After Effects product manager Victoria Nece announced the December 6 release of After Effects 24.1 with support for 3D models, image-based lighting, Advanced 3D renderer, 2D/3D interoperability, extract lights and cameras, 3D Snapping, 3D model-driven effects, Refreshed animation presets, and more.

OBJ import is still in beta, but everything from 3D beta is ready. By the way, there are New Vertical Text Scripting hooks available in Beta according to Adobe’s Sébastien Périer.

Note that 24.1 is backwards compatible with 24.0, but you’ll lose all new stuff if you re-open the project back in 24.0. See What’s New in this update as well as the important fixes and performance improvements, and a List of known issues in After Effects.

ShiveringCactus VFX Tutorials has a bunch of spacey tutorials and recently posted Ring Explosion / Planar Shockwave in After Effects. He does a 2D version using a combination of Fractal Noise, Linear Wipes and Polar Coordinates, then one suing the built-in CC Particle World effect plug-in.

This effects is not new to AE or Andrew Kramer fans (product or tutorial). You might also check out the AEP roundup, Shockwaves in After Effects, or a basic dedicated plug-in by Andrew Yang, YY_ShockRing. There are no doubt many more tutorials.

SonduckFilm has made a cottage industry of tunnel/vortex animations, and his most recent is 3 Visual Tunnel Infinite Loops to Know in After Effects.

Sonduckfilm uses repetition, but another ancient basic approach is to use the built-in CC Cylinder plug-in. Trapcode Mir has been used often for a tunnel effect too. Smertimba Graphics uses repetition and added nice finishing touches in Neon Tunnel Tutorial in After Effects | Neon Tunnel Loop | Saber Plugin. MotionXP used repetition in a different style in Motion Design Tunnel!

And, Dan the Irish Man leveraged the old CC Cylinder effect in his TIME VORTEX – After Effects Tutorial (After Effects CC 2018).

Boone Loves Video shows you how to generate 3D TERRAIN in Adobe After Effects ⛰️ GEOlayers 3 + Helium (plug-ins to generate map and 3D features). This 3D terrain works with native After Effects cameras, and will cast shadows from lights.

Connor Henkle posted a 3-step tutorial for an After Effects Halftone Compound Blur.

After Effects Halftone Compound Blur

(3-Step Tutorial) 🧵:

Ft. @BearkatsFB Logo Loop#aftereffects #animation pic.twitter.com/UIcJtpVsrl

— Connor Henkle (@cjh_fx) October 30, 2023

Motion UX had a run of basic tutorials for UX designers, including 7 Essential After Effects Plugins for Efficient Motion UX Workflows.

I forgot to share this piece on iPhone log footage from Stu Maschwitz. Perhaps someone may benefit, as it’s not as challenging as some of his explanations of advanced color control.

Cinecom.net used Rokoko Vision, a free AI motion capture tool, for their tutorial, FREE Motion Capture for EVERYONE! (No suit needed).

Premiere Gal covers the latest in What is new in Premiere Pro v24.1? Must-Have Update. Presets, MOGRTs, filler word removal, share button for frame.io (beta), and import/export issues are discussed. She also has giveaways mentioned in 6 CREATIVE Music Video Effects (Premiere Pro Breakdown).

Alex Mesel shared his 5 BEST AI Video editing Tools inside Premiere Pro. Tom Antos posted something similar for the competition with 10 Insane AI Tools in DaVinci Resolve Studio!

Premiere Gal shared her favorites in 10 Best AI Video Editing Tools of 2023 (and how to use them).

If you suspect that Firefly 2 might not be an optimal solution for the extra money, check out What AI Image Generator Should YOU Be Using?? by Matt Wolfe.

Theoretically Media posted The Best FaceSwapper yet! And it’s FREE! Yes, FaceSwapper is a one-click solution, easy to install, and works on both PCs and Mac OS.

For a twist on this, Matt Wolfe mentioned a tool to place faces into an AI video in This AI Let’s You Make VIDEOS With FACES.

Envato Tuts+ posted year-end summaries Design Trends for 2024 | From the Creators’ Den and What Fonts Are Trending Now and Font Trends for 2024.

There’s gotta be a ton of these trend 2024 forecasts, including these by Satori Graphics, Matt Thorne Creative Director Explains, Kittl, and Philip VanDusen.

Huh?! E/acc is a pro-tech movement, or “religion,” or a groupthink meme gaining traction in Silicon Valley … to accelerate technological progress as fast as possible without regulation.  Cringe, or end run around corporate control? Doomsday Cult?

As if chaos is proven success or progress is guaranteed. So sure, let culturally ignorant technologists fix the world like they “fixed” San Francisco to San Jose. Actually, it seems they don’t want to stop societal collapse, but trigger it early in order to survive it.

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week on the show:

• Google's Epic loss in a major antitrust trial
• We discuss e/acc, the hottest new religion in Silicon Valley
• Cloudflare CEO @eastdakota joins to talk about how the internet changed in 2023 https://t.co/LetNHe2LOD

— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) December 15, 2023

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