Vote LiveDocs + Fade with camera distance

Along with AE 8.02 was an update of AE Help (PDF) and LiveDocs for AE 8. On the AE-List Todd Kopriva, keeper of the docs, urged all to take a survey so Adobe has feedback about how well LiveDocs is working. He continued:

"One of the things that we heard from last quarter's survey was that After Effects documentation is incomplete (but accurate, yay!). One very fast way to fill some gaps is to point users to the example projects, tutorials, and other materials that people like you create and publish. Some of you have been adding LiveDocs comments to Help on the Web that point to these great materials. We intend to do much more of this if you tell us that you find it valuable."

A good example of value came in a recent AE-List post from Todd:
If you do decide to fade a layer's opacity based on its distance from the camera, here's a [LiveDocs] link to an expression that does the trick...You can thank Dan Ebberts for that.

Again, here's the survey to give Adobe feedback about how well LiveDocs is working. And an overview of AE scripting and expression resources can be found at AE Scripts Galore.

SF Cutters host Maschwitz, Christiansen

The next SF Cutters Monthly Meeting is set for tonight Thursday January 31, 2008 at Adobe San Francisco on 7th and Townsend. It should be a good night for After Effects with these guests:

• Stu Maschwitz, author of The DV Rebel's Guide and co-founder of the Orphanage
• Mark Christiansen, VFX artist of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and author of After Effects CS3 Professional Studio Techniques.
• Bob Donlon of Adobe System

Interesting vendors and food start the show at 6:30 pm; presentations are from 7 - 9:15 pm.

Update: Stu played the still mysterious Fenderbender, while Mark played the result of Dry-for-Wet, a tutorial he's selling on StudioDaily. Bob Donlon did have some interesting things to say about Flash video. I get the impression that Adobe Media Player's real competition is iTunes. By the way, it's not the only way to play FLV from the desktop! VLC Player and WimpyPlayer (both Mac/Win) are just 2 examples.

This Week in Photography

Alex Lindsay has a new podcast available in iTunes and the web, This Week in Photography. The blurb:

Join Alex Lindsay, Scott Bourne, and friends each week as they discuss camera technique, technology, and news. From taking photos of the family to understanding how cameras work to testing state-of-the-art equipment, you'll hear, and see, it all on This Week in Photography.

Update: If you want to see a story on This Week in Photography, make sure to tag it with "twipideas" in del.icio.us...You can also use tags for macbreak weekly (mbwideas) and This Week in Media (twimideas).

Online Video Editing Tools

Without a hint of a desperate need of filler after recent posts, here's surveys of Online Video Editing Tools from Top Web Resources. and a more in-depth but older one from ExtremeTech.

They don't cover similar services like YouTube Remixer, JayCut, Searchles, Movie Masher, OneTrueMedia, Gotuit VideoMixer, Vidavee Graffiti, and interesting services that add metadata and outlines like VeoTag.

Working around with QuickTime 7.4

Some of the problems with QuickTime 7.4 are getting a lot of attention (for example here) but the solutions are not. Options include a downgrade to improve (links to installers, plus updated info) the situation, or the Carpia.TV idea for Working around QT 7.4 After Effects error.

Update: fxguide adds some meaty thoughts with Pro Living in a Consumer QuickTime World.

Update 2: the QT 7.4.1 update gets the official go ahead.

AE Camera Stabilization in brief

Flowseeker posted about segment from the FxGuide podcast describing in a nutshell how to stabilize a moving camera in After Effects, a technique that is more thoroughly documented in his book, After Effects CS3 Studio Techniques. For more see, Camera Stabilization in AE.

Aenhancers.com update

There's a new version of Aenhancers.com, a forum for discussion and library of After Effects expressions, scripts, and presets. Script requests are welcomed.

The forum software has been upgraded to offer these enhancements:
* Posting attachments (size limitations applied)
* Instant messages
* Better code highlighting
* E-mail to the forum to reply to or create posts.
* More powerful search