Your Daily After Effects Fix

I’ve mentioned previously that Todd Kopriva’s Region of Interest blog is one of the best sources of essential After Effects information. And it still is. But a few additional sources have really blossomed as constant fountains of After Effects goodness:

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50.94 Is Not A Valid Frame Rate

I recently had a fellow motion graphics artist asked me what format used a 50.94 fps frame rate, as a client had requested delivery at this rate. 50.94 is obviously a typo based on 59.94 fps (the field rate for NTSC, and the North American speed favored for some HD media such as 720p for sports and news). But a quick Google search turned it up in multiple places where people should know better. For example, I found it in:

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Essential After Effects Information

Every After Effects user should bookmark the Region of Interest blog by Todd Kopriva of Adobe. Todd was the documentation lead for several versions, and now is very active in tech support. His blog always has the most recent information on bug fixes, bug avoidance, best practices, and learning resources.

Todd recently helped create a learning resource of his own: a free series of After Effects Frequently Asked Questions videos on video2brain. These answer several of the most common panics users (both beginners and nont-beginners) may experience. One caveat: Most involve Preferences, which is under the Edit menu on the Windows machine Todd is using in these videos; on the Mac, prefs are found under the After Effects menu. Other than that, they’re short, clear, and to the point - well worth the very minimal time required.

Greenscreen Resources

As much as we like to keep up with the newest products and latest trends, some information is timeless - such as advice on shooting greenscreen. The After Effects Facebook feed forwarded a link to a very useful article by Jonas Hummelstrand of General Specialist posted back in 2006 that everyone should read before setting up a keying shoot. If I had to add one amplification, it would be to try to hire a stage that has some depth to it, so that the screen - and lighting for the screen - can be some distance behind the action; this will further blur it out, and reduce spill.

Here’s a few more links of note:

• We recorded a quick video tutorial on using Keylight in After Effects with lynda.com for Adobe
• Rosco and Composite Components sell paint, tape, fabrics, and lights for keying
• Alex Lindsay of Pixel Corps wrote a two-part Greenscreen Primer for PVC, broken down into the set and the camera

(By the way, we also overhauled the keying chapter in Creating Motion Graphics 5th Edition, including high-def sources to practice with courtesy of Hollywood Camera Work.)

If you have any other favorite resources, please feel free to post them in the Comments below!

Designing British Road Signs

I am a huge fan of the BBC programme Top Gear. Aside from the fact that I’m a car nut, I enjoy the wry humor, the unusual set (standing literally in the middle of the audience), the crazy stunts, and the graphic design that goes into the vignettes on many of the cars (that would be a nice gig…). I’ve been catching up on episodes with BBC America, and stumbled across an interesting interview with Margaret Calvert: one of the people responsible for designing the motorway signs in England after WWII. With the introduction of high-speed motorways, the government realized that their standard signs didn’t work. As a result, a whole new font and set of icons were designed. Graphic designers interested in how to convey information quickly may enjoy some of her insights:

Creative Suite 5 is Shipping

Less than three weeks after “launching” Creative Suite 5 at NAB, Adobe has started shipping it, including After Effects and Premiere Pro. In case you missed it in the middle of the NAB information overload, Scott Simmons has already (p)reviewed Premiere Pro CS5, and we did the same with After Effects CS5. I imagine we’ll all have a lot more to say once we get a chance to use it more in real-world situations; stay tuned…

Making It Look Great 7 Review

Last summer I wrote an lengthy review of the Motionworks’ Making It Look Great 6 training series, where Tim Clapham did a great job covering the integration of Cinema 4D and After Effects. I mentioned my wish for Tim to do a full series on using Cinema’s MoGraph module, and little did I know that such a series was already in the works. Not wanting to wait, I offered to proof it as it was being developed (crafty, huh!), and now it’s arrived in a store near you as Making It Look Great 7.

MILG7 consists of six projects produced using a wide variety of MoGraph objects and effectors. Not only will you learn tons of MoGraph techniques as you create some fun animations, but sprinkled throughout are a great many solid Cinema working practices that will serve you well in any project.

Adobe Community Leaders Summit

Last week, Adobe invited a variety of well-known people in the industry to come get a closer look at what they’ve been working on, and to provide feedback on their direction. To Adobe’s credit, this was no “preaching to the choir” session; many of those invited were FCP and Avid editors, and several current users gave Adobe personnel an earful both publicly and privately. It was also made clear to us that no specific product versions or release dates were being discussed, and that we couldn’t repeat anything that had not already been mentioned publicly (reminds us of the old Zen Buddhist saying “Those who know don’t say; those who say don’t know”). However, this event gives us an excuse to aggregate into one place a number of emerging technologies Adobe has already murmured about, for those who haven’t had the chance to keep up…

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