(Page 3 of 3 pages for this article  <  1 2 3)

Filed under: 3D •Motion Graphics •Training •

Making It Look Great 6 Review

Teaching Stuff

Trying to create a complex project that is both functional and realistic is a tricky balancing act. Tim manages to cover a wide range of useful and advanced techniques while still managing to create a good-looking project that makes sense. (He even throws in a few client changes to make it more realistic!) If he were to write this up with lots of figures, I dare say it would make a fairly substantial book!

All the source material and final project files are included with the training. MILG6 uses Cinema version R11, but accommodates users of R10 and R10.5 with additional movies or instructions where necessary. The After Effect section uses version CS3 (CS4 projects are not backwards compatible so that makes sense). I would have liked to have gotten intermediate Cinema project files after each section for comparison so that I could pick up the series in the middle using a starter file I know is correct!

I did have a problem with one of the Illustrator source files (MILG_TopStories.ai) not behaving as expected. Watch Tim’s explanation of how the rulers in the Illustrator file should be positioned in the center of the artwork, then open this file in Illustrator and check that the rulers are centered (they were not centered in the source I received). If you don’t fix the rulers, the text will be in the wrong position when imported into Cinema.

The tempo of the training is perfect for a spectator sport. Tim keeps things moving along nicely and there’s rarely a dull moment. When following along, the training is fairly easy to follow if you pay close attention. Mind you, the more experience you have using Cinema (or After Effects) the less likely you’ll be tripped up by actions that Tim performs on auto-pilot! At the bottom of the screen you’ll see symbols appear when Tim is pressing a key; if you can’t get something to work as expected, see if you’re missing pressing a modifier key. Similarly, in the first movie while setting up layouts, Tim says “just click” a couple of times when he really means to say right+click (which doesn’t show up as an overlay). And when he first tells you to “just duplicate” an object, press Control on Mac (Command on Windows) and drag the object in the Object Manager.

The only thing I did not enjoy was the method used to highlight the cursor click. On every mouse click a green “radio wave” animates out from the click point. It might sound like a small thing to gripe about, but it’s distracting and tiring on the eyes (particularly late at night). If Tim happens to click multiple times in quick succession, the cursor is swallowed up in a pond of green ripples (it’s like being hypnotized!). Each radio wave take two seconds to evolve and fade off, so a wave may be still animating while Tim has moved to another part of the screen - at which point you don’t know quite where to look! Granted, if there was no highlight at all, you might lose the cursor (Tim is a fast worker), but I wish he would have used something simple that quickly disappeared.

Learning Stuff

The six hours of Cinema training is broken down into 10 movies that are 30–45 minutes each, which I found was just the right amount before my head began to explode. (As with everything in life, learning a new program is hard before it is easy.)

You will get the best out of this (and any) training if you actually follow along. I did this for the first couple of movies, but then I realized that a 45-minute section took a few hours to complete. Since there were 8 hours of movies total and I had a review to do, I switched over to spectator mode and kept notes instead.

If you decide to follow along, be warned that Tim crams tons of information and tips into every minute. You might want to keep a notebook (or a text file) handy to write down a summary of the shortcuts you just learnt or things to explore in more detail later. My notes file was over 30 pages long; I even included a rough timeline of where features were covered so I could easily find them again by doing a quick search for a keyword.

Also allow some time for stumbling around as you figure out why something isn’t working as expected. It’s nearly always user error: I found as I scrubbed the movie back and forth, I could easily miss Tim clicking a switch or setting a popup that makes all the difference in how a feature works. If in doubt, rewind and watch the action more carefully.

While the financial investment is small, the time investment is large if you want to complete the project yourself. But most teachers will tell you that you can’t learn to drive by being a passenger - you need to get behind the steering wheel. A good approach might be to watch one tutorial movie in full, then rewind and follow along. At least you’ll know where Tim is heading. Occasionally Tim will go off on a tangent to demo additional features, so you’ll also know not to follow along if you’ve watched it through once already.

A good rule of thumb is that if your brain hurts, you must be learning something new. While my brain really hurt watching the Cinema sections, it practically sighed in relief as soon as it saw the familiar After Effects interface. If you’re a good Cinema user, you might have the same experience in reverse.

Summary

If you already have some experience with 3D in general, Cinema 4D and After Effects (i.e., you’ve made it onto the first step of the ladder), the instruction here is incredibly useful for intermediate/advanced users. MILG6 is not the only Cinema instruction beginners will ever need; if you’re relatively new to the program or to 3D, some of the concepts and shortcuts here go by a bit fast.

If you are evaluating which 3D program to use with After Effects, MILG6 is a small investment to check out if Cinema 4D is the right fit for you or your company. In particular, the last three movies will give you great insight into where Cinema gets its well-deserved reputation for After Effects integration.

If you’re a motion graphics artist wondering how Cinema is used in a real-world project, I’ve no hesitation in recommending this training series as it intelligently crafts a fairly complex project. Also check out the earlier MILG series if you are looking to improve your After Effects skills.

For futher Cinema tutorials, Tim maintains a great blog at HelloLUXX (formerly called HypaBlog) offering tips for Cinema and After Effects users. Maxon also offers Cineversity for a reasonable annual fee, although there are many free tutorials available as well.

Final tip: If your brain hurts, every time Tim says “Cool stuff!” it’s a reminder to hit Pause and have some tea…

footnote: “miss-me” (coined by Bottler, a character of Irish comedian Brendan Grace), means “mystery”.

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

(Page 3 of 3 pages for this article  <  1 2 3)

                   

 

2D Footage with a Stereo 3D Rig in After Effects CS5.5 Jeff Foster | 02/10 Edit and Optimize 2D Stereo Pairs from a 3D Video Camera or Twin Cameras with a Modified Stereo 3D Rig in After Effects CS5.5 Adobe included a 1-step option to create a 3D Stereo Camera Rig in After Effects CS5.5, to everyone’s enthusiasm for a simpler workflow in 3D space. Great if you are working in 3D space in After Effects, but what about an easy option for 3D Stereo pairs captured by a 3D camera…

Expression Shorts - Numerical Readout David Torno | 02/05 Create numerical readouts for use in HUD style graphics. With this Expression, I will show you how to feed numerical property information…

After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Exploring Shape Effects Chris and Trish Meyer | 01/31 An overview of five of the simpler shape operators that can turn your basic outline into something quite twisted. As we mentioned awhile back, we’ve been busy the past year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training…

You must be registered to comment. This is an effort to reduce spam. Please REGISTER HERE.

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: