CMG Keyframes

We have written numerous articles and columns for a variety magazines over the years, including our previous long-running “Motion Graphics” column in DV magazine plus currently a monthly “Tips n Tricks” article for Artbeats.com. A summary of everything we’ve written that’s still available online can be viewed here.

It is our intention to move the “key” articles in this archive (with updates, where appropriate) over to this site to ensure you have reliable access to them in the future. Although some were written years ago, they still contain useful tips and concepts on both technique and design. We will also be adding new articles as subjects come up; shorter takes on subjects will appear over on our Creating Motion Graphics channel.

If you can’t find an article on the subject you’re interested in, let us know in a “comment” to this post. Also, there’s always our books Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects and After Effects Apprentice. You can see summaries of these - including samples - on the books page of our website.

Last week, we added a column that was an introduction to Parenting in After Effects. Keeping the theme of “different ways to group items and coordinate their actions,” this week we’re adding a column that provides an introduction to Expressions in After Effects.

At their simplest, Expressions can be thought of as very selective parenting; at their most complex, they allow you program operations you wouldn’t dream of keyframing. Initially daunting, they might be the most significant feature added to After Effects. Even if you consider yourself to be an artist rather than a programmer, it is well worth learning the basics, as they will save you time on almost every project.

Click here to jump straight to “Expressive Animation.”

After Effects 5 was a classic upgrade: It introduced many vital features, including parenting and expressions. For old-timers who never explored these new areas, or for beginners who are just getting their legs under them in mastering this deep program, we’re going to re-post a couple of old columns that provided gentle introductions to these two features.

Up this week is parenting. Parenting provides a way to group objects, making it easier to transform and animate them as a unit, as well as create complex animations such as arm linkages.

Next week, we’ll introduce the wonderful world of expressions. At their simplest, they can be thought of as very selective parenting; at their most complex, they allow you program operations you wouldn’t dream of keyframing. Initially daunting, they might be the most significant feature added to After Effects yet.

Click here to jump straight to “Parenting Skills”.

Finishing our tour of 3D lighting in After Effects, in this third column we discuss how to recreate gobo and gel effects. Gobos cast shadow patterns, while gels are colored filters that in turn control the color of the light being projected. Use video in place of a solid color, and you can project video onto other objects (such as the example here).

Click here to jump straight to “Gobos and Gels.”

(The first installment in this series - an overview, with helpful information on the Material Options - can be found here. The second installment - which focused on tips and tricks for conventional shadows - can be found here.)

Every month, we write a Tips N Tricks article for our friends at Artbeats.com. This month we wrote a piece about spotting hit points in music and dialog, plus a series of pointers on how to place edit points, transitions, and animation keyframes based on these hit points. We strongly believe the tight integration between audio and video is a secret weapon that can be used to raise your productions above the rest; we hope you find this introduction worthwhile.

Click here to download a 333 KB PDF of “Editing to Sound” from Artbeats.com.

While we’re talking about Artbeats, Steve Holmes (formerly of Total Training) also just created for Artbeats a new video tutorial that shows you how to “step through time with an innovative look at the evolution of energy.” You can download the 36+ minute tutorial from Artbeats.com by clicking here.

By the way, if you’d like to share one of your own projects with Artbeats and their customers, email them - if they choose yours, you’ll get $1000 worth of free Artbeats footage of your choice!

Artbeats has a monthly email newsletter which contains links to each of our articles for them as they are released, plus a link for registered users to download a free full-size clip every month. Click here to register.

In the second part of a three-part series we wrote about learning lighting in After Effects, we covered shadows. Among the gems uncovered include the one parameter that defaults to “off” when it needs to be “on” to see shadows (the Cast Shadows switch for the layer in front), what affects shadow size (the type of light plays a big roll, along with distance between the light, layers, and camera), how to soften or sharpen shadows including how Shadow Diffusion works, and how to create colored shadows.

Click here to jump straight to “Lurking in the Shadows.”