Well, it’s that time of year again, NAB 2015 is just round the corner. It’s the event of the year for our industry. The who’s-who of the broadcast industry gather together in Las Vegas for this massive trade show, conference and countless parties. It’s a great opportunity to meet old friends, make new contacts, learn new techniques and see new products and technologies on show.
Interview with That Studio
Come to the That Studio booth, in the Plugin Pavillion at 1.15 on Wednesday to partake in the audience. I’ll be interviewed by the lovely Kanen Flowers about my relatively new venture The Creative Cabin. I’ll also be giving away some free Creative Cabin products!
Sessions and Demo’s
This year I’ll have a varied schedule – speaking at the Post Production World Conference and also doing software demo’s on the trade show floor. If you want to learn my latest tips and techniques and see new content from up and coming video tutorials, there’s plenty to see.
RE:Vision Effects Inc.
Booth SL5807
I’m proud to say I’ll be working the trade show floor on behalf of RE:Vision Effects Inc. Who make Academy Award winning Plugins for After Effects, Autodesk Systems, Avid Systems, Final Cut Pro, Fusion, genQ, HitFilm, Natron, Nucoda, Nuke, Premiere Pro, Resolve, Scratch and Vegas Pro.
I’ll be showcasing all of their plugins, in particular my personal favourite RE:Flex that I used on the Chris Cunningham’s Rubber Johnny music video. You can find us at booth SL5807. I’ll be there Monday from 2-6, Tuesday from 3.30-6 and Wednesday from 9-1.
Boris FX
This year Boris FX will be teaming up with their friends at Imagineer Systems to present awesome new time-saving technologies and vfx tools jointly developed for the first-time by the Boris FX and the Imagineer teams. Swing by thebooth SL4225 on Tuesday the 14th April at 12pm midday to see my talk about creating 3D titles right inside After Effects. See how to us Boris FX 3D plug-ins with the built in 3D Camera Tracker inside After Effects to mimic famous movie titles.
Post Production World Conference
South Upper Hall
I’ll also be speaking at the Post Production World conference during the week. This premiere technical training program is produced by Future Media Concepts. Click here to review the full schedule of this year’s Post|Production World offerings.
I have two sessions at this event this year;
Tue. April 14| 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM | N252
Designers can make extra income by designing templates for other designers. Websites like Adobe Exchange and VideoHive make it easy to market and sell them. In this session Angie Taylor will share tips and techniques for building solid templates and source elements for After Effects and Premiere Pro. She’ll also share information about how to protect your content legally and make money from it online.
This session will feature workflows in After Effects, Premiere Pro and Illustrator.
By the end of this session, attendees will know how to….
• Design templates that are useful and practical
• Organize template projects so they are easy to use
• Create expression controllers for adjusting template elements
• Lock and hide and add notes to project elements
• Create accounts to market and sell templates
• Make additional income by selling products
Wed. April 15| 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM | N252
The Cineware plugin allows users to integrate Cinema 4D, 3D objects and scenes into your After Effects projects. Angie will look at the many creative ways this powerful software combination can work. You’ll pick up all the skills you need to feel confident with Cinema 4D Lite as well as see some inspiring ideas to drive you forward. The session will finish with Angie showing you how you can use classic camera moves from famous movies in your 3D scenes.
By the end of this session, attendees will know how too…
• Build models from primitive objects Cinema 4D Lite
• Apply and modify materials in Cinema 4D Lite
• Animate properties in Cinema 4D Lite
• Make use of free content in Cinema 4D Lite
• Incorporate your 3D objects into After Effects
• Recreate classic camera moves with the After Effects 3D Camera Tracker
Conference: Post|Production World
Registration Package: A Post|Production World registration or SMART Pass will get you into these sessions. Please check here for registration prices.
I hope to see some of you there. I am quite short-sighted so often don’t recognise people from a distance so please make sure to come and say hello if you see me.
FMX Stuttgart Germany
I’m presenting After Effects and Cinema 4D at FMX 2013 with Maxon in April.
You can purchase tickets for FMX here. It promises to be an exciting lineup of 3D art and visual effects. Confirmed FMX highlights include:
Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, Skyfall, The Croods, Crysis 3. I hope to see some of you there.
I was very pleased to get a call from John Davey, the organiser of the amazingly successful and entertaining “Flash on the Beach 2011” conference, asking me to speak at his event.
It’s an annual conference, held in my home town of Brighton. Bringing together the best designers, developers and minds in the Flash, design and web community, it’s a conference with a difference. It attracts an interesting and diverse mix of people and is focussed on the work that we do as well as the tools that we use.
