Category Archives: Blog
-
After Effects and Tron 1.0
12 commentsWatching the promo for Tron Legacy got me all excited and a little nostalgic.
So today I played around in After Effects with Trapcode Particular 2, and came up with this.
I smell a tutorial.
End of line.
-
Tron Legacy is Coming!
1 commentDamn! This trailer for Tron Legacy (AKA Tron 2.0) was released a few days ago, and I was too busy to notice. Why didn’t any of you tell me?!
This is the sequal to a movie that got a generation of people buying computers, frisbees, and hockey equipment all at once (or was it just me?). [...]
-
The NY Yankees and Mets Call in Crowd Control
3 commentsI have founded my career and reputation on helping people. When we built the Crowd Control Library of Pre-keyd Alphastock Footage, it was an extension of that. It’s not something we can give away for free (except that we do), but we’ve tried our best to make it easy to buy and use so that [...]
-
50% off Crowd Control
2 commentsIn honor of Harry Frank’s Particular 2 crowd scene tutorial, we’re giving 50% off Crowd Control so that you can re-create the effect.
UPDATE: The sale is over.
Use the code “particular2” when purchasing credits, and get half off the price.
BTW – these are the 5 clips Harry used:# 00036_002_10
# 00155_001_58
# 00045_001_59
# 00018-00475_001_16
# 00046-00027_006_22
(That’s right - this [...]
-
Crowd Tutorial Coming Soon!
9 comments…But not from me. This one is from my good friend, Harry Frank of GrayMachine.com.
Next week’s episode of Red Giant TV promises to be an amazing one – it covers creating a crowd with Trapcode Particular 2.0. Building off of Harry’s work in the tutorial, I created this scene:
A still image doesn’t do it justice, [...]
-
Particular 2 Presentation + Tutorial
12 commentsAENY Aharon Rabinowitz introduces the new features of Trapcode Particular 2 from AENY on Vimeo.
On June 25, 2009, I gave a presentation at After Effects New York on Red Giant’s Software’s Trapcode Particular 2 (not yet released). It included a 20 minute overview of some of the new features, as well as a 20 [...]
-
Peel-Away Vortex Transition Coming Soon
8 commentsHoo-Ah! Just finished recording the Peel-Away Vortex Transition tutorial for Red Giant TV. Hope to have it edited and up for next Tuesday’s episode.
-
After Effects New York – Ocean Water Presentation
10 commentsSo… good news and bad news…
The bad news first. The screen capture we did at After Effects New York, did not work out well.
Now the good news… Today I sat down and gave the same presentation to… my computer. I just re-did the presentation – no editing, no planning, no nothing. It’s recorded just like [...]
-
After Effects New York Wrap Up
10 commentsAlright – I am heading out the door for the weekend, but I wanted to do a quick wrap up of what I covered in my After Effects New York presentation:
1. Creating an Ocean Water Effect – using only tools found in After Effects CS3+ and no footage, I showed how you can create [...]
-
New Ad for Crowd Control
No commentsJust completed a marathon animation run to complete this 30-second commercial for Crowd Control. I did it in After Effects in under 2 days, pretty much from scratch.
Believe it or not I spent more time on that logo build than on any other single section. Tried so many different things… With the exception of Knoll [...]
-
After Effects and Rendering for Flash with Alpha Channel
5 commentsI was asked this question this week, and wanted to share the answer.
Question: When I render particles with an Alpha Channel and import that into Flash, there is a dark halo or weird edges around the particles, which makes compositing impossible. I am rendering out as an FLV with Alpha. What am I doing wrong?
Answer: [...]
-
Grayscale Gorilla
11 commentsHi folks -
I just got turned on to a great site – http://greyscalegorilla.com/ – The site belongs to Nick Campbell, a photographer and very talented motion graphics artist. You can see his reel here.
Nick also creates tutorials, but what makes him stand out is his helping others to find inspiration through themselves. He runs a [...]
-
After Effects New York – This time I mean it!
2 commentsOK – the plan is that this month at AENY, I’ll be presenting. Unless someone comes up with a holiday I never heard of, or a meteor hits Manhattan (And I’ve seen enough movies to know it can happen) – I’ll be there.
Next meeting: Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Time: 6:45 PM – 9:00 PM
The Place:
P.S. [...]
-
Present yourself Professionally – Use BCC!
12 commentsI know this isn’t about animation, but let’s talk business and the web, and presenting one’s self professionally when reaching out to large number of people at once… When you do a mass email, don’t share people’s private info – And that includes their email address! Use BCC instead of CC to hide their contact [...]
-
On being “The Man” and After Effects with H.264
7 commentsRecently, I was told that, with the launch of a big product like Crowd Control, I went from being just a guy to being “The Man.”
Sooooooooo not true. I only own a small island. (you know I’m kidding right – if you live outside NYC, there’s a 99% chance your home is a lot bigger [...]
-
Good Bye, Old Friend
4 commentsA while back I did some animation training in NC for the Carolina Hurricanes. No – not the hockey players – the animation team that puts all of the cool stuff up on screen at the games.
During that 3 day period, I came up with the Jumbotron Tutorial.
Alas, my good friend the JumboTron is moving [...]
-
A great tutorial on Red Giant TV
3 commentsNo – not one of mine. This one comes from Rob Birnholz of Absolute Motion Graphics.
Episode 20: Creating a 3D Picture Montage with Trapcode Particular
In this Episode, Rob Birnholz shows you a great technique for quickly creating a 3D picture montage with Trapcode Particular. It takes just minutes to set up, but can save you [...]
-
Trapcode Particular 2!!!!
17 commentsIMPORTANT NOTE: Given that the product is still in Beta, these features are not set in stone. Until this ad appears on the Red Giant website, do not consider this official. The ad may change.
Oh yeah, it’s Red Giant Software’s Trapcode Particular 2, baby!
OK, well, it’s a commercial for it. And at the end of [...]
-
Another Peel-away Vortex Transition Example
16 commentsHere’s another example of how one might use the Peel-away Vortex Transition I am working on.
This is a heavy sucker to render, but I think it looks pretty good.
The dancer is, of course, one of the thousands of clips you can find in Crowd Control, Our library of Pre-keyed Alpha Stock Footage.
Still don’t have a [...]
-
Peel-away Vortex Transition
23 commentsOK – maybe not the best name, but here’s a tutorial I’m working on. It uses Trapcode Form to create the majority of the effect.
Click the image to watch video
Man, I can’t wait to try this transition out on some of the Crowd Control footage, to see if it translates well as a transporter-like effect [...]
-
Apple for Sir – Animation Project
1 commentEvery once in a while I get an email from someone who’s used my tutorials to help them in their work. It’s always nice to see, but most of the time, instead of thinking “oh yeah – there’s that tutorial,” I instead think, man I wish I could do that. This is one of those [...]
-
Energize: Big Sale (50% off) on Crowd Control
No commentsThis weeks Episode of Red Giant TV is hosted by my good friend Eran Stern. He had a lot of fun creating a transporter effect.
Episode 19: Creating a Transporter Effect
In this episode, Chief Engineer Eran Stern works furiously to get his Starship’s transporters back on-line to rescue a fellow crew member trapped on a hostile [...]