CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 8 – Motion Blur and More

As you are probably aware by now, we’re going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (“CMG5” for short) and pulling out a few “hidden gems” from each chapter. These will include both essential tips for new users, as well as timesaving gems that experienced users may not be aware existed.

Chapter 8 of CMG5 covers motion blur as well as echo-style effects. Here’s a few tips on these subjects, including using a stock After Effects plug-in to fake motion blur in footage that doesn’t have enough:

What $300 Buys These Days

OK, folks, have a look at “Lazy Teenage Superheroes,” a funny, really watchable (and slightly NSFW for language) 13-minute riff on science fiction:

Your Daily After Effects Fix

I’ve mentioned previously that Todd Kopriva’s Region of Interest blog is one of the best sources of essential After Effects information. And it still is. But a few additional sources have really blossomed as constant fountains of After Effects goodness:

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2010 Motion Graphics Design Census

The unofficial, web-based Motion Graphics Design Census for 2010 is now available from their web site. It compiles over 5500 responses - distributed roughly evenly between the US and non-US - into a series of responses about age, software, and - primarily - income. Of course, it’s only a survey of those who responded rather than the industry as a whole. Also, not everyone responded to every question - for example, only 219 self-employed artists offered how much they charged per hour, and most of the charts are based just on US respondents. With those caveats, here’s what stuck out for us:

Classic Visual Effects Knowledge

Chris Zwar - After Effects power user and occasional PVC contributor - shared on the media-motion.tv After Effects list that Peter Sciretta of /Film had recently compiled the first 12 episodes of Discovery Channel’s Movie Magic documentary series. As it was recorded in the mid-90s, a substantial portion of the effects are “practical” rather than done in the computer. Nonetheless, it’s a good background on matte paintings, miniatures, stop motion, pyrotechics, and similar techniques, plus a reminder of how easy we have it to day compared to the early days of computer graphics.

CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 7 – Trimming Layers

As you are probably aware by now, we’re going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (“CMG5” for short) and pulling out a few “hidden gems” from each chapter. These will include both essential tips for new users, as well as timesaving gems that experienced users may not be aware existed.

Chapter 7 of CMG5 covers trimming, splitting, slipping and sequencing layers. Here are a few tips we extracted:

Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects Hidden Gems: Chapter 6 - Layer Essentials

We are in the process of going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (“CMG5”) and pulling out a few “hidden gems” from each chapter, including essential tips for new users as well as timesavers that experienced users may not be aware existed.

Chapter 6 of CMG5 covers managing multiple layers efficiently, including hot keying, comp and layer markers, and the layer switches. Here’s a small set of tips we extracted:

Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects Hidden Gems: Chapter 5 - Animation Assistance

We are in the process of going through our book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects 5th Edition (“CMG5”) and pulling out a few “hidden gems” from each chapter, including essential tips for new users as well as timesavers that experienced users may not be aware existed.

Chapter 5 of CMG5 covers tricks you can do with keyframes including tips for copying and pasting them; auto-orient rotation; and Keyframe Assistants (such as Motion Sketch, Smoother, Time-Reverse Keyframes, and Exponential Scale) to help you manipulate keyframes. Below is just a sampler:

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