3D is the new in vogue buzzword for film & television. Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have helped bring this old technique back into fashion. So can you use Apple's Motion and Final Cut Pro to make true 3D graphics? We find out with a bit of an experiment, get your red & blue glasses out!! Check Out the Full Tutorial
This is a very simple tutorial, well maybe more of an adventure with Final Cut Studio to see if it is possible to make graphics in true 3D. Actually the type of 3D that you will need glasses for to see the effect.
Tutorial: How to Make the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice Cube Event Bumpers Using Maxon Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects: View/reference at greyscalegorilla.com
"In this tutorial, I show you how to make the ice cube bumpers that have been popular on the NBC’s presentation of the olympics. I show you how to build an ice cube using material displacement, refraction, transparency, reflection, and specular highlights. I also cut out a photo of a snowboarder to add to the ice cube logo. Then, we animate the rotation of the ice cube and prepare it for After Effects where we will add the rest of the elements for the final piece."
Tutorial: How to Make the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice Cube Event Bumpers Part 2
Save 50% Off Node-locked OR Cross-Platform Floating Licenses through March 31, 2010.
mokey offers an innovative toolset for removing wires, rigs, logos, scratches, hairs and other undesired elements in commercial, film and corporate video post production work. Based on Imagineer's unique 2.5D planar tracking and background reconstruction technology it seamlessly removes elements and provides an excellent alternative to the painstaking, manual process of painting or cloning. In addition the toolset contains a powerful and easy-to-use stabilizer, lens distortion correction, noise reduction, grain management and keying tools. As a standalone solution it can complement existing post production pipelines and significantly increase productivity, whether in an editing, compositing, film restoration or DI environment.
mokey offers an innovative toolset for removing wires, rigs, logos, scratches, hairs and other undesired elements in commercial, film and corporate video post production work.
Based on Imagineer's unique 2.5D planar tracking and background reconstruction technology it seamlessly removes elements and provides an excellent alternative to the painstaking, manual process of painting or cloning
After Effects Tutorial: Master particles in After Effects
"Both Card Dance and Shatter allow you to divide your layer into particles determined by layer map. They also allow you to animate pieces in 3D space, and interact with After Effects' cameras and lights.
This tutorial will help you understand how layers can be used as displacement maps or control layers for other layers in your compositions. This process is just as useful when controlling VFX as it is for motion graphics."
Video Tutorial of the Sapphire Blur effect for Final Cut Pro. There are many kinds of blurs in the Sapphire package including Blur, BlurChroma, BlurChannels, BlurDirectional and BlurMotion.
In this Adobe After Effects walkthrough by John Dickinson/Motionworks learn how Red Giant Holomatrix was used to give grungy 3D text a dynamic sci-fi look.
Tutorial: Creating a Holographic Interface Effect with Red Giant Holomatrix
Martin Brennand of Imagineer covers the top 5 most useful workflow tips for products: mocha, mocha for After Effects and mocha for Final Cut. Recommended for new users!
Boris Continuum Complete 6 AVX for Avid DS brings nearly 200 filters to Avid DS Version 10.2.1 and higher. BCC AVX is bundled with all Avid Media Composer and Symphony systems. With a BCC AVX for DS license, Avid facilities are now able to conform sequences with AVX 2.0-based BCC effects for finishing in Avid DS. Learn More about BCC AVX for Avid DS | Free Trial
I actually recorded this a few days before Halloween and hadn't gotten around to finishing it so the freshness has worn off a bit. Please enjoy it anyway!
If you are new to After Effects and want to get up to speed quickly, The After Effects Apprentice was created just for you. With 11 core lessons plus a hip final project that pulls it all together, you'll learn how to tap this program's vast potential- whether you want to create motion graphics for network television, corporate communications, or your own work. Fully updated to cover After Effects CS4, this book presents a professional perspective on the most important features a motion graphics artist needs to learn in order to use this program effectively. You'll learn to creatively combine layers, animate eye-catching titles, manipulate 3D space, key and stabilize a shot to place it in a new environment, and use effects to generate excitement or enhance the realism of a scene.
