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(Page 2 of 2 pages for this article < 1 2) Friday, November 07, 2008After Effects Error CodesWonder what those cryptic numbers mean? Here’s a few clues…
Motion Graphics • Visual Effects • Thursday, October 23, 2008Recently Added: Article on Texture Mapping in 2DAn old column on one of our favorite techniques.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008On Artbeats.com: Using the RED One for Stock FootageSome of their lessons learned shooting with the RED.
Cameras • Saturday, October 04, 2008Recently Added: Columns on Enhancing FootageA pair of classic columns on enhancing and colorizing sub-standard footage.
Motion Graphics • Pre-Production • Wednesday, September 17, 2008On Artbeats.com: Article on Type BasicsThings your mother didn’t tell you about creating nice text.
Monday, September 08, 2008Font ResourcesA compendium of resources for finding, buying, using, and being inspired by fonts.
Commercial Font FoundriesPlaces that create fonts, which you can purchase for commercial use: 2Rebels (make sure you click on “Enter” to get the English version of the site) Don Barnett Typography (very stylized) Chank (they also offer free fonts, and a custom font design service) Cool Fonts (big into grunge) Emigre (a classic foundry for design-oriented fonts) GarageFonts (one of the original grunge collections) ITC Fonts (another classic foundry) LetterHead Fonts (vintage looks) MiniFonts.com (specializes in fonts for web and mobile devices) P22 (another classic) +ism (warning: the web site is stylized to the point of being near-unusable) T.26 (another classic) Commercial Font DistributorsThese folks distribute fonts from multiple foundries (including those listed above): Freeware & SharewareNote: The distinction between free fonts and paid fonts are beginning to blur, as many previously freeware site are now charging for at least their new fonts (such as Blue Vinyl and Misprinted Type), or for the media or bandwidth required to deliver larger collections. If you’re using a freeware or shareware font for commercial purposes, be sure to read any Read Me file: many licenses are for personal or non-profit use, requiring payment for commercial applications. Also, if you’re a Mac user, many freeware fonts come as PC Truetype only. They should be readable under OS X if placed directly in the Fonts folder, though a converter like FontLab’s Transtype (see the previous page) is nice to have around. Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute FontFreak (a gateway to other free font sites, but beware the tidal wave of ads you may unleash...) HPLHS Vintage Fonts (we used their OldStyle in the opening titles for Cold Mountain) And if those are enough to explore, also check out A+ Font Links and the Fontlover.com site. Identifying FontsFinally, if you’ve already seen the perfect font, but don’t know its name or foundry, there are a couple of “font finders” you can try:
Friday, August 29, 2008After Effects Tips - Installment 2Learn something new everyday…
Motion Graphics • Visual Effects • Sunday, August 17, 2008After Effects Tips - Installment 1Learn something new everyday…
Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Monday, August 04, 2008Fractal Noise TutorialUsing the Fractal Noise effect to create seamless background textures.
Step 5: Next, let’s tweak the appearance of the fractal blocks:
Step 5: Tweak the fractal pattern by reducing the number of iterations (left), toning down how strongly these iterations are rendered (center), and reducing the size of each iteration (right).
Check that the comp is set to 50% and Half Resolution and RAM Preview; remember you can Shift+RAM Preview to render every nth frame (as set in the Shift+RAM Preview Options). Feel free to tweak to taste. A movie of your progress so far is shown at right. If the results look nothing like our version, check your settings against the prebuilt version [FractalNoise_after Step 05]. next page: tinting, plus lighting effects Monday, July 14, 2008On Artbeats.com: Article on Mixing AudioKeeping the viewer focused rather than confused when mixing voice, music, and sound effects.
Audio • Editing • Motion Graphics • Post Production • Sunday, July 13, 2008Layer Styles in After EffectsThe secret to getting better shadows, bevels, and glows.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008On Artbeats.com: Article on Editing to SoundOver on Artbeats.com, we’ve written an introduction to editing audio.
Audio • Editing • Motion Graphics • Thursday, May 15, 2008On Artbeats.com: Article on Frame RatesOver on Artbeats.com, we’ve written a treatise on frame rates.
Motion Graphics • Production • Thursday, April 17, 2008Q&A: Audio QueriesReal users have the best questions.
Analog audio is susceptible to noise being injected into the signal from outside sources, such as radio interference or from power transformers inside gear. Digital audio does not have this problem. Therefore, the sooner you can move the signal from the analog to digital realm, the better. Failing that, the sooner you can move your analog audio to +4 dB balanced audio connections, the better. The higher reference voltage plus the balanced wiring both help either drown out or reject outside noise. Microphone signals in particular have the lowest reference voltage, and therefore are the most fragile.
The most common standard for lining up the two is that –20dB in digital should equal –0dB in analog. That said, I found that BetaSP video decks tended to sound too distorted on audio peaks with this setting, so we adopted an in-house rule of –12dB digital would equal 0dB on the Beta deck. Along those lines, it’s a good idea to notate on your tape labels what assumptions you’ve made.
Your problem is coming from the fluorescent lights injecting noise into the power and ground systems in the room. You might try running a heavy duty extension cord to an outlet down the hall or in another room where the lights are off, hopefully getting off the same circuit the problematic lights are on. Then run all the gear you can off of that alternate circuit. If you can’t find a “clean” outlet nearby, you can buy a power strip with noise filtering built in; I use a Tripp Lite Isobar in my studio to plug my audio racks into (available on Amazon.com A popular but unfortunately discontinued pair of audio processing devices were the Roland SN550 and SN700, which had notch filters that removed ground hum as well as the “harmonics” of hum (noise at frequencies which are multiples of the AC current frequency of 60 Hz in the US, or 50 Hz in Europe). These notch + harmonic filters also can help remove fluorescent light buzz. Sweetwater Music closed out the last of their stock of SN700s for $300 each years ago...so sad. I did a little Google searching when I returned from NAB and found the Hum Bug Noise Eliminator, but it’s probably not an option for many at $1750 for a single channel. Note that a simple “hum eliminator” - which is really just a ground loop isolation transformer (such as the Ebtech and Radio Shack units I’ve mentioned elsewhere) - may not do the job. If you can’t find a hardware device to deal with the noise before you record it, better sound processing software such as Apple Soundtrack or Adobe Audition can selectively remove known noises. Record a bit of the noise solo with no one else talking in order to give these programs a clean scent as to what noise to go after and eliminate. By the way, if you hear a fluorescent light buzzing, there’s a good chance the ballast inside the light fixture is bad. Replacing the ballast often helps, if that’s an option.
Buzz is a sign of an insufficient ground connection, compared to hum which is a sign of too many ground connections (resulting in ground loops). So, you need to get a good ground from somewhere.
Even though there is no ground pin on the AC outlet itself, the conduit and wiring boxes connecting and holding the outlets should be grounded. Pick up a 3 prong to 2 prong AC adapter at Radio Shack or a hardware store, and connect the wire or metal lug on the 2 prong side to the screw holding the cover plate for the AC outlet. If the building is in bad shape, there is a possibility that the conduit has a break in it somewhere, and ground is not reaching the specific outlet you want to use. If ground buzz persists, try a different outlet. The absolute best solution is to do what audiophiles do to ensure the best possible ground, therefore reducing their noise and interference problems: Drive a copper stake into the ground outside the building, run a very thick copper wire from that stake to where you’re connecting power, and use that for your ground.
