Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Animating a Sky Part 1 - Photoshop for Video

Richard Harrington | 11/19- 09:48 PM

Combining PS and AE to make videos from photos

Instructor Richard Harrington shows you how to add an animated sky to your still photos using Photoshop and After Effects. Part 1 of 2.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Kensington Mice and After Effects CS4

Chris Meyer | 11/14- 10:54 PM

The secret settings to get the Unified Camera Tool to work.

After Effects CS4 has added a “Unified” camera tool to aid navigation in 3D space. Instead of having to scroll through three separate camera tools - Orbit, Track XY, and Track Z - to reposition an active camera or reframe an alternate view, users can now use a three-button mouse to quickly switch between these three tools.

All of our computers here have Kensington mice that include a clickable scroll wheel as the third (middle) mouse button. And lo and behold, they don’t work out of the box with AE CS4; the clickable scroll wheel defaults to toggling between horizontal and vertical scrolling. But a couple of settings tweaks will make your mouse behave the way you want:

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Processing

Chris Meyer | 11/08- 12:30 PM

Unleash the ghost in the machine by programming your own animations.

After you master shooting footage, applying effects, and keyframing animation, what’s next? Some like to explore having animations driven by sound and music, using tools such as Trapcode’s Sound Keys and Form for After Effects, or the Audio Behaviors in Motion 3. Others have mastered Expressions in After Effects to create code-driven animations. And a few hard-core After Effects user lament the passing of Useful Things. But if you really want to take it to the next level, you might want to explore the open source Processing programming language.

Processing, to quote the official web site, is “for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool.” It is free (running on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows) and is supported by an active user and developer community. There are a large number of books available on Processing. There’s even a mobile version of Processing for Java-powered devices. And to feed the other side of your brain, there is an online exhibition gallery showing what others are doing with Processing (the image at the top of this blog entry is from that site). Check it out.

(A tip of the hat to fellow PVC poster Mark Spencer for turning me onto Processing.)

Friday, November 07, 2008

After Effects Error Codes

Chris Meyer | 11/07- 09:30 AM

Wonder what those cryptic numbers mean? Here’s a few clues…

Occasionally, After Effects has a hiccup. When it does, it often displays a dialog box with occasionally clear, occasionally cryptic text, as well as a series of numbers. Understanding exactly what these are telling you can help you diagnose the problem and at least work around it, if not cure it.

Lutz Albrecht (aka Mylenium) has created a useful page that goes through the logic behind these codes to help you narrow down where the underlying error may be. He is actively trying to expand and refine the list, so if you encounter an error in After Effects, email him the information so he can fold it in.

(By the way, Lutz also wrote one of the best overviews of the new features in After Effects CS4 that I’ve seen - you can read it here.)

Monday, November 03, 2008

Making “One Man, One Vote”

Adam Wilt | 11/03- 06:19 PM

Production and post for a seven-minute short.

Ten years ago a fellow named Marshall Spight posted a challenge on DV-L called “Throwing Down the DV Gauntlet”, in which he said, “everyone talks about shooting serious dramatic films with DV, but does anyone actually do it?” I responded, and we wound up making a 20-minute short called “The Beautiful Thing” using Sony DCR-VX1000s, the first 1/3” 3-CCD DV camcorders. It came out so well (it was for a time the top-rated dramatic film on iFilm.com, an early and long-defunct predecessor to YouTube) that we set about making a short political drama/comedy (?), “One Man, One Vote”. This one gave us a few more challenges.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Autodesk+RED Workflow Guide

Chris Meyer | 10/29- 09:56 AM

Autodesk release a white paper on using the RED One with Smoke, Inferno, Flame, Flint, and Lustre.

The RED One camera and its ability to capture large frame size, RAW-format files has certainly ignited the imagination of filmmakers and videographers. But its unusual file format and requirements has also created a lot of head-scratching among users trying to find the most efficient way to send RED footage through a normal production pipeline.

To this end, Autodesk just released a white paper that covers using RED One footage with their Smoke, Inferno, Flame, Flint, and Lustre systems. It covers shooting, lighting, color spaces, proxies, going from offline to online, audio, finishing and final output including suggested settings, as well as an appendix on RED-specific applications and where they fit into the workflow. In other words, this isn’t a brochure; it’s a mini-handbook for users that describes the current recommended practices in some detail.

You can download the white paper here. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of some of its suggestions:

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