Taught by Trish and Chris Meyer, principals in Crish Design (formerly known as CyberMotion), an award-winning motion graphic design studio.
Adobe Production Premium for Final Cut Studio Editors
In Adobe Production Premium for Final Cut Studio Editors you will learn how to put the Adobe Production Premium toolset to use throughout your production to realize astonishing efficiencies and creative opportunities. Adobe's CS tools are the perfect compliment to Final Cut Studio, with tools that improve your preproduction, production and postproduction capabilities in leaps and bounds. Move seamlessly between the toolsets -- always using the best tool for the job with the real-world practice that you get in this guide.
Taught by By Larry Jordan, Apple-Certified trainer in digital media with over 30 years experience as a television producer, director and editor.
The After Effects Illusionist
The After Effects Illusionist contains recipe after recipe that allow you to harness the full power of the native plug-in effects in the After Effects application. In a step-by-step manner, author Chad Perkins guides you through the creation and application of each and every native plug-in effect available for use in the AE toolset. The book also shows you how each can be used optimally in your media project, when and why it makes sense to use each, and also how to combine multiple effects.
Taught by Chad Perkins, Adobe Certified Instructor and Expert in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, After Effects, and Premiere. View All Training Book Titles in our Store
Over the last few months The Foundry has enlisted the help of industry professional, Frank Rueter (Weta Digital, Digital Domain, www.ohufx.com), and renowned trainer, Steve Wright, (www.swdfx.com) to assist our in house demo team in producing a comprehensive set of Nuke tutorials.
Compositor's Toolkit - Apple Motion & After Effects Training, hosted by Kevin P. McAuliffe, Pro Editing @ Home
In this tutorial learn to create a really cool theater style animation reminiscent of a big budget block buster film. Instructions are provided for both After Effects and Apple Motion. While the final look is impressive, no visual effects other than drop shadows are used thanks to the power and versatility of Compositor's Toolkit.
In this episode of Red Giant TV, Michael Park returns to us with a fantastic tutorial on creating a Christmas tree (complete with lights and star at the top) with Trapcode Particular. You'll also use Trapcode Starglow to enhance the look.
Today Michele Yamazaki from Toolfarm shares a tutorial and project for creating a gorgeous 3D spinning snow flake completely in After Effects and use Boris Continuum Complete 6.0. 3D Objects is the focus here - an amazing new set of plug-ins in v6.0. The project files are AE CS4.
I created a quick walk through of the template so you can see how to replace the images with your own photos, or even video, if you are so inclined. The video was captured and edited very quickly and easily in Telestream ScreenFlow, which is fantastic. Try a free demo here.
Color Fixer Plus, part of NewBlue Video Essentials, provides an easy way to correct color balance. Because it also adjusts saturation, brightness, and film gamma, it's a great tool to quickly get the look you want in one pass. Learn More/Purchase NewBlue FX Video Essentials | Free Trial
Promotional prices for the 2009 Holiday Extravaganza are specific to node locked versions of each product. Sale ends December 31st, 2009.
Additional Sale Notes:
AE & FCP support: Customers looking for both After Effects & Final Cut functionality should purchase 1 license of mocha (full), 1 license mocha shape for AE, 1 license mocha shape for FCP.
monet & mokey: these tools will be updated in the spring. Customers who purchase now will be rewarded with a special upgrade path on release.
Floating licenses are not discounted. Contact us if you require special pricing.
Rob Birnholz shows you how to create an animated logo reveal with Adobe After Effects. He uses a couple of great plug-ins, Knoll Light Factory from Red Giant and Sapphire from GenArts (both free demos available here).
Rob gives you several interesting techniques in this one tutorial. Project files available shortly.
This tutorial video is part of Day 3 of Toolfarm's Secret Santa Holiday Giveaways. Enjoy and thanks to Rob Birnholz for his fantastic contribution!
Rob Birnholz
Rob Birnholz is owner of Absolute Motion Graphics, Inc., near Orlando, FL. With more than three decades of production and post experience, he's not only older but hopefully wiser.