Audio • Production • Wednesday, March 12, 2008Pasting Paths from Illustrator to After EffectsThe essential trick to paste multiple paths to After Effects Shape Layers at once.
Pasting Multiple PathsIf you only create one Path in your Shape Layer, when you paste a group of paths After Effects won’t automatically create the right number of Paths - it will just fall back to its original behavior and paste a bunch of mask paths! And be aware that even if you first create the right number of Paths in a shape layer, and then paste each path individually, each shape will be placed centered in the comp (losing their relationship to each other).
If you paste paths individually from Illustrator to shape layers in After Effects, they will not maintain their relationship to each other, but instead will be centered in the comp.To paste multiple paths and maintain their relationship, you need to paste all of the paths at once. To do this, you first need to do a little prep:
The trick to pasting a group of layers is to first create the correct number of Paths in your shape group, and then carefully select all the Path properties. Now you can paste!
Our shape layer uses a radial gradient fill and a red stroke.Finish off your design by setting the Fill and Stroke properties to taste, or go wild with shape effects such as Pucker & Bloat or Wiggle Paths. (If you’re new to Shape Layers, we wrote an introduction to them in a previous column.) By the way, the above trick also works when you need to paste multiple mask paths to a shape layer - not just when pasting from Illustrator.
Yes, it really should be easier than this! We hope that Adobe considers a Paste Special (or even a Very Special) feature in the next revision so that users can choose whether to paste as mask paths or shape paths, and that the shape paths are created automatically. (Thanks for Jim Acquavella at Adobe for his help with figuring out the best workaround in the meantime.)
Monday, March 10, 2008On Artbeats.com: Article on Color Management in After EffectsOver on Artbeats.com, we’ve written a gentle introduction to color management in AE.
Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Monday, February 18, 2008Non-Square StrategiesSuggested workflows when dealing with non-square pixels and anamorphic formats.
The Maximum Sanity RouteThere is just a certain comfort level in working at the aspect ratio which matches how the viewer will eventually see the final image - you don’t need to worry about accidentally compromising your graphic design, font size, and the such as you compensate for looking at non-square pixels. Therefore, if we’re not worried about shot matching (not that you will be able to tell after the video has been compressed and broadcast), clients who are insane about image quality, or any other essential reason to maintain the look of the original image as accurately as possible, we will then instead set up our compositions, timelines, and the such at the corresponding square pixel size for the format we’re working in. In the 1080-line HDV case we’ve been talking about, that size would be 1920x1080 square pixels; for widescreen standard definition video, it would be 864x486 for NTSC or 1024x576 for PAL. As long as you have set the PAR correctly for all of your source footage, and remember to set your comp or timeline to use square pixels, your software should automatically expand your sources to fit your full composition or sequence size.
There are a few advantages to going this route:
If you follow this path, there are two things you need to also take into account:
In After Effects, you can re-introduce non-square pixels as you save the file to disk by using the Stretch section in the Render Queue’s Output Module for your comp.Of course, there are exceptions to every rule; in the next page we’ll discuss a few of those exceptions with the Standard Definition (SD) NTSC video formats such as D1 and DV. Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Sunday, February 03, 2008Key Concepts from the ArchivesWhere to find the best of what we’ve written in the past.
Training • Sunday, July 08, 2007Motion 3 = 3DThis significant update to Apple Motion includes a slick 3D implementation.
When you manipulate layers in 3D, an inset view appears that displays your world from a second useful angle - such as from the active camera’s point of view as you work in the Perspective viewThere are numerous interesting touches. For example, you can switch the Camera Type between “viewpoint” and “framing” which determines whether it rotates around its lens or its point of interest. When you’re manipulating an object, an inset viewer appears that displays a second angle, such as a perspective view of the scene or through the active camera. If you are having trouble reaching through a complicated scene to select a specific layer, tap X to bring up Apple’s Expos, which spreads the layers out, and then select the desired layer. Also, a small button to the right of a selected layer in the Project pane centers the viewer on that layer. Motion 3 contains a few other nice shortcuts to creating sophisticated 3D animations. For examples, lights have a falloff parameter, as does the camera - you can have layers automatically fade in and out depending on their distance from the camera. The already exceptional particle system can be toggled to work in 3D space, including having the layers it emits automatically orient to face the camera. There is also a new set of 3D text behaviors. And we don’t even have time to talk about the new paint engine… But We WishThere are two major shortcomings in Motion 3. The first is that the 3D implementation lacks 3D shadows: There is currently no way to cast shadows from one object to another where the size of the shadow changes depending on the space between objects. Although we miss this feature, it may not be a big issue for you - especially if you are going for a web-inspired dimensional flat look. Regardless, we expect this feature to appear in the future, especially as graphics cards become even more powerful so they can calculate the shadows in real time. In the meantime you always have traditional 2D drop shadows, which are an acceptable cheat in many situations. Second, you can only get Motion as part of Final Cut Studio. Apple long ago discontinued the ability to buy Motion - or for that matter, their excellent audio editing and composition program Soundtrack Pro - as a separate product. Even though we’re primarily Adobe After Effects artists, we’ve always considered Motion to be a must-have accessory (especially when it was available as a stand-alone for $300); as of version 3, Motion is becoming a very strong all-around graphics application in its own right. We hope Apple returns to selling Motion separately so that more users get the chance to play with it in the future. 3D • Motion Graphics • Post Production • Tuesday, May 01, 2007The Shape of Things to Come: Shape Layers IntroductionAn overview of Shape Layers in Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional.
Fill and Stroke are treated as effects in that you can add, delete, and re-order them while building a Shape Layer. If you have multiple Shape Groups, each can have their own Fill and Stroke. When you look at the components of Shape Layer in the Timeline panel, know that that shapes render from the top down, so the Fill and Stroke need to go after the paths. When you create a new Shape Layer from scratch, After Effects automatically adds Fill and Stroke for you.
Also of great interest is the Stroke > Dashes section in the Timeline: Here you can create dotted and dashes lines, including the ability to define the length and spacing of the segments. An unfortunate shortcoming of Stroke is the inability to vary the thickness along a path.
Merge and RepeatThere are also two special Shape Effects: Merge Paths, and Repeater. Merge Paths is akin to the Pathfinder in Illustrator. It defines how multiple Shape Paths interact - such as adding to, subtracting from, or intersecting with each other. The order of shape attributes is particularly important here; Merge Paths combines the two shapes above it in the attribute stack. Grouping Shape Paths and Effects gives you more control over how the paths interact.
Additionally, you can set the start and end opacity for the collection of repeated shapes. We wish there was more flexibility in defining opacity over a series of repeats. A workaround would be to follow Repeater with a Gradient Fill and Stroke, which will then treat the collection of repeated shapes as one complex shape. You can then create Opacity Stops for the gradients to fade the whole construct in and out as desired. Hopefully that gives you a good primer to get started with Shape Layers. After Effects CS3 ships with over forty Animation Presets for Shape Layers, including both still “sprites” and a handful of animations. Some of these animations use the popular wiggle expression to auto-animate shapes by manipulating their internal parameters. Adobe also released numerous additional Shape Presets when After Effects CS3 shipped; be sure to check out Adobe Exchange. Thursday, November 02, 2006Brighter Whites; Richer Colors Part 2: sRGBHow to best incorporate digital photos into your After Effects projects.
