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Tag: After Effects

Articles & info on After Effects. Due to the Corona Virus situation, we now provide bespoke, 1-2-1 training remotely via Adobe Connect software.

  • Mask Interpolation Tips

    Mask Interpolation Tips

    Masking is one of the features of After Effects that I get asked about the most during my After Effects training courses. People seem to have lots of problems animating masks in After Effects and I’ve noticed a few forum questions about it recently so I thought I’d provide some quick mask interpolation tips and links here for you today.

    In one of my previous newsletter (you can subscribe here) we looked at how you can adjust the first vertex of a mask to help control the animation.

    Here’s an excerpt from my Creative After Effects book that shows how to use Auto- Trace and Smart Mask Interpolation to help animate complicated Mask shapes.

    I also have a brand new course in my video store from the amazing Jeff Foster. Advanced Compositing, Tracking, and Roto Techniques with After Effects has amazing tips, here are some free excerpts;

    Roto-Painting Mattes

    Basics of Match-Moving

    Multiple Moving Elements/Layers

    Check out our subscription offers for free access to all Jeff’s courses plus mine and all the other trainers at video2brain.

    And here are additional tips that can help you when animating masks.

    • Remember that you can apply motion blur to a masked layer, at a low setting this will also add a little more smoothness to the interpolation.
    • When animating anything in After Effects, but particularly mask shapes, it pays to always start by setting the extreme points of the animation. For example, if your animation is 10-second long, set a keyframe at the very beginning and another at 10 seconds. Then go in between to 5 seconds and make any necessary changes. Once this is done, go to 2.5 seconds, set a keyframe there, then to 7.5 seconds and set another there. Continue positioning the Timemarker half-way in between the pairs of keyframes to set new ones until no other changes are necessary. Using this method will ensure that you add the least amount of keyframes necessary for the animation, the fewer keyframes, the less work it is to edit!
    • Here’s a link to the Masking section of the After Effects Online Help.
  • Creative Graphic Design: Essential Typography

    Creative Graphic Design: Essential Typography

    Making good decisions is essential in typography — choosing the right typefaces, fonts, sizes, spacing and so on — can have a major impact on the quality of your designs. In this one-of-a-kind workshop, art director, illustrator, and motion graphic designer Angie Taylor introduces you to the essential principles of typography.

    After exploring the terminology, history, and anatomy of traditional and computer-based fonts, she brings you all the way up to the present day by looking at how text is formatted in today’s creative applications.

    You’ll also learn specific software techniques for creating your own lettering from hand-drawn text, animating text on a path, using operators and effects to customize existing fonts, working with 3D text, and more.

    This workshop covers many aspects of typography, from its history and terminology to how it is handled by modern software. The contents of this course include:

    Introduction
    The Introduction chapter sets the stage for the whole course. Your trainer, Angie Taylor, will introduce some of the typographic concepts that will be covered in the following lessons. She’ll also share the story of what inspired her to become a graphic designer.

    The Essence of Typography
    This chapter examines the fundamentals of typography, looking at the history of type and how it influences the terminology we use to describe the anatomy of type.

    Typefaces
    This chapter focuses on typefaces. It begins by examining the categories of typefaces and then compares some examples from each of the categories so that you are better able to recognize the differences between them. You’ll also discover how certain characteristics and cultural associations can influence the meaning of a particular typeface.

    Fonts
    Typefaces usually include several fonts with different weights and characteristics. In this chapter you’ll learn about these and the differences and similarities in size, weight, line, and detail that you should be aware of when choosing fonts. We’ll also look at special characters that are included in fonts, such as ligatures.

    Spacing
    The space between letters, words, and lines of text is just as important as the characters themselves. In this chapter we’ll start thinking of negative space as a shape and look at ways of adjusting this space to balance text correctly.

    Formatting Text in Adobe Applications
    Most Adobe design and video applications have similar typographic controls. In this chapter we’ll look at the different tools that are available for editing your text and apply some of the concepts we’ve discussed in earlier chapters.