Rob graduated from The University of Florida with a degree in Broadcast Production, then began his career freelancing in the South Florida film industry, working on major features and commercial shoots. In the early 1980's he formed his own video production company shooting, directing and editing high-end corporate projects for clients including PepsiCo and the Knight-Ridder Newspaper chain.
After relocating to Central Florida in the late 1980's, Rob continued as a freelance Lighting-Cameraman and Editor working on projects ranging from Disney's "Mickey Mouse Club" to cutting Super Bowl highlight packages for ESPN.
With the advent of desktop editing Rob discovered After Effects (version 1!) and his life changed forever. Shooting and directing faded into the background as Rob focused on new digital postproduction solutions, and his company, Absolute Motion Graphics, was formed.
Working largely in the non-broadcast arena, Rob loves recreating high-end looks and effects without having the same big-time budgets. He is a frequent guest speaker at user groups around the country, and many of his After Effects tutorials were distributed on the Digital Production Buzz newsletter.
Recent projects have been completed for T•Mobile, Walt Disney World, Kodak, General Motors, Long John Silvers, KFC, Subway, Cricket Communications and The Palm Springs International Film Festival. Rob's website is at absolutemotiongraphics.com
In this two part tutorial, we will be creating one of the most desired effects in After Effects, a 3D filmstrip. This tutorial will push us a bit further using the mesh warp feature in FreeForm AE.
We will use pre-comps and a few tricks to create moving 3D film that, thanks to FreeForm AE, can take any shape. Part one will focus on creating a filmstrip from a single clip of footage and making it look like it's moving. We'll then use FreeForm AE to bend it around 3D space.
The final tutorial of the series, again, goes one step further. This time we will create two custom displacement maps and apply them to two instances of FreeForm AE. This will give us the ability to give a different surface treatment to each of the FreeForm layers.
The final result will look like brushed metal sheets, which have a duller finish, held together by shiny, almost chrome like, welds (which have beautiful 3D relief). Then we’ll do a two stage text punch-in effect using AE's masks to create two complimentary gradient mattes. Sound confusing? It’s all really simple.
NewBlueFX Image Mapper, part of the new NewBlue FX Video Essentials III, makes it easy to superimpose images within your scene.
We created this effect to quickly and efficiently superimpose a clip onto nearly any surface in your video while maintaining a realistic feel. In this edition of Tips & Techniques, Jeremy Rasnic shows you how to use Image Mapper to map a clip onto just about any surface in your video.
In the second tutorial of this series, we will go a step further and add a little "punch" to our displacement mapping by combining it with Freeform's other main feature, Mesh Warping. By adding Mesh Warp, our stamped in effect will do a little more damage by creasing and buckling the entire sheet of metal. We all know Digieffects loves "Damage", so don't miss this one! We'll also tweak our lighting to add a little mood to the scene.
This video shows Boris Continuum Complete 6 FxPlug's Extruded Text filter running in Apple Motion to demonstrate how BCC 3D Objects can integrate into a Motion 3D scene by making use of Motion's 3D camera.
Harry J Frank has created a great new tutorial called Fractal Noise Fade. I always learn so much from Harry. Also, if you haven't seen it, check out Harry's new Video Rock, an awesome new DVD library of pre-rendered QuickTime elements and still images set in a vintage style.
Learn how to use Fractal Noise to create a textured fade on a layer in After Effects. Then add some more effects and elements to finish up the title effect.
Metal Man by Chris Heuer Part 1 of 3Project files are now below the video
In this tutorial, which is the first in a three part series, we will be digging into Displacement Mapping, a favorite feature in Digieffects Freeform for After Effects.
We will learn more about how it works by creating a detailed displacement map that will turn a Photoshop still image into 3 plates of metal riveted together with amazing 3D details. Then we'll take it a step further by creating the look of text being stamped into the metal from behind. This is a great effect for titles or credits.
The tutorial link for NewBlueFX Rack focus was incorrect in our last newsletter. The following is the correct tutorial information. We apologize for any confusion.
Rack Focus from NewBlue Video Essentials II creates an artificial focus blur that mimics camera depth of field.
