CMG Keyframes
Chris & Trish Meyer founded Crish Design (formerly known as CyberMotion) in the very earliest days of the desktop motion graphics industry. Their design and animation work has appeared on shows and promos for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, HBO, PBS, and TLC; in opening titles for several movies including Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley; at trade shows and press events for corporate clients ranging from Apple to Xerox; and in special venues encompassing IMAX, CircleVision, the NBC AstroVision sign in Times Square, and the four-block-long Fremont...
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The difference between 2D text, and animating each character in 3D (well, 2.5D) space.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | June 14, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we've been busy this year creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don't miss them. This one explains the added control you get when you add the Per-character 3D characteristic to a text animation.
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 27 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | June 10, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.After Effects offers a large variety of keying plug-ins that are designed to isolate a particular color or luminance range in an image, and convert those areas to transparency. In many cases, you can ignore most of them as relics from AE's early days, and focus just on Keylight from The Foundry: a popular industrial-strength keyer bundled free with After Effects (even the trial version, as of CS5.5). That said, some of the other keyers have worthwhile specialized uses. And Chapter 27 in CMG5 also covers related topics such as edge blending and color correction. We're going to focus primarily on those fringe issues here, and leave the in-depth tutorials to the book.
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Getting multiple characters to transition smoothly requires diving deep into a text animator's parameters.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | June 07, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we've been busy this year creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don't miss them. This one is for those who have been trying to create their own type animations, but have trouble getting After Effects to animate more than one character at a time.
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 26 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | June 06, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.If you've ever noticed that a video played back on television looks different when played back on a computer, wondered why your photos don't look the way you remembered them, or mused how colors on video look different than they do on film, you've experienced issues related to color management. Photoshop users and print professionals take color management for granted as a necessity in their line of work; conversely, very few video professionals are even aware of the issue - and virtually no video content creation programs take it into account. After Effects is a shining exception.For those new to the subject, and without a copy of CMG5, we gave a brief overview in this free article on Color Management in AE CS3 on Artbeats.com. Color Management has evolved since then; CMG5 covers it as of After Effects CS5 (there were no substantive changes in AE CS5.5). CMG5 also discuss the related subjects of working in a linear working space (also known as 1.0 gamma), floating point (including high dynamic range imagery), and Cineon (a logarithmic color space that is common for film work). Below are a few tips from this chapter:
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Our latest video training course on lynda.com demonstrates how to group and coordinate layers. Plus, we rescue a bonus movie from the cutting room floor...
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 30, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we're in the process of recording our book After Effects Apprentice as a series of training videos, where you get to look over our shoulders and hear what we're thinking as we work through each lesson. Our latest installment is on the subject of Parenting.
Parenting is a way to group multiple layers within the same composition inside After Effects. In this lesson, Chris shows how to set up a parenting chain, discusses what makes a good parent, and demonstrates several techniques using Parenting such as creating a title animation with a minimum number of keyframes, building a geometric construct, and bringing an anthropomorphic robot arm to life. Sidebar topics include avoiding a scaling gotcha with parenting, and creating abstract backgrounds using the Fractal Noise effect.
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Some workflow tips for the motion graphics artist looking to also improve their sound.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 27, 2011
As you can see from recent articles on PVC, Adobe is anxious to make you aware that they have made their audio editing application Audition available for the Mac as well as Windows, and bundled it into the Production Premium and Master Collection suites.While their focus is on showing editors how to take advantage of Audition, our orientation is motion graphics and visual effects - therefore, we're personally more interested in integration with After Effects. Although nowhere near as robust as Audition's integration with Premiere Pro, there are still some nice synergies to be had. That's why as part of our New Creative Techniques videos we created for After Effects CS5.5, we included two on using Audition with After Effects - both for absolute newbies looking to add some audio special effects to those wanting to dive a little deeper and improve their voiceovers. In case you missed them as part of our After Effects CS5.5 review, here they are again for your viewing pleasure:
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 25 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 27, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.If you can copy and paste it, you can save it: That is the philosophy behind Animation Presets. Presets allow you to save static values or keyframed animations for text, masks, effects, layer styles, and transformations. These presets are saved to individual files on disk and presented in the Effects & Presets panel for later application to any layer in any project. You can later edit these values to suit their new application.In addition to being able to create your own presets, Adobe provides hundreds of factory presets that include effects, text, and shapes. These include one of favorite presets, Behaviors; these allow you to animate layers without applying keyframes or expressions. This chapter also explores Brainstorm, which allows you to select any combination of effects, keyframes, and parameters and have After Effects automatically generate variations for you to check out. Below are a few tips from this chapter:
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 24 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 21, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.A compound effect is one that looks at a second layer to decide exactly how to treat the layer it is applied to. Examples of these vary from Compound Blur and its brethren, which can selectively blur one layer based on the varying luminance values of another, to Texturize, which is great for simulating those embossed station identity bugs most networks use these days, among other things.Before we get into hidden gems on using Compound Effects, first we need to understand what is going on underneath the hood:
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Audio doesn't work like other parameters...
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 17, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we've been busy this year creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don't miss them. This one is for those new to handling audio, and wondering how to best control its level.
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A handful of videos on some general concepts and specific effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 13, 2011
Last week's installment of Hidden Gems on effects was so well received, we decided to break out of our normal one-chapter-a-week rhythm this week, and instead provide some more resources on using effects.