    Working with Type in Photoshop
    This chapter focuses on the (somewhat limited) text features available Adobe Photoshop. You’ll also learn about some complementary features like layer styles that you can use to personalize your design and add pizzazz to your text.

    Working with Type in Illustrator
    Illustrator is Angie’s favorite application for designing text, and here’s why. In this chapter you’ll get a ton of creative tips on ways to take a standard, classic font like Helvetica and customize it to get a variety of different looks.

    Motion Graphics in Adobe After Effects
    In this chapter we’ll focus on creating text for your motion graphic designs. You’ll see how After Effects handles text imported from Photoshop, how to make text move along a specified path, and how to apply effects. We’ll also look at the multitude of text animation presets that you can apply to your text.

    The lessons are wrapped in a feature-rich interface that lets you jump to any topic and bookmark individual sections for later review. Full-Screen mode provides a hi-def, immersive experience, and Watch-and-Work mode shrinks the video into a small window so you can play the videos alongside your application. Also included are exercise files that give you an easy way to try out the techniques you learn.

    Download a PDf description of this course

     

  • Happy 2012 – More free downloads

    Happy 2012 – More free downloads

    Well another year almost over. I’m looking forward to 2012, hoping that it’s a better year for our industry and for all my friends. I have a couple of exciting bits of news to share and more free downloads so here’s my final blog for the year.

    Mark Coleran, a good friend of mine and an extremely talented designer is giving away the entire LayerLab collection of After Effects template projects free. Layerlab was a resource for After Effects designers that Mark worked on a few years back. The project was put on hold while Mark pursued other career options. He’s now made a very kind gesture of giving these projects away for free. You can also check out Mark’s blog and portfolio here.

    I have a new workshop out in time for the new year. Creative Graphic Design: Essential Typography – Principles and Techniques for Working with Text is a workshop with a difference. Making good decisions in typography — choosing the right typefaces, fonts, sizes, spacing and so on — can have a major impact on the quality of your designs. In this one-of-a-kind workshop I introduce you to the essential principles of typography.

    After exploring the terminology, history, and anatomy of traditional and computer-based fonts, I take you all the way up to the present day by looking at how text is formatted in today’s creative applications. You’ll also learn specific software techniques for creating your own lettering from hand-drawn text, animating text on a path, using operators and effects to customize existing fonts, working with 3D text, and more.

    There are several free movies you can check out here. If you like what you see, here’s a special discount code for you if you’re interested in buying this course;  Coupon Code: ETYP20 Discount: 20% Expires After: 29-Feb. Just enter the code during checkout to get 20% off the advertised price.

    Inspiration

    Word Spacing

    Using Clipping Masks in Photoshop

    Layering Effects

    Animation Speeds and Durations Onscreen

  • Winter Sale!

    Winter Sale!

    In my winter sale there’s 30% off all Wacom workshops in my store.

    This offer includes volumes 1, 2, 3 & the Master Collection. To find out more you can read about them here and then check out the courses here and even watch some free preview movies to get a taster of what’s on offer. (Any links highlighted in black are free to watch.) If you decide to buy then just use the Coupon Code WACOM30 when checking out from my video store for 30% off any of the four Wacom courses or the entire Master Collection.

    This offer is good through to the end of 2011. With all video2brain courses you now have the option to have them delivered to you on DVD. At the checkout you now have a checkbox option to add a disc for just $6.99 (this price includes manufacturing and shipping costs.)

  • Happy Holidays After Effects Presets

    Happy Holidays After Effects Presets

    Well, it’s that time of year again – time for my gift to you – free, festive, After Effects animation presets. It’s my way of thanking everyone who has supported me throughout the year by buying my books and tutorials. I’d also like to thank everyone who’s helped spread the word by sharing my free tips and techniques on Twitter, Vimeo, Facebook and Google Plus.

    Here is a free After Effects project, complete with animation presets, expressions and some custom vector artwork. Download Winter Holiday After Effects Presets.

