New After Effects Toronto Group

Some of you may recall that I started up the MOGRATO (MOtion GRAphics TOronto) users' group some years ago... hmm... was it 1999? It was great fun, and we had some awesome meetings. However, work and life intervened, and I had to let it go after a good run.

It's always nice to get out of our dark little holes and have some quality face-to-face time with our colleagues, though, so it was nice to hear that an After Effects users' group was being formed. Take a gander at the web space HERE.

I'm not involved in AETO, but Chris & Russ asked whether I'd like to present at the inaugural meeting. Never one to turn down an opportunity to stumble through a demo on an underpowered laptop with one teensy little screen, I accepted.

So, tonight (Wednesday, April 22nd), I will be talking about two recent projects (here and here). Topics to be covered will include 'Creative uses for CC Sphere, including faux-3d space using expressions', and, if there's time, 'Parenting and expressions to create realistic, organic movement'.

Check out AETO.com for the meeting location. Hope to see you then!

Mr. Roboto

I recently uploaded a fun little 'accessory' project to my stable of AEP's for sale at Revostock. It's what I call a 'motion widget', which is to say it's a project that you can use and adapt to solve any number of visual problems. It can be used for full-screen presentations, gallery sequences, a little lower third, maybe even a kind of 'thought bubble'. Take a look at the promo HERE.

I've used parenting to create a Robot Arm and combined it with some fancy-dancy expressions to create a flexible, easy-to-modify project. If you've never used parenting before, then this little tutorial is a great introduction to how you can use it to create interdependent 'arms' that convincingly mimic the movement of a robot. Take a look at THIS Quicktime tutorial (h264, 20.5 megs, 9:51)

If you'd like to get into it a little bit deeper, do consider purchasing the project from Revostock.

Own Me!

Things on the blog front haven't been very productive of late, and now I can tell you why. I've been hard at work putting together a series of After Effects projects that are now available for purchase.

This is a huge step beyond mere 'stock backgrounds'. These projects are sophisticated, professionally designed cutting-edge spots of the highest quality. And I have also taken great care to ensure that they are easily modifiable by you. Adding your own imagery and text is simple, and I use a lot of on-screen controls for modifying colours. You rarely- if ever- have to visit the effect control window.

Use them for broadcast intros, product promos, transitions, galleries, corporate productions or wedding and event videos. And of course they aren't just After Effects projects. They also serve as 'tutorials'. Dive into the projects, take them apart, discover all my little tips and tricks, then apply this knowledge to your own designs.

But fear not, I'm not abandoning my past. I'll be continuing to discuss my techniques both here on this blog and over at the PVC. I'm planning to continue adding projects to the Revostock collection fairly regularly, and would invite you to consider picking them up should you see a title that interests you.

View the full collection at Revostock here, and check back often!

Fontastic!

Just came across this nifty little site... yourfonts.com. It let's you create a custom font based upon your own handwriting. It's quick, easy and (for a basic font without too many weird characters), free. I downloaded the image template, brought it into Photoshop, used my tablet to create the characters, uploaded the image et voila! "Big Al.ttf", a true type font that only a mother could love.

It would also be great for creating other design elements, say your own set of wingdings created in Illustrator, your signature, glyphs, custom characters and such. A great time-waster, to be sure.

Tiling Strategies In The 21st Century

And I'm not talking kitchens! Seamlessly tileable images are an important part of motion graphics design. If you’re looking for a way to create your own using Adobe Photoshop, then this short video tutorial is for you. I cover two different methods for creating the tiles using two very different source images. I then show you how to quickly and easily use the images in Adobe After Effects. I've posted this one to the PVC blog, so click HERE to watch the tutorial.

Framing Keys

This little mini-tutorial covers some fairly rudimentary strategies when it comes to selecting keyframes, creating consistent acceleration/ deceleration profiles (eases) and moving layers (with their entire motion path) when keyframes already exist. Yep, it SOUNDS like After Effects 101 type stuff, but you may find that there are a couple of little tricks in here that even more experienced folks might not know about.

Take a look at the tutorial (Quicktime, h264, 4:44, 9 mb) HERE.

Lookin' Great

Coming a bit late to this particular party, and I'm sure that many of you are already aware of this, but my colleague Maltaanon released the 'Making It Look Great 5' training package through John Dickinson's Motionworks site recently.

I'm in the midst of going through the tut's, and M does a really great job describing some very sophisticated techniques. This release differs somewhat from the earlier tutorials (including mine) in that he doesn't walk through the creation of one, massive project. It's divided up into 10 'micro tutorials' (although 'micro' might be a bit of a misnomer: some of the tut's are quite involved!)

I'm working through the 'Gyro' tut right now, and I've already learned about five new things. That's one of the great things about After Effects: no matter what your skill level, there is ALWAYS something new to learn or discover.

So, props to Maltaanon. This is a very worthy training package.

Back to it!

Yes, it's been awhile since my last post (I'll explain why shortly), but I'm now back to it!

There have been a number of changes in my life of late, both personally and professionally. I won't bore you with the juicy personal details, but as far as work goes, there's no denying that times have been challenging and, by all accounts, will remain so for the foreseeable future. I've been pretty lucky with clients in my freelancing business, but even so I have chosen to take steps to diversify my holdings and leverage my skills.

As you may already know, I was fortunate to have been asked by John Dickinson last year to create a training package for motionworks.com.au. I will also be posting to Pro Video Coalitions 'Motion Graphics & Viz FX' channel. And I've got one other project (or, more properly, several) that I will be announcing shortly.

So. Back to blogging. And I do have a request: coming up with ideas for relevant blog posts can be a little tricky. I have a number of posts in the wings, but please, do let me know what you'd like to see!

Pause

The fine folks at Flash-In-The-Can have finally seen the light and are exploring how pixels move around. Vectors... phsaw! So very narrow-band.

Pause: Ideas in Motion is an "exploration of concept and design within Broadcast and Film". Sez Shawn Puckness, founder of FITC, “Attendees can expect a very dynamic event with opportunities to engage, learn and connect with the best creative minds in the industry.” BTRY, Digital Kitchen, GMunk, MK12, UFO and many others... oh be still my beating heart! And of course don't discount the legendary FITC parties. All work and no play makes Alan a dull boy, after all.

This looks like it'll be a very exciting little confab- a bit of a tonic in the midst of a great deal of economic uncertainty- and if the stars align I hope to attend. "Ah", I hear you say, "I'd love to go as well, Alan, so that I can meet you because you're such a cool and talented guy. Oh, and to see what the best in the industry have to say as well, of course. But times are tough, and cash is tight." Well, perhaps this might help... thanks to the fine folks at FITC, I've got free full event passes that I'll give to the first two people that reply to me directly...

alan (followed by the 'at' symbol) effektor (then a dot) ca

See you in New York!

3d: Industry Consolidation

Just read this press release from Autodesk. How might this affect the motion graphics world? As I've written before (here and here), the consolidation of so many 3d apps under one roof (with one more now added to the stable) worries me quite a lot. Will all three apps actually remain viable? And specifically, will my chosen solution (3ds Max) be the first against the wall when the time comes (and I suspect that the time WILL come)?

If nothing else, I suspect that this latest move may turn up the heat on Adobe to consider adding a 3d app to it's roster, the most likely (in my opinion) being Maxon C4d. If that were to happen, I would seriously consider making the jump, as the current uncertainty gives me pause to continue developing my skills on an app that (as unlikely as it sounds) may be reaching end-of-life.

The End of the DVD Reel

There. I said it. DVDs are done like dinner. Disappered like dodos. Disposed of like dirty dishes. Dissapated like disparaging alliterations that I'm now going to stop, please and thank you. Yes, I've burned my last DVD, and I'll be a richer, more dynamic and connected man for it.

I'm a freelancer in the motion graphics world, and I've been thinking quite a lot about self-promotion of late, specifically how I get my work out there to be seen. I've got a reel, of course. It's my calling card, a spicy, sizzling little morsel, easily digestible, that summarizes what I do. How one gets said reel out and about and into the hands of clients has always been one of the trickier aspects of self-promotion. In the olden days (so I'm told), you'd have your work on a big 'ole 3/4" video tape. That was, I might point out, before my time, but I did enter the business just at the end of that particular epoch and heard stories about art directors who insisted on a 3/4" reel because that's the only machine they had in their office. The lovely, much-maligned VHS format then reigned supreme for awhile, nicely butchering many a fine reel. A few hardy souls then played around with various formats on Cd's once they became standard on desktops, but it wasn't until you could author and burn DVDs on your own machine that physical reels finally reached their technical apogee. And so it remained.

And then, along came the Internet.

I remember the first few reels that I saw online (yes, I am THAT old). They were teeny little quicktimes with lousy audio that took forever to come down my 28.8 KB data pipe. They weren't effective, and for some time the DVD remained the de facto standard, mostly because it was "full resolution", portable, file-able and tactile. Electronic reels were adopted fairly slowly by the industry, mostly because of data rates and encoding techniques. But once these hurdles were overcome, most everyone moved online.