NewBlueFX Video Essentials I: Just as every painter needs a canvas, brush, and paint, no video editor should be without NewBlue Video Essentials. This valuable collection of tools features a set of 10 video effects designed to make your workflow more efficient. Think of these as a Swiss army knife of tools designed to enhance, optimize, and accelerate your productivity.
NewBlueFX Video Essentials II: Use this collection of ten indispensable effects to solve frustrating problems and add luster to your productions, all with intuitive yet powerful controls. The NewBlue Video Essentials II collection features 131 presets in 10 different plugins that brings video magic to the desktop. Use this collection to solve frustrating problems and add luster to your productions, all with intuitive yet powerful controls.
FxFactory is a revolutionary visual effects architecture powering hundreds of plug-ins for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Final Cut Express and Adobe After Effects:
Ben from Curious Turtle has a new tutorial up to show you how to use Film Wash effects to create a Super 8mm look. Film Wash Color Effects are available here. There's also a version for Apple Motion.
For Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, and Apple Final Cut Express
Final Effects Complete's Wiggle Edges filter places self-animating wiggly lines along the edges of an image layer’s alpha channel. The filter includes a wide selection of controls - including Deep Color Rendering and a Reduce Flicker control which is handy for smoothing out motion graphics in an interlaced project.
NewBlueFX Film Look makes your video feel like it was shot on film. In this edition of Tips & Techniques, Ian Stark shows you how to use Film Look's color and lighting characteristics to create your own signature style.
VFX artist Chris Heuer of Freefall FX submitted this 2 part tutorial covering Imagineer Systems mocha and rotoscoping the classic film "Nosferatu". Chris also shows the process behind converting this 2D film into 3D anaglyph content.
Flip, shatter and spread your image across the screen with FxTiles, designed by Boinx Software for FxFactory. This tutorial gives you an introduction of what you can do with this great plug-in.
FxFactory is a revolutionary visual effects architecture powering hundreds of plug-ins for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Final Cut Express and Adobe After Effects.
Learn how to use Apple Color with Media 100 Suite! This tutorial focuses on how to get your material into Color and back into Media 100 Suite - and what to look out for during this round-trip.
Apple Color and Media 100 Suite In this new video tutorial, Floh Peters shows you how to use Apple Color with Media 100 Suite. The tutorial focuses on how to get your material into Color and back into Media 100 Suite - and what to look out for during this round-trip. Learn More/Purchase Media 100 in our Store | Download a Free Demo
Rob Birnholz has a fantastic new tutorial out about making a 3D wad of paper in Digieffects FreeForm AE. He says "Next time you get a frustrating assignment that you didn't ask for, don't crumple it up and throw it at your boss's face. Now you can easily call it quits within After Effects! Rob uses the example of creating a paper crumple transition to show off the Digieffects plugin Freeform AE. Who knows... this tutorial might just save your job."
Very, very nice tutorial - great projects, great teaching - Mark Spencer
Just saw the After Effects Camera Training video from Rob Birnholz and it's outstanding. I thought I was pretty good with the old AE camera, having used it for many years, but Rob made me aware of several new techniques and tricks I had not encountered before. Way to go, Rob. - Jack Tunnicliffe, Visual Effects Artist and Owner of Java Post Production, Regina, Saskatchewan
And here's a free chapter of AE Camera Training: Auto Orient Layers to Camera.
Because the Motion Blends transitions correctly work with alpha transparency, the same motion oriented transitions from Motion Blends that twist, roll, shake, or otherwise mutate one scene to another can be applied to text letters, with stunning results.
In this video tutorial, Flo Peters takes a look at Media 100 Suite new VoiceOver Tool. The VoiceOver Tool allows direct-to-timeline audio recording while playing back timeline audio and video. Primarily designed for recording narration, the VoiceOver Tool leverages Media 100 Suites new MultiClip architecture to allow for multiple takes nested inside a single audio clip in the timeline.
You can pick up SonicFire Pro in Toolfarm's store. It really is so much fun to play with and so easy to use and you'll be able to create incredible soundtracks amazingly fast.
In this animation I explored the possibility of using image to create butterfly flying. Also I have used Generator from Noise Industries to create clouds effect.