I’ll be doing a session on creating Kinetic Typography animation in Adobe After Effects CS5.5. I’ll be featuring a breakdown of a real-life art project that I worked on in collaboration with Artist Richard Walker titled “That Day”. In this session I want to focus on the design process and demonstrate how After Effects allows creative flexibility throughout a project. For my more geeky attendees, don’t worry! I’ll also share plenty of my software tips and tricks as well as important techniques for structuring projects and optimising workflow in Adobe After Effects.
I’ll also feature some extracts from my book “Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist” and will be giving away a copy of it, plus a copy of my “After Effects CS5 Learn by Video” training DVD. There are always lots of great parties, dinners and other networking events structured around Flash on the Beach and you’re guaranteed to meet and interesting and eclectic mix of creatives and geeky types. So why not book a place now, it sells out fast every year!
I’m very excited to be traveling back to Las Vegas this year to attend NAB 2011. I’ve been invited to speak at this year’s Post Production World Conference.
Here’s a list of the sessions I’ll be delivering at this years conference. I hope to see many of you there. If you’d like to book a place at my sessions, here’s a link to the website where you can find out about the special offers and discount packages.
Introduction to 3D in After Effects
Sunday, 4/10/2011 11:45 AM – 01:00 PM
This session will give you a solid and thorough grounding with the 3D features in After Effects. Views and Axis Modes, Working with the 3D Tools and Interface, Manipulating 3D Layers, Cameras and Nulls, Lights and Material Options.
Using Grouping Techniques to Simplify After Effects Workflow
Sunday, 4/10/2011 02:00 PM – 03:15 PM
There are times when it makes sense to group layers together into a single item, either to simplify complicated comps or to make editing, moving, or applying effects a whole lot easier. In this chapter we’ll look at several methods for grouping layers together.
Dynamic Text Animation for Motion Graphics with After Effects
Monday, 4/11/2011 11:45 AM – 01:00 PM
In this session, Angie Taylor will share an in-depth look at the options for working with text in Adobe After Effects. Angie will show examples of successful motion graphic designs and will discuss the components of design that make them work. In this session you’ll earn about the rules of typography and how to apply the rules of typography to your designs to make them easier to read and more dynamic. Angie will take an in depth look at the typographic controls available in After Effects and will also show you how you can use hand-drawn text to bring a unique aspect to your designs.
Strategies of a Successful Motion Graphic Artist
Monday, 4/11/2011 05:00 PM – 06:15 PM
Angie Taylor will take you on a journey through a typical video project, showing the entire process including the creation of sketches, brainstorms and storyboards, audio production and clean up, editing and producing the final project. Angie will also discuss how creative professionals can bring unity and clarity to complex creative projects. Aspects of automating time sheets, liaising with clients, auditing jobs and packaging final files for delivery will also all be explored within this session.
Audience: If you are interesed in a streamlined way to look at the digital video process including tips and tricks using various software tools that will help maximize the project complexities, then this session is for you!
From Storyboard to Final Delivery in Adobe Production Premium
Tuesday, 4/12/2011 02:00 PM – 03:15 PM
Witness the breakdown of a real-life animation project. In this session Angie will take you step-by-step through a real-life animation project that was created using Adobe’s Production Premium. She will show Drawing characters in Adobe Illustrator, Image editing in Photoshop, Storyboard and animatic production in Premiere Pro and then final animation and effects work in After Effects. Audio cleanup in Soundbooth and output via Media Encoder.
Combining Effects Creatively in Adobe After Effects
Tuesday, 4/12/2011 03:30 PM – 04:45 PM
After Effects provides you with scores of effects that you can apply to your layers, allowing you to create virtually any look or effect you like. Imagine being able to animate all of these over time and you get a real sense of the creative flexibility that After Effects can offer you. This session tells you everything you need to know to combine effects creatively.
Quite a question – Is Premiere Pro a real-time engine for After Effects? Well this week I hope to answer it at Broadcast Video Expo 2011 I’ll be on the Adobe booth demonstrating and sharing my favorite tips and tricks about Adobe After Effects CS5.
I’ll also be sharing excerpts from my books and DVDs, giving away a free copy each day of my “Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist” book and my “After Effects CS5 Learn by Video” DVD (Created with the amazing Todd Kopriva of Adobe).
Those of you who have used After Effects will know that it isn’t really designed as a video editing application. there’s no real-time engine so it can be really tiresome editing footage there and waiting for previews. However, did you know that the Adobe CS5 Production Premium comes with a special, little known, real time engine for After Effects, it’s called Premiere Pro and I’m rapidly falling in love with it all over again!
