It has seemed oddly slow in the updated world of After Effects CS 5.5. One bright spot was recent word on Newton: a 2D physics engine for After Effects. But actually there has been much more -- a steady stream of new resources on AEtuts+, ProVideoCoalition, AdobeAE Facebook, and elsewhere.
Adobe is hosting the upcoming Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium Road Show in Los Angeles (June 2), San Francisco (June 14), and New York (June 21). There's also a free one-hour StudioDaily webinar, Power Workflows for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on May 26 with Premiere Pro product manager Al Mooney and Tyler Ginter. More relevant webinars are available from FilmmakingWebinars.
The Mac CS5 versions of Zaxwerks ProAnimator and 3D Invigorator are now shipping.
The Mac version of Freeform Pro was also delayed (problem with Apple's old ATI driver). But the Windows version is available (just as I migrate back to the Mac). There are a number of cool tutorials and presets already available, including the Folding Cube Preset by Mylenium. Tutorials include one now in 2 parts (and one more coming) by Tudor Jelescu on how to make 3D tunnels in AE using FreeForm Pro, and another by Ben Griggs on enfolding morphing 3D, Freeform Pro Gener8tor. Here's some example renders from the latter:
CMG Hidden Gems: Effects Roundup Bonus by Chris and Trish Meyer features 6 videos on some general concepts and specific effects. They added another today, CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 24 – Compound Effects. Awhile back Shortformvideo noted in AE Quick Tip – Show animation presets that effect presets are hidden by default.
CS5.5 Warp Stabilizer stop motion on SinusDigitalus and After Effects Warp Stabilizer by Tysk älg are both good examples of using this new feature in CS 5.5. For more see Todd Kopriva's outline and especially Chris Meyer's movies.
Greenscreen Quick Tip Video Tutorial by 360 Media considers basics on hair. For more see Greenscreen & keying resources.
Eran Stern has some thoughts beyond EdgeHancer on Delictae Color Correction tools from Fixel.
What is a Look Up Table (LUT), Anyway? is a guest post on Nofilmschool.com by producer/colorist Jay Friesen.
AE Portal @ PVC featured surveys on "looks" in After Effects, recent AE scripts, new basic training sets, text animation, effect demos, moving After Effects plug-ins to CS5.5, and more.
Plexus, the newish After Effects plug-in from Satya Meka and AE Scripts, was revved with 8 new strong features. Here's the feature tour from Satya:
How to make a Cinemagraph with Photoshop and After Effects by Kert Gartner explains how to approach making a popular style of animated GIF.
In Red Giant QuickTip #44: Creating a Rocket Ship Trail of Letters Harry Frank guides you through the set-up and expressions required to emit a paragraph of letters from a moving After Effects layer with Trapcode Particular.
Red Giant QuickTip #41: Adding Life to Interview Footage by Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to remove noise and add life to interview footage through color correction. The demo is in After Effects, but works for users of Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro (you can substitute filters though perhaps with less favorable or timely results).
VFX on Deadline: Monsters GT and Sapphire for After Effects featuring Marshall Fontaine is a webinar recording from Genarts.
Imagineer Systems mocha for AE CS5.5 is available, See Motion Tracking for Final Cut: iPhone screen replacement using mocha AE and other tutorials, and more on tracking see the AE Portal archive. There's a still role for the tracking feature inside of After Effects, so check out Motion Tracking tutorial by Hakan Zscherpe.
Creating Kinetic Type and Camera Rigs in After Effects (in 3D space) by Lake Keene takes a swing at kinetic type.
3D Extrude Tutorial by Alexander Dohr is a quicktip and expression for creating 3D text in AE. For oodles of similar tutorials, see 3D Text in After Effects at Aetuts+.
Create a Procedural 3D Paint Splat Logo Animation in After Effects (AE 3D text) by Esko Ahonen for Rampant Design Tools can be seen below. See also SplatterType: splatter animations with just a few clicks.
RampanTV Tutorial - Create a Procedural 3D Paint Splat Logo Animation in After Effects from Rampant Design Tools on Vimeo.
Rounding out this collection are some additional resources on stills & video:
Stu Maschwitz was way more than Mostly Coherent on TWIT's Mostly Photo show (in audio and video), which featured talk about shooting stills and video, post-processing, and video gear. Especially worthwhile was the discussion of color contrast and the split-tone controls in Adobe Lightroom.
Marc Lougee asks Shoot your film with an iPhone? and points to a substantial article in the Gamma and Density production journal.
Clay Asbury has some tips for Premiere Pro CS 5.5 - Creating a Custom Keyboard Layout at Vimeo.
Adobe’s Todd Kopriva has several new courses on Premiere and After Effects in the hopper at video2brain. They’ll be publishing a few of these courses as entirely free titles, starting now with What’s New and Changed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.
