Hidden Gems: 3D, Cameras, Lights, Photo Filter

Chris and Trish Meyer recently posted some tips on orienting yourself in After Effects 3D. Advanced users (aren't we all) be warned, you're entering known space on 3D Space, Cameras, and Lighting in 3D (and the Photo Filter effect).

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 13 - 3D Space covers the basics of working with 3D layers in After Effects and includes moving, rotating and animating layers in 3D space, offsetting their anchor point in Z, as well as auto-orientating layers along a 3D path. Also covered is using the Composition’s 3D Views, View Layouts, and Axis Modes, along with the rendering order when mixing 2D and 3D layers.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 14 - Camera covers creating and animating a camera, including creating camera rigs and taking advantage of auto orientation, as well as showing how to cut between multiple cameras. They conclude by discussing the camera’s parameters in more detail, including how to fake focus and depth of field effects.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 15 - Lighting in 3D discusses the different types of lights and their parameters, how lights interact with layers and their Material Options, the many secrets of shadows, creating gels and gobos, faking reflections, adjustment lights, projection lights, and using 3D lights to re-illuminate already-shot 2D footage.

This last article has a bonus movie on the Photo Filter effect (more in AE Help).

Blending Modes: CMG Hidden Gems + more

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with tips on layers in CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 9 – Blending Modes.

This edition has a video tip on tinting with solids or gradients and modes.

There's other details on blending modes in AE Help: Work with layer blending modes and Exclude channels from blending, and via the AE team from Motionworks, Blend Modes on Collapsed Layers. And there's additional resources of course:

• Tutorials for Photoshop with good info on modes are numerous. Deke’s Photoshop Top 40, Feature #11: Opacity and Blend Modes (a video overview) is good, and Mastering Photoshop’s Blending Modes by Richard Harrington is succinct (there are others also on Tip Squirrel). Also, Adobe's Julieanne Kost had a series of recent posts on blend modes in Photoshop.

• Chris Meyer also looked at Blend Modes in Adobe Premiere Pro and earlier, Composite Modes in Final Cut Pro.

• Mark Christiansen has a tip on Linear Blending at Any Color Depth in After Effects.

• Subtract and Divide blend modes were added to After Effects CS5; Todd Kopriva noted related tutorials. Ben Rollason showed how to emulate these modes in AE CS4 in Subtract and Divide Blending Modes in AE CS4.

• Here's a sample tutorial on blending modes from After Effects CS5: Learn by Video by Angie Taylor and Todd Kopriva, courtesy of Peachpit (this embed behaves better on Firefox than Chrome):

CMG Hidden Gems: Motion Blur +

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with tips on layers in CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 8 – Motion Blur and More.

There's other details and additional resources about motion blur in AE Help sections on Motion Blur, Timewarp, echo, and fields. See also Adding motion blur to video or 3D renders on AE Portal.

For similar recent efforts collecting tips, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 7 – Trimming Layers

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with tips on layers in CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 7 – Trimming Layers. AdobeAE added supporting AE Help links for trimming and slip-editing layers, splitting layers, Sequence Layers keyframe assistant.

For similar recent efforts, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

More After Effects tips

In 2009 Chris & Trish Meyer had another series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts on PVC, similar to the current one called Hidden Gems (6 of those so far so far).

Check 'em out:

• After Effects Tips - Installment 1: Learn something new everyday

• After Effects Tips - Installment 2: Learn something new everyday

• After Effects Tips - Installment 3: The Tips That Got Away

• After Effects Tips - Installment 4: A Tip a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

• After Effects Tips 5: Going for a Scroll (scrolling banners, ticker tapes, etc)

In that same period Computer Arts posted 50 motion graphics tips, a collection of pithy reminders by 4 broadcast designers. Melinda Rainsberger added 10 more basics at Nuope in Motion Graphics And 2-D Animation: 10 Tips For A Clean Workflow. Slightly older but useful and highly condensed is Motionworks' Levels Quick Reference Guide and the Curves Quick Reference Guide.

Hidden Gems: Chapter 6 - Layer Essentials

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects Hidden Gems: Chapter 6 - Layer Essentials, which covers some basics and the not-so-basic on:

• Option Paste for Current Time
• Convert Footage to Layers
• Replace Source
• Guide Layers
• Scroll Layer to Top

[update... Todd Kopriva added links for: details of placing layers in time, guide layers, selecting layers, and changing layer stacking order.]

For similar recent efforts, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

Hidden Gems: Chapter 5 - Animation Assistance

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects Hidden Gems: Chapter 5 - Animation Assistance, which covers some basics on Keyframes, Moving and Nudging Motion Paths, Truncated Motion Paths, Smoother KF Assistant, Auto-Orient Rotation.

For similar recent efforts, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

Hidden Gems: Chapter 4 - Keyframe Velocity

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects Hidden Gems: Chapter 4 - Keyframe Velocity. Todd Kopriva provided links a few topics on AE Help for more on: the Graph Editor, keyframe interpolation, separating dimensions of Position.

For similar recent efforts, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 3 Basic Animation

Chris & Trish Meyer's series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continues with Creating Motion Graphics Hidden Gems: Chapter 3 - Basic Animation.

For similar recent efforts, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

CMG Hidden Gems: comp window tips

Chris & Trish Meyer have started a series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts from each chapter of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition for both new and experienced users. The 2st installment is Creating Motion Graphics Hidden Gems: Chapter 2 - Creating a Composition, covering:

• Get Snapping
• Add Layer Power Drag
• Side-by-Side View
• RAM Preview Options
• Option/Alt Button Clicks

For similar recent efforts, see After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day, A few quick tips for After Effects, and Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use.

CMG 'Hidden Gems': After Effects 101

Chris & Trish Meyer have started a series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts from each chapter of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition. "These will include both essential tips for new users, as well as timesaving gems that experienced users may not be aware existed." The 1st installment is short and aimed at beginners, Creating Motion Graphics Hidden Gems: Chapter 1 – After Effects 101.

For similar recent efforts, see A few quick tips for After Effects, Keyboard shortcuts you (maybe) don't use, and After Effects Leftovers: 40 tips better the next day.

Insight into (Blur) Effects

Lynda.com is hosting After Effects: Insight into Effects, created and produced by Trish and Chris Meyer. Insight into Effects covers the AE blur effects, and includes hidden gems, optimal parameter ranges, "gotchas" to avoid, and alternatives to consider.

This series on blurs join others on Lynda.com, including the recent AE tutorial sets Natural Light Effects and Light Transmission, mentioned in a previous AEP backgrounder. If you don't have a Lynda.com subscription, you might try a free 7-day pass to check out the massive library beyond the free samples.

And of course there's a hefty amount of completely free stuff from this team at their PVC blogs Creating Motion Graphics and CMG Keyframes, and at Focal Press and Artbeats.

Update: Chris and Trish Meyer also posted After Effects Tips 5: Going for a Scroll explaining techniques to easily create scrolling banners, ticker tapes, and other graphics. And later they covered important basics in After Effects Apprentice Video Tutorial #6 , "a quickie on how to use the 3D Axis Arrows to manipulate 3D layers"