalski shows "you how to create your own highly customizable LED screen effect, ready to convert any text or image into pixelated goodness. The video covers the setup, expressions and usage of this versatile preset."
You can download the project file along with an MP4 version of the tutorial. Here's an example:
[update: Toolfarm is having a Video Copilot Sale -- 30% on ALL Video Copilot products Wednesday and Thursday, May 26 & 27, 2010 only.]
Video Copilot has released CS5 compatible versions of their After Effects filters -- free upgrades (OF, others, + update) from the previous versions. The standout among these is Optical Flares, a newer plug-in that leapfrogs longtime industry leader Knoll Lens Flare Pro in interface and features for about 1/3 the price. Here's a demo:
Andrew Kramer and company have taken a page from the Magic Bullet Looks approach to create a powerful and easy-to-use interface. The custom interface offers drawers full of visual presets and detailed control over individual flare elements, as well as a large adjustable preview of the composite or the flare alone. The advanced UI along with GPU acceleration allows users to build, edit, and manage unique and complex lens flares with speed and simplicity.
All of these features and more are built into this one plug-in:
3D lens flares with AE Lights
2D + 3D occlusion or obscuration
edge flare-ups
auto-tracking
auto-animation
textures
matte box
In the latest release for CS5, the preset drawer has been dropped in a favor of an exposed browser panel, but new abilities to rearrange, resize, and toggle window panels are nice. The best way to evaluate Optical Flares yourself is to review the profusion of video intros and tutorials at the Video Copilot website -- there is no eval or trial version. Owners of Optical Flares get access to even more training, so there's no need to purchase extra training. There's also the VideoCopilot Preset Network and filter forums for help and inspiration.
Knoll Lens Flare Pro (which is not available for CS5 until summer 2010) has offered most of the same features with the addition of public beta releases, but without the integrated visual interface. Perhaps KLF's sole remaining advantage is that in addition to the main filters, 19 lens elements are also included for minute control over parameters, though you should be able to get similar control in Optical Flares using presets. For now, Optical Flares is an After Effects-only filter, but it is said that versions for NLEs, Photoshop, Fusion, and Nuke are under consideration.
If you don't have a dedicated lens flare filter, and there are only two in this league, you're in for a treat. Overuse of lens flares is common though -- but with a filter like Optical Flares, you can rise above the common cliche of the Photoshop default (at left). Individual flare elements can be used as the base, as seen almost everywhere, or as elements of design.
Use in more realistic shots may take some extra observation and self-control. Tony Reale recently introduced ideas on using lens flares in edits in his After Effects tutorial Add Anamorphic Lens Flares to Video. There's a lot going on beyond the basics with lighting, camera filters and lenses, etc. and lens flares can become obsessions to avoid, create, or recreate. One good resource for study is a cache of QuickTime movies of real world lens flares by Claudio Miranda.
Another obvious resource is J.J. Abrams' "ridiculous" use of kinetic halos in the latest Star Trek movie (Andrew Kramer did the titles). See various discussions of these mostly in-camera effects done by cinematographer Dan Mindel in Where No DP Has Gone Before at ICG Magazine, and more about ILM custom matching "SunSpot" CG in Back on Trek (Flare Madness) at Millimeter & Star Trek Returns at Post Magazine.
Update: Kevin McAuliffe wrote a substantive review of Optical Flares for ProVideo Coalition.
Update: Johan Romera shared Nuke2AE Optical Flares Gizmo, a Nuke script that corverts 3d data to 2d position to create AE keyframe data for Optical Flares.
A thread on the After Effects-List, mentioned several freeware video file analyzers beyond the obvious information functions in Quicktime and VLC media player:
Coincidentally, Mitchell Whitelaw considers the same series of commercials at his blog This Teeming Void in This is Data? Arguing with Data Baby.