This is by no means a boundaries breaking animation. However you will be pleasantly surprised to learn how quickly you can build very believable animations of birds or butterfly’s flying.
Rack Focus, part of the NewBlue FX Video Essentials II collection, allows you to create shots with faux depth of field by selectively blurring a portion of the image. This is great for creating a film look depth of field, artificially controlling the center of attention, or even making a scene look like it was shot with miniatures.
Learn more about the glow filters that come with FxFactory Pro, from the second Episode of the Glow Stravaganza. Plug-ins work in Final Cut Pro, Motion and After Effects.
Ben Griggs walks you through stretching a 4x3 image out to a 16x9 image, retaining proper aspect ratio in the central portion using FreeForm AE in After Effects CS4.
Twitter is such a great resource. This one popped up on my radar today. It's from Being Studios and it's really cool. Don't have Particular v2 yet? Download a free demo here.
Especially for the non-Hollywood crowd, audio-for-video presents some unique challenges to filmmakers. Unlike video, sound is extremely dependent on the viewer's room and playback system, and most consumer-level setups leave a lot to be desired.
Poor room design and low-quality playback systems can cause a host of problems: low-frequency sounds can be too loud, and dialog and sound effects may not sound like they're coming from the right direction. For most viewers, it's a distraction that reflects poorly on the filmmaker (deserved or not).
So, what to do? Well, the first step is to realize that the same factors that color the viewers' experience is also coloring yours as you produce your audio! Editing audio in a poorly designed room means you can't trust what you're hearing. Is the bass really too loud? If you're in a small room, or if your speakers are too close to the walls, the answer may be no. If you're not careful, you'll optimize your audio for your room, at the expense of accurate playback everywhere else.
So, the best way to guarantee that your dialog and soundtrack will sound right in most rooms is to use a neutral editing environment. If you don't happen to have a degree in acoustics or the budget for a custom-built room, then IK Multimedia's ARC System may be the best choice for you.
ARC System: audio peace-of-mind What is ARC System? It's a complete room analysis and correction system for the rest of us. It includes a professional analysis microphone, measurement software, and correction plug-in, compatible with Final Cut Pro and other video editing systems.
The technology that powers the ARC System was developed by Audyssey, a high-end home theater company. It's the brainchild of Tomlinson Holman, the Academy Award-winning developer of Lucasfilm's TXH standard, and was originally developed at the University of Southern California's Immersive Audio Laboratory.
Here's how it works: Using the microphone and measurement software, you take a series of measurements across your editing environment. ARC detects the factors in your room that could have an impact on what you hear, then creates a custom fix that ensures what you hear is uncolored by your room acoustics.
The result is a listening environment free from any kind of coloration, so you can be sure your audio sounds exactly as you hear it. If you avoid any extreme processing, you can be confident your audio will be reproduced well in nearly every listening environment. Just set it, and forget it!
How does ARC work? Setting up ARC only takes a few minutes. Just connect the included microphone to your computer with a decent-quality audio interface, and launch the measurement application.
Spend a few seconds checking levels, and then the software will walk you through taking a series of measurements across your listening environment:
The measurement software uses these to create a custom profile of your room, detecting any potential issues that could influence what you're hearing. That profile is then saved as a preset inside the correction plug-in.
The ARC correction plug-in works in Final Cut Pro and Mainstage, as well as AVID's Media Composer software, and of course dedicated sound editing applications like Pro Tools and Logic.
Here's how to load it in Mainstage: Select your main outputs (by default, outputs 1-2). Click and hold on the last available "insert" and you'll see a list of available plug-ins. Choose ARC.
Now, the ARC plug-in will appear: The orange line is the frequency response of your room. The goal is to have a flat, neutral sounding room, where low, mid, and high-frequency sounds are all the same volume. This will ensure that even in a bad room, or on a cheap system, your audio will sound reasonably close to what you're hearing while editing. The white curve is the corrected output of your system.