The Video Output methodTo employ this method, you will need some way of getting a video signal out of After Effects and onto a real video monitor. There are two main techniques to accomplish this. One is to add a video card that offers a second “video desktop” (we’ve used a Blackmagic DeckLink SP PCIe, among other cards, for this), and centering your comp viewer on this display. The other is to enable Preferences > Video Preview and output a copy of whatever’s in your comp viewer through either a video card (select the RGB option for its codec) or through FireWire to a DV camera or conversion box. Either way, you then need to connect your card or camera to a real video broadcast or production monitor - preferably one with SMPTE C standard phosphors. Finally, in Edit > Project Settings, leave the Working Space to its default of None. Once you’ve set up your monitoring chain, add your sRGB still image to a composition, and add Effect > Utility > Color Profile Converter. Set the Input Profile to sRGB IEC61966-2.1, and set the Output Profile to a wider working space, such as Apple RGB or Adobe RGB. View the image through your video monitor signal chain, and make any desired color corrections while watching this. The Project Working Space methodIf you don’t have a true video monitor chain, then you may want take advantage of After Effects 7’s new Working Space feature. This process is championed by Stu Maschwitz - one of the founders of the production and visual effects house The Orphanage, and driving force behind the Magic Bullet and eLin plug-in sets. To truly get inside Stu’s brain, you should read his blog on the subject: Go here, scroll down until you see Linear Color Workflow Part 1, and work your way upwards through the four parts, focusing in particular on the “By the way” aside between parts 1 and 2. We’ll summarize it here.
This method relies on your computer doing color profile conversion, and it knowing what monitor you have connected to it. As noted earlier, this happens somewhat automatically through ColorSync on a Mac; you can verify it by going to System Preferences > Displays > Color. Under Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Color Management, and again be prepared to have to find and install the profile for your monitor. Even better is if you can calibrate your monitor, using a system such as the GretagMacbeth Eye-One or ColorVision Spyder (here’s some examples on Amazon) Inside Edit > Project Settings, choose a working space for your project. If you are working in NTSC standard definition video, Stu suggests SMPTE C; Adobe suggests SDTV (Rec 601 NTSC). By doing this, After Effects will tell your operating system that AE is attempting to display images that originate in the video color space. Your operating system should then convert them as needed to be displayed accurately on your particular monitor. In addition to performing display adjustments for you, After Effects will also now assume that all of your sources are in the Working Space. If you have any sources that do not, you will need to use Effect > Utility > Color Profile Converter to convert them to that space. In this case, pick the Input Profile that matches your source (such as sRGB IEC61966-2.1 for most digital photos), and set the Output Profile to Project Working Space. If you want to work in a wider color space (for example, if your ultimate output is a computer screen), set your Working Space to Apple RGB or Adobe RGB, and use Color Profile Converter to bring all of your sources into this space. Color management in After Effects 7 is still very much a work in progress. In the meantime, hopefully these two columns have given you some techniques to get the most out of the sources you have, and make sure you are viewing your footage closer to the way it was originally shot. Postscript
As noted in the intro, Color Management in After Effects CS3 is far more advanced than it was in After Effects 7, allowing each source to be assigned a color profile in addition to being able to assign a profile as the working space for an entire project. You can also convert to the profiles of your choice when rendering to formats such as QuickTime. By using these in concert, you no longer need the Color Profile Converter. However, if you are not ready to jump into the deep end with Color Management, the Color Profile Converter is still a very useful tool for spot adjustments and corrections. Color Management in After Effects CS3 is covered in more detail in Creating Motion Graphics 4th edition Motion Graphics • Post Production • Friday, September 01, 2006Brighter Whites; Richer Colors, Part 1: 16-235Two new features in After Effects 7 ease color-critical format conversion.
Curing luminance issuesThe way to verify - and fix - what is going on is to view a color range histogram display for the footage, and look for gaps at the top and bottom which would indicate whether or not the luminance range has already been stretched out to its full contrast. In After Effects, add the footage to a composition, and apply a Levels effect. The figure to the right shows what these gaps look like. Footage that has a 16-235 luminance range may still have values that creep above or below these numbers, as many cameras allow you to shoot out-of-legal-range values - so it can sometimes be a bit of a judgment call. In most cases, the way to treat this footage and restore its contrast to full range is to use the Levels effect to set the Input Black to 16 and Input White to 235 (multiplying these values by 4, 16, or 256 depending if your parameter display is set to a 10, 12, or 16 bit range, respectively). You have to do this for every piece of footage from this codec, every time you use it. If you know ahead of time what your codec is doing, and you have After Effects 7, you can now take advantage of an Interpret Footage option to make this easier: Select the footage item in the Project panel, type cmd+F on Mac (ctrl+F on Windows), and look at the bottom of this dialog for the Expand ITU-R 601 Luma Levels switch shown below. Enable this if your footage is coming in with the washed-out 16-235 range. However, note that if the footage includes illegally bright whites in the 235 to 255 range, these areas may now posterize as they get clipped; if it’s too obvious, treat problem shots by hand using Levels or Curves.
In After Effects 7, the Interpret Footage dialog had an option to specify 601 luminance levels for a given footage item. This option disappeared in After Effects CS3, replaced by the ability to apply more descriptive color profiles to footage items.The nice thing about this option being in the Interpret Footage dialog is that it will be obeyed every time you use this clip in a project. Also, it is easy to copy and paste interpretation settings between clips in the Project panel: Set up one the way you like, select it, type Cmd+Opt+C (Ctrl+Alt+C) to copy these settings, select all of the other clips you wish to receive these settings, and type Cmd+Opt+V (Ctrl+Alt+V) to paste them. Alas, After Effects does not have a similar function in the Output Module, so if you are rendering back to one of these 16-235 range codecs, you need to compress the luminance range by hand. The easiest way to do this is to add a Layer > New > Adjustment Layer to the final comp (making sure it stretches over the entire length of the comp), add a Levels effect, and this time set the Output (not Input) Black to 16 and Output White to 235. Out-of-range whitesWhen we get footage from experienced shooters, they usually carefully monitor their white and black levels, and the video we capture from them safely falls inside the internal 601 16-235 range (0-100 IRE). However, as more clients started shooting their own footage using inexpensive DV cameras, we started getting footage that had out-of-range whites. It seems that many cameras - especially lower-end ones in auto mode - all too quickly exceed the normal 100 IRE white safe point that is mapped to 235 inside the DV codec. Try to use a camera that includes a zebra display (sometimes called a White-out Alert) that shows when you’ve exceeded legal whites. If the codec used for the footage hands us the original 601 luminance ranges, we can manually pull the 16 level of black down to zero, and leave the whites alone - not entirely color accurate, but better than having posterized hot spots. However, when codecs auto-convert - like DV in QuickTime on a Mac - we can’t make these adjustments inside of After Effects, as it is already adjusting the luminance range for us.
