nofilmschool » cs5

Element 3D After Effects Plug-In: Free 1.5 Update Released, Plus a Tutorial for Metropolitan Model Pack

Justin Minich — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:05:29 +0000

If you thought Video Copilot’s Adobe After Effects plug-in Element 3D couldn’t get any better, then check out the new features the free 1.5 update is sporting: support for importing animated 3D sequences, real-time glow, new particle ordering and repeating options, ambient occlusion improvements, layer grid mode, and more. Feast your eyes on Andrew Kramer’s video below for a complete tour of what’s new in Element 3D: (more…)

Element 3D: 3 New Tutorials and How to Start Making Your Own 3D Content

Justin Minich — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:30:23 +0000

This past summer I wrote about the release and initial tutorials for Video Copilot’s awesome Adobe After Effects plug-in, Element 3D. Andrew Kramer has been slowly but surely releasing new tutorials for the plug-in that show off more aspects of its functionality and practical applications in After Effects projects. His three latest Element 3D tutorials delve into image based lighting, using video clips as textures to create screen animations, and making a field of random rocks as a part of a set extension. As an extra bonus, I’ve included some tutorials for the free open-source 3D modeling and animation program Blender, to get you started making your own objects for Element 3D. (more…)

Element 3D Tutorial Round-up: Environment Maps, Particle Replicator, 3D Compositing, and More!

Justin Minich — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 13:30:40 +0000

Last month I wrote about the new Adobe After Effects plug-in from Video Copilot: Element 3D. The initial demo videos were pretty amazing, but Andrew Kramer is delving deeper into Element 3D’s functionality in his most recent tutorial videos, covering the creation and manipulation of materials, powerful animation options in the Particle Replicator, environment maps, and 3D Compositing. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a tutorial from Serge Mustu on a Cinema 4D to Element 3D workflow and animating titles: (more…)

Video Copilot Releases Their Stunning New After Effects Plug-in: Element 3D

Justin Minich — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:00:23 +0000

If you thought the new 3D capabilities in Adobe After Effects CS6 were impressive, you haven’t seen anything yet. Andrew Kramer of Video Copilot just released the Element 