In Depth Articles (54 Tutorials)
In Depth: Skin Retouching Part 4: DaVinci Resolve
November 12, 2015
Making skin tones appear natural, yet attractive, in color graded footage can be intimidating to the inexperienced. Here are some tutorials and articles focused on working with skin tones with Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve, including smoothing and cosmetic color grading.
In Depth: Working with Night Time Scenes, part 1
November 2, 2015
You really have two choices when shooting scenes that take place at night. Either shoot at night and deal with the low light situation or shoot Day for Night. Shooting at night is easier if your camera is capable of it. Day for Night, which I would recommend under certain circumstances, can be tricky but can look fantastic and undistinguishable when it’s done correctly. Part one of this article will focus on shooting in after dark.
In Depth: Working with Night Time Scenes, part 2
November 2, 2015
Part 1 of this two part series focused on shooting at night and when and how to accomplish shooting in low light. Part 2 focuses on working with footage shot during the daytime and color grading for night. We'll also talk about adding some night time elements to sell your shot.
In Depth: Scanimate Animation System #TBT
February 26, 2015
At Half Rez in Chicago last November, Nick Campbell of Greyscalegorilla took us on a historical journey to the birth of television motion graphics with Scanimate. I had seen the retro-futuristic Scanimate animation throughout my childhood on shows like Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but I never realized what this analog wizardry was. If you’re over 35 years old, you have certainly seen Scanimate animation content on TV. Today I’ll explain Scanimate and show you lots of fun examples.
In Depth: Transitions: Part 1: Basic Editing Terminology and A Brief History of Transitions
February 18, 2015
There are so many types of transitions, and in this series I’ll focus on several of them. From the simple dissolve to the swish pans to shatter effects, we’ll dive into the history of transitions with lots of examples. The goal of this series is to increase your editing vocabulary and entertain you, while showing you what is possible. And of course, I’ll show you some fun plug-ins for your favorite NLE.
In Depth: Spill Suppression on Keyed Footage
February 9, 2015
Spill is the colored light reflected from your background and onto your actor. Spill can show up on light colored clothing or hair, on shiny or reflective elements, around the edge of footage, and it can be a big problem! It can be very easy to fix, or difficult on finely detailed, extremely reflective or semi-transparent areas. Here are some methods of fixing spill.
In Depth: Skin Retouching Part 3: More Plug-ins + Tutorials
January 27, 2015
Welcome to the final installment of this series on skin retouching. I’ve already covered loads of plug-ins available for After Effects and a few NLEs, linked to lots of tutorials and given you several tips on how to touch up skin, keeping your actor as natural looking as possible. This article includes even more plug-ins and some recent tutorials for all sorts of compositors and editing tools.
In Depth: Skin Retouching Part 2: The Plug-ins
August 18, 2014
Need to touch up your actor’s complexion quickly and easily? There are a lot of plug-ins on the market that can help you with this task. I’ll cover the big players and a few new to the market: Digital Anarchy Beauty Box, GenArts Sapphire S_Beauty, FXHOME HitFilm, the recently released Imagenomic Portraiture for video, the brand-spanking new Dashwood Smooth Skin. Red Giant Cosmo and Colorista II are also on the agenda.
In Depth: Skin Retouching and Digital Makeup, Part 1
July 25, 2014
Do you need to make some small fixes to the skin of your actor, like fixing a blemish or blotchiness? Here’s part 1 of a 2 part series on Skin Retouching and Digital Makeup to get you started!
In Depth: Color Correction vs Color Grading
April 1, 2014
I’ve heard the terms Color Correction and Color Grading used interchangeably but they are not the same things. I’ll explain the difference, show you some tools to fix and tweak color, point you to a few tutorials, give you some side by side examples and breakdowns. Finally I’ll link you to some free tools you can use for color correction or grading.
In Depth: Optimizing After Effects for the Best Performance
February 4, 2014
If you've been using Adobe After Effects since early versions, as I have, you are familiar with the idea of optimizing your machine and settings for premium performance. Here are some tips and resources to help you create the fastest and most solid After Effects you can. If you don't have a big budget for optimizing your system, where do you put the money for upgrades? That's for you to decide, but here are some suggestions on how to optimize what you have, and about other ways to optimize. If this article can't help you with the speed of After Effects, it will hopefully explain why things aren't running as fast as you would like them to.
In Depth: Plug-ins Adobe After Effects CC and Premiere Pro CC
February 4, 2014
Here’s an ongoing list of plug-in compatibility and other information that you need to know about plug-ins in the new CC video apps.
In Depth: 9 Great Freebies for Color Grading After Effects & Premiere Pro
February 4, 2014
The Beat has linked to some nice presets for Premiere Pro & After Effects to give your video work unique color looks. The first couple are from their list. I’ve expanded on the free presets, plus added some great free color grading plug-ins for AE PPRO and more!
In Depth: Keying: Introduction & Frequently Asked Questions about Shooting Greenscreen
February 4, 2014
Keying is part technical skill, part patience, and part sorcery. This series will take you through different areas of keying, not so much to teach you step by step, but to talk about some of the problems you’ll run into and how to fix them.
In Depth: Video Software and Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
February 4, 2014
This article is for motion graphics, vfx, and 3D artists and also video editors. We’re keeping track of issues you might have with your software and with information on how to fix problems.