Chris & Trish Meyer

Creating Motion Graphics is the blog for award-winning motion graphic designers Chris and Trish Meyer of Crish Design (formerly CyberMotion). Here is where they share not just their latest tips, tricks, and gotchas for the tools they use, but also discoveries that help them run their business, sources that inspire their designs, and musings on the future of the motion graphics industry.

Chris & Trish Meyer founded Crish Design (formerly known as CyberMotion) in the very earliest days of the desktop motion graphics industry. Their design and animation work has appeared on shows and promos for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, HBO, PBS, and TLC; in opening titles for several movies including Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley; at trade shows and press events for corporate clients ranging from Apple to Xerox; and in special venues encompassing IMAX, CircleVision, the NBC AstroVision sign in Times Square, and the four-block-long Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas. They were among the original users of CoSA (now Adobe) After Effects, and have written the numerous books including "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects" and "After Effects Apprentice" both published by Focal Press.

Both Chris and Trish have backgrounds as musicians, and are currently fascinated with exploring fine art and mixed media in addition to their normal commercial design work. They have recently relocated from Los Angeles to the mountains near Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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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