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.