Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects CS5.5

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).

Updated: Adobe Warp Stabilizer (P)Review

As noted earlier this week, Adobe TV posted a video - attached to the top of this post - that previews a new technology called the Warp Stabilizer. I’ve had a chance to work with a pre-release version of the Warp Stabilizer, and Adobe kindly gave me permission to pass along some of my experiences.

After Effects Apprentice: Creating Transparency

We’re often asked: What’s the difference between editing and motion graphics?

Although there’s always exceptions to every rule, one way to distinguish between them is the way a project is built: Editing projects tend to be arranged horizontally, cutting between different scenes over time; motion graphics projects quite often are arranged vertically, with multiple elements - including footage, text, and other graphics - appearing on screen at the same time.

The logical next question is: How do you see through one layer to the other elements underneath? This is something we’ve written a lot of articles and recorded a lot of videos about, including our most recently released courses on lynda.com. Sounds like a good time for a quick reference to them all.

In Appreciation Of The Lowly Wipe

While editing Michele Yamazaki’s upcoming book on After Effects plug-ins, she reminded us of the classic, then-revolutionary video Cry by the English singer/songwriter/music video producer duo of Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. Created prior to the days of morphing software, it pushed the limits of what could be done with soft-edge wipes between carefully aligned shots, dropping more than one jaw as a result. (Yes, today’s more sophisticated eyes will pick apart the flaws - but keep in mind this was all done in analog, over 25 years ago.)

Free Plug-ins for After Effects, FCE, FCP, and FCS (including Motion)

Facebook in the new grapevine: I learned earlier this week courtesy of CoreMelt’s Facebook news feed that CoreMelt (creators of the Lock & Load stabilizer for FCP, in addition to numerous other effects) was giving away a package of free effects (sorry - Mac only), ranging from transitions ImageFlow animations to footage enhancers (vignette, color correction, light rays, etc.) to several glitch-oriented effects to a nice suite of effects which generate graphics from audio files.

Smith & Nephew VERILAST Commercial

Silhouettes…ink splashes…particle streams that follow movement…all very pretty; all arguably done to death by now. Thus my pleasant surprise to see a commercial (for a knee replacement, of all things!) that pulled these design ideas to together in a very fresh, understated yet lovely fashion. If anyone knows who did this (or how), please share. In the meantime, here’s the spot:

Art of the Title: Quantum of Solace

The good folks at The Art of the Title Sequence have recently posted a wonderful exposé on the titles for the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, including an in-depth, wide-ranging interview with Ben Radatz, Creative Director of the much-admired design house MK12 (“a full-service lateral hyperthreaded tactical design and research bureau”). Ben shares quite a bit about both the creative process and actual steps of creation, with loads of visual examples. I high recommend the read.

The Art of the Title Sequence have explored nearly 200 television and motion picture titles over the years, with dozens of interviews - it’s a great site in general for any motion graphic artist or student looking for inspiration (or even just the TV & movie überfan looking for more behind-the-scenes knowledge!).

2+ Hours of Free Video Training on Shatter

Many After Effects users are familiar with Brian Maffitt, founder of Total Training. Brian also ran a plug-in company called Atomic Power for a couple of years. His Evolution plug-in set was distinguished by 1) deep controls, and 2) hours of video training that came free in the box. Adobe bought Atomic Power and integrated most of the plug-ins into After Effects, including Shatter, Card Dance, Card Wipe, Caustics, Wave World, and Colorama. Most of the controls in those plug-ins haven’t changed since AE version 4 (not CS4, but the 4 before there was CS).

What does that history lesson have to do with today? Brian has started diving into his archive of video training, with the intention of making available for free still-useful material that doesn’t fit into the current Total Training library anymore. He started by posting the 2+hours of training he originally created for the Shatter effect on Total Training’s YouTube channel. Below are all 6 parts:

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