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Bats, Mom, Rainbows, Dad & Nanotechnology – Dan Gies Interview Part 1

Bats, Mom, Rainbows, Dad & Nanotechnology – Dan Gies Interview Part 1

on Jan 20th 2012 with 10 comments

Nancy from Mettle interviews Dan Gies. Dan is an award-winning animator, coder, illustrator, musician, and above all else, a great storyteller. He is also the author of what some have called the definitive tutorial series on character animation in After Effects: How To Create and Rig a Realistic Puppet. Check out Part 2.

Interview – Part 1

 
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Nancy is a motion graphics professional with over 20 years experience in the business. A graduate of both McGill University (Montreal) and Pratt Institute (New York),. She started off her career as a graphic designer, but has continually enjoyed learning new software applications. She began using After Effects when it was still called CoSa After Effects, and is an enthusiastic user. A partner at Mettle, she has been involved in the development of the Next Gen Software Plug-ins: FreeForm V2, ShapeShifter AE, and FreeForm Pro.  

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  • Strut

    Excellent interview. Dan is very talented and seems like he is a really nice guy too. I look forward to part 2. Will he touch on what software and hardware he uses for his work?

    Strut

    • http://www.mettle.com Nancy
      Author

      Hey Strut,
      Thanks. Dan does his animation primarily in After Effects. He uses Mettle FreeForm V2 and FreeForm Pro in his more recent work. Dan goes over his software and hardware in Part 2.

      Nancy :)

  • Mohamed Almawla

    Very nice interveiw but how long did he take to make that video?

  • http://www.mettle.com/Products/ShapeShifter-AE.php Chris

    @Mohamed

    As I understood it, a couple of months (on and off).

    Cheers,
    Chris
    mettle.com

  • http://ae.tutsplus.com/articles/interview/bats-mom-rainbows-dad-nanotechnology-dan-gies-interview-part-1/ A Friend on the internet…

    Nancy,

    Firstly a superb job on the interview (besides noting the below things :P) :).

    I learnt alot from watching this and also look forward to part 2.

    I must point out things that i found bothersome (but in the slightest).

    1. The “interview with…” lower band that appears through the entire video took away from what i was watching as 1min atleast into the video, i knew i was watching an interview. If this is to avoid others airing but not giving credit then i can understand but please put a small watermark if you will somewhere and remove the banner after atleast 30 secs into the video (hint “part 2″ ) :)

    2. Some of the cuts were abit raw, that gives me the impression that it was rushed when putting things together but i am sure you guys reviewed the video a few times before putting out here for us.

    3. More of a compliment than a nitpick but the character in the “Nano” video reminds me if you Nancy who is very beautiful :D.

    I realise this may not be the right place to put this but its a small nitpick if you will, take it with a pinch of pepper if you must lol.

    Otherwise a super duper great job Miss Nancy :).

    Lastly , Mr Gies is an amazing person, am glad you guys did the interview and hope more folks will be interviewed as this is also great publicity for them. +1

    Regards,

    • http://www.mettle.com Nancy
      Author

      Thank-you “A Friend on the internet…” very good of you to take the time and offer some constructive criticism. We’ll take your comments into consideration before we release part 2!

      Dan Gies is indeed very talented, and really nice. He’s also a great musician – he writes his own music for his work.

      Regarding your suggestion to interview more of our customers, we would love to. We feel it is mutually beneficial and well worth our time and effort.

      Thanks for watching and I am very glad you liked the interview.

      Nancy :)

  • http://novatvstdios.netii.net/vvplay_demo3.html Anthony

    Rigging a realistic puppet is one of the most professionally done tutorials I’ve ever seen. It reinvigorated my passion for animation and after effects. And to think he gave it away for free.. How can I be a capitalist after that?

  • http://reinste.com/Carbon_Nano_tubes_singlewalled.html swcnt supplier

    Nice clip is provided here.thanks for sharing with all.

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    Great news……….
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  • http://novatvstdios.netii.net/vvplay_demo.html Anthony Alexander

    Wow. I am constantly amazed at how such talented people give away knowledge so freely. His Rigging a puppet tutorial is hands down the best instructional video I’ve ever come across on the internets