Fortunately, Final Cut Pro (FCP) reaches around the codec and can access the original internal values. Therefore, we’ve started taking problem shots into FCP, adding Effects > Video Filters > Color Correction > Color Corrector 3-way, and clicking on the Auto White Level switch (see Figure 3). This searches for the maximum white value in the current frame, and raises or lowers it as necessary to put it at the maximum legal white point. We then export this clip and use it in place of the original source. That’s how we deal with the most common video color space issue; next column, we’ll tackle the most common still image color space issue: the sRGB color profile. Postscript
As noted in the intro, Color Management in After Effects CS3 is far more advanced than it was in After Effects 7, allowing each source to be assigned a color profile in addition to being able to assign a profile as the working space for an entire project. You can also convert to the profiles of your choice when rendering to formats such as QuickTime. By using these in concert, you no longer need the Color Profile Converter. However, if you are not ready to jump into the deep end with Color Management, the Color Profile Converter is still a very useful tool for spot adjustments and corrections. Color Management in After Effects CS3 is covered in more detail in Creating Motion Graphics 4th edition Editing • Motion Graphics • Post Production • Thursday, August 03, 2006Work Smarter, Not Harder: Nucleo ProGridIron Software’s Nucleo Pro renders After Effects frames while you’re still working.
Nucleo Pro has its own Background Render Queue, which allows you to open and work in a new project while Nucleo Pro renders a different project.As compensation, Nucleo Pro also offers Background Render. With this feature, you set up a normal After Effects Render Queue - which can contain custom settings, multiple comps, and multiple Output Modules per comp - and then tell Nucleo Pro to start rendering this in the background. Unlike Spec Render, changes to your comps at this point will not cause Nucleo Pro to start over; it will render your comps in their state as of the time you started the background render. As a result, not only can you continue working on the comps (say, to create variations on a theme), you can even open another After Effects project and work on that while the previous project renders. Finally, Nucleo Pro also offers a Commit to Disk feature, which allows you to render just selected layers in a comp to disk. Nucleo will render these layers to their own proxy movie, insert that result in your current timeline, and turn off the layers it replaces. This allows you to still make changes to the cached layers. Under the HoodAs mentioned, the way Nucleo Pro pulls all this off is by launching multiple invisible copies of After Effects in the background, and using those for processing (a similar technique is used by After Effects CS3). In the case of a quad processor or core machine, Nucleo Pro will try to launch up to five invisible copies of AE in addition to the one you are working in: one per CPU, and an additional “encoding” copy (which converts cached frames into a movie). Nucleo Pro manages what each copy does, as well as RAM allocations. Given free rein, Nucleo Pro will use as much as 21 gigs of RAM on a quad machine! If you don’t have enough RAM, Nucleo Pro will scale how many additional copies of AE it launches. Spec Preview and Spec Render also benefit from having an additional fast drive to cache to. You will get some of Nucleo Pro’s benefits even on a single CPU machine. And since it’s copies of After Effects - not Nucleo Pro - that’s rendering the pixels, you don’t have to worry about different frames looking different. As with all things in life, there are limitations to Nucleo Pro. For example, plug-ins, which prevent multiple copies from running at once, may give render errors. GridIron is working with vendors to remedy these problems; one workaround is to install “render slave” versions of these plug-ins when available. Additionally, plug-ins that work across multiple frames may render more slowly. There are also some special cases where using Nucleo Pro will cause a project to start up more slowly, or will take some time to clean up RAM after intensive renders; more complex projects also take longer before they start a Spec Preview, Spec Render, or Background Render as they need time to be loaded into the background copies of After Effects. To help Nucleo Pro keep all of the caches and copies of After Effects coordinated, it is also a good idea to not change things like activated fonts while After Effects is open, and to quit Nucleo Pro processes such as background renders before quitting After Effects itself. Overall, it’s nice when a third party company obviously monitors the requests of users when developing a new product. Nucleo Pro may not give your graphics a sexy new look, but anything that gives us back more time is pretty sexy to us. Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Saturday, January 28, 2006Camera Control, Part 2: Graph Editor & Dolly RigsUsing parenting, expressions, and the new After Effects 7.0 Graph Editor to better control a 3D camera.
After Effects 7.0One of the reasons we’re so loyal to After Effects is the way its team keeps adding user-oriented production refinements in each update. Along these lines, After Effects 7.0 has an Animation Preset that helps build a dolly camera rig for you.
This will automatically add a custom expression control to the null with values for X, Y, and Z Position, plus the expression we detailed earlier (with the added feature - or nuisance, if you aren’t aware of it - of adding the null’s original position to the controller values; you can enter 0,0,0 for the null’s Position if you find this annoying). You now keyframe the effect’s X, Y, and Z Position values to move the camera. To rotate it, as before, animate the Rotation values for either the null or the camera. Hand in hand with this is a major new feature in After Effects 7.0: the Graph Editor. Some users - especially those comfortable working in advanced 3D animation packages - have long wished that After Effects offered a more sophisticated way to edit value and velocity curves, including the ability to view multiple properties (even from multiple layers) overlaid in the same space. To view how keyframed properties vary over time, select the layer or layers you want to view, and then click on the Graph Editor button along the top of the Timeline panel (the rightmost icon, just to the left of the time ruler). The area of the Timeline panel which normally displays the layer bars will be replaced by the Graph Editor (shown below). By default, all animated properties of the selected layer or layers will be displayed. To reduce clutter, properties which are not enabled for keyframing are not displayed unless you select their name.
A significant addition introduced in After Effects 7.0 was the Graph Editor, which allows you to view and edit multiple parameters as a set in the Timeline panel.The graph lines are color-coded; in the case of position-oriented properties, X, Y, and Z values are correspondingly colored red, green, and blue (RGB). Multiple keyframes may be selected and manipulated as a group. Hovering your cursor over a graph line shows that property’s value at that point in time. There are numerous ways to customize the Graph Editor’s display; for example, if you enable the Graph Editor Set button for a property to the right of the Keyframe enable/disable button, that property will always be displayed even if the layer is not selected. There will undoubtedly be a learning curve for many users as they adjust to the new Graph Editor. We’ll be using After Effects 7.0 in the next few columns, hopefully helping you become more familiar with its new interface and features. 3D • Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Monday, January 09, 2006Camera Control, Part 1: Auto-Orient & OrbitSome basic 3D camera control tricks in Adobe After Effects.
Auto-Orient Along PathThe middle option in the Auto-Orientation dialog - Orient Along Path - is also very interesting (and useful!). When you set up an animation for the camera, this is the easiest way to make sure the camera is always pointing along its path, making space flythroughs much easier. (In case you didn’t already know, normal layers can be set to auto-orient along their 2D or 3D paths as well.) The one feature Orient Along Path does not take into account is “banking” where an object in flight - such as an airplane - rotates along its Z axis to lean into its turns. You will have to animate this yourself. Keyframe the camera’s Z Rotation so that the maximum bank angle is reached at or just a little before the middle of a turn. Return Z Rotation to 0 degrees when the camera is traveling straight. Set the interpolation for these keyframes to Easy Ease, or at least Auto Bezier, to smooth out the motion. Orbit RigYou may think from the description of the two-node camera that it would be perfect for orbiting around an object. However, it is difficult to make sure the camera is always the same distance from its Point of Interest, or to perform smooth push-ins or pull-outs while orbiting. Why? Because you have to tweak the Bezier curves for the camera’s Position path to form a perfect circle or spiral, which is much easier said than done. If you use the Orbit Camera tool in After Effects’ Comp window to position the camera, you may be fooled into thinking you are moving in a perfect arc, but the Position keyframe that will be created will have no memory of that arc - the camera will interpolate essentially directly between Position keyframes, causing the camera to pass closer to the object during the middle of the move.
