Friday, February 01, 2008

Welcome to Creating Motion Graphics

Sharing in a new place.

Welcome to the Creating Motion Graphics blog on ProVideo Coalition! We’re very happy to be here, and look forward to using this new forum to share with our fellow motion graphics artists tips and trends that we think might be useful or intriguing. We will also be posting an archive of many of our past articles and columns which contain a wealth of advice and techniques. And on occasion, we will be posting our musings on the state of the industry (such as in the rest of this entry, past the “more” jump).

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Monday, August 18, 2008

TED Talk: How creativity is being strangled by the law

Can the genie be put back in the bottle? Or should we just attach a leash to it?

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I find many of the talks relevant to how we think about motion graphic design.

One of the boundaries we must design within are the legal restrictions on the content we might want to use. I’ve written a bit about this previously in blogs on the Public Domain and music licensing. Although I personally believe very strongly in the preservation of the rights of content creators - after all, it’s how people like you and me make money -
Larry Lessig makes an impassioned presentation on how he wishes copyright law would make room for “(re)creation” using previously-created, potentially copyrighted content - think mash-ups (and make sure you watch the three examples that start just past the 8 minute mark; each one is more humorous than the previous one*). If creativity is too restricted, he fears we may become a “Read Only” culture where we only consume, not create.

Click above to watch Larry Lessig’s presentation; click here to see the high-res MP4 version. It will be time well-spent.

(*After watching these examples, I feel compelled to mention how useful it is to master “time remapping” in programs like After Effects. Click here to download a PDF of a tutorial we wrote for Artbeats on the subject; click here to read one Mark Christiansen wrote. Time remapping is also covered in Chapter 27 of our book Creating Motion Graphics, and Lesson 7 of our book After Effects Apprentice.) Also read this article on Artbeat.com on how to smooth out the differences between frames after you’ve changed a clip’s speed.

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

After Effects CS4 Will Be Intel-Only

Time to upgrade, and put those PPC machines to rest…

Just a quick note that Adobe has confirmed that the next version of After Effects will not run on PowerPC (G5, G4, etc.) Macs. The reasoning is given here on Michael Coleman’s blog (he’s the product manager for After Effects).

We’re among those who have been hanging onto our reliable old G5 workstations; this news is dragging us into the 21st century. Fortunately, Apple has made it a bit easier by offering refurbished Intel MacPros from their online store at some very attractive prices, complete with warranty and free shipping. We just received a pair of 3.2 GHz 8-cores (while we were at it, we got a pair of new Cinema displays as well - we had both been using original 22” Cinema displays; Trish paid $4k for hers when it first came out - but it’s been worth it), and might order a third machine soon for the music/podcast studio. Click here and scroll down to see the current models on offer; they do come and go (I’m a bit bummed we didn’t jump on a cheap 2.8 GHz 8-core that was up there this weekend). They have a lot of Intel-based MacBook Pros up there as well.

Part of this upgrade has meant dealing with new RAM configurations, among other things. We’re in the middle of a bad-RAM story; I’ll post more on that after we have a resolution (and try a different vendor for our third machine).

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

XScriptorium: New AE Script/Expression Resource

Another place to find useful scripts and expressions

I completely understand that expressions and scripting in After Effects can be intimidating to users of a more artistic bent. And you can certainly create great work in AE without using expressions or scripting. But every now and then - more often than you might expect - knowing just a little can save you time in creating repetitive, tricky, or precise animation. I liken them to having the ultimate unpaid intern hanging around studio. Fortunately, there are several free web resources available that allow you to dip your toe in these waters.

The latest is Ole Sturm’s XScriptorium site. It has just launched in public beta, and contains a lot of content from the AE online help file (you use Help, don’t you?), but already shows some very nice organization and a few expressions described clearly from a “so you want to do this” point of view. It is based on code contributions from users; not just Ole. He also allows you to “tip” the expression or script’s creator should you find their contribution useful. Check it out.

In this vein, make sure you also check out the established sites MotionScript.com by the friendly guru Dan Ebberts (which is as much about learning how to write expressions and scripts as it is a resource for useful expressions), and AEnhancers, a moderated forum on scripting and expressions with multiple contributors.

And of course, our own books Creating Motion Graphics and After Effects Apprentice have introductory chapters on expressions. In particular, check out the bonus chapter on CMG’s DVD-ROM which is a rather detailed resource for writing more advanced expressions, with examples.

A few hours spent learning “just enough to be dangerous” will more than repay you in time saved, I promise.

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Monday, August 11, 2008

TED Talk: Where does creativity hide?

Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. Fortunately, TED tapes their presentations, and has been making an effort to post their huge archive of talks for free on the internet.

While browsing these talks, I was particularly taken by Amy Tan’s presentation on “Where does creativity hide?” It’s a humorous review of her own creative process. Although she comes from a different field (she’s the novelist behind The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses), I found it very entertaining as well as insightful, as it bounced from personal creativity to deciding to what we’re going to do with our lives, using her mother, advanced physics, and world events as touchstones. I hope you enjoy it as well.

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Saturday, August 09, 2008

Spotlight: Promos for FOX’s “Fringe”

Buster Design brings the print ads to life with excellent 3D animation and sound design.

As mentioned earlier, we will be discussing motion graphics projects executed by other studios. This time around, it’s Buster Design and the on-air promos they created for Fringe, a new series premiering this September on FOX - click here to view movies of the final animations. I had the chance to chat with Brandon Pleus of Buster about what went into this project.

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Sunday, August 03, 2008

Spotlight: Nordisk Panorama Filmfestival 2008

Silhouettes and particles are two main features of this film festival promo.

As we mentioned in a recent post, we’d like to start featuring projects by other motion graphics artists, including some background on what went into their creation. First up is a promo for the Nordisk Panorama 5 Cities Film Festival 2008 created by André Hedetoft. Two of the components of this promo that particularly caught our eye were the use of silhouetted figures, and the lovely particle effects.

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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Adobe will support RED

The news many of us have been waiting for…

Sorry for the short post, but I know this is news many of us have been waiting to hear (and sooner than some of us thought):

“Within a week, RED R3D files will open natively in CS3 Premiere Pro and After Effects.” On both Mac and Windows.

This is not a rumor; this is the real deal.

Here is the thread on Reduser.net.

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