Here’s another summary of the last week or so of news on After Effects- this time with underwater scenes, an AE 3D camera series, game trailers, a push for better interfaces, and assorted tutorials, new and old plug-ins, and expressions.
In Episode 73: Under the Sea: Submerged Motion Graphics, Red Giant TV hosts VinhSon Nguyen, who shows you how to create a stylized underwater scene. For some previous efforts see Underwater Scene in After Effects +, a roundup at AE Portal archive. Here’s the latest, which is discussed in more detail in Decaf Expressions: Variables, Axes, and Evolution at CreativeDojo:
Working in 3D Part 1: Setting up a 3D Scene by Andrew Devis is the first tutorial in a set of 4 on working in 3D space in After Effects. He shows how to set up your layers in 3D space and how to view layers, moving both positions and rotations, how to set up a static 3D particle system which will enhance the 3D effect as the camera eventually animates through 3D space. In the last 2 tutorials, Andrew shows a quick, simple technique to animate the camera and how to finesse the animation of that camera. There’s more in a mini roundup at AEtuts, Camera Difficulties and Rigs in After Effects. Here’s Working in 3D Part 4: Finessing Camera Animation, the final tutorial on to how finesse your camera animation with various techniques:
Damage | Artifact – 8bit Gaming Tutorial helps you create 8-bit looking game-ish video with the Digieffects Damage Artifact plug-in. For perspective, see Stephen Garrett on crafting a winning trailer in Filmmaker magazine. Also, Kert Gartner posted an in-depth piece on Making Entertaining and Engaging Video Game Trailers. Here’s one of his examples and the video from Digieffects:
Shortformvideo posted After Effects Tutorial – Digital Music Player and a project file. It shows you how you can create an MP3 Player LCD display, complete with scrolling text, time counter and audio-reactive digital waveform, all without extra plug-ins. Also posted was After Effects Tutorial – Progress Bar Percentage. Here’s the first one:
Motion tracking with mocha for after effects, by Flomotion, shows how to track motion with the mocha tracker for After Effects, as well as how to key footage and remove spill with Keylight.
Here’s Pixel Cloud Demo: Animating a Photo, a preview of a forthcoming filter that uses height maps:
After Effects: Color & blending effects by Rob Garott is an episode from Design in Motion, a weekly Lynda.com series. See also the Blending mode reference in AE Help.
MaxAfter posted 51. Juice Advert, a basic tutorial on creating and animating a product box in After Effects. Here’s the quick preview:
Recently on PVC, Jeff Foster looked at GenArts’ latest in Product Review: Monsters GT v7. Here’s a preview from Todd Prives on the Natural Phenomena theme pack:
After Effects wiz Maltaannon is back on Motionworks, this time demystifying the 8-bit Channel Combiner effect and how to use it on challenging keying projects, in After Effects: Effects A-Z: Channel Combiner. See also Luma Processing: Effecting just the color or luma information can improve the results of some effects by Chris and Trish Meyer.
Which After Effects Glow Plug-in should I get? by Michele Yamazaki surveys several glow filters sold at Toolfarm.
In Expression Shorts – Attach 2D Layer To A 3D Layer David Torno shows how to attach a 2D layer to a 3D layer, even while it’s moving, in After Effects.
Dirk De Jong of Boris FX explains how to link the 3D rotation and position of a Boris Continuum Complete 3D Object to an Adobe After Effects Null object:
@SteveKirby noted an interesting Webmonkey article on UI and its influence on design, Video: Inventing on Principle. The article shares a video by Bret Victor, who explores designing software for designing information graphics, simulation, and animation. He’s also been featured at Fast Company in Ex-Apple Designer Creates Teaching UI That “Kills Math” Using Data Viz. Our angle is After Effects of course, and the general ideas presented could suggest improvements in the expressions interface (like scrolling values) and in graphical animation assistants, particularly for touch interfaces. Here Bret Victor:
Even More
Check out the [TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (Rear View Mirror Edition) for all things color correction and grading. This is the “Most Popular Stories from the 2nd Half of 2011” edition.
Ron Lindeboom explains Why Apple should let HP build its workstations — though adding an Nvidia option to the iMac seems easy enough! Premiere with CUDA renders so fast that many are not waiting for Apple. On the other hand, there’s Windows 8; see Windows 8 Power Struggle: Metro vs Desktop and The Metro hater’s guide to customizing Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
Lightroom 4 was released, and a number of tips popped up immediately, including Lightroom 4.0 Resources from the Lightroom team, 10 Lightroom 4 Tips, and Working with DSLR Video in Lightroom 4:
Future Innovation: Video & Photoshop seems like another sneak peek from the Photoshop team. A comment on that post sums up thoughts after looking at the video, “What’s the advantage of doing this in Photoshop instead of After Effects or Premiere?”:
Peachpit posted Cleaning Up the Noise with Smart Objects in Photoshop from The HDR Book Podcast. They say “HDR Images produce noise. Learn how to get rid of that noise using Smart Objects in Photoshop CS5”:
Richard Harrington explains Organizing Footage with Adobe Bridge:
Todd Kopriva notes Robbie Carman’s “Migrating from Final Cut Pro 7 to Premiere Pro” and a number of other resources by the same author. Here’s a sample:
Please note that these roundups are for quick review and comparison. There is almost always vital information from the originating authors at the links provided-and often free presets, projects, or stock footage too.