When you use the Orbit Camera tool to create keyframes, the camera interpolates more or less straight between points, passing closer to the object between keyframes (left). You can edit the path’s Bezier handles to create a better arc, but this can be tricky (right).Null Objects and Parenting provide a simple solution to this problem. Find the coordinates in 3D space of the “hero” you want centered in your orbit. Create a Layer > New > Null Object (a layer that does not render), enable its 3D Layer switch, and give its Position the same coordinates as your hero. Create a new camera, and nudge it until it points in a straight line at your object. Set the camera’s Point of Interest to the same Position value as the hero and null. Next, turn your attention to the Parent column in the Timeline window (if it is not visible, type Shift+F4 to reveal it). Click on the Parent popup for the camera, and set it to the null. The camera is now a child of the null. To orbit the camera, animate the Rotation parameters for the null: This will swing the camera around on the end of a stick, keeping it the same distance from the null object. To vary this distance, change the Z position value for the camera, while leaving the X and Y values alone. Animate the null’s Rotation and camera’ Z position together to create spirals.
A camera rig build using parenting and null objects makes it easy to animate perfect orbits, spirals, and corkscrews.It is also easy to use this rig to make the camera appear to ascend or descend while maintaining a perfect orbit or spiral. The simplest way is to animate the null object’s Y Position value. For best results, create two null objects when you set up an orbit rig. Parent the camera to the first null, and then parent the first null to the second null. Animate the Y Position of the first null to raise and lower the camera, and the Rotation of the second null to perform the orbit. As fun as this is, it’s just the beginning of what you can do with cameras and null objects in After Effects. In the next column, we’ll turn our attention to creating and animating a more advanced rig. 3D • Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Tuesday, November 08, 2005Map ExplorationExploring ways to direct a viewer around a map using effects, text animators, and other tricks using Adobe After Effects.
Using Text along a PathOur next technique involves creating text symbols (bullets, hyphens, and so on), and moving them along a path to indicate the explorer’s route. In the project file, open the MapC-1/setup comp to see this in action. With the Text tool, we typed some symbols (<-----) that we wanted to move along the route. We copied the Mask Shape from the map layer, then selected the Text layer and pasted the mask. To get the text to follow this path, we expanded the Text > Path Options in the Timeline window, and set the Path popup to Mask 1. Animating the First Margin property in Path Options makes the symbols “link” along the path. To have text elements follow a mask shape, choose the mask in Text > Path Options > Path, and animate First Margin.
To center individual text elements onto the path, edit their Baseline Shift in the Character palette.Auto-Orienting ObjectsOur final option (Map D folder in the accompanying project) involves tracing our explorer’s route by auto-orientating a small boat icon along a motion path. We first created the boat in a precomp by masking a solid layer, then nested this precomp in the MapD-1/setup comp. We again started by tracing our route on the map layer as before using the Pen tool. We copied this mask shape, and pasted it to the boat layer’s Position property at time 01:00. The trick here is not to simply select the boat layer when you paste, but to explicitly click on the word “Position” in the Timeline so that the Position property receives the path. The mask shape will then become a Position motion path, with a duration of 2 seconds. The first and last mask points appear as linear keyframes, while the intermediate mask points appear as “roving” keyframes (keyframes that have a position in X and Y, but no fixed point in time). We simply dragged the last keyframe later in time to extend the duration of the move. To make the boat layer automatically rotate along this motion path, we selected Layer > Transform > Auto-Orient and set the Orient Along Path option. The only problem now was that the boat appeared upside down! This was easily fixed by setting Rotation to 180 degrees. Collapse Transformations was enabled for the nested precomp layer so that transformations would be calculated before effects; now the direction of the Drop Shadow is not affected by rotation, as shown in the figures below.
Collapse Transformations renders the rotation before the effects so that the drop shadow retains the same direction no matter how the boat is oriented.Panning around the MapIf your map is low resolution, you may be able to complete your project in one comp. In our case, we had a tall map and decided to pan around the image using a 2D motion control move - the same technique you’d use to pan around a large photograph (often called the “Ken Burns” effect). This was covered in an old column we wrote called “Anchors Away.” To introduce a little camera shake using The Wiggler or the wiggle expression, refer to our previous column “More Motion, Less Control.” If you want to take this to the next level, try performing a motion control move using the 3D camera and lights! No matter which technique you use, ease in and out of keyframes for smoother moves, and reduce strobing by enabling Motion Blur for layers that move. Postscript
After Effects CS3 introduced Shape Layers, which includes a very flexible system for stroking paths including the ability to create dashed lines with custom patterns. You can read an introduction to Shape Layers in our column ”The Shape of Things to Come.” We also discuss Shape Layers extensively in our two books, After Effects Apprentice and Creating Motion Graphics 4th Edition.
Motion Graphics • Post Production • Thursday, September 15, 2005The Hi-Def ChecklistQuestions to ask and issues to consider when you tackle a high-definition graphics job.
Frame Size IssuesJust as there are a wide variety of legal frame rates in hi-def, there are a variety of sizes to contend with as well. The standard hi-def sizes are 1920x1080 pixels and 1280x720 pixels. The larger size is far more common, but again, ask to be sure, and don’t assume all of your source files are going to come in the same size. Additionally, some hybrid “production” sizes have emerged. A 1920x1080 hi-def frame has nearly six times more pixels than a typical 720x486 pixel standard-def frame, which can mean it takes up to six times as long to render (although it’s not always that bad; if your project is at 23.976 fps, you have to render only 40% as many frames as you would with a 29.97 fps interlaced project). That large of a frame is also difficult to display comfortably on most monitors, plus results in more bytes to store and move around a network. Some stations have started using a “half HD” size of 960x540 pixels, which they then scale down slightly for their standard-def broadcasts, and double for their hi-def feed. Don’t be shocked if you receive a request to supply graphics at this size, or even the square pixel widescreen standard-def sizes of 864x486 (NTSC) or 1024x576 (PAL). But wait – there’s more. The one silver lining in the ATSC specification was that all of the higher-resolution formats used square pixels. Alas, that last refuge has been taken away from us by the HDV and DVCPRO HD formats. In HDV, a “1920x1080” frame is actually captured at a size of 1440x1080; the pixels must be stretched horizontally by a factor of 1.333 to become square again. DVCPRO HD uses the same size for PAL frame rate projects (25 frames per second, interlaced), but a different size – 1280x1080, with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.5 – for NTSC frame rate projects. When a 1280x720 frame is called for, DVCPRO HD captures it at 960x720 pixels, also requiring a horizontal stretch of 1.333 to make the pixels square. Some software – such as Apple Motion 2 (see below) – support these sizes and manages them automatically, but not all do as of the time this was written (late 2005). Be aware that you may need to perform these stretches manually in the short term.
Newer programs, such as Apple Motion 2 and later, After Effects CS3 and later, etc., have templates for the numerous non-square-pixel HDV and DVCPRO HD formats. With other programs, you may need to stretch the pixels square yourself.
