NoFilmSchool » aftereffects

Just Starting Out with Creative Suite 6? Adobe Has a Bunch of Free Basic Training Videos For You

Justin Minich — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:43:41 +0000

So you bought a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 6 or downloaded it via Creative Cloud. Where do you start? Well, Adobe has a slew of videos on their website to introduce you to the changes in the Premiere Pro and After Effects interfaces, and to show you how the new features in CS6 work. Here are some of my favorites: (more…)

Adobe Officially Launches Creative Suite 6, Now Taking Preorders

Justin Minich — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:19:52 +0000

Adobe has launched Creative Suite 6 and is now taking pre-orders (no word on a release date yet). This latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite includes more Mercury acceleration, adjustment layers in Premiere Pro, Speed Grade for color grading, ray-traced extruded 3D objects and reflections and 3D camera tracking in After Effects, Creative Cloud, and more. You can also check out an overview of the new features in Joe’s post on day 2 at NAB 2012, as well as the official Adobe Production Premium video with Jason Levine: (more…)

How to Track Motion in After Effects (Using the Free Plugin Mocha)

Ryan Koo — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:21:00 +0000

Mocha is an advanced motion-tracking plugin for Adobe After Effects that is conveniently bundled with AE for free. I’ve done most of my motion tracking in After Effects using its native tracking abilities, but Mocha offers more advanced controls. So here’s a tutorial of how to use Mocha — in this case, to properly track a wall in a moving shot, and to add some graffiti in post to said wall. This is an excerpt of a After Effects training course at Lynda.com by Chris Meyer and Trish Meyer: (more…)

All Automatic Duck Plugins are Free for a Limited Time

Ryan Koo — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:59:12 +0000

I am way late with this, but better late than never — and better free than $500. Wes and Harry Plate, the father-son duo behind Automatic Duck, were recently hired by Adobe. Automatic Duck makes (made) the well-known plugins Pro Import AE, Pro Import FCP, and Pro Export FCP, which allow users to open Final Cut Pro projects in After Effects, as well as enabling some other interoperability. This move by Adobe seems as much to prevent the duo from updating their must-have plugins for Final Cut Pro X, as much as it is to help Adobe with their already admirable integration between Premiere Pro and After Effects, but as a result all of Automatic Duck’s existing plugins — which formery ran $500 apiece — are free. Said Wes and Harry: (more…)

How to Animate a Kickstarter Widget in After Effects (Thanks to Joke and Biagio)

Ryan Koo — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:32:57 +0000

During the Man-child Kickstarter campaign I received a few questions about my pitch video, which included an animated example of the Kickstarter widget. This is not something that originated with my campaign — it was a creation of the filmmaking team Joke and Biagio, who first used it in their Dying to do Letterman campaign, and then shared it for anyone else to use. It’s a very nice tool to help illustrate how a crowdfunding campaign works, so if you’re going to run your own campaign, you might find this useful: (more…)

How to Create a Photo-Video Hybrid 'Cinemagraph'

Ryan Koo — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:23:44 +0000

Animated GIFs have grown up. This happened a few months ago, but I missed the buzz, so as featured on the photo blog From Me to You, here’s how to create photo/video hybrids that will make you forget the dithered .gifs of yore. This seems relevant given the increasing hybridization of still and motion photography, and the resulting stills — though some work better than others — certainly do stand out on the page. Here’s a tutorial on creating a so-called “cinemagraph” using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects: (more…)

How to Clone Yourself in a Handheld Shot (a Tutorial for Going Beyond my Kickstarter Video)

Ryan Koo — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:09:08 +0000

I assume by now you’ve seen my Kickstarter video, which features two of me composited into one shot. Everyone knows how to do this — set up the camera on a tripod, don’t move it between takes, and film both sides one after the other — but it’s not a very “good” effect if you’re trying to go for something that isn’t so obvious. One way to make the effect more subtly convincing is to make it a handheld shot, and while I didn’t take my campaign video this far, I thought I’d use the video to show one way of compositing two people into a more naturalistic, shaky shot using After Effects. Here’s the tutorial (which is pretty basic, but may be educational to anyone new to After Effects): (more…)

An Hour of Free Video Training on DSLR Post-Production in Adobe's Creative Suite

Ryan Koo — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:04:47 +0000

You’d think with my fundraising campaign going down to the wire that I’d be too busy to find and post helpful content here on NoFilmSchool. But no! I want to help you and I hope you’ll help me in return! Here’s a five-part tutorial from Richard Harrington on a DSLR-based workflow in Adobe Creative Suite. This is not super advanced, nor is it riveting stuff, but hey — it’s a screencast. And if you’re new to the Adobe’s Creative Suite or if you’re switching from another NLE — perhaps because CS5.5 is still 50% off for Final Cut Pro or Avid editors? — this is a nice “getting started” overview of working with DSLR footage in Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Audition: (more…)

Free Hour-long Tutorial on Optimizing Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 Performance

Ryan Koo — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:04:00 +0000

Video tutorial site video2brain has published a free tutorial on optimizing your PC/Mac system for running After Effects and Premiere Pro CS5.5 (currently 50% off as part of Production Premium). Click on the image for the full 14-part video tutorial: (more…)

