After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Eraser Tool Modes

As we mentioned awhile back, we’ve been busy the past year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner’s book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has two or more movies that are free for all to view; we’re re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don’t miss them. In this movie, Trish discusses the different Eraser tool modes - Layer Source & Paint, Paint Only, and Last Stroke Only - and demonstrates when to use each.

Green Screen Lighting on the Cheap!

Before you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a cheap light kit online or through a catalog, consider the option of making your own portable, durable and ultimately flexible low-voltage lighting kits. You’ll not only have more control over how much light you want to put on your background and your subject, but also how much you want to spend!

LIGHTING STRATEGIES: What Makes Soft Lights Cast Soft Shadows?

It’s one thing to understand that soft sources make soft shadows. It’s another thing to understand why. Fortunately a friend from the insect world can help us if we will look at soft light through his eyes.

Simulated Camera DOF In Video with Photoshop CS5.5

Learn how you can create a simulated Camera DOF effect on your video footage right inside of Photoshop CS5.5 Extended! This technique can be applied to on any video footage and doesn’t require any plug-ins, but rather, it utilizes the 3D Camera to achieve a realistic DOF effect.

LIGHTING STRATEGIES: Soft Light vs. Hard Light

In a previous article I described how to place a hard key light. In this article I’ll look at why soft sources are a bit more realistic in color cinematography, require less precise placement, and can help define the volume of a space.

LIGHTING STRATEGIES: Placing a Hard Key Light

The most important thing you will ever learn about lighting is this: LIGHTING IS NOT A FORMULA. Learning about lighting, though, is a process of becoming aware, and in this first of many articles I’m going I’m going to try to increase your awareness of one specific thing per article. The more awareness you have the more easily you’ll be able to adapt your lighting to your circumstances because you’ll see, with your own eyes, what you need to do to make an image that satisfies your inner artist.

I think the best place to start is with classical key light placement. This knowledge is not something you will use verbatim as this is not a style that is in vogue at the moment. The underlying principles, however, should be of daily benefit.

Want To Fly In First Class On Your Next Gig?  Here’s How!

I just got back from a whirlwind cross-country trip for a freelance gig I’m working on.  Between me, my field producer and my audio operator, we managed to boil down our equipment complement to six checked bags and three carry-ons. Now prices vary on different airlines, but the way it worked for me was this:

We flew USAirways from Cleveland to Phoenix, changing planes in Charlotte.  When I got online to check us in the night before, I was resigned to paying $60 in checked bag fees for each of us ($25 for the first bag and $35 for the second, all meticulously packed and weighed to be less than 50 pounds.)  However, in the middle of the check-in procedure, a pop-up box asked me if I would like to upgrade my entire party to first class - for $50 each.  On USAirways, this upgrade includes TWO FREE CHECKED BAGS.  (Bonus:  They can then weigh up to 70 pounds.)  In the time it took me to click the “yes” box, I had saved $30 overall and managed to get prime seating for the crew, and moved to the head of the boarding queue to guarantee overhead-compartment space for the two cameras and backpack-full-of-computers-and-iPad we were carrying onboard.  I call that a bargain at twice the price!

Coming home at the end of the shoot from Tucson to Madison, I played the same game on United.  Since both of those flights were on regional jets, first class was not offered, but once again the cost of checking two bags and first-call boarding was less than the cost of checking the bags alone.  While it is easy to imagine scenarios where this technique may not work (e.g., first class is booked full) it is a trick that I will be trying every time I need to check bags from this day forward.

Got any travel tricks of your own you’d like to share?  Let’s hear them!

After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Tracking with mochaAE

As we mentioned earlier, we’ve been busy this year creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner’s book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has two or more movies that are free for all to view; we’re re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don’t miss them. This movie provides a quick start on how to use Imaginer Systems’ mochaAE - a powerful 2.5 planar motion tracker that comes bundled with After Effects (but which has a quite un-After Effects-like user interface).

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