There are other size implications beyond pixels. Along with larger dimensions, hi-def projects are usually captured and rendered at greater bit depths. Whereas a 10-bit YUV capture and output was often considered a luxury in standard-def video, it is common in hi-def, with some systems supporting 12-bit YUV. Ask the client what bit depth they expect delivery at: Anything over 8-bit means you need to be working in at least 16-bit RGB to render these greater bit depth files. Yes, that means another render hit (and more disk space, and…); on the plus side, working at this greater depth often cures many issues with colors banding and posterizing. You will need higher-resolution sources to fill these larger frames, requiring you to capture and scan at a larger size than you have before. But what if that crucial shot or photo is not available at a higher resolution? Scale it up – but carefully. If After Effects has an Achilles’ Heel, it is in scaling up objects; sharp edges can start to look jagged once you get past 125% or so. I’ve previously used the ReSizer plug-in from Digital Anarchy, but was disappointed when the second version dropped some of the different algorithms the user could choose to determine which worked best on each shot. There are other solutions now available, such as Instant HD from Red Giant Software. If you are re-creating or re-rendering images to use in hi-def, don’t just make them larger; consider adding it a bit more fine detail as well. The ability to see fine details is the reason consumers are buying hi-def sets (aside from bragging rights); deliver it in your content by increasing the detail in your 3D texture maps and other elements of your design.
next page: widescreen aspect issues Motion Graphics • Post Production • Sunday, July 31, 2005Visual Rhythm, Part 2: Motion & Cinema TricksTricks in Motion and Cinema 4D for coordinating multiple, duplicate objects.
To create this complex animation in Cinema 4D, we animated the Radius and Slice of a single torus, and then animated the Radius and Frequency of its parent Array object to coordinate the unfolding of multiple copies.Cinema 4D’s ArrayWe’ll end our exploration of cloning for fun and profit by venturing into 3D space. Most 3D programs have a way to easily duplicate and arrange multiple copies of an object. In Maxon Cinema 4D (our 3D weapon of choice, due to its tight integration with program such as After Effects), a cool tool to do just that is the Array. To build an array, create a 3D model (a simple cube will do for starters; scale it down from its default), and click on the Array Object: the icon that looks like a pixelated green and blue flower. Then drag your 3D model onto the Array in the Objects panel. Voila - you have multiple cubes. Select Array, reveal its Object Properties, and have fun experimenting, making sure you set both Amplitude and Frequency higher than 0 (or very little will happen!). Press F8 to preview; note that Array auto-animates. You will notice that there are values for both Frequency and Array Frequency. Array Frequency is akin to Noisiness in Motion or Octaves of Noise in After Effects in that it creates more complex patterns. To better understand how these two parameters interact, set Frequency to 2 and Array Frequency to 1: You will now have a simple wobbling ring of objects which rotates every 90 frames. Then start increasing Array Frequency, noting how the pattern changes. One potentially confusing area in Cinema is trying to animate the child of an object such as the Array. In this case, if you select your model (such as the cube) and animate its Coordinates, nothing happens. For a child to be able to animate in its own world apart from the parent, insert a Null Object between them. Click on the Array icon until the popup menu appears, and select the icon that looks like a set of 3D axes with a 0 hovering over it. Drag this Null Object to be a child of the Array, and then drag your 3D model to be a child of the Null Object. You can create fun animations in Cinema using just Array and primitive shapes. Remember that many primitives allow their own parameters to be animated. Figure 4 shows one such idea where we animated a source torus, and then animated copies of it using Array.
After this column was originally written, Maxon released their awesome MoGraph module for Cinema 4D. Go here and check it out - you won’t be disappointed…Go Forth, and MultiplyWe hope the past two columns have given you some ideas of how you can use various tools in After Effects, Motion, and Cinema 4D to create complex, coordinated animations with far less work than may have been obvious. Tuesday, July 05, 2005Visual Rhythm, Part 1: After Effects TricksTechniques for easily creating and coordinating multiple objects.
The Slinky EffectSometimes you don’t want the pure randomness of the wiggle expression; you just want the animation of slave layers to trail behind a master layer - as if they’re slow to react, and then playing catch up. This trick requires the lesser-known expression valueAtTime. To make one layer precisely follow another, first keyframe the master layer, and then use the pick whip tool to connect the position (or again, any other parameter) of the slave layer to the position of the master. This expression should look like: thisComp.layer("master").position You can then add the valueAtTime expression to look at the position of the master layer at a time other than the current time. Say you want the slave to be where the master was at the current time minus 0.1 seconds. Add the following text onto the end of the above expression: .valueAtTime(time - 0.1) If you were to duplicate the slave layer with the above expression, all of the slaves would be delayed by the same amount. To get the slaves to spread out over time, you need to use the layer’s number in the timeline stack to determine how much of a delay each slave should use. Assuming the master was layer #1 and the first slave was layer #2, the complete expression would be: thisComp.layer("master").position.valueAtTime(time - (index-1) * 0.1) Then duplicate the slave as many times as you want to create your slinky effect. Before doing so, you might want to add a Slider Control to the master layer (as we did for the wiggle trick), select “0.1” in your expression, and drag the pick whip to the new slider to replace this hardwired-value with something you can adjust. Beyond that, all of the suggestions we mentioned above about replacing the source for some of the layers and using blending modes applies. Play with the velocity of the master layer’s animation using Easy Ease and the such to see the slinky expand and contract (see below).
The valueAtTime expression can be used to delay the animation of layers, creating slinky-style effects.What if you want to combine the swarm and slinky effects? Take your slinky expression for the slave layer, and add to its end: + wiggle(1, 50) - value
Click here (16 kB .zip) to download an After Effects project that demonstrates these swarming and slinky techniques.
Thursday, June 30, 2005Motion + MIDIAdding a new level of control to crafting motion graphics.
Matching MIDI Movement to MotionMotion scales the typical 0-127 range of a MIDI Continuous Controller to an internal value range of 0-1. However, not all parameters have the same range of values - for example, opacity goes from 0 to 100, while there are 360 degrees to a single rotation, and 1920 pixels to go across the width of a hi-def frame. Therefore, Motion allows you to set a Scale for each MIDI Behavior which is then multiplied by its value.