    This project is not intended as a finished design piece but rather as a way of presenting a few little ideas I’ve been experimenting with. I’ll provide you with the ideas, it’s your job to take these experiments & make them look cool! Please post them on my Facebook page if you do use them in a project you’d be happy to share.

    It contains some interesting techniques to help add a little festive cheer to your seasonal animations. All the effects used are native After Effects plug-ins so no extra software is required and it was created in After Effects CS4 so can be opened in any version from CS4 upwards.

    It includes a couple of particle animations. One using a custom snowflake-shaped layer as particles, creating a 3D snowstorm with CC Particle World. The second uses Particle Playground’s Persistent Property Mappers to make particles of snow stick to layers as they fall from above. I also use these to create a wind effect to blow the particles around as they fall.

    The third composition features some cool expressions that create a realistic blinking effect on some 3D festive lights. the 3D lights were created in Illustrator. I’ve even included the Illustrator file so you can see how it was created. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

     

  • Bargains & “Free Stuff” for Designers

    There are bargains & “free stuff” for designers and VFX artists right now in the Holiday sales.

    I know that may of my readers are students and professionals who are just starting out in their career. Many of you may not be able to afford the full cost of commercial software so these sales give you a chance to make big savings.

    For those who are really finding the financial crisis too much there are also some freebies here! I found this article about some of the free plug-ins for After Effects here at Filmmakeriq.com. It lists many of the free AE plug-ins you can download to make yourself feel like you’re getting a holiday treat! AE Tuts also have a list of free plug-ins here.

    My friends at Artbeats have a massive 50% off all of their HD footage through to December 30th. Some collections are selling for as little as $100 so it’s worth a browse to see if there’s any footage you need to keep your library up to date. Their footage is Royalty Free so once you’ve bought it you are free to use it as many times as you wish.

    If you’ve ever wanted to get up to date on third party plug-ins for After Effects and other software applications, now is the time to “get legal” as there are deals out there that will be hard to beat. Red Giant has a secret “one day sale” which they announced yesterday. Sadly the secret nature of the sale meant I wasn’t aware it was happening in time to include it in a blog till today but there are still 5 hours to go, it runs till 4pm GMT on December 14th. It includes must-have plug-in packs for every motion graphic designer and visual effects artist as well as individual plug-ins from the Magic Bullet Suite, Trapcode Suite and Red Giant’s own great suite of tools.

    Toolfarm are also running a sale right now in tandem with the Red Gaint sale so if you have an account there, or would like to set up an account with the number one reseller of all things After Effects, now is a good time to set up that profile! They also have some freebies for the holidays so it’s definitely worth signing up.

    Digieffects also have a sale on with plug-ins selling for as little as $49 in their winter sale.

    Of course if you want something completely free there’s my “Style Eyes” Collection for Genarts Sapphire which is still available.

    Happy Holidays people! 🙂

  • “Style Eyes” – Genarts Sapphire Preset Collection

    “Style Eyes” – Genarts Sapphire Preset Collection

    I’m pleased to announce “Style Eyes” my latest Sapphire preset collection of 25 free presets from the Stylize category of the plug-ins for After Effects and other hosts.

    Give your footage that something extra! Pre-defined looks designed for music videos, outdoor locations, sport and weddings. Includes “Rubber Nightvision” inspired by a job that I worked on a long time ago, Aphex Twin and Chris Cunningham’s infamous “Rubber Johnny” music video. You can read more about that on my “About” page.

    There’s a full list of links to the “Before and After” preset previews, including descriptions, below.
    For more information, visit Sapphire.

    Original Footage Courtesy of www.artbeats.com
    Original Footage Courtesy of www.artbeats.com
  • Tip of the Week

    Tip of the Week

    Animating Characters with the Puppet Tool
    from: Adobe After Effects CS5: Learn by Video.

    Animating characters with the puppet tool

    Welcome to this week’s Tip of the Week feature in a brand new video format. After Effects has great tools for character animation called the Puppet tool. The Puppet Pin tool places a mesh over your footage using the alpha channel. You can add points to this mesh that allow to distort it and animate it, using gestural animation with your pen or mouse. This provides some really natural movement for your animations and motion graphics projects. You’ll see an example of what can be done with the Puppet tools in this video.