I've maintained my reel as a DVD for some years now, but as I've mentioned, it's time has come. I have decided to move to web-only delivery for the following reasons...
1) The Expense. There's no denying that it ain't cheap. A good quality blank DVD can cost a buck, or more if you go with ink jet-printable (which you should have). Stylish clam shells add to the cost, too. Print a hundred, and that's a pretty nice dinner out.
2) The Printing. You didn't send in reels to potential clients with your name written on it with a sharpie, did you? Of course not! You picked up a DVD-printing ink jet. And of course the thing would break, or start printing funny, or run out of ink, or simply refuse to print at all.
3) The Coasters. I'd usually take a day once a year to 'update my reel'. I'd prepare for the upcoming season by printing off a whole bunch of DVDs, so that they'd be ready to get to clients right away. Of course, come the end of the year, that always meant a great big pile of drink coasters or car-mirror accessories.
4) The Fishermen. And of course there is the problem of how to actually get said disk into the hands of a client. If they were local, I'd take the opportunity to go for a little bike ride and drop it off, maybe squeeze in a quick 'hello'. But most of my clients are international, necessitating shipping charges. Now, the big question is always, "how serious is the potential client?" If it's Sergey Brin on the line, you can be sure that it'd be a quick trip to FedEx for that package. But then there are the fishermen. They're motion graphic artists who want to find out how much to charge. It usually involves an email, asking something vague like "We'd like you to do a TV show opening. How much do you charge?" I always assume that any contact is a potential client, so no problem, I'd send them my day rate, and that's usually the end of it. But sometimes a request is more sophisticated, necessitating a more sophisticated response on my part. If I feel that they're a potential client, then that might mean an offer to send them a DVD reel to compliment my web reel. I'd send it by mail if I wasn't sure, but usually I'd go the FedEx route. If a gig comes of it, then all is well, but every now and again I'd pay the $45, ship the reel, and never hear from them again. That's painful, not just because of the courier expense, but because it takes me time just to GET to the courier!

So, those are the reasons for dropping DVDs from my promotional package. But It's also worth discussing why I believe you should embrace Internet-only promotions. First off, consider 'how' and 'where' your potential client might view your work. Sitting in front of their computer? Quite possibly. But consider this article by Allan Tepper. Six million iPhones have been sold to date, and you've got to think that some of them are art directors, and that some of them may want to view your work on the subway, or at lunch in the park, or with a colleague in the hallway, or at 35,000 feet on their way to meet Sergey Brin. Don't tell potential clients when and where they can see your work, let them choose. Encode your reel for web viewing, but consider creating a version sized for iPhone and other mobile media platforms. There's a reason why Adobe ships 'Device Central' with their production software.

But the most important reason to fully embrace the Internet is because it is dynamic. How often did you update the 'recent work' section on your DVD? Did you even HAVE a 'recent work' section? Motion graphics artistry is evolving rapidly. You can't wait six months or a year to publicize some great work that you pulled off. Clients want to see it NOW, not next year. There are a number of ways that you can pull this off. If you're good with the web, put a 'recent work' section on your site. But don't let the medium slow down the message. If it takes you six months to get around to updating your recent work because of the exquisite flash code that you have to re-figure out every time you sit down to modify it, then find another way. I chose a blogger page. Simple, easy to update, clean in execution. It's not perfect, because it's not 'my site'. But I might encourage you to not let perfection get in the way of promotion. Get your work up there, make it easy to link to, and let the client chose when, where and how they're going to see your work.

In the meantime, I've got a lot of coasters seeking a nice, cold drink.

TechTip: Knoll Light Factory pt. 2

It's easy enough to track a lens flare along a straight line, but what to do when you want it to trace an arc? Take a look at this quicktime (h264, 9:20, 22 megs) for my technique, and view the complete clip here. Bonus: This tip isn't necessarily exclusive to Knoll Light Factory and can be used with any plugin that has an emitter source, such as Trapcode Particular.

TechTip: Knoll Light Factory pt. 1

This is the first of two little 'power tips' to those who use Knoll Light Factory in the course of their work. This one talks about how you can use an After Effects animation preset to simplify the process of viewing all available options in the KLF effect setup window. Click here to view the quicktime (h264, 4:42, 9.2 megs).

And yes, I will never use the 'audible mouse clicks' option in my screencap app ever, ever again :)

Recent Work

Some of you have noticed a distinct lack 'o posting on my part of late. Doesn't work just always get in the way of FUN? Gah! I'm hoping that there is a payback for you, my loyal readers, though, as I've (finally) decided to put together a little site that features much of the work that I've done over the years. It's something that I'll be adding to as projects are completed from now on, and I'm hoping that it'll be a nice resource for those times when you're stuck and looking for something different to try.

You can take a gander at the library here, and of course my current demo reel and web site can always be found at shisko.com

TechTip: Invigorator Track 3d Layer

In "Making It Look Great v2", I talk at length about how the "Track 3d Layer" feature in Zaxwerks Invigorator can revolutionize how you animate objects in Invig. Take a look at THIS short addendum (QT, h264, 12.1mb, 3:47) that both introduces the feature and addresses a technical workaround that one no longer has to implement. Begone, 'Purge Image Caches'!

