Charts and graphs in After Effects

is another roundup at ProVideo Coalition.

On one level creating and animating charts and graphs in After Effects is easy, but it can get tricky quick if you go much beyond transformed shapes or the Write-On filter. Here's a few tools and tutorials that may help get you through and beyond the basics.

Charts and graphs in After Effects

On one level creating and animating charts and graphs in After Effects is easy, but it can get tricky quick if you go much beyond transformed shapes or the Write-On filter. Here's a few tools and tutorials that may help get you beyond the basics...

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This post has been expanded and updated on Pro Video Coalition!

Pie Chart, a custom effect preset for AE

Via @aetuts is Pie Chart, a custom effect preset by Jorrit Schulte. It creates pie charts and has a variety of animation and shading options.

For similar stuff, see previous post Charts and graphs in After Effects.

Bar Graphs in After Effects

Video Copilot has a new tutorial on making Dynamic Bar Graphs:

"In this new tutorial we will isolate bar elements from a 3D render to build a customizable bar graph in After Effects. We will use expressions to control time-remapping and link values for the displays. The tutorial is a cool 20 minutes for quick viewing and easy reference for when you get the call…"

For similar efforts, see the AEP round-up Charts and graphs in After Effects and Leveraging tools for journalists. Specky Boy has an updated survey for the websters, 25 Graph and Chart Solutions for Web Developers.

SIGGRAPH 2009 papers & projects online

Vizworld notes that there are ACM SIGGRAPH2009 Proceedings Online. These are the formal papers with downloadable resources. See previous AEP posts SIGGRAPH 2009 Technical Papers Video Preview and Seam carving, cloning, & cutouts for more from the projects themselves.

AEP posts never go viral but there are still about 90 projects that haven't been trumpeted, so an enterprising writer has plenty of fodder still -- check out the impressive list of 90 or more SIGGRAPH 2009 papers on the web by Ke-Sen Huang. Here's a preview of this years' papers:



BTW, SIGGRAPH 2009 is hosting an Information Aesthetics Showcase "in recognition of the increasingly prominent role that information visualization and data graphics are assuming in our digitally mediated culture."

Magic Bullet Quick Looks + RGS Datamator

Red Giant Magic Bullet Quick Looks is a disabled version of the fuller After Effects filter that gives you 100+ look presets for $1 each. You do get well-chosen presets (which you can correct further with other filters) and the power of the DeepColor RT engine for real-time playback of SD and HD (720p) projects, but perhaps also the compatibility issues with your system's graphics card.

Update: Red Giant Software also released Datamator, "a plug-in set for creating data-driven animations for news programs and corporate videos. Red Giant Datamator (formerly Digital Anarchy Data Animator) turns charts and graphs into" animations. Datamator "includes a set of eight plug-ins that make it easier for videographers to create graphs and charts directly in After Effects instead of using PowerPoint or re-creating graphics from scratch." Seems like a good addition, especially since the loss of Useful Things meta filter to SONY.

If you can't use Datamator, there are some more involved options; see the previous post Charts and graphs for tutorial links.

Leveraging tools for journalists

Wordle for tag clouds and more,
mostly via Andy Dickinson:

• Invisible Inkling's Online Tools List,
• Tools You Can Use group at Wired Journalists,
• How to create graphs and charts that pop,
• Embeddable slides and other tools for journalists,
  
• Flickr’s superior slideshow tool.

Update: Fact checking resources like PolitiFact, SourceWatch, and FactCheck.org can be handy too. See the recent Moyers Jounal segment for a summary and discussion. FactCheck missed an EIA summary of oil production per state when criticing McCain (who got it wrong anyway), so not all conclusions are bulletproof.

Squiggles marches on [+iPhone app review sites]

Scott Squires of ILM and Commotion fame (see his Effects Corner blog) escaped Steve Jobs' kill switch and upgraded Squiggles, his paint app for the iPhone (mentioned earlier in Roto [+apps] on iPhone):

"Just to let people know version 1.1 is out now [with new video and images]. Still no roto but you can smooth paint, use cursor for precise placement of paint, full spectrum color selection, overlay layers (provided overlay images, may open this up in the future for user layers), text layers, color stamp brushes, eraser, cloning, realtime adjustments, distortions, etc... I may consider a more pro-photo app in the future."

Also, ReadWriteWeb posts about 4 Great iPhone App Review Sites and TechCrunch notes Great Review Site[s] For iPhone Apps.

Update: As noted earlier, The Edit Blog has some ideas for iPhone apps, and both Self Reliant Film and John Nack have lists of ones that might be useful now.