    December 7, 2011
  • Training via Subscription Promo

    Training via Subscription Promo

    My Top 10 Reasons to take advantage of this introductory pricing offer.

    Access the entire library of video2brain training via this amazing Training via Subscription Promo and you can have all the video training you’ll ever need for as little as 35 cents a day – that’s even cheaper than a bottle of water!

    Before now if you wanted to access my training, you could buy individual workshops from my store or the video2brain store. You can still do that but if you prefer you can subscribe to video2brain for as little as $10.75 per month (Annual Subscription).

    As you may know I create all my video training workshops with video2brain. In my previous post I talked a bit about why I work with them, here I’d like to explain a bit about the brand new subscription options for accessing the training.

    With a video2brain training subscription, not only will you get access to all of my workshops but also all the other titles, by other authors that video2brain has to offer. Here are a few more compelling reasons:

    1. Get complete access to an extensive training library: video2brain training subscriptions give you easy, affordable, unrestricted access to the full range of video2brain courses – a library with more than 130 courses, and nearly 500 hours of training, and over 5,600 lessons. With access to the entire library, you can watch lessons from dozens of trainers and get a wide variety of perspectives and approaches to rich topics.
    2. Stay up to date: Today’s knowledge may be outdated tomorrow. The video2brain library will be updated several times a month, and all new courses will be included in our subscriptions as they’re released. In addition to covering current technologies,the video2brain library will offer courses on some upcoming software releases and technologies, helping you stay ahead of the curve.
    3. Enjoy an exceptional value: As individual products, the courses in the video2brain training library have a value of well over $4,000. With a video2brain training subscription, you get unlimited access to all the videos in the library for the duration of your subscription at a fraction of the cost.
    4. Benefit from introductory pricing: We’re launching the library with low, introductory pricing, and we’re thanking early adopters with a three-year price guarantee, to ensure that you can enjoy that benefit in the years ahead.
    5. Experience world-class training: video2brain has been creating video training for nearly 10 years. Our library offers world-class training from a team of some of the best trainers in the business. Our authors are not only top experts in their fields and working artists, photographers, designers, and programmers, but just as importantly, they’re skilled and passionate instructors. All video2brain courses undergo rigorous quality assurance, and are presented in our easy-to-use, feature-rich interface. And we’re committed to continuously improving your learning experience by adding new features throughout the year.
    6. Learn anywhere, anytime you want: Your video2brain subscription lets you access the library anytime you’re online, and even from different computers. Our unique Platinum subscription includes the option to download courses for offline use. It makes no difference whether you’re at work, at home, or traveling. And all titles in our library work equally well on your Mac, Windows, or even Linux computer, as well as on popular tablets, including the iPad and iPad 2.
    7. Go at your own pace: One of the fundamental advantages of video training over other approaches to learning is its flexibility. You can watch a whole course or just the lessons that interest you. And when you need a break, just click Pause and come back when you’re ready.
    8. Scale our training to suit your needs: video2brain subscriptions are available in multiuser licenses too, making it easy for your organization to find the solution that fits your needs and budget.
    9. Invest your technology budget wisely: The comprehensive video2brain training library lets you learn about new applications and new releases before you invest in expensive software. Our authors give you concrete advice on what these programs can and can’t do and how they might fit into your workflow, so you can make informed decisions and invest where it counts.
    10. Explore new areas: Even if you sign up to enjoy our courses on topics like digital imaging, design and video editing, your learning doesn’t have to stop there. The video2brain library includes workshops on making eBooks, mastering green screen techniques, the art of craft photography, kinetic typography, and Facebook, iOS, and Android application development, and more! And your subscription gives you the freedom to explore any areas that interest you, grow in new directions, and reap the benefits of new and upgraded skills – without spending another penny!

    Learning is a lifelong adventure. I and the team at video2brain would love to help you make the most of it.