"Data does not just happen; it is created in specific and deliberate ways. It is generated by sensors, not babies; and those sensors are designed to measure specific parameters for specific reasons, at certain rates, with certain resolutions. Or more correctly: it is gathered by people, for specific reasons, with a certain view of the world in mind, a certain concept of what the problem or the subject is. The people use the sensors, to gather the data, to measure a certain chosen aspect of the world. [...] Collapsing the real, complex, human / social / technological processes around data into a cloud of wafting particles is a brilliant piece of visual rhetoric; it's a powerful and beautiful story, but it's full of holes. If IBM is right - and I think they probably are - about the dawning age of data everywhere, then we need more than a sort of corporate-sponsored data mythology. We need real, broad-based, practical and critical data skills and literacies, an understanding of how to make data and do things with it."
"Film is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie..." --Jean-Luc Godard "The camera lies all the time. It lies 24 times a second." -- Brian De Palma
Update: here's a slight return for The Kuleshov Effect, a montage effect demonstrated by Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov, which is explained near the end of the interview with Hitchcock (he explains three types of editing).
commonsExplorer is an experimental interactive browser for the Flickr Commons, a collection of pictures with "no known copyright restrictions." It provides a "big picture" of these collections with a single screen interface that reveals structures and patterns and encourages exploration.
commonsExplorer is a Java executable, so Windows and Linux users will need to have Java installed. The application requires a network connection, and may not work from behind a firewall or proxy.
Note: the Time Warp effect from CS3 and CS4 was removed from Premiere CS5, but there's always Pixel Motion and Time Warp in After Effects if you need better results.
In her new podcast, New Camera RAW features in CS5, Julieanne Kost goes over refinements and enhancements like noise reduction and image sharpening in the latest version of Adobe Camera RAW. Scott Kelby also discussed the new Camera Raw Process Versionat NAPP.
Adobe After Effects on Facebook says the fireside chat call-in hour with the After Effects team is returning:
"Want to talk to the After Effects team? Fireside chat Thurs 9-10am PST. Call 877-220-5439, use ID 882164 and password 1223334444. You can ask questions or just listen. Chat link below, where you can also ask questions. Topics you want us to yak about between calls? Add a comment! [at]Connect Pro Meeting Log."
Update: Michael Coleman says, "we'll be recording the session and making it available later in the week in case you have to be at your job or something."
I forgot how Brian Maffitt created his, so here's a tutorial from Big Mike Design, Paper Rip Effect in After Effects, which uses Photoshop and After Effects, alpha channels, track mattes, precomposing, and CC Page Turn or a similar.
In Nerdism!, Mylemium provides detailed information about After Effects installation directories, installation preparation, and licensing issues -- which also may enhance the value of his After Effects Error Code Database.
via @hashae... Carl Larsen posted Living By The Spirit Titles, an After Effects tutorial video that shows you how to create titles using depth of field rendering, Trapcode Particular, and some free live-action footage. A project file is also included.
"Some people have a difficult time transitioning from a layer based editor like Aftereffects to a node based piece of software like Nuke. This video shows you some of the common problems some people experience when trying to learn a new application.For those of you ambitious enough, the Foundry actually has the whole 1000+ page Nuke manual on their site for free. The file is a PDF and is a must in my opinion if you want to further explore Nuke."
Tatsuro Ogata (llcheesell), author of the AE script LCDeffect and Japanese website AEP Project, announced an After Effects user group meeting "AEP Night" modeled on AENY. See #AEPN2 for Twitter buzz.
The event is planned for Tokyo on 27, May, 2010 (Thu) 18:00- 20:30 JST at Station 5 (OW Building 4-21-8 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo). Station 5 is an Adobe's official gallery and event space at Omote-sando, Tokyo (pictured).
The agenda includes seven talks, a short movie competition, & an after party. The talk and competition should be broadcast using Ustream, and there are many join-prizes: CS5 Production Premium, CINEMA 4D Broadcast Edition, FxFactory Pro 2, five Red Giant products, and more.
By the way Google Chrome 4 will automatically ask if you want a translation of a web page; very handy.
