Today, August 31, is the last day to register for Best in the SW at pre-conference prices. Don't forget!

Be inspired at Best in the SW
Meet the artists who created animations and visual effects for The Bourne Ultimatum, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Disney, The Simpsons and Nickelodeon.

Top Hollywood animators, motion graphics artists and VFX artists are coming to the Best in the SW: Flash Animation and Motion Graphics Festival to share their skills, work, and professional insights in panel discussions and workshop sessions. See how screen graphics were created for The Bourne Ultimatum. Learn about the VFX pipeline used in Star Wars. Discover how Disney and Nickelodeon animators are using Flash in their workflow. Learn new skills and techniques to apply to your own work in motion graphics, title design, broadcast design and animation.

This is the first time such a wealth of industry talent has come to one place—at the same time and in one location, ready to take you beyond technique to the art of Flash animation, broadcast design and motion graphics. Best in the SW covers it all: concepts, design and execution, in panels and sessions that include:

• The Art of Screen Graphics: The Bourne Ultimatum
• Flash Goes to Hollywood
• Advanced Cameras and Lighting in After Effects
• Flash Animation: The Art of Illusion
• Apple Motion: Meet the new 3D
• Character Animation Techniques in Flash
• Complex Animation Made Easy
• The Anatomy of VFXs
• Directing an Animated Feature
• Motion Graphics and VFX in Hollywood
• Zona Design: Design Made to Move
• Learn. Network. Celebrate the best.

Join the 2007 Best in the SW speakers, industry leaders and Adobe pros for a casual kickoff party in the Atrium at the Embassy Suites Hotel on October 8th. The conference opens on the 9th with Adobe favorite Michael Coleman giving a tour of the hottest motion graphics, broadcast design, and animation studios in the country using Flash and After Effects, followed by our annual Best in the SW: Flash Animation & Motion Graphics Awards program.

Be transported.
View the 2007 Domie Award winners and 40 minutes of the most innovative full-dome animations, motion graphics, and works of art at an after-hours party at the ARTS Labs Digital Media Garage on October 10th. Full-dome video is a rapidly growing medium with over 125 immersive displays deployed worldwide in planetariums and special-venue theaters. Freed from the "tyranny of the frame," artists transport viewers into fully immersive, mind-bending environments and alternate worlds as they explore storytelling techniques for this new medium.

An while you're at the ARTS Lab - join the party! We're blocking the street and making room for fun! Join the 2007 Best in the SW speakers, industry leaders and Adobe pros for an evening of food, drinks and music. See live motion capture demonstrations. Enjoy a unique visual sound design experience by artist Carla Barlow. Network with fellow attendees, enjoy food and drink, and be prepared for an evening of fun!

Take your pick.
Choose from the 3-day conference pass or full-festival pass that includes an extra day of pre-conference workshops. Then work hands-on with a pro in 2 days of post-conference intensives.

Best in the SW will be held at the Embassy Suites hotel in Albuquerque from October 8-11, 2007. For more information on conference events, or to register, visit www.bestinthesw.com.

Best in the SW 2007 speakers include:

• Zoa Martinez: A&E Networks, Animal Planet, Chrysler, Disney/ESPN, Dodge, HBO, SKY Italia, Time Warner/NY1
• Phil Nibbelink: Disney, Casper, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, We're Back
• Mark Coleran: The Bourne Ultimatum, Mission Impossible 3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Stanton Cruse: ABC, Slacker Cats, MTV 2, Where My Dogs At, Cartoon Network
• Trish & Chris Meyer: Cybermotion, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, The Learning Channel, HBO, PBS
• Alex Lindsay: Industrial Light & Magic, Titan AE, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• Chris Georgenes: Leapfrog, Nicktoons, Teletubbies, New Balance, Hasbro, Fuse TV, Carnegie Hall, PBS
• Dr. Woohoo: Fila, Bank of America, eTrade, CamelBak, Nike Golf, Nascar, Taylormade, NBC
• Ehren Addis: Universal Studios, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Old Navy, Atlantis, Motorola, Sketchers
• Michael Coleman: Adobe - Product Manager for Adobe After Effects
• Kevan O'Brien: Adobe - Video Expert

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Best in SW, CyberMotion, Event, Flash

I wasn't at the meeting since I'm clear across the country, so I'm living vicariously through those who were lucky enough to attend. First, Dave Basulto has posted some images from last night's MGLA meeting on his site.