I’ll explain a little about why I describe Premiere Pro as a real-time engine for AE in a minute, but first a little bit of history (imagine wavy transition and spacey music, signifying time passing!) The first NLE I used was Adobe Premiere 4.0 on Mac, back in the mid-nineteen-ninety’s (Oh dear – showing my age there!). It was amazing to be able to edit video on a Mac and it opened video editing up to a whole host of new people after being a pretty exclusive domain, primarily owned by Avid at the time. Sadly Premiere never kept up with the pack and it’s reputation was almost destroyed with the disappointing release of version 5. Final Cut Pro also raised it’s rather sexy head at that time and it almost put a nail in dear old Premiere’s coffin.
But I’m glad to say that Adobe have persevered and have battled to bring Premiere Pro back to being a serious contender in the bloody battle of the NLEs .They still have a way to go, to convince folks that it really can give FCP a run for it’s money. Many people are still cast under the Apple Marketing spell and many of the people who ‘dis’ Premiere Pro have never actually tried it so keep that in mind and make your own decision about whether it’s a worthy contestant. I’ve used it in real-world projects and have found it to be reliable, fast and creatively flexible. And I also use Final Cut Pro in my work as a freelancer so I know both applications well and am speaking from a real-world user point of view. Incidentally, did I also mention that the BBC are using it throughout the organization? ‘Nuff said?
OK, back to the present! Why do I call Premiere Pro a ‘real-time engine for AE’? Well, as I said, working in AE can be a PIA (don’t you just love those TLA’s?). Often when working on music videos or opening title sequences, I’d want to edit a few clips quickly in time with music, add a few text animations, experiment a bit with the edit and timing. After Effects doesn’t facilitate this easily, you have to wait for things to render before you see them. But this is a perfect situation to use the Dynamic Link features in CS5 – you’ll get the best of both worlds by using Prem Pro and AE in conjunction with each other.
Premiere Pro is excellent for real-time editing. You can even set up keyframe animation, time-remapping and effect animations in real time, creating a rough cut of your finished piece. Adobe Dynamic Link then allows you to send this to AE, maintaining a live (dynamic) link between the apps, and whats more, it works!!!! The sequence opens in AE with no rendering required, ready for you to tweak and fine tune FX and keyframes. I’ll be demo’ing techniques using Dynamic Link (on a real world project) next week at Broadcast Video Expo. For those of you who can’t make it, here’s a few quick tips on the basic workflow & how it works!
Create your project in Premiere Pro – capture or import all your source files into this project and save it.
You can use the thumbnail view in the Project panel to create a rough storyboard for the piece before you bring footage down into the timeline, making sure that shot order and duration is roughly correct – this will save time later. Once you’ve done that, place your audio in the Timeline and then add the footage in the order it is sorted by using Premiere Pro’s amazing “Automate to Sequence’ button. So that’s the rough cut done.
Still in PremPro, make any edit adjustments required. Keyframe any basic transformations, add effects if necessary. Once you are happy with the rough edit, and ready to jump to AE, make a selection of clips that you want to finesse in the Timeline, Right-click and choose ‘Replace with After Effects Composition’ to open the selected clips in a translated After Effects timeline. Here you can do whatever you need to do in AE.
The beauty of this technique is that the link between the apps remains live so any changes made in AE automatically update in PremPro and visa versa, no need for rendering either way till the project is finally finished. I used this technique on the last project I worked on and reckon it saved me about 40% of the time it would have taken me only using AE.
If you’re in the UK please pop along to Broadcast Video Expo later this month where I’ll be demo’ing this exact technique on the Adobe booth. Please say hello if you do. 🙂
I’m hoping to see a few of you at MacWorld 2010 where I’ll be speaking next year. I love San Fransisco so will be taking a little extra time out to hang out with my old friends, Amacker and Nina at the Lucky 13 bar on Castro. I also hope to catch up with all my other SF buddies, it’s always hard to fit everything in as there are so many people I love in the bay area!
If you’d like to attend you can click on the banner to the left to get a discount. Click on the Register button and then just use my personal priority code, ATAYLOR when you register.
Below are details about the talk I’ll be delivering;
Users Conference US964: Creative Video Workflow – From Storyboard to Completion – Feb. 12, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Angie Taylor will take you on a journey through a typical video project, showing the entire process including the creation of sketches, brainstorms and storyboards, audio production and clean up, editing, and producing the final project. Angie will also discuss how creative professionals can bring unity and clarity to complex creative projects. Aspects of automating time sheets, liaising with clients, auditing jobs and packaging final files for delivery will be explored within this session.
Anyone with personal or professional interests in creating digital videos and working with tools such as After Effects, Flash, Flow, CS4, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Soundbooth, will benefit from this session.
If you are interested in a streamlined way to look at the digital video process including tips and tricks using various software tools that will help maximize the creative input and minimize the project complexities, then this session is for you!
Angie’s Shuffle Track of the Day: San Fransisco – Scott McKenzie – listen free on Last FM