There are several approaches to building a waving flag in After Effects, including old 2D tutorials by Brian Maffitt and Zaxwerks 3D Flag (not yet available for CS5). Now that Freeform is free in CS5, anyone can leverage existing flag tutorials, starting points really, by Ayato and the Creative Cow. An updated more modern tutorial should have a wide audience.
There's many more examples and tutorials on 3D displacement on the Digieffects and Mettle websites. The only other plug-in in memory that could do this was Cognicon TILT, built to use the defunct Quickdraw 3D from Apple (Red Giant's Sean Safreed was the Apple product manager). Here's an intro to Freeform displacement:
Update: Chris Bobitis added a free flag project using Freeform -- just add some texture or pre-displacement to the flag if you think it has too much starch.
Evan Butson has several QuickTip videos at Vimeo on Premiere Pro CS5 features including Facial Recognition, Ultra Keyer, DSLR & RED Support, FCP Roundtrip, and Mercury Playback Engine.
Noted previously: Steve Wright, author of Digital Compositing for Film and Video, introduced the ideas and methods behind node-based compositing in another video tutorial at Creative Cow.dvGarage has something similar and more in the movie 'Introduction to Nodal Compositing, a part of their free Conduit training.
AE Scripts is featuring kd_AutoFade, an After Effects script that can automatically fade your selected layers in and out, rotate and scale the layers, and set easing -- all together or separately.
Artbeats has a couple of new After Effects tutorials:
Firestarter by Steve Holmes is a new written tutorial, demonstrating After Effects keying and animated masking techniques to turn a simple fire clip into a looping, swirling, boiling mass of fire that can be composited over any background.
Cleft, an After Effects tutorial video by Eran Stern, uses AE and Boris Continuum Complete to create a 3D logo, incorporate stock footage and sound, and add shatter effects for idiosyncratic opener.
The Adobe After EffectsFacebook page says that the AE team was "sitting in a conference room this afternoon, hatching plans for what we'll tackle next. You can submit feature requests ... (we review them all), or comment here to give us a general sense of your priorities."
Maybe better features can be added to existing features in CS Next, with continued refinement of Roto Brush and some massive initiative on the neglected 3D feature set. The inclusion of Freeform was a very nice band-aid though. For several years new 3D features in AE have relied on Photoshop 3D -- which is trumpeted by Photoshop some fans but questioned by AE users familiar with actual 3D applications. It would make more sense if 3D was designed for the higher-end application and flowed down to the more general population; Photoshop users would benefit tremendously too.
Some simple modification to a Premiere CS5 preference file and to Nvdia preferences can enable CUDA acceleration on more Nvdia cards, according to reports on Premiere forums. This is not driver modification (softmod) or overclocking, but it is unsupported.
On Windows, the "GPUSniffer.exe" looks at "cuda_supported_cards.txt" to match the named list of cards with your GPU, so it's just a matter of enabling your card and seeing what works. Adobe has made details on CUDA acceleration and supported cards pretty clear from the start in order to create a pipeline with higher performance, quality, and reliability guarantees. There are plans for more cards to be certified in future but it will take Adobe and Nvdia time and testing resources to deliver new certifications.
If people want to risk some incorrect renders and crashes -- including possible system instabilities on cards with less memory -- then they'll have to take responsibility themselves for testing and support. For jobs, using an untested uncertified card is not advisable, but you should be able to turn CUDA off and render in software. Having inexpensive hardware acceleration for a few layers with effects on DSLR footage has made some users pretty happy.
Some cards will work better than others, but to find out you may have to enter the confusing world of nVidia naming conventions and driver support for CUDA. Here's one list of cards (by no means exhaustive or accurate) that are reported to work:
"I demonstrate some techniques for removing footage from a background. We look at luma mattes, masking and the Roto Brush tool. If you’ve watched the Roto Brush tutorial, this time I demonstrate how to make better corrective strokes."
For more on rotoscoping in After Effects & beyond, click on the tag roto.
Update: Chris Bobitis added a 