Second, Chris Meyer of Cybermotion had some great things to say about the meeting in a post to the AE List. Imagineer Mocha was shown. It's a planar tracker that uses the technology in the more advanced Mokey and Monet. Chris says, " It did some pretty darn amazing things, including continuing tracks successfully when large portions of the tracked object went off screen."

Marco S. from Digital Anarchy showed PlasmaFX and ToonIt! Chris says about ToonIt! " It was also an excellent example of the role frame rate plays in whether we perceive something as real or fantasy; keeping the result at normal video rate didn't look like you would expect it to."

Peder Norrby showed Trapcode Form (codename Flux). Form is the plug-in that people are really keyed up for the release, which will hopefully still happen this summer. It's similar to Particular but does lots of other cool things. Chris says "The couple of examples Peder showed using displacement maps and alpha mattes were particularly impressive".

Sean Safreed showedMagic Bullet 3 at the meeting. Chris says "...the new UI... it makes things soooo much easier for quick, broad strokes to get the look you're after without having to come to terms with a bunch of sliders (however useful they are)."

MGLA | Join MGLA's Mailing List

Labels: CyberMotion, Digital Anarchy, Flux, Imagineer Systems, Magic Bullet, MGLA, mocha, mokey, monet, PlasmaFX, Red Giant, ToonIt, Trapcode, Trapcode Form

First, the free clip.

The ArtBeats newsletter if chock full of good stuff. Chris and Trish Meyer's of CyberMotion training have a column in the ArtBeats newsletter, too. Here's an excerpt:

We recommend to folks in the market for stock footage that if they can get the hi-definition (HD) version now, they should - even if their jobs are currently all in standard definition (SD). For one, HD is certainly the future, so buying HD clips now helps prevent your investment from becoming obsolete. Secondly, the extra pixels available in an HD clip open up many additional possibilities when working in SD: You can re-frame the shot, perform pan and zoom moves on it, and also perform creative tricks such as simulating the popular "Kid Stays in the Picture" look.

Hey, look! Tons of ArtBeats clips at Toolfarm.

Labels: ArtBeats, CyberMotion, Free, Stock Footage

Chris and Trish Meyer of Cybermotion will be at DVExpo East. Enhance Your Craft with Specialized Training from Motion Graphic Design Pros Trish and Chris Meyer at Digital Video Expo East - July 20-22: The Westin New York at Times Square. Their sessions include:

Complex Animation Made Easy
Saturday, July 21, 9:00 A.M - 12:00 P.M

Audio for Video Folks
Saturday, July 21, 1:00 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.

Adding Another Dimension
Saturday, July 21, 4:00 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.

Hyperreality: Creating Rich and Glowing Looks
Sunday, July 22, 9:00 A.M. - 10:30 A.M.

Animating Text In After Effects
Sunday, July 22, 10:45 A.M.-12:15 P.M.

From Here to There: Dealing with Interlacing and Pulldown
Sunday, July 22, 1:15 P.M.-2:45 P.M.

After Effects Tips & Tricks
Sunday, July 22, 3:00 P.M.-5:00 P.M.

SEATS ARE LIMITED, ENROLL NOW

And, if you're not close to New York, you can download their Cybermotion video training at Toolfarm and watch it today. It has been very popular and I've watched it all. It's a great learning tool.

Labels: CyberMotion, Event, Training

These online training modules by well-known After Effects experts Chris and Trish Meyer of CyberMotion are designed to jump-start your creativity as well as quickly get you up to speed on important technical aspects of motion graphics and video. These are not just paint-by-numbers recipes; Chris and Trish make sure you have a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts so that you can easily modify the techniques to your own projects.

Each subject has been broken down into easily digestable QuickTime movies that are clearly indexed for quick access to the information you need, including chapter markers that allow you to jump straight to a particular subject or tip. Extensive text annotations help explain important concepts and spell out time-saving keyboard shortcuts. An accompanying project file and footage allows you to try out the concepts you see demonstrated.

Check out training modules for

• Understanding Fields & Interlacing
• Working With 3:2 Pulldown
• Learning the After Effects Glow Plug-in (Free!)
• Creating that "Instant Sex" Look (okay, quit snickering!)
• Lighting Tricks in After Effects
• Hot Looks Using Floating Point
• The "Glowing Looks" Bundle

Labels: CyberMotion, Free, Training