CS Next is CS 5.5

CS Next is CS 5.5 at PVC has details and links to videos and more. New features include Warp Stabilizer, Camera Lens Blur, stereoscopic 3D camera rig, light fall-off, source timecode, & more!

 Continuing updates on CS 5.5 will be available at AE Portal on PVC.

Good sources of news on NAB include ProVideo Coalition. PVC authors like Alex Lindsay, Adam Wilt. and FreshDV are doing video reports.

Camera difficulties and rigs in After Effects

Andrew Devis has 2 more tutorials, this time on some AE camera basics, Animating a Camera 1: Camera Difficulties and Animating a Camera 2: Simple Rig:

“Cameras are notoriously difficult to get to grips with in After Effects. In this tutorial, Andrew Devis explains some of the behaviors and problems that are common to camera animation and then shows how … to create a simple camera rig, and why it is important to get the order of the layers correct to achieve predictable results.”

[update: Andrew later added Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View.]

Here's a few more resources on the AE camera:

• AE Camera Basics links to tutorials from Chris & Trish Meyer, Motionworks, Aaharon Rabinowitz and others.
• Camera and 3D view improvements in After Effects CS5
• Rotate AE camera around point of interest
• Sure Target 2 from Video Copilot is a free AE plug-in (with tutorial) that offers advanced control over the After Effects camera. An older version, Sure Target 1.5 comes as a preset that works with the VC 3D Falloff preset.
• Pixel-Perfect Camera Move Transitions from Greyscale Gorilla
• Simple Camera Rig tutorial and script from Maltaannon
• Simple Camera Rig Script and tutorial free from Hypoly
• Pro Training for the After Effects Camera is a video training set by Rob Birnholz sold at Toolfarm.
• There's a good number of handy scripts at AE Scripts that make working with 3D and the AE camera easier.

There's much more in the AE Help page Adjust a 3D view or move a camera, light, or point of interest and in many AE Portal posts tagged AE camera.

Update: see also After Effects Camera "Target Object" Tutorial by David Biederbeck,

30% off Digieffects Megasuite + Toolfarm

The Red Giant sale is over but Digieffects' 30% off holiday sale on their Megasuite is good through Friday. The Megasuite is Damage v2 (7 filters), Delirium v2 (45 filters), and Buena Depth Cue v2 (6 filters extending 3D functions of After Effects). On Monday, some individual Digieffects filters will start to become available ala carte.

Note: Toolfarm is also having sales this month, for example Video Copilot stuff is 25% off through Friday!

Here's an example tutorial for Falloff Lighting, part of the Depth Cue package:

Falloff Lighting Basic Training from digieffects on Vimeo.

Really quick dynamic slideshow in after Effects

@aescripts RT @Oddernod:

Combining Trajectory script [by Mike Cardeiro] from @aescripts + @videocopilot's 3D Falloff preset makes for some really quick dynamic slideshow.

See also other AEP notes on Trajectory, more posts on slideshows, and this demo:

Sharpen Depth of Field with One Click [updated]

If you missed them, Digieffect released tutorials for its Depth plug-in awhile back. According to Mark Christiansen, Depth, a filter found in the old Buena Depth Cue package, "does just what the name implies, easily extracting 3D depth data for use with Digieffects plug-ins such as Camera Mapper, Atmosphere and Falloff Lighting ... I especially like it for lens effects that can use depth information to create beautiful cinematic bokeh blurs."

For other approaches, tutorials, and tools check out previous posts tagged focus and AE camera. For example, Mathew Fuller covers techniques for extracting depth from 2D still images in his video tutorial Advanced 2.5D Animation in AE.

Here are a few tutorials for Depth:

Digieffects Depth Spot from digieffects on Vimeo.

Digieffects Depth Intro Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.

Vangogh Depth+Camera Mapper Tutorial from digieffects on Vimeo.


Update: see these also,

• Projection is an AE script that does camera mapping onto 3D planes in AE
• Camera Projection – After Effects from VFX Bro
• Camera Mapping in After Effects from Andrew Devis (below):

Freeform 3D displacement tutorial

Chris Heuer shows a bit of 3D displacement in Metal Man, a convenient 1st chunk of a 3-part tutorial on Digieffects Freeform, which shipped with After Effects CS5.

There's more news and tutorials on Freeform in previous AEP posts, and at Digieffects and Mettle. By the way, Digieffects on Facebook and Twitter said "Attn AE CS5 users - register your bundled copy of FreeForm and get Falloff Lighting for free!"


Metal Man 1/3 from digieffects on Vimeo.

AE filter Falloff Lighting free for registration of FreeForm

Digieffects on Facebook and Twitter says "Attn AE CS5 users - register your bundled copy of FreeForm and get Falloff Lighting for free!"

There are 2 tutorials available if you want a closer look, and a 3D Falloff preset free from VideoCopilot if you want something more involved.

New AE filter: Digieffects Falloff Lighting

Digieffects has released Falloff Lighting, which 'is much more like that of the real world where light naturally decays or “falls off” as surfaces increase distance from the After Effects light. Falloff Lighting offers a key feature missing in After Effects. With After Effects’ built-in lights, it doesn’t matter how far away a layer is from a light, it is still illuminated the same amount by that light.

Falloff Lighting offers the control and flexibility you need to properly light your scene. You can display the distance from the camera to the corners of the layers. Also, you can adjust the distance scale to account for the scale of objects in your scene. You can also control the intensity of light reflecting off an object and the gradual falloff as the distance from the light increases.'

This seems like another example of Digieffects revising and unbundling useful tools from earlier sets at a low price, like their recent Camera Mapper, which also stemmed from Buena Depth Cue. There's 2 tutorials available already too.

Click the tag Falloff for other options.

Videocopilot video intros recent free presets

An Andrew Kramer video intros a bundled collection of some of the recent presets for After Effects from Videocopilot, including Sure Target, 3D Falloff, Easy Reflect, etc.

3D Falloff preset free from VideoCopilot

VideoCopilot has a project and tutorial for using their free 3D Falloff preset that controls fading into the distance. It is a bit involved but you can avoid using a 3rd party filter, or expression (Dan Ebbert), and the tutorial shows you how to avoid the gotchas.

Update: another new Video Copilot tutorial is Spin Orb, which has a goodly bunch of basic tips inside.

new AE plug-ins: Depth Cue

Buena Software has released new AE plug-ins: Depth Cue

The set, which includes 3D Composite, Depth, Fog, Falloff Lighting, and Rack Focus, provides a realistic depth effects that work with AE 3D layers.