A couple of years ago, we started a course on lynda.com dedicated to sharing insights into some of our favorite effects, also based on Bonus Chapter 23 from our book Creating Motion Graphics. After adding 46 movies on general concepts plus specific effects, we had to set the concept aside; we hope to revisit some time in the future. In the meantime, several of those movies are available for free. We'd like to share those with you here.
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Workarounds for when effects aren't working the way you expect with Track Mattes.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 11, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we're creating a video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice, which progresses from "I haven't used it before" through core skills including keyframing, masking, text animation, and 3D space to advanced techniques such as motion tracking, green screen, and expressions. Each course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don't miss them. This one demonstrates a common problem encoutered when trying to combine Track Mattes with effects, and provides a few different ways to get the desired result.
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 23 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 09, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.One of the strengths of After Effects is that it can be expanded through plug-ins. After Effects itself ships with over 200 effect plug-ins from Adobe and third parties including Cycore, Digieffects, Synthetic Aperture, and The Foundry; numerous third-party plug-ins are also available for purchase. We'll assume you know how to apply an effect to a layer using either the Effect menu or the Effects & Presets panel. If you need instructions, please consult Help > After Effects Help. The Bonus Chapters folder on the DVD-ROM that comes with CMG5 contains a large PDF file (65 pages) plus an After Effects project that goes over many of our favorite effect groups by categories, and tells you how we might use them. Below are just a few of our favorites:
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This "shortcoming" exhibited by some lens and films can help focus the viewer's attention and add class to a composition.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 03, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we're creating a video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice, which progresses from "I haven't used it before" through core skills including keyframing, masking, text animation, and 3D space to advanced techniques such as motion tracking, green screen, and expressions. Each course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don't miss them. This one demonstrates how to masks to quickly create vignettes.
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 22 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 29, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.One of the richest areas for exploration in After Effects is its "effects" side. The variety of effects supplied with After Effects ranges from the extremely utilitarian to the extremely wild, each with anywhere from one to over 100 parameters you can adjust. In Chapter 22 of CMG, we start with an overview of how to apply and edit effects. We then move onto some more sophisticated tricks using effects, such as animating their Effect Point, using adjustment layers, exploiting mask paths, and adding blending modes. We end with Layer Styles: a powerful alternative to common effects such as bevels, glows and shadows, borrowed from Photoshop.We'll assume you know how to apply an effect to a layer using either the Effect menu or the Effects & Presets panel. If you need instructions, please consult Help > After Effects Help. Below are a few tips that may have escaped you:
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Our latest video training course on lynda.com dives deep into text animation.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 28, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we're in the process of recording our book After Effects Apprentice as a series of training videos, where you get to look over our shoulders and hear what we're thinking as we work through each lesson. Our latest installment is the lesson on Type and Music.
One of the cornerstones of motion graphics is creating and animating type. In this course, Trish will show you how to typeset titles professionally and create your own custom animations, as well as apply and modify the hundreds of text animation presets that After Effects ships with. Additionally, Chris will show you how to add audio to your projects, including spotting "hit points" to align your keyframes and video action.
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One set of Animation Presets that ship with After Effects create movement without adding keyframes.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 25, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we're creating a video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice, which progresses from "I haven't used it before" through core skills including keyframing, masking, text animation, and 3D space to advanced techniques such as motion tracking, green screen, and expressions. Each new course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're periodically presenting the YouTube versions of them here in case you missed them.{C}
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 21 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 22, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.In the lengthy Chapter 21 we cover the basics of creating and editing text, including text along a path. We cover all aspects of how to use text animators to add sophisticated animation: animating text properties and Range Selectors, the various selector Shapes, animating characters in 3D space, and using the Wiggly Selector to randomize properties. We also touch upon other topics, such as creating outlines from text layers and integrating with Photoshop's text engine. Obviously, we can't reconstruct a 30-page chapter here in a one-page blog post; a couple of these will assume some knowledge of how to animate text inside After Effects (or at the very least, how to create text and apply an animation preset).
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The new release (with some judicious adjustments) makes it easier to create easier-to-watch stereo scenes from 3D compositions.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 20, 2011
You may remember our blog post on the "inherent" problems with stereoscopic 3D that famed film editor Walter Murch pointed out in an open letter to film critic Roger Ebert. We took Murch's comments as inspiration to explore workflows in the latest release of After Effects that might work around some of Murch's concerns: Namely, getting the eyes and brain to converge and focus on the same object (preferably one the same distance from the viewer as the screen).
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Please: Stop using Luma Key on footage (such as pyro effects) shot on black. There's a better way.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 19, 2011
As we mentioned earlier, we're creating a video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice, which progresses from "I haven't used it before" through core skills including keyframing, masking, text animation, and 3D space to advanced techniques such as motion tracking, green screen, and expressions. Each new course has a selection of movies that are free for all to view; we're periodically presenting the YouTube versions of them here in case you missed them.
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Another selection of "hidden gems" (and essential advice), this time from Chapter 20 of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.
By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 15, 2011
We're going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (CMG5) and pulling out a few "hidden gems" from each chapter. These will include essential advice for new users, plus timesaving tips that experienced users may not be aware of.We covered nesting and precomposing in the last two chapters, which are useful for grouping layers as well as fixing render order issues. We wrap up our focus on After Effects' rendering order by exploring the pros and cons of Collapse Transformations and its cousin, Continuous Rasterization. These powerful features open a door to higher quality and faster rendering, as well as enabling precomps with 3D layers to behave like complex 3D objects when nested.
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DBA Createasphere