Edit the Scale values of MIDI Behaviors to optimize how the parameter responds to your MIDI controller. Set angles to a negative Scale so Motion rotates in the same direction as most MIDI controllers.Say you assigned a MIDI controller to an object’s X Scale parameter. A MIDI value of 1 (rotating its knob fully clockwise, or pushing a slider all the way up) results in adding 100% to X Scale’s initial value. To get MIDI and the parameter to interact in the desired way, first set the physical control to its minimum, and set the Motion property to its desired minimum or “at rest” value (such as 0% for Scale). Then increase the physical control to its maximum (yielding a Value of 1 inside Motion), and edit the MIDI Behavior’s Scale (not to be confused with an object’s Scale) to get the desired maximum parameter value. Something that may drive you crazy is Rotation in Motion. Increasing the Motion property results in an object rotating counterclockwise. However, you usually need to rotate a MIDI controller clockwise to increase its value, which means MIDI and Motion appear to work in opposite directions. To cure this, enter a negative value for the MIDI Behavior’s Scale. Remembering ConfigurationsAfter you get comfortable controlling Motion with MIDI, you may find yourself regularly setting up particular configurations. I personally like using MIDI to control sections of Motion that have multiple parameters which can otherwise be tedious to tweak in the Inspector, such as Particle Emitters and the new Replicator. Others may like using physical MIDI controllers to more interactively adjust color correction Filters, such as Color Balance. To avoid assigning a bunch of MIDI controllers every time you use one of these modules, set it up once - with clearly renamed MIDI Behaviors - and save it as a Favorite. To do this, open both the Layers tab in the Project pane (F5 or Command+4) and the Library tab in the Utility window (Command+2). In the Layers tab, select the Filter, Emitter, Replicator, et cetera as well as its associated MIDI Behaviors, and drag them over the Favorites Menu folder icon. If you have more than one type of item selected, hover there until the choices Multiple Files and All in one File Appear; the latter will group them together. To rename your new Favorite, select it in the Name panel of the Library tab, wait until it highlights, type in your new name, and hit Return. To later apply this Favorite to a new object, select the object in the Layers tab, and use the Favorites menu along the top.
When saving a Favorite, make sure you grab all of the elements you need - such as a Replicator, its cell (the source object), and the MIDI Behaviors applied to the Replicator and cell - and drag them to the Favorites Menu icon. If you have more than one item, you will have the option to save them All in one File.You can also save just the MIDI Behaviors so that you can apply them to an already-applied Filter, Emitter, and so forth. However, make sure you select the correct item in the Layers window before doing so, or else all of the MIDI “Apply To” wirings will be cleared out. Be careful when saving Favorites for Emitters and the Replicator. Some parameters belong to the Emitter or Replicator itself, while others belong to the Emitter or Replicator’s “cell” (the object being emitted or replicated). It is probably safest to save a Favorite using an Emitter or Replicator with a dummy cell (which can be any simple object), apply this Favorite, and then replace the cell by dragging your desired object over the dummy cell. Tuesday, April 05, 2005The Almost Perfect FontWhat to do when the client loves your font choice, but asks could you just change one character?
Using TypeToolRemember that if you’re not designing a font from scratch, you only have to know enough to be dangerous! Speaking of danger, know that you can’t accidentally damage the original font - it is imported into a TypeTool project file for editing. That said, we suggest you make a new folder and copy a duplicate of the original font into it for reference; this folder will also hold the TypeTool project and the new font(s) you’ll generate.
The font table window in TypeTool 2 showing the original P22 Cage Extras font; we later moved the musical notation marks in line 7 to the number slots in line 4 for use by the Numbers effect. (Click on the image to see it full size.)Open the font you’d like to customize in TypeTool (File > Open); if it’s a Postscript Type 1 font, open the printer font (not the screen font). Unless you speak fluent Unicode, set the Mode popup at the bottom of the main font table window to Names (seen at left). Select File > Save As and save the TypeTool project as “FontName.vfb” inside your new folder (the name of the project has no impact on how the new font will appear in your font menu). Now you’re ready to get to work. Characters in TypeTool are referred to as “glyphs.” Double-click any character to open it in its own Glyph window (shown below). The Edit (arrow) tool can be used to move individual points; other tools are available for scaling, rotating, and so on. Note that if you delete a point, the segments before and after automatically join up (they don’t leave a gap). Get in the habit of saving your project file after you’ve edited each glyph.
The Glyph and Metrics windows in TypeTool 2; the width is being adjusted numerically to 500 units in the latter. (Click on the image to see it full size.)To copy the entire glyph, Select All and Copy. To move glyphs, copy and paste them between Glyph windows or from the font table window; use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge a selected glyph into position in the Glyph window. To import glyphs from a different font, open a second font and copy from one to the other. After editing or pasting glyphs of different sizes, you may need to change the character width (the space the character will take up when placed side by side with other characters). To do this, move your cursor over the dashed line to the right of the character in the Glyph window, and drag the right margin. As you drag, the new width value will be displayed in the upper left corner. Enlarge the Glyph window to drag in finer increments. To set the width numerically, open Window>New Metrics Window and enter an exact value in the second field (see figure above). Motion Graphics • Production • Tuesday, November 30, 2004A Different Light: Gamma-Corrected CompositingA simple introduction to gamma-corrected compositing.
Here’s another one of our favorite tests to show the differences between gamma-corrected and linear light compositing:
In this case, you should note differences in the way the image blows out over time: The width of the bands in the transition area from somewhat normal color to blown-out color are broader when performed in linear space, looking subjectively more subtle or pleasing. Darker details such as the eyes and shadows in the creases of the face should persist longer in linear space, making the face recognizable longer during the blow-out (see the figures below). You will also find that you need to crank up the light much brighter - perhaps to 5000%, instead of 1000% - to completely blow out the image.
Overexposing an image with normal computer gamma causes it to blow out more or less evenly (left); applying the same illumination with linear light gamma creates a more subtle, pleasing effect (right). Original image courtesy Digital Vision.These tests provide you a with blueprint of how to perform linear light compositing: Correct the sources to linear by applying a gamma of 0.4545, perform your treatments, and correct the result back to a 2.2 gamma. However, you cannot blindly apply this to any project. For one, some blending modes (such as Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, and to a degree Screen) will no longer work “properly” as they are based around the idea that a 50% pixel luminance value means 50% perceived brightness. You will also find that you will need to adjust or increase parameters such as light level, cone feather, and glow amount to achieve the same general results as you saw in the computer’s default space. Nonlinear ThinkingThis is all well and good if your goal is to mimic nature and reality...but that’s often not the goal of a motion graphics designer. For example, what if you want to favor the dark areas of an image instead of the light areas? Or what if you want a less (or more) severe effect? The simple answer is to experiment with gamma corrections other than 2.2. Here is one way to set up such a project with maximum flexibility in After Effects:
Then perform any treatments, effects, or compositing you like! For starters, try the simple crossfade you created in the first example. In this example, place the time marker in the middle of the transition, and then vary the RGB Gamma parameter for the Master Gamma layer. Note how the composite image changes, favoring light or dark areas depending if the gamma is above or below 1.0 (see below).
A normal computer crossfade (left), a “linear light” crossfade (center), and a creative fade using the opposite gamma as linear light (right).Hopefully this will open up your mind to the potential in gamma-corrected compositing. It’s not something you need to employ on every job, but it’s an important tool to be familiar with, for both realistic and creative applications. PostscriptAs mentioned earlier, After Effects 7 and later now implement linear gamma as option in File > Project Settings, which eliminates the need for all of these extra layers, effects and expressions. The one downside is that you can’t set the gamma correction yourself (the last trick shown above); it is currently hardwired to the perceptually-correct 2.2 value. In After Effects CS3, there are two choices:
It can be deceptive to set up 3D lighting in a scene (left) and then enable Linearize Working Space: The result will appear blown out (right) as the lighting will appear to be boosted.
