Tag: Design
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Post-Digital Aesthetics make a welcome return
I’ve been speaking at events for a long time, in fact I can’t believe how long, after fifteen years now I’m classed as an industry veteran! (I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad about that one!). It’s been great to be in this position as I’ve seen the industry develop both technically and…
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20% off new Todd Kopriva After Effects workshop
This week I’m giving a 20% discount to anyone who wants to buy the fantastic new workshop on Motion Tracking & Stabilisation by Todd Kopriva which is now available to buy from my video training store. Just enter MOTION into the Coupon Code box when buying from my shop. It’s valid till July 15th 2011.…
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12 rules of animation
Digital Arts has featured – 12 Rules of Animation – an excerpt from my “Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist” as their feature article this month. The article is now FREELY AVAILABLE on the Digital Arts website. Animation as we know it has been around since Horner invented the zoetrope in 1834. Since then animators…
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Speaking at Flash on the Beach 2011
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…
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A busy After Effects week
Tweet Wow, what a busy week. I’ve just finished the first day of Broadcast Video Expo 2011 where I’ve been presenting After Effects and the Production Premium workflow on the Adobe booth. It’s been great being back with the Adobe UK team again and seeing lots of friendly faces. I’ve also got a brand new…
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‘Sculpting’ paths in Adobe Illustrator
Here’s another free tutorial from my first venture into making video tutorials for Adobe Illustrator. My tutorials are probably what you’d call non-standard! I’m not going to teach you how to ‘the cool look’ that we’ve all seen a million times before, that doesn’t really interest me, and there are plenty of other websites that…
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Basics on Solids in Adobe After Effects
When designing motion graphics in Adobe After Effects there are times you just need to create a plain old layer to apply effects to. Solids are just right for this purpose, and for lots of other uses in After Effects. This video is aimed at a basic level. It shows you how to create solid-color layers…
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Animated Character Design in Adobe Illustrator
I’m very pleased to offer my readers a couple of free tutorials from my very first video2brain workshop on Adobe Illustrator. This workshop will teach you how to use Illustrator’s tools and features to prepare 2D files for animation in Adobe After Effects. You’ll learn how to make the most of Illustrator’s drawing tools and…
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Hand-drawn animation with After Effects Paint tools
Week four of 2011 brings my fourth FREE Giveaway Tutorial. This tutorial comes from my Adobe After Effects CS5 Learn by Video DVD from video2brain. The paint tools in After Effects are usually used for cloning or filling in mattes, but they can also be used to create stop-motion-style animation. In this movie you’ll see how…
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Lip Sync in After Effects
Lip-syncing is something that all animators will be asked to do at some point in their career. The following technique automates the process of lip sync in After Effects and uses only built-in features of Adobe After Effects – no extra software is required! This video tutorial is an updated version for Adobe CS5. Tutorial…
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Reviews for Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist
5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist: A Practical Guide to Principles & Techniques, By m franks – See all my reviews I found this to be a really great book and is suitable for anyone who works or has an interest in motion graphics or animation. It…
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Tip: Wrapping text around a circle in After Effects
I saw a post on the After Effects mailing list today asking how to wrap text around a circle in After Effects. Here’s how it’s done; 1) Create a text layer with the text you want. 2) Select the layer and then, with the Ellipse tool, draw a circular Mask on the Text layer. 3)…
