That Wasn’t In the Script…

First, the bad news: There are two ways you can ensure After Effects CS4 will crash on exit:

1) Boot AE CS4 with an add-on script open in a docked panel.

2) Quit AE CS4 with an add-on script open in a docked panel.

Now, the good news: It’s a relatively benevolent crash; you won’t lose data or take down any other programs as well. Also, it’s fairly easy to work around this bug: Either open your scripts that have user interfaces in undocked (floating) panels, or make sure all scripts (such as Ease and Wizz, or TrackerViz) are closed when you quit - perhaps create a Workspace that has them all closed, and select that before quitting.

Yes, Adobe is well aware of the problem. No, it is not fixed in the AE 9.0.1 update. But at least now you know what’s going on, should you be suffering persistent and mysterious crashes on exit…

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10 Most Innovative Concert Visuals ‘08

I have few regrets in life, but one is that I’m yet to have the opportunity to design visuals for live concerts (helping on a couple of videos for the Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience is as close as I’ve come so far). U2’s Zoo TV concert video
remains a transformative experience for me; while Ultravox’s gray set plus colored lighting was one of biggest influences on me on how to colorize motion graphics in 3D.

If you’re also into seeing motion graphics on the big stage (not just the big screen), then I suggest you take a trip over to Accent Feeds’ 10 Most Innovative Concert Visuals of ‘08, including the likes of Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Massive Attack, Madonna, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, and the best act you’ve never heard of: Etienne de Crecy. All come with videos, although they are of varying quality, ranging from hand-held audience shakeycam for Daft Punk to the professionally multicam edit for de Crecy (have patience; it gets more amazing the longer you go). Even if you have no interest in concert videos, there’s some great ideas in there for creating motion graphics in virtual environments.

Props to Rich Young’s AE Portal News, which turned me onto this. BTW, he also has a good round-up on tilt-shift photography, which has become rather hot recently.

Getting Animated About Human Rights

I greatly admired this video when I first saw it during the past election season, but could never carve out time to write about it. Perhaps this will serve as a good way to finish off the holiday season and kick off the New Year, both creatively and spiritually.

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