In After Effects 7, there is only one choice: Linear Blending. It has the same effect as the Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma description above. We were greatly disappointed that we couldn’t achieve the lighting effect demonstrated earlier using this option in 7, but we now can using Linear Working Space in CS3. Change these setting before you get too far into a project, as they will change how your composites look (observe the images above); you don’t want to select one of these modes just before blindly starting an overnight render! By the way, Color Management in After Effects CS3 is covered in more detail in Creating Motion Graphics 4th Edition, Chapter 25. Motion Graphics • Post Production • Visual Effects • Thursday, September 02, 2004An Old Friend Returns: CC EffectsThe Cycore CC effects that come bundled free with After Effects are an evolution of one of the original plug-in sets for AE.
SimulationThe other reason people used to buy FEC was for its particle effects. If you are new to particle systems, Cycore’s offerings are a great place to start to get a handle on this important set of tools. We suggest you work through them in the following order:
Almost all particles look better by applying a blur effect and (in the case of CC Particle Systems II and Particle World) enabling their Motion Blur switch. This is what merges spheres into smoke and colored lines into fire. (Unfortunately, later versions of CC Effects have retired the simpler particle systems, trying to migrate users to CC Particle World. However, at least as of After Effects CS3, “obsolete” versions are still lurking under the hood - just open an old project that used them, save those effects as Animation Presets, and then you can re-use them in other projects. We’ve done this in the effects projects that come with our books. No guarantee how long this will work, though...) The fun “sleeper” of the bunch is CC Ball Action, which breaks a layer into a sheet of small colored balls which can then be warped and whizzed about in a number of ways (see the series of images below). CC Ball Action also reacts to the comp’s camera, adding to the fun. Now if we could just find a project where we could use this effect…
StylizeAnother gem of this set is CC Kaleida, which creates kaleidoscopic patterns. We created a good portion of the classic Simptopia promo using this effect. There are two distinctly different ways to create animate the patterns: keyframe its Rotation and Center parameters, or place the underlying image in a precomp and animate the original image there. TransitionBut wait – there’s more! If you find yourself looking for more interesting ways to transition between layers, then you have to spend some time checking out CC Glass Wipe, Grid Wipe, Image Wipe, Light Wipe, Radial Scale Wipe, and Twister (all shown below, in that order). CC Image Wipe in particular improves upon the oft-used stock Gradient Wipe effect by allowing you to pick a specific color channel (to get different wipe patterns that are still related to the underlying image), plus it has the ability to pre-blur the image for smoother wipes.
Alternate VersionsSo, where’s the catch? For one, Cycore FX only work with After Effects, and old projects that used FEC will not recognize and re-link to them. If either is a problem for you, then you still need the BorisFX version of FEC, which is also compatible with Final Cut Pro, Boris RED, and Boris FX. Second, the free version only supports 8-bit per color channel processing, and does not take differing pixel aspect ratios into account. Fortunately, Cycore has introduced an upgraded version called Cycore FX HD that includes 16-bit processing as well as the ability for many of the plug-ins to recognize pixel aspect ratios (so spheres always look like spheres and so forth). The upgrade to Cycore FX HD 1.0 is $299 (with volume discounts). In this upgraded package, CC PS Classic and CC PS LE Classic have been obsoleted; in their place, CC Particle Systems II features numerous improvements, including the ability to emit particles from a layer’s alpha. CC Particle World has also received an extensive overhaul, including new texture and shading options. Three new effects have been added, including CC Environment to render a spherical panorama (such as those from dvGarage’s Reflection Toolkit) onto 3D layers, CC Plastic which provides considerable control over the surface texture of a 3D layer, and CC Warpomatic to create even more twisted (pun intended) transition effects.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003Managing Moving MasksBringing some predictability and control to animating Mask Shapes in After Effects.
Might Makes RightThe title “Smart Mask Interpolation” might make you think this is an option to make masks in After Effects interpolate...well, more smartly. In truth, SMI does not change the way After Effects interpolates mask vertices. What it does is create a lot of additional mask vertices, as well as Mask Shape keyframes, to force After Effects to “interpolate” in the desired manner. Before using SMI, make sure you have set up good First Vertex points for your shapes, and that the shape isn’t inverting upon itself during normal interpolation (which would mean the path direction of one needs to be reversed). It is a good idea to duplicate the layer at this point, so you always have your original to go back to if SMI doesn’t help. Turn off the Video switch for the original, and select the Mask Shape keyframes for your duplicate.
In many cases, the default settings will work fine. If you feel there’s room for improvement, Undo back to your original Mask Shape keyframes, and get ready to dive into those optional settings. The simplest setting is to increase the number of mask vertices created. To do this, make sure the Add Mask Shape Vertices option is enabled, and change the popup underneath to Total Vertices. We often use a value of 100 or 200 Total Vertices with SMI. Tweaking the other parameters | |||||
Following is a linked list of places where we to go browse and buy fonts. First we’ll list the commercial foundries both big and small, as they tend to be more stable (some free sites disappear, or become overrun with ads), and the fonts tend to be of higher quality. Note that many commercial foundries may have a few freebies (such as the 
With analog equipment, “0 dB” (dB = decibels) is supposed to be the optimal average signal level. You’re allowed to go over it occasionally, as long as you don’t go too far. With digital equipment, “0 dB” is the absolute loudest peak level you can record; anything over it will be “clipped” and therefore distorted - akin to overexposing a shot, thereby posterizing your highlights.
for about half of their list price). Actually, go ahead and get an Isobar (or other power conditioner that includes noise filtering) for all of gear, period.
Your talent is acting as a new ground path, therefore causing a ground loop – akin to a human lightning rod (although thankfully nowhere near as dramatic). One solution would be to have the talent stand on a non-conductive (insulating) rubber mat. Another would be to try using a ground loop isolation transformer to break the loop elsewhere in the chain – in other words, this is a case where the 
Both Fill and Stroke may be either normal solid colors, or gradients. You can also select from an abbreviated list of Blending Modes to change how the color of overlapping shapes interact. After Effects CS3 features a robust gradient designer that allows you define multiple “stops” for color as well as opacity. Additional parameters in the Timeline panel allow you to offset and animate the center of a radial gradient for faux lighting effects.
Repeater takes the result of the stack of attributes above it and makes copies of their composite. You can define the number of copies, their offset (whether the copies are created before, after, or around the original shape), and how they stack. You can also define how each copy is transformed by setting position, scale, and rotation values, which accumulates for each copy. Throw in some keyframes, and you can quickly create animated kaleidoscope and mandala-like patterns.
You still need to start by creating a null object and one node camera, arrange the two together, and parent the camera to the null as we outlined above. Then with the null selected, turn your attention to the Effects & Presets panel (use Command+5 on Mac or Ctrl+5 on Windows to open it), twirl open the folder named * Animation Presets, and then twirl open the subfolder named Transform. In it is a preset named Separate XYZ Position (seen at right): Double-click it to apply it to your selected null object.
To center the symbols vertically on the path, we selected the text and edited their Baseline Shift in the Character palette (the highlighted value the cursor is pointing at in the figure at right).
The final result is shown in at the right. Of course, you can replace the speed value of 1 and the amount value of 50 with Expression Controls to make them easier to adjust later.
Open Window > Smart Mask Interpolation; you will see the panel shown at the top of this page. Click Apply. At its default settings, SMI will create new Mask Shape keyframes for every frame between your existing keyframes. If you move the Time Marker to any of these new keyframes, you will see your Mask Shapes also have a large number of new vertices (shown at left). This gives After Effects more “correspondence points” to preserve a good mask outline during interpolation.