Made with After Effects

In what is become an annual tradition, the good folks over at motion.tv run a Made with After Effects competition. We participate in critiquing the entries, including pointing out the strong points as well as sharing our years of experience in suggesting ways to improve the work even further. The resulting discussion - as well as viewing the winners - is something we think is educational for all users looking to raise their game.

Coke Classic: Final Cut Studio is Back

As has been reported and confirmed by multiple sources, you can once again buy Final Cut Studio. You won’t find it (yet?) in the physical or online Apple stores; you have to call 1-800-MY-APPLE, ask for part number MB642Z/A, and pay $999 ($899 educational).

Great. So?

When FCP-X came out, some tried to placate the naysayers by reminding them that the new version wasn’t compulsory; they could just continue to use the previous version - it’s not like their licenses had been taken away. The reply was yeah, but we’ll eventually need updates and support as hardware and the OS change - why continue to invest effort into a dead product? And unless Apple is about the announce the biggest mea culpa since Avid said they were abandoning the Mac (or Coke quietly took New Coke off the shelves), that part hasn’t changed, regardless of whether you can buy additional copies or not. With Apple’s professional video division focused on the numerous fixes enhancements that have been requested and promised for FCP-X, I just don’t see them launching a parallel development effort to update FCS as well. (Let me know if you’ve seen job postings for Apple that indicates otherwise.)

What this move probably reflects was that some large customers weren’t going to switch to FCP-X just yet, and in the meantime needed additional licensed copies. And more importantly, it shows that Apple listened, and reacted.

And that’s something.

American Editor

More than one person has pointed me toward the relatively new blog American Editor, written by Rob Ashe: Senior Video Editor & Opening Title Designer of Conan O’Brien’s most recent ventures among other items on a long resume. Rob is a straight shooter with a wry sense of humor, who dishes up some honest opinions and advice on working in The Industry.

“Why 3D Doesn’t Work and Never Will”

While a large portion of both the media creation and consumption industries gear up to produce and support 3D films and video, others are digging in their heels and asking about the fit and fabric of the emperor’s clothes. Much loved sound designer and film editor Walter Murch - as well as film curmudgeon critic Roger Ebert - are two of those questioners. This blog post by Ebert reprints a detailed letter from Murch about the inherent technical issues of stereoscopic films that detract from the esthetic appreciation of them as well. It’s quite meaty - I suggest you go read it all - but the central issue Murch brings up is what he refers to as the ‘convergence/focus’ issue: “3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before.”

2010 Motion Graphics Design Census

The unofficial, web-based Motion Graphics Design Census for 2010 is now available from their web site. It compiles over 5500 responses - distributed roughly evenly between the US and non-US - into a series of responses about age, software, and - primarily - income. Of course, it’s only a survey of those who responded rather than the industry as a whole. Also, not everyone responded to every question - for example, only 219 self-employed artists offered how much they charged per hour, and most of the charts are based just on US respondents. With those caveats, here’s what stuck out for us:

4 Ways Video Is Fundamentally Changing

If you’re interested in the business of video beyond just shooting and editing it, you might enjoy reading Shishir Mehrotra of Google’s recent article over on ClickZ. He notes “In my position at YouTube, I’ve observed this market over the last few years, and have taken note of the ways in which it is fundamentally changing.” His four main macro-changes are:

• Hyper-Fragmentation
• Great Content Can Come From Anywhere
• Advertisers Can Create Content That Users Love
• There Is No Online Video, Just Video

For many of you, the first two may fit into the “well, DUH” category; Shishir even notes the first one is “not a new story.” The last one is something we’ve been personally preaching for years: The sooner you blur the lines between broadcast and web video from the production side, the better, because the viewer already expects them to be of the same quality - just as they expected “local market” or cable TV to look as good as the major networks. That third one may come as a bit of a surprise to the cynical, but anyone who has seen videos like the Evian Roller Babies (and not to mention, its view counter) realize it’s becoming true. Regardless, it’s a good read, as well as something to pass onto your clients.

Apple + Tablet = New Video Distribution Outlet?

As a long-time Apple user (and - full disclosure - Apple stockholder), I’ve learned long ago to take Apple rumors with a grain of salt. However, combine patents (some going back to 2005), leaks from developers, and the rental of a big hall for a special event in late January, and you start to feel something might actually happen - although it’s certainly not a lock. Personally, I’m thrilled with the speculation that the rumored “iPad” iSlate iPad will be more about media than computing.

Trish & Chris, Unplugged

We recently had the pleasure of being interviewed via Skype by John Dickinson of Motionworks for his excellent Unplugged series, where he chats with people who either create After Effects plug-ins (such as Peter Norrby of Trapcode or Zax Dow of Zaxwerks) or training (such as Brian Maffitt of Total Training or Andrew Kramer of Video Copilot). It was a freewheeling affair - we thought he was going to cut out that intro when we were making faces at him, and yes, those are margaritas we’re drinking - and we covered a lot of ground, including the early days of After Effects, how we got started in the industry, what we do for inspiration, our opinions on the training market, and our philosophy of learning a complex program such as After Effects for motion graphics production. We hope you enjoy it.

• cllck here for Part 1 on the early days, and breaking in
• click here for Part 2 on the training landscape, and what we do for inspiration

The content contained in our books, videos, blogs, and articles for other sites are all copyright Crish Design, except where otherwise attributed.

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