It’s been a while since our last typography roundup. There has been a lot of awesome in the past months, and this week I brining a bit of that to your doorstep, or your computer monitor, or whatever analogy you would like to use.

(Continue)

In this tutorial you will learn how to work and use the free plug-in Sinedots, which is a very powerful tool for creating interesting abstract motion background. There haven’t been many good tutorials for this plug-in so I hope you find this useful!

(Continue)

This tutorial compares the workflow of After Effects with Nuke and is intended for After Effects users who want to familiarize themselves with the interface and want to make their first steps in Nuke.

After a short introduction of myself I start a composition in both Nuke and After Effects and compare how each step in a everyday composition is carried out in the different applications. This is not a full beginner’s tutorial on Nuke but when needed I explain necessary keyboard shortcuts and concepts.

Also this time I mention and highlight keyboard shortcuts I use to speed up the work and especially mention differences in methods between Nuke and After Effects.

(Continue)

I think we all used to create little cartoons in school by drawing on each page of your text books and flipping through them to animate. Well, lets all save a tree. In this tutorial we’ll be creating a similar looking animation in AE using Trapcode Particular’s Aux Particles. From there we’ll bring it over into Photoshop and learn a little bit about how to apply filters to video with the help of Filmstrip format.

(Continue)

It’s March 15th and that means that the Desktop Wallpaper Contest sponsored by Imagineer Systems and Toolfarm is half over. Thus far we’ve only had 13 entries!… As of right now, you’d have a 1 in 14 chance of winning over $1,000 dollars worth of AE goodies, not to mentioned all the other prizes! Also keep in mind, that the winner isn’t selected at random… it’s voted on… so you’re chances are looking pretty stinking good.

(Continue)

We’ve seen lots of tutorials on how to do basic planar tracking, but we’re gonna take it to a hole notha level. This tutorial demonstrates how to use 2D planar tracking and 3d tracking together to create graphics that pop off a board that you can hold and walk with.

(Continue)

The 4D Quaternion Julia set Plug-in is a part of another CG Shader implementation that has been around for a couple of years. I thought it was a nice example of what is possible to create with the Pixel Bender Toolkit, slightly different from the usual filters.

Pixel Bender is a new plugin technology introduced by Adobe in CS4 that works across all the adobe CS4 apps. This means the same plugin can be used in After Effects, Photoshop and Flash. And they are installed and used just like any other plugins. You can get the Quaternion Julia plugin for free from subblue.

File Type: Plugin
After Effects Version: CS4

(Continue)

You can’t have video without audio… it just doesn’t work. That’s why in high school it was A/V club, not just V Club… although that does sound pretty rad. Anywho… if you want to complete an animation, short film, commercial or whatever… you have to have good audio, and that means scores and sound effects! I have found some of the best places around the web to purchase packages, find individual songs, and even snag some free tracks for you and your work!

(Continue)

Ever wonder what Bit Depth is? What’s the 8bpc box below your window? Here are all the answers. Learn about Bit Depth and how it can help you!

(Continue)

So, what are the 12 Basic Principles of Animation and why should you care about them? The goal of the principles is to bring life and excitement to any animation – to take the mediocre and make it exceptional. This is the second half of this article. To view download the first half you need to go here.

(Continue)