Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The Shape of Things to Come: Shape Layers Introduction

An overview of Shape Layers in Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional.

For motion graphics artists, one of the most significant new features introduced in After Effects CS3 was Shape Layers. This feature brings important components of Adobe Illustrator into After Effects, and allows them to be animated.

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Thursday, November 02, 2006

Brighter Whites; Richer Colors Part 2: sRGB

How to best incorporate digital photos into your After Effects projects.

In the last column, we discussed the time-honored headache of managing different video luminance ranges, and how After Effects 7 has made this a little easier to deal with. In this column, we cover an even more common problem with color space issues: working with digital photos or scans that have been saved in the sRGB color space. 

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Friday, September 01, 2006

Brighter Whites; Richer Colors, Part 1: 16-235

Two new features in After Effects 7 ease color-critical format conversion.

Have you ever received washed-out images from a client - or even yourself? Did you just let it slide ("well, that’s the way they shot it"), or cursed them for making you lose more sleep as you tried to make it look better? Well, we have two bits of news for you. One, the fault may not be in the footage, but in the way you’ve been handling it. Two, in Adobe After Effects 7, it’s now easier to handle it the right way. In this column, we’ll talk about video and the infamous luminance range issue; in the next column, we’ll turn our attention to still images and sRGB color space.

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Nucleo Pro

GridIron Software’s Nucleo Pro renders After Effects frames while you’re still working.

We all love After Effects plug-ins that give exciting new looks. However, equal acclaim should be accorded those that simply give us more time. A promising new plug-in in this category is GridIron Software’s Nucleo Pro. It was in beta at the time we wrote this (August 2006), but we couldn’t wait to share it with you, and also give you a peek under the hood to understand how it works.

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Saturday, January 28, 2006

Camera Control, Part 2: Graph Editor & Dolly Rigs

Using parenting, expressions, and the new After Effects 7.0 Graph Editor to better control a 3D camera. 

In the previous column, we discussed a handful of tricks and techniques which can be used in different situations to make it easier to animate the 3D camera in After Effects, including one node cameras, two node cameras, auto-orientation, and building a special orbiting camera rig using parenting and null objects. In this column we’ll show how to build a “dolly” rig for the camera in older versions of After Effects as well as the new version 7.0, plus give a quick introduction to the new Graph Editor also introduced in After Effects 7.0.

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Monday, January 09, 2006

Camera Control, Part 1: Auto-Orient & Orbit

Some basic 3D camera control tricks in Adobe After Effects.

One of the most daunting obstacles for motion graphics artists making the transition from 2D to 3D is animating the camera. In this month’s column, we’ll give a quick review of the two basic camera types you can animate in After Effects, plus reveal the easy-to-miss Auto-Orient Along Path option. Then we’ll show you how to build a simple “camera rig” for performing perfect camera orbit and spiral moves. In the next column, we will discuss approaches to building a more complex rig that allows the user to animate each axis independently, and show how this has been made much easier in After Effects 7.0 with a special Animation Preset plus the introduction of a new Graph Editor.

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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Map Exploration

Exploring ways to direct a viewer around a map using effects, text animators, and other tricks using Adobe After Effects.

A common task is navigating around a map-like image. In this column, we’ll discuss three different approaches to this challenge: stroking a line, animating text elements along a path, and auto-orienting an object of your choosing along a path.

These techniques use features that are spread around Adobe After Effects. Our goal is to pull them together for you, and show the different approaches and options. We’ll be assuming a basic working knowledge of the program; you can also download and explore our final After Effects project (created for AE 6.5 and later) by clicking here (12.5 MB .zip file). Movies of the three techniques are included with the download.

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

The Hi-Def Checklist

Questions to ask and issues to consider when you tackle a high-definition graphics job.

Many motion graphics artists are tackling their first high-definition jobs. In some respects, hi-def is just like normal video; only larger. However, hi-def also comes with a number of issues which can throw some major curves at you. As with all problems in waiting, it’s best to solve them before you start, rather than when you think you’re almost finished. Here are a series of questions you need to ask, and what the implications are – both technical and artistic – of the answers you may get.

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