You'll notice that both speakers are adjusted equally. Sometimes, your room will also cause issues that interfere with panning. If, for instance, your desk is in a corner of the room, with one speaker right up against the right wall, sound will naturally bounce off that wall sooner and louder than the left wall across the room. This means the right speaker will sound louder, so without correction you'd naturally pan all dialog and effects towards the left to compensate. As soon as you're in a different room, everything would sound off to the left. Once you've loaded the plug-in, just leave it on and go on about your editing process. You can edit with a clear conscience - what you're hearing is what's truly there!
This video tutorial demonstrates some of BCC Extruded Text’s animatable filter parameters that are useful in creating effects where text characters animate along an After Effects mask path.
A great demonstration by Maltaannon of a must-have new plug-in from Trapcode!
We've all been waiting for this moment. Trapcode has finally released the second version of the most popular plug-in in the After Effects world - Particular. In this tutorial I'll present some of the new features of this amazing plugin creating four small projects. We'll start off slowly and then move to some more advanced things, but as always - Peder Norrby (who is the founder of Trapcode and the plug-in developer) had made all the new features super easy, and the Particular itself is now even more accessible and robust.
Features explored in the tutorial:
Light Streaks- Streaklet, Shading, Position Subframe, Light Emitters
Dark Alley- Shading, Trapcode Lux, Light Falloff
Micro Particles- Textured Polygon, 3d Rotation, Spherical Field, Emission Extras
School of salmon- Textured Polygon, Orient To Motion, Motion Paths, Turbulence Field
This video tutorial gives you an in-depth look at the Jitter feature of Boris Continuum Complete 6 AE’s Extruded Text filter. Basic functionality of the Jitter feature is explained and demonstrated. Then, the Jitter feature is shown in the context of a more developed effect involving audio and After Effects Camera and Lights.
A new tutorial from Zack at Embryo.co.uk. He shows you how to make text turn into sand with ParticleMetrix from idustrial revolution, which uses the Noise Industries FX engine. The plugins work in After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Final Cut Express.
Mark Christiansen shows you how to make some incredibly realistic 3D yogurt liquid pouring into a cup with a layered Photoshop document and Digieffects FreeForm AE.
6 Hour Training DVD featuring Ernie Schaeffer Final Cut Studio HD Workflow Vol. 1 will enable you to create a top-notch video using the power of all the tools, which are included in Final Cut Studio. You will create a commercial for Switzerland tourism using beautiful aerial footage from start to finish: Edit in Final Cut Pro; create a music score in Soundtrack Pro; use Motion to add some great 3D graphics and titles; color grade your video in Color; encode your video for the web and DVD in Compressor; and author the final DVD in DVD Studio Pro.
This training consists of over 6-hours of professional video training, with a focus of building a real-world project. In this installment, you will build a commercial for Switzerland Tourism. Utilizing the suite of applications within Final Cut Studio, Apple Certified Pro trainer Ernie Schiefer guides you from start to finish.
I demo'd BCC6 at NAB this April and was really impressed with a new filter called BCC Pixel Fixer. I show you how easy it is to fix bad pixels or dust on a lens with BCC Pixel Fixer. Buy BCC6 AE. There's an FxPlug version and the public beta of the BCC6 AVX just came out today as well. Download a free demo of any host here: Free Trials.
Note: If you own BCC6 but didn't get the latest update, it includes the Extruded EPS filter. You don't want to miss that! Boris Continuum Complete 6.0.1 AE is now available as a free update for BCC 6 AE customers! Free BCC 6.0.1 AE Update for BCC 6 Users Please uninstall BCC 6 AE before installing BCC 6.0.1 AE.
The After Effects Apprentice 2nd Edition
Adobe Production Premium for Final Cut Studio Editors
The After Effects Illusionist
Over the last few months The Foundry has enlisted the help of industry professional, Frank Rueter (Weta Digital, Digital Domain, www.ohufx.com), and renowned trainer, Steve Wright, (www.swdfx.com) to assist our in house demo team in producing a comprehensive set of Nuke tutorials.
Rob Birnholz is owner of Absolute Motion Graphics, Inc., near Orlando, FL. With more than three decades of production and post experience, he's not only older but hopefully wiser.
