Friday, November 14, 2008

Kensington Mice and After Effects CS4

The secret settings to get the Unified Camera Tool to work.

After Effects CS4 has added a “Unified” camera tool to aid navigation in 3D space. Instead of having to scroll through three separate camera tools - Orbit, Track XY, and Track Z - to reposition an active camera or reframe an alternate view, users can now use a three-button mouse to quickly switch between these three tools.

All of our computers here have Kensington mice that include a clickable scroll wheel as the third (middle) mouse button. And lo and behold, they don’t work out of the box with AE CS4; the clickable scroll wheel defaults to toggling between horizontal and vertical scrolling. But a couple of settings tweaks will make your mouse behave the way you want:

CS4 •
Motion Graphics •
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Saturday, November 08, 2008

Processing

Unleash the ghost in the machine by programming your own animations.

After you master shooting footage, applying effects, and keyframing animation, what’s next? Some like to explore having animations driven by sound and music, using tools such as Trapcode’s Sound Keys and Form for After Effects, or the Audio Behaviors in Motion 3. Others have mastered Expressions in After Effects to create code-driven animations. And a few hard-core After Effects user lament the passing of Useful Things. But if you really want to take it to the next level, you might want to explore the open source Processing programming language.

Processing, to quote the official web site, is “for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool.” It is free (running on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows) and is supported by an active user and developer community. There are a large number of books available on Processing. There’s even a mobile version of Processing for Java-powered devices. And to feed the other side of your brain, there is an online exhibition gallery showing what others are doing with Processing (the image at the top of this blog entry is from that site). Check it out.

(A tip of the hat to fellow PVC poster Mark Spencer for turning me onto Processing.)

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Autodesk+RED Workflow Guide

Autodesk release a white paper on using the RED One with Smoke, Inferno, Flame, Flint, and Lustre.

The RED One camera and its ability to capture large frame size, RAW-format files has certainly ignited the imagination of filmmakers and videographers. But its unusual file format and requirements has also created a lot of head-scratching among users trying to find the most efficient way to send RED footage through a normal production pipeline.

To this end, Autodesk just released a white paper that covers using RED One footage with their Smoke, Inferno, Flame, Flint, and Lustre systems. It covers shooting, lighting, color spaces, proxies, going from offline to online, audio, finishing and final output including suggested settings, as well as an appendix on RED-specific applications and where they fit into the workflow. In other words, this isn’t a brochure; it’s a mini-handbook for users that describes the current recommended practices in some detail.

You can download the white paper here. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of some of its suggestions:

Motion Graphics •
Post Production •
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Saturday, October 18, 2008

After Effects CS4 is Shipping

Make sure your computer & plug-ins are compatible.

For those who might have missed the news, Adobe Creative Suite 4 started shipping this past Wednesday. Users are already receiving their pre-orders.

After Effects users looking to upgrade need to be mindful of two issues:

• As reported earlier, AE CS4 will not run on pre-Intel Macs.
• Not all CS3-compatible plug-ins are compatible with AE CS4; some will need upgrades. So far, most of these upgrades seem to be free or available for a nominal charge.

Fortunately, there’s information out there to help you through this upgrade decision and process:

Motion Graphics •
Training •
Visual Effects • (2) Comments • Most recent comments by: Chris Meyer, Rob, • Permalink

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Interview over on Motion.TV

Where we talk about the mission of a motion graphics artist, and why we write books.

One of our plans for this blog is to also talk about the business of being a motion graphics artist - how to work with clients, as well as how to keep your own ship in order. Unfortunately, we haven’t had time to do much of that so far (among other things, we’ve moved). However, Lilian Dregalla interviewed us for the motion08 conference, where we had a chance to muse about subjects such as understanding the purpose behind each motion graphics task you take on, as well as some of the philosophy behind our books. You can read it here.

Meanwhile, we’re about to hit the road, speaking at VidXpo in Denver next week, and then speaking at motion08 in Albuquerque the week after. Hope to see some of you there! Afterward, we’re hunkering down to finish a new edition of After Effects Apprentice (for CS4), and then hopefully this winter we can get back to some of the topics we want to blog about up here.

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Monday, September 22, 2008

After Effects CS4

A quick tour of the new features that will be of interest to motion graphics artists.

Adobe has announced their Creative Suite 4, in which they have aligned the schedules of virtually all of their products to be updated at the same time. One of these programs is, of course, After Effects, which we have based our business around since its release in 1992. As a result, we obviously go over each new release with a fine-tooth comb, looking for which new features will make our lives easier, will give us new looks, and which may open up new avenues of business for us. That last point has become particularly interesting in light of Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia, plus their focus on integrating functionality across the various programs in the Creative Suite.

In this article, we will give a brief overview of many of those new features. Then in the coming weeks and months, we’ll focus on some of these features individually, relating what we found interesting about each one, with tips on how to use them (and what might trip you up). These additional articles will be posted on our CMG Keyframes channel on PVC.

In addition to articles up here on ProVideoCoalition, there are several other places where you can glean additional information:

• Later Tuesday afternoon (the 23rd), Adobe will be placing the"live help” file for After Effects CS4 online. When it is up, you can access the entire Help file by clicking here, and search for features of specific interest. Click here to jump straight to the New Features page; click here to jump straight to the page that describes changes in the User Interface between CS3 and CS4.

• We’ve created an hour of video training on using the new features in AE CS4 for Lynda.com’s Online Training Library. The course is called After Effects CS4: New Creative Techniques; when it goes live, it can be found here. Two of the movies are scheduled to go online at the same time as the CS4 announcement; the remaining ten will go live once CS4 ships. Lynda.com will also be posting New Feature previews for Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4, and Photoshop CS4, plus plus full courses for the new features in Fireworks CS4, Soundbooth CS4, and Dreamweaver CS4 (these last three are available as public betas from the Adobe Labs web site.) If you don’t already have a Lynda.com subscription, you can get a free all-access 7-day trial on us by clicking here.

• We’ve also written an article about the new features in AE CS4 for Focal Press, which appears at www.CMG4CS4.com. That article also outlines our plans for our books in relation to CS4.

On to our hit list of interesting new features in AE CS4:

*VIDEO* •
CS4 •
Motion Graphics •
Visual Effects • (1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Chris Meyer, • Permalink

Friday, September 19, 2008

TED Talk: The Truly Soft Side of Software

Golan Levin uses his software skills to create improvised audio-visual performances.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I’ve been going through their online archive of talks for my own amusement and education, and sharing with you ones I found to be particularly interesting.

Back in June, I highlighted Jakob Trollback’s talk on Rethinking the Music Video. This time around, I want to highlight a “music video” that’s considerably in the more abstract domain. In this presentation, Golan Levin discusses the custom performance software he writes which allows him to improvise music with accompanying visuals. We’re strictly in the experimental realm here (the soundtrack is 60s-era avant-garde electronic music - listen with your speakers on to annoy your cubemates), but sometimes, great inspiration comes from the very fringes of an art. Note: The visuals are initially very simplistic (the piece is titled “Scribble"), but become much more complex about 4:40 into the video.

Aside from Levin’s TED Talk, I strongly recommend you check out the Flong Interactive Art site (pictured above) which contains a number of interesting audiovisual works by Levin and his friends - there’s lots of cool interactive visual pieces on there.

Audio •
Interactive •
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Sunday, August 31, 2008

TED Talk: The Power and Beauty of Organic Design

Ross Lovegrove shares his passion for designing objects inspired by the simplicity and complexity of nature.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I’ve been going through their online archive of talks for my own amusement and education, and sharing with you ones I found to be particularly interesting and relevant.

This week I’d like to share a talk by “Captain Organic” Ross Lovegrove of Studio X in Notting Hill, England. He is the celebrated designer of objects such as the iMac, Ty Nant water bottle, and Go chair. Ross is a proponent of what he calls “fat free” design that draws inspiration from natural forms - not just organic blobs in the name of nature, but shapes, processes, and sensibilities derived from the inner logic of natural objects. Although this talk is focused primarily on industrial design, those who are designing logos, 3D objects, or who just want to be inspired about someone deeply passionate about his field should enjoy it.

This talk is part of TED’s series Design Like You Give A Damn. Some who commented on the talk found Ross to be impractical at best and arrogant at worst; I found his laser-like focus on his ideals to be energizing.

Motion Graphics • (1) Comments • Most recent comments by: billS, • Permalink

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