  • After Effects Light Wipe Tutorial

    After Effects Light Wipe Tutorial

    After Effects Light Wipe Tutorial

    There was a a question today on Creative Cow about how to create a light wipe effect in After Effects. I wanted to help so I decided to put together a quick After Effects Light Wipe tutorial. This tutorial includes an After Effects project and an eight-minute video tutorial where I explain techniques used.

    Here’s the original question from Danielle Masek;

    Q: I have a vector object (some wings) which is black right now, and I would like a light ray to start bursting through the center, change to a vertical line “ray” and move both right and left concurrently, revealing the wings; however, the wings won’t now be all made up of light, instead the light rays will reveal the wings’ outline, which will now be outlined in a backlit glow. I hope I’m explaining this clearly. Will I need trapcode for this? Something else?

    A: Here’s a little movie that will help you and others I hope. You’ll also find the project files to follow along Wings reveal.aep.

  • Typography Video Training

    Typography Video Training

    Creative Graphic Design: Essential Typography

    – a typography video-training workshop on the principles of designing text.

    Design Essentials for the Motion Media ArtistI’ve just finished recording my latest workshop with the fantastic team at video2brain. It’s a workshop with a difference.

    If you want the salient points delivered to you quickly so you can get on with your work, this product is perfect for you. It’s a series of short videos that form an educational and enjoyable workshop that you can sit back and enjoy – imbibing my knowledge as you go!

    It’s based upon the Typography chapter from my book, Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist. Not everyone likes to read books or needs the level of detail covered in Design Essentials so this provides an alternative.

    It provides a quick-reference guide in the format of a video presentation. All the essential key principles of Typography that every designer needs are covered. And it won’t bog you down with too much detail (that’s what the book is for right?) it’s fast-paced and illustrated throughout with helpful animated diagrams and examples of work.

    Learn about the history and anatomy of type as well as the terminology used to describe the components of text. Discover the difference between typefaces and fonts, glyphs and characters, serifs and sans serifs, kerning and tracking, leading and baseline shift. Find out when and why you would use specific fonts based on  aesthetics, cultural associations and characteristics.

    The anatomy of type

    This workshop expands on the content of the book with additional software exercises to improve your typographic software skills. You’ll learn how to apply the principles of typography in practical ways to graphic design projects. Software exercises will show you how Adobe’s Character and Paragraph panels can help make the most of your text, creating unique and exciting effects.

    I’ll also teach you lots of neat tricks like animating text along paths in After Effects and making text write on the screen. In Illustrator we’ll use operators to customize lettering, giving it a hand drawn look,. We’ll create 3D Text in Photoshop and add Layer Styles to brighten up our graphic designs. In InDesign you’ll make the most of its powerful Open Type features such as ligatures, glyphs and other special characters.

     

     

    With this comprehensive typography video training workshop you can simply sit back and watch as I present the principles for you. If you feel like following along, all the exercise files are provided. The videos are short and easily digested and you won’t get bogged down with technical jargon as I explain difficult concepts using easy-to-understand, real-world terminology.

    If you’d like to be notifies when this title becomes available please click on this link.

     

  • Post Production Magic

    Post Production Magic

    Join Red Giant for an evening of inspiration

    I’ll be speaking at Red Giant’s FREE Post Production magic event in September. Here’s the blurb! Event Registration is available now on the Adobe website.

    When a group of amazing animators get hold of a projection system, you’re either going to get an evening of inspiration or a cheeky light bulb joke. Post Production Magic is your event for awe-inspiring work by After Effects gurus Angie Taylor, Simon Cam of SuperGlue, Ernesto Rogata of BSkyB and colourist and trainer Simon Walker.

     These artists show you how popular Red Giant tools like Magic Bullet Suite and Trapcode Particular and Trapcode Form open up big creativity on a small budget. Experience the best of design, animation, colour grading and visual effects created in After Effects and Premiere Pro, along with a networking and cocktail hour. Hosted by Red Giant and co-hosted by Adobe Systems, the event will be streamed live by Adobe and held at state-of-the-art Ravensbourne University in London (www.rave.ac.uk).

