Category Archives: Blog
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Free After Effects Project File: Old World Map
14 commentsA while back I did at tutorial for Creative Cow called Shape Layer Tip #3: Trim Paths. In that tutorial I did an old-school map animation using shape layers to create the animated red line. Recently I was asked to share how the map itself was created. The short version is that I read a [...]
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Audio in After Effects
5 commentsRecently I ran into a problem, where I discovered that Audio Levels in After Effects can’t work with expressions. I had never tried it in all the years I’ve been using AE. But for a tutorial I have planned, in which the video effects the audio, I needed to use expressions to effect my audio [...]
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The Art of the Editor
5 commentsI think it’s safe to say that, as animators, who focus on single effect shots, most of us tend to forget how important the final edit can be. While the work we do helps support an overall project, the editor has the repsonsibility of taking everything created for a project, and arranges it to tell [...]
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Mojo Rising – Magic Bullet Mojo
1 commentThe latest from Stu Maschwitz and Red Giant Software is finally here – Magic Bullet Mojo . Mojo is a plug-in that allows you to easily create the film look seen in almost every action/sci-fi/blockbuster movie made in the last few years. The look is characterized by any non-skin toned colors being pushed it into [...]
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After Effects: Effects from A-Z
1 commentRecently I heard about a series of tutorials being done at Motionworks, John Dickinson’s website. The series is called After Effects: Effects A-Z, and it’s an ambitious undertaking of going through every effect that ships with AE, and explaining it’s purpose. There are several contributors so far – Maltaannon, Topher Welsh, Harry Frank, Eran Stern [...]
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Color Link Tutorial
4 commentsI just watched this tutorial by Eran Stern over at CreativeCow.net. It’s called Color Link. It’s a great tutorial with some simple techniques for working with Shape Layers. But Eran also shows the Color Link effect, which I had never used or even noticed before. Off the top of my head, I could have used [...]
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It’s All About Me
50 commentsPeople are always emailing me all sorts of questions – some of them a bit wierd and inappropriate, but most are more about my history – how I got started, some of the work I’ve done, any advice I might have…etc. There’s only so much time in the day, so I can’t often respond, or [...]
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Crowd Control Kicks Off the Teen Choice Awards
3 commentsRecently, our friend Harry Frank, of GrayMachine.com, used Crowd Control to kick off Fox’s Teen Choice Awards. You can see the clip being used right here, in the first few seconds. Yes, that vector-like artwork is actually a video clip that Harry manipulated in Adobe After Effects to work with the color palette and style [...]
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After Effects New York – August
1 commentLast week we had our 25th meeting of After Effects New York. I’ll say this with out hyperbole – it was awesome! First up was Mixtape Club. - http://www.mixtapeclub.com Too technical for the arts, too creative for the sciences; Chris Smith, Jesse Casey, and Michelle Higa knew they had to work together as soon as [...]
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The iPhone 3GS as a Camera
8 commentsI know things have been quiet here, but I can promise you we’re working on some big stuff. But even I need a vacation once in a while – so me and the family headed down to Florida for some R & R. Anyway, today I found myself surrounded by a flock of pink flamingos. [...]
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Motion Tracking and Stabilization in After Effects
3 commentsIf you’re doing any motion tracking or stabilization work, I strongly recommend you check out Pete O’Connell’s NEW Creative Cow training DVD: Motion Tracking and Stabilization in After Effects. Pete previously did a fantastic training DVD called Advanced Rotoscoping Techniques for Adobe After Effects. I could sit here and talk about how these DVD’s teach [...]
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The Daily Show
12 commentsI’ve been doing this animation thing for a while, and while I’m not a fantastic artist, my one saving grace is that I work fast. Really, really fast. At least I thought so until I went to the Daily Show with John Stewart (my favorite show, and the only reason I take a few minutes [...]
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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.
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 # [...]
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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 [...]
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Particular 2 Presentation + Tutorial
13 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 [...]
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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.
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]