"MILG 2" Available Now!

A quick heads up for those who have been asking when my training package is going to be ready... "Making It Look Great" vols. 2 (by me) and 3 (by Harry Frank) are now available from the MILG website! There will be a promo clip up within the next couple of days to give you an idea of what to expect, but in the meantime here is a clip (QT, h264, 15 megs, no audio) of what you'll design as you go through the tutorial.

Viva Las Vegas

I'll be attending the annual NAB convention in Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday. I'll be hanging out at the Zaxwerks booth both days where I'll be doing the occasional demo, featuring some tips 'n tricks from my "Making It Look Great" training package (available online starting mid-next week). Do drop by if you're in attendance and say 'hi'. I'll also be at the Media Motion Ball on Monday night, where great revelry is sure to ensue.

I'm hoping to report on my NAB findings as I wander the halls, so keep your eyes peeled to this page for the next couple of days!

Easier Easing

Have your keyframes ever found themselves bored with the drab, grey predictability of "Ease" and "Easy Ease"? Do they often complain about plain-jane temporal velocity adjustments? And do you select keyframes, apply an ease, then sigh as your layers move with the predicable monotony brought on by the After Effects defaults? Oh, sure, you might get brave and wander over to the Graph Editor now and again to alter the velocities of your items by hand, but really, how often do you just settle for an "Easy Ease In" and call it a day?

Is there a better way?

Thanks to Ian Haigh, there is. Ian was good enough to recently adapt some Flash-based easing equations originally designed by a fellow named Robert Penner, and he's brought them to After Effects. Check it out at his website.

I've tried the script and was very happy with how it all worked. I've now got a one-button solution to not only creating variations on 'eases', but also the opportunity for consistency. I pretty much always go to the graph editor to make my eases 'more extreme', but the trouble is when applied to multiple keyframes across many layers, they're all slightly different. Now I can use this script and all KF's that I apply it to will have the same 'movement personality'.

There are two drawbacks to the script*, both with workarounds. One, it only works on the first two KF's in an a given parameter. The workaround is to apply the script on multiple 'transform' EFFECTS instead of on to multiple keyframes on the 'transform' PARAMETER. And two, you can't view the resulting velocities in the Graph Editor (should you so choose) unless you select the KF's and go to Animation-> Keyframe Assistant-> Convert Expression to Keyframes. But I would surely recommend that you give it a try, I think you'll like it.

*Edit: take a gander at the comments to this post. Ian addresses both of these considerations.

Making It Look Great 2 with... Me!

You may have been wondering why I haven't been posting to the blog much of late, and now I can finally reveal the reason. I've been hard at work creating a full length, comprehensive motion graphics tutorial for Motionworks' "Making It Look Great" series.

I'll be walking you through all the techniques necessary to create a sophisticated "News Show" opening, plus how you can adapt the intro to create fast and effective Lower Thirds and backgrounds. It's not just a discussion about "how" to design the spot, I also talk a lot about "why" I make certain design decisions during the process.

Topics will include:
• Learning how to think like a designer.
• Secrets of effective project workflow.
• Pro-level modeling and texturing with Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro.
• Advanced techniques for transforming and deforming 3D Invigorator objects.
• Building dynamic transitions using text.
• Beyond–the–ordinary background design.
• Creative color grading with Blend Modes.
• Quick and easy lower third design.
• Mastering the After Effects Graph Editor.
• Tips and tricks for taking control of masks.

My colleague Harry Frank is also contributing a title to the series, and you'll be able to choose either a download or a DVD of the package. It will be available for purchase via Zaxwerks.com very soon. I'll let you know when it's officially released.

TechTip: Math... Yum!

Now and again you might find yourself needing to modify a parameter JUST SO. Perhaps an art director has asked you to 'please move that logo down precisely 115 pixels, and move it 91 pixels to the right. Maybe it's already at 232/ 54, your brain hurts because you've got a perfectionist hanging over your shoulder, and you just can't add the numbers up in your head.

Don't reach for the calculator, let AE do the work. With a layer selected hit the 'P' key to bring up the position parameter. Assuming it's a 2d layer, you'll see two numbers (in the above case, 232 for the x axis position and 54 for the y axis position). Click once on "232" and (as expected) it'll become highlighted and will allow you to type in your changes. Now go to the END of the number and simply type "+115" (without the quotes). It should now say "232+115". Hit 'enter', et voila! AE will do the math for you.

This technique works with simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but does NOT, alas, work for more complicated math. For instance, it won't calculate "232+5*(4/2)". Which, I'm sure, you do often.