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...

The Motion Exchange video

Started as an experiment by Harry Frank, on day #2 this new Ning-based social network has about 400 members already. The Motion Exchange promotes connections between motion design professionals, students, and companies by providing a searchable database and forums and the like.

To ease the burden of learning yet another networking tool, Harry Frank has put together a video guide to get you started.

This site already has some powerful potential with so many bright contributors, but social networking sites have difficulty organizing information with so much going on.

Particle Halftones + AE filters & scripts

Note: this post mentioned work by David Van Brink, Todd Kopriva's AE region of interest feature on him, as well as his free Omino After Effects Suite. Content was updated on PVC...

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A halftone is an image or printing technique that "simulates continuous tone through the use of dots varying either in size, in shape or in spacing." In the Illustrator and Photoshop worlds, there's long lists of halftone filters, swatches, and compositing techniques used for printing and newsprint, comic, retro, and other effects. But the fun of After Effects is animation, and some techniques may not be immediately apparent without built-in filters.

There's something new and some things old in Halftone techniques for After Effects at Pro Video Coalition.

All Bets Are Off: skewed still motion + better light wraps

Aharon Rabinowitz has been making tutorials for years at Creative Cow and more recently at Red Giant Software. But he's also got additional ones at his site All Bets Are Off Productions.

Some of these add value to similar tutorials that require 3rd party filters, like More Techniques for Better Light Wraps, or just share techniques like Creating 3D Cloud Motion From a Still Image, which uses the Slew property in the Transform filter (an old DVE trick via Noel Powell).

Graymachine clocks in

Harry Frank's graymachine.com blog has been redesigned, and has some new content. It seems like this is new -- a free After Effects project with a 3D clock (or one close enough to pretend).

28 Motion Graphics Blogs and Resources

GoMediaZine posted a Topher Welsh list of Top 28 Best Motion Graphics Blogs and Resources which is enough to keep you busy for a month of a lunar year. GoMediaZine has a ton of their own resources on motion, web, and print -- including a dedicated section for After Effects tutorials. The list has a few surprises and some extra tidbits about sites that you may have visited a few times and lost track of. Happily, in a world now oozing with AE resources, Topher is forgiving of typos and bad grammar.

One of the 28 resources listed hasn't been referred here, Digital-Tutors, which is 3D-oriented. It also has a dedicated section for free AE video tutorials (registration required).

Another site of the 28 resources listed is Video Hive, which has plenty of AE-related stuff but doesn't tag the AE stuff separately.

Some resources could have made a fuller list of a 30 resources for a month in a solar year, sites like After Effects Help and Support or perhaps just After Effects region of interest by Adobe's AE Help caesar Todd Kopriva. Without cash or swag influence, one can note that the common use of the phrase "RTFM" indicates that company resources are not necessarily a given! [Update: perhaps Adobe.TV was picked as the Adobe presence]

Also found recently (not that they'd make an imaginary AEP "best of" list yet) is another site, Forging Fire. They seem to have 2 categories of AE tutorials: theirs and "free" or external tutorials. In a handy turn, they tag the external tutorials by filter and function.

AETUTS, new tutorial site

Lloyd Alvarez of AE Scripts is doing tutorials on After Effects at a new website called AETUTS. They say:

"If you think you have the skills to create a screencast or text and image tutorial for AETUTS, it's easy to familiarize yourself with the guidelines and pitch your idea. We're hungry for user contributions and pay $150 USD for an accepted tutorial."

In the first tutorial, AETUTS editor Lloyd Alvarez shows you how to create a cinematic opening title effect.



In this tutorial AETUTS Editor Lloyd Alvarez shows you how to create a unique twist on the traditional fireworks display. The tutorial shows you how to create fireworks with Trapcode Particular, and how to reflect this effect over water.



In another tutorial, by Haley Saner, "you'll be creating elegant glowing lines using shape layers within after effects. We'll create a few basic arc layers and then stylize them by using the find edges effect, glows, and blending modes. I enjoy this technique and you can easily adapt this concept to many different shapes to create some stunning looks."

Motionworks redesigned

Motionworks is back and looks nice. They've leveraged the old content in categories with room to grow.

The 3D motion tag cloud for Word Press is cool.

Grain Matching on new PVC channel

AE I Owe You has a new tutorial called "Grain Matching" that shows a simple technique on matching each color channel instead of just slapping on grain overall.

