ANgiE tAYLoR 🧷

Tag: GridIron

  • After Effects CS5 – Learn By Video by Angie Taylor and Todd Kopriva

    Well, what a busy old month I’ve had! I’ve crossed several time zones and been on more flights than I care to mention. But all for good reason.

    Earlier this month I went to Graz, Austria to record an After Effects training DVD for the amazing folks at Video2Brain. It was really good to be back providing training for After Effects again. I’ve been looking for a new method of delivery since I stopped updating my “Creative After Effects” books and Video2Brain provide the perfect vehicle for it.

    I’ll also be recording some more Video2Brain titles very soon and will keep you posted on those too. The DVD is available for pre-order now. 10 hours of me and Adobe’s own Todd Kopriva teaching you all we know about our favorite motion graphics application, Adobe After Effects CS5! Order it today and save 37% off!

    GridIron Software have been very supportive too. It’s so refreshing to work for a company that actively encourages employees to keep real contact with the creative industry it services. I must say it’s too rare. There are so many occasions where I’ve seen creative people join software companies, only to be consumed totally by the business aspect of their job till eventually they struggle to use the products in a creative way or even understand the customers requirements. I’m very grateful to GridIron Software for having the foresight to avoid these problems and for allowing me to remain in touch with the creative aspects of my role.

    I’m also happy to report that Adobe have also adopted a similar approach. I shared the training delivery with the amazing Todd Kopriva from Adobe. Together we recorded almost 18 hours of video based training in just over a week. It was intense but very rewarding. I really enjoyed working with Todd so thanks to Adobe too for allowing him to be involved in such a great project.

    So I left Gratz, via Frankfurt, got home to Brighton and slept for a few hours and was then whisked off to Ottawa (via Halifax) the next day to meet with my new colleagues at GridIron Software. It was really great to meet the new team and have some face to face time with colleagues that I usually only meet remotely with.

    On my way to the airport after four days of meetings I was then kidnapped by my friends and taken to a lovely cottage in the Canadian wilderness for a perfect wind-down weekend of swimming, fishing, eating and campfire singing. It felt very good to finally have some time off after four consecutive weeks of work.

    I finally got home last Tuesday and it’s taken me a whole week to unpack and settle back into home life. It’s good to be home and be able to focus on my work again.

  • Angie’s software favourites of the month

    There are a few nice pieces of software around at the moment that I want to share with you. The first is Beauty Box from Digital Anarchy. An incredible plug-in for video applications (like After Effects, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro). If you shoot interviews or wedding videos and don’t have a good make up person on hand to fix their spotty complexions, you can simply do it in post with this plug-in, it works miracles! Here’s an example where I’ve used it on a particularly blemish-ridden shot of me! This was a one-click job but Beauty Box offers you a multitude of fine controls to really perfect results, and remember this works across frames too, it’s pretty damned amazing!

    Angie, before and afetr Beauty Box treatment

    The next app I want to feature is Red Giant Software‘s amazing Plastic Bullet. It only costs a couple of dollars for your iPhone and does an amazing job of randomizing fantastic Holga-esque effects on your pictures. It’s addictive and makes nearly every photo a masterpiece in the click of a button. Those who want to apply similar looks in Photoshop or video applications can check out the more mature sibling applications, Magic Bullet Looks for Photoshop, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. Here you can see a range of effects that I applied to the pictures above.

    Oh, and before I forget, just a note to remind my blog readers of our very own special software offer this month! We have recently released a new version of GridIron Flow 1.0.4, which is compatible with Adobe CS5 applications. To celebrate this release we’re having a very special launch offer on pricing till June 4th 2010. you can pick up a copy of Flow for the incredible price of $99.99 (MSRP $299.99).

    I’d love to hear about your own apps of choice so please chime in with comments.

