Free Lower Thirds plus... [now on PVC]

For some Free Lower Thirds plus Additional Resources to leverage Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects, see the roundup at AE Portal on PVC.

Effects A-Z tip: Card Wipe

From here, life goes on at PVC...

The After Effects: Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks continues with guest host James Zwadlo demoing the Card Wipe transition effect in After Effects.  Card Wipe (AE Help) and Matrix (from AE Scripts) are both easier to use than the Card Dance effect.

Update: here's the latest ones available in the series...

• The CC Flo Motion Effect January 30, 2012
• The Channel Blur Effect December 10, 2011 by maltaannon
• The Change Color Effect October 24, 2011 by Jack Grundy
• The Cell Pattern Effect October 8, 2011 by John Dickinson (makes rocks!)
• The Caustics Effect October 5, 2011 by Eran Stern
• The Cartoon Effect August 16, 2011 by Zola
• The CC Bender and Bend It Effects July 5, 2011 by Quba Michalski

Here's the list of previous posts on the Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks.

'How To Do It' tutorial secrets

Before I start my series on design, here's some sage advice on tutorials, via Jim Feeley:

Nourish: complete meal in a can from Campbell

Disaster capitalism might not be all bad... or at least not as bad as Franco-Ameri-can spaghetti that came out of a can, a Day-Glo reddish-orange.

The Campbell Company of Canada is [...] taking bold steps to be a different kind of food company, from our organization-wide commitment to hunger relief to our focus on simple, healthy foods and meal preparation that are low in sodium with more vegetables and whole grains, and no artificial colours or flavours.

Plus, How close to a train track can you set up a vegetable market? (via Michael Pollan and some guy)

Effects A-Z tip series: recent episodes

Note: see AE's CycoreFX CC filters inside Premiere Pro CS5 to see what works in Premiere. These filters were tested further and discussed in new Premiere training from Eran Stern, released in Feb 2011.

Here's the posts on entire Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks.

These are the recent ones, posted at PVC:

The After Effects: Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks continues with guest host Maltaannon demoing the 4-Color Gradient effect that ships with After Effects...  PVC

The After Effects: Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks continues with guest host James Zwadlo on the CC Bubbles effect that ships with After Effects...   PVC


The After Effects: Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks continues with guest host Eran Stern on the CC Blobbylize effect that ships with After Effects. Eran has two sections in this quicktip...   PVC


The After Effects: Effects A-Z tip series from Motionworks continues with guest host Adam Everett on the CC Ball Action effect that ships with After Effects. Beyond the basics he shows the Brightness Twist control, an old favorite that can make things interesting effects and how to create an easy but realistic displacement map for text...   PVC

AE Portal is moving

AE Portal has moved to ProVideo Coalition, so please visit and repoint links and RSS.

I'm still doing roundups at AEtuts, so please check in there too -- there's something new there daily.

This blog has been more than a dollar short, and now it's more than a day short too! In other words it's retired, but lives on as a useful archive.

I'm storing an old logo here...

Recently in After Effects (crossposted)

Posted last week on AEtuts+. AE Portal continues at PVC...

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:

FreeForm Pro | 3D Morph | Ben Griggs from mettle on Vimeo.

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.