AEIOU is now part of the galaxy of blogs absorbed by PVC. In this case it's part of a new channel called Motion Graphics & Visual Effects. According to Chris Meyer, writers slated to share their expertise include:

• John Dickinson of Motionworks
  
• Jonas Hummelstrand of General Specialist
• Alan Shisko of Motion Graphics ‘n Such
• Mark Spencer of All About Motion
• David Torno of AE I Owe You

After Effects Tips + Search Help

Trish and Chris Meyer posted another in their series of After Effects Tips. They also mention and host a Firefox plug-in by Todd Kopriva of Adobe that targets the Adobe Community Help search to make searches more efficient.

AE Users blinkx

A new After Effects site from David Basulto called AEUsers.com has appeared. So far it there seems to be no practical information there, just press release feeds with a whole lotta ads. There was a blinkx video search engine box:



BlinkX seems fun but needs a better format for search results. As discussed earlier in Another blinkx in the wall and Video search interviews, the main focus seems to be on ad insertion. Here's a blinkx wall made from a search of "After Effects tutorials":

AE Projects.com

The Genesis Project notes an AE resource (with blog) for AE project templates and training that I missed:

"Josh Fozzard is a wedding/event videographer [active in WEVA] who has dived into After Effects and has a number of interesting items you might like to look at including his website name: AEProjects.com."

Also, VideoCopilot has added 2 new free tutorials: Planet Explosion and Dead Planet.

Paint/Clone on Movies in PS: new AE blog

I still think that video in Photoshop wasn't the best investment Adobe could have made -- why rebuild AE in Photoshop and leave AE's paint, tracking, and masking to languish years behind the features of a long dead app like Commotion (!) -- but what can you do?

Update: I guess I think that Photoshop Extended should really be After Effects. Making Photoshop a paint module window inside AE seems better than rebuilding PS so that it does what AE does.

The good news is there's another AE blog from Adobe, Steve Whatley's After Effects Cookbook, "From beginner to Advanced, I focus on After Effects' 3D side, 3D application integration, 3rd party plug-ins, and Workflow!" Steve's 1st post is Paint/Clone on Movies in Photoshop Tip.

Encore CS3 and Blu-ray on new Adobe blog

Dave Helmly, an Business Development Manager, has published his first entry on his blog, DAV's TechTable. According to The Genesis Project, Dave's video blog will be focusing on hardware and technology. This time out, there's an in-depth discussion on Working with Encore CS3 and Blu-ray.

Coleman Keyframes

Michael Coleman, the product manager for Adobe After Effects, has a new blog called Keyframes. (Via)

AE related blogs

Here are the AE blogs I know -- are there more?

Prolost, by Stu Maschwitz (author of The DV Rebel's Guide) covers various aspects of Image Nerdery including AE, linear color, and AE project and preset giveaways.

General Specialist has tips, tricks and tutorials for visual effects, motion graphics, animation and other tinkerings.

Flowseeker is by Mark Christiansen, author of Adobe After Effects 7.0 Studio Techniques (a somewhat more advanced compositing-oriented book).

Motionworks has a blog, gallery, and a variety of tutorials.

Creative Workflow Hacks shares tips, scripts, links, and hacks; it's especially strong on AE and FCP XML.

AE Portal News has occasional news on After Effects and the world.

Toolfarm markets DV tools, but also has plug-in information, tutorials, and a variety of interesting features to draw you in.

Stephen Schleicher has a ton of informative available stuff from his Creative Mac and other pursuits.

Alan Shisko: Motion Graphics 'n Such is quite useful but can go quiet for awhile.

AE Product manager Steve Kilisky's AE Blog has occasional good news.

Adobe DV specialist Bob Donlon's Blog has regular tutorials on the Production Studio.

Not much AE, but Product Manager John Nack on Adobe Photoshop has great stuff daily.

ProLost TV

Stu says ProLost has a video Podcast.*

* So far it's just graphics with music but you get good projects and presets.

AE Freemart brand reappears

A new AE Freemart rose again. I'm not sure, but seems like an AE-specific subsite to Toolfarm so other tool users won't get confused.
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2 more AE-related blogs

from the AE list...

General Specialist - Tinkering, Tips & Tricks
Basics of Digital Video, HDR in Photshop and After Effects and sundry items...

Alan Shisko: Motion Graphics 'n Such
insights and overviews of personal and work projects...
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