Shootout: Adobe's Warp Stabilizer vs. Apple's Final Cut Pro X Stabilization

Ryan Koo — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:14:43 +0000

Let’s review: Adobe Premiere Pro reaches feature parity with Final Cut Pro, exceeding it in some aspects, and in the process builds up an equal-sized customer base as Apple’s NLE. Then Apple relaunches FCP from the ground up — and removes a lot of the features shared between the two, making Premiere Pro undeniably more feature-rich. It seems perfect timing for Adobe, whose application is now easier to migrate to from Final Cut Pro 7 than is Apple’s. I’m still learning FCP X and I think it has a ton of potential, but at the very least, Adobe has to be happy with the missing features in FCP X that everyone’s complaining about. So let’s take a look at one feature both video solutions are touting highly: automatic camera stabilization. (more…)

David Fincher's Streamlined, Almost DIY Post-Production Workflow for 'The Social Network'

Ryan Koo — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:40:46 +0000

I had no idea when watching David Fincher’s generation-defining (yeah, I said it) The Social Network that the RED-shot film would utilize a post-production process similar to what you or I could execute. It turns out that the crew on the award-winning film conformed all shots — and did some basic visual effects work — using Adobe After Effects, after utilizing Premiere Pro to get their Final Cut Pro timeline into AE. Yes, they also used higher-end tools — notably Quantel’s Pablo for the color grade — but the basic editing tools are the same as you or I might use on a no-budget project. Here’s Fincher and assistant editor Tyler Nelson on the process: (more…)

Egil Pedersen's Music Video for 'Dropping Feathers' Gets Clever with After Effects

Ryan Koo — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:23:53 +0000

Egil Pedersen directed the music video for Ruggged Wilderness & Mountain Man No More’s track “Dropping Feathers,” and uses some clever post-production tricks that tell the story in a very organic way. Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II in Norway, the stark black-and-white aesthetic of the video subtly incorporates excellent After Effects work: (more…)

Video Tutorials on Basic Title Animation in After Effects

Ryan Koo — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:25:37 +0000

Garret Smith has posted a number of tutorials exploring different methods of text animation in Adobe After Effects. Before we go any further, however, check out Ian Albinson’s SXSW presentation, “A Brief History of Title Design,” which is a great compendium of visually striking titles from over the years: (more…)

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Now Available

Ryan Koo — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:43:51 +0000

The previously announced upgrade to Adobe’s Creative Suite, version CS5.5, is now shipping. From individual titles all the way up to the $2,599 behemoth known as the Master Collection, the new programs are available as instant downloads (well, depending on the speed of your connection). Direct links: Adobe Master Collection CS5.5, Adobe Production Premium CS5.5, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, Adobe After Effects CS5.5, Adobe Audition CS5.5.

NAB Video: Adobe's CS5.5 Presentations and Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects

Ryan Koo — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:40:18 +0000

With all the hubbub about the new Final Cut Pro X, it’s easy to forget Adobe announced new versions of their video applications only the day before Apple’s sneak peak event. CS5.5 has a lot of significant new features, and Adobe was demoing the video-centric Production Premium suite all week at their NAB booth. Here’s what they were showing: (more…)

Adobe Launches Creative Suite 5.5 with New Video Features and Monthly Payment Option

Ryan Koo — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 05:18:48 +0000

Adobe today announced Creative Suite 5.5, a mid-cycle upgrade to CS5 that introduces significant new features to the video programs, adds mobile-based publishing and program extensions, and offers a new subscription payment model that eliminates the sticker shock of purchasing the full suite. (more…)

Adobe's New 'Warp Stabilizer' Effect to Fix Camera Shake and Rolling Shutter Automagically

Ryan Koo — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:35:49 +0000

Adobe has just previewed “Warp Stabilizer,” a new After Effects-bundled tool that fixes camera shake and rolling shutter artifacting with a simple drag-and-drop operation. Or so they claim; their technology sneak peek certainly makes it look like magic. While there are plenty of camera stabilization plugins on the market, this one fixes camera shake across all axes and will presumably ship with the next version of After Effects (instead of requiring a separate purchase, like many stabilization plugins). One thing I had in mind as I watched this demo: 4K. (more…)

Canon 7D Does 1,000 FPS Slow-Motion Surfing Video Thanks to Software Tricks

Ryan Koo — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:41:38 +0000

Devin Graham filmed surfers off Oahu’s North Shore with his Canon 7D and a 2X teleconverter (which converts his 70-200mm and 100-400mm lenses to 140-400mm and 200-800mm, respectively). As with other action sports that look great slowed-down, surfing benefits from super slow-mo, and so Dylan used After Effects to take his 60fps clips all the way down to 1,000fps. Here’s the result: (more…)

How to Create High Dynamic Range Images Using After Effects

Ryan Koo — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:57:56 +0000

With the new RED cameras featuring a built-in HDR mode, and with some shooters using a beam splitter to capture HDR images on two DSLRs, High Dynamic Range imaging seems all the rage these days. But what about the rest of us, who only have one DSLR? We can use After Effects to combine two shots with differing exposure settings. Here, Robin Schmidt shares a tutorial on how to do so: (more…)

Finding the Best Workflow Between Premiere Pro and After Effects

Ryan Koo — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:06:38 +0000

Since switching to Premiere Pro, my editing workflow has been to lock picture in Premiere and then finish in After Effects. To date I’ve been using a workflow similar to the one I’d use when editing in Final Cut Pro, which was to import a final sequence into After Effects (either as an XML or by using Premiere Pro as an intermediary), and apply color correction, titling, and other effects in AE. While this approach gives a very high quality output, a problem rears its head if you want to make changes to the edit after “locking” picture. So what’s the best workflow between Premiere and After Effects? (more…)