  • Life of a demo-dolly – rotating suitcases

    Me relaxing at The Supperclub, Amsterdam

    I went to Amsterdam earlier this month, with the Gridiron gang, to attend IBC 2009. I had several meetings to attend, demo’s to do and an interview or two to give. So I packed my suitcase with all my usual accoutrements, everything I would need for a business trip in a distant land! I get especially nervous when packing for a trip like this, what should I bring, and what is it OK to leave behind?

    These seem like life-threatening decisions in terms of the anxiety they produce. The bag mustn’t be too heavy, otherwise I may aggravate my old shoulder injury. On the other hand, I mustn’t be caught short in front of my colleagues by forgetting a vitally important piece of equipment. I need to make sure I have backups of every item in case a cable stops functioning, or a hard drive breaks down so I usually pack two of each small item. Bigger items, like my Macbook Pro cannot be duplicated so they are packed in my carry on bag along with other fragile items.

    Then there’s the bloody palaver with liquids to contend with! Do I take shampoo, or do I use the crappy ones the hotels provide? And what about conditioner? I’ve just had a fresh bleach-job done on my hair so I’ll need that too. So I pack all the lotions and potions I could possibly need, end up using a very small percentage of them, and then over-packing my bag for the journey home with more bad-quality toiletries pilfered from the hotels, it’s craziness. Plus, I’m always tempted by those cute little 100 ml containers of essential gunk that they sell to us in the airports – Listerine have made a fortune out of me in the last six months!

    Anyway, after a day of decision-making, un-making, then re-making. Irritating my partner with “do you think I’ll need this?” every two minutes. I finally decide on the perfectly packaged selection of items and board the plane with a sense of relief. Time for my customary British Airways G&T, I can finally relax. “I’m sorry Madam (I hate being called Madam!) we no longer serve ice and lemon in standard class” I’m told by the air steward. So, my one solitary treat that I allow myself to make the ordeal of packing and flying bearable has now been removed by British Airways and their continual penny-pinching ways. That’s it, the straw that finally broke the camels back, I’ve flown with BA regularly forFlow Demo years but that’s it, no more am I paying a premium for a service that’s no better than the budget airlines. Sorry, digressing but had to get that off my chest! I mean, it’s not a G&T without ice and lemon, really!

    So, finally I make it to Amsterdam and the RAI where I’ve attended IBC, and other events for the last 12 years. I love this city, and it’s people. In fact if I was to live anywhere else in the world than my dear, dear Brighton, it would be Amsterdam. IBC was really good for us at GridIron, we were partnering with Apple on a few events and briefings at the Miranda Pavilion which were very well attended by an excellent, highly qualified group of individuals. We showed Flow and had amazing responses from them. Apple also hosted a party for us at the pavilion where Mark Coleran gave an excellent presentation on his journey from Screen Designer on Holywood movies to becoming the graphical interface designer of Flow.

    I also saw some cool stuff, I was impressed by JVC’s HM series of cameras (and I’m a Sony-girl!) These cameras record direct to SD cards in MPEG (for ingest through Log and transfer) or Quicktime for direct drag and drop into the Final Cut Pro timeline. Very nice indeed. Adobe Story looks like an interesting product for scriptwriters, a new market for Adobe, interesting to see how it fairs. Object Matrix is a compelling product that you must see if you’re at all interested in affordable, scalable, secure storage, they make it a piece of cake. And of course the improvements made to Apple’s own Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Server continue to impress.

    The rest of the GridIron Gang at IBC 2009

    So, of course I came home with a much heavier suitcase, packed with brochures, receipts, giveaways and all sorts of other flotsam and jetsam. That was two weeks ago and I’m only just unpacking now! In fact I’ve done two other events since returning, have stayed in two other hotels and now have two suitcases to unpack! It’s a sorry state of affairs when you have to have rotating suitcases – two cases, each with enough clothing, toiletries and other essentials so that you can leave on a second trip before you feel like you’ve completed the first. I really am a trolley-demo-dolly!

    Angie’s shuffle track of the day – Another Girl, Another Planet, The Only Ones – Listen free on Last FM