» Posts Tagged ‘aftereffects’
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 »
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
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 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 »
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 »
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.
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 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 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Anyone who’s read the expanded PDF of the DSLR Guide knows that I use Neat Video for noise reduction. While the results are top-notch, I do have some issues with the plugin: namely, that it doesn’t take advantage of the host machine’s graphics card, and as such the render times can be quite slow. A new entrant in the video noise-reduction market is Magic Bullet Denoiser, which ships as part of the excellent Magic Bullet Suite 10. I haven’t had the chance to fire up the plug-in yet, but there are a few excellent reviews and tutorials already out there: More »
Since we’re on the topic of backyard effects with that Russian Transformers clip, let’s take a look at the technique of integrating 3D objects with live action footage. The technique of placing a 3D object into a previously filmed scene (known as matchmoving) requires sophisticated camera tracking generally reserved for high-end effects packages, but Aetuts+ has a tutorial for doing it with a free After Effects plugin called Voodoo Camera Tracker. I’ve only done 2D tracking myself (to erase people and other background elements in The West Side), but if you’re interested in integrating your own 3D transformers (or something more original, perhaps?) into a live scene, here’s a tutorial for you: More »
I was recently hired to be the A Camera operator on a fashion shoot for a company that will go unnamed. I’m not trying to be mysterious — they had me sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, so I’m erring on the side of caution. Actually, posting nothing at all would probably be erring on the side of caution, but there were too many expensive tools and newfangled gadgets being put to use on the shoot for me not to share. As an indie used to low-budget DSLR shoots, getting my hands on a $200k camera was quite the departure. More »
More free After Effects tutorials: rotoscoping, tracking, expressions
In addition to Video Copilot’s free After Effects tutorials, here’s a set of free AE tutorials from Mack Dadd Productions. Note that some of these are dated, but many of the techniques still apply; I would think the Video Copilot series is a good starting point, and these could fill in any gaps. A sampling: More »
Adobe After Effects is an incredibly deep compositing program that often flusters first-time users with its myriad panels and switches. It’s not the most intuitive program, and as such I don’t recommend taking the approach I did: banging my head against the wall until it made sense. Instead, why not take advantage of two hours of free training from Video Copilot? This video series came out a while ago (circa CS3), but 99% of it still applies to CS5. More »
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