     Angie Taylor (www.localhost:8000)

    In her session Angie will share tips and tricks for creating cool and quirky motion graphics in Adobe After Effects and will show how she uses Red Giant Looks, Particular, and other Red Giant effects to give her animations a more distinctive style and pull her compositions together.

    Angie Taylor is an art director, motion graphic designer and author. She enjoyed a fourteen year career producing animation, visual effects and motion graphics for television, film, video and the web. During her career Angie worked with D-Fuse designing animation for cutting-edge Beck DVD ‘Guero’ and provided animation for the controversial Aphex Twin / Chris Cunningham collaboration ‘Rubber Johnny’. She also provided visual effects on the John Williams-directed “Hibernation”, winner of six awards at international film festivals, including ‘best short’ award at the 2005 Manhattan, Rhode Island, Edinburgh and Zagreb Film festivals. Examples of her work were regularly broadcast on the BBC and Channel 4 in the UK and across Europe.Angie also works in the software industry as a software specialist, regularly touring with companies including Adobe and Apple. Angie delivers software demonstrations and seminars on digital filmmaking and animation processes at international trade shows and conferences including NAB, IBC and Macworld. She also provides bespoke training and consultancy to a wide range companies including; BBC; Channel 4; Channel 5; Carlton; HTV; B Sky B; MTV.The author of three successful books. The “Creative After Effects” books (version 5 and 7), published by Focal Press, and a third book, “Design Essentials for the motion media artist” which is also published by Focal Press. Angie is also co-author of “After Effects CS5 Learn by Video”, published by Peachpitt in association with Adobe Press. Angie also produces high quality online training workshops with video2brain, Europe’s premier source for video training since 2002.

    Simon Cam, Superglue (www.wearesuperglue.com)

    Superglue’s projection mapping project for Toyota’s “Get Your Energy Back” campaign (http://www.vimeo.com/16466136) was a highly creative and technical challenge, utilising numerous different production techniques. The animation featured 2D, 3D, keyframed animation, dynamics, particle systems and more. Compositing, VFX and general pipeline management was performed in After Effects, whilst 3D work was created using Autodesk Maya and Maxon Cinema 4D. The team made extensive use of both Trapcode Form and Trapcode Particular in bringing to life the ‘hybrid energy’ that was the key part of the campaign’s message.

    Superglue is an award winning, London-based production company specialising in innovative digital projects. The team comprises a dynamic mix of production, post and digital brains working across live action, visual effects, 3D and motion graphics. Superglue operates across the modern media spectrum, creating moving image for everything from banners to broadcast.

    Ernesto Rogata, BSkyB

    Ernesto will talk about the daily challenge of integrating text and other graphic elements in exciting and innovative ways in sport pieces, stings and short title sequences – usually with little time to complete the job. He will share some simple techniques to create motion graphics using After Effects and Red Giant plug-ins.

    Ernesto Rogata is an award-winning senior video editor at BSkyB in London and has worked in post-production for 20 years. His professional role covers four areas: editing, grading, creating motion graphics and training.

    Simon Walker,  (www.simonwalkerfreelance.com)

    Simon will show the grading secrets of Plot Device, a new short film produced by Red Giant, and will demonstrate how Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Suite brought to life a varied series of genres… as well as a hoard of zombies!

    Simon is creative director of WiltshireVideo.com, makes online grading and editing tutorials at www.simonwalkerfreelance.com, and is an instructor for the International Colorist Academy, iColorist.com. He is an Adobe Certified Premiere Pro Instructor and trains industry professionals in editing, motion graphics, colour grading, audio sweetening, and (excitingly!) video compression. 

    Here’s a link to Event Registration on the Adobe website

    Ravensbourne

    6 Penrose Way
    Peninsula Square
    Greenwich
    London
    SE10 0EW
    Weds 7th September 2011
    6.30pm for drinks and networking
    Presentations from 7.00pm to 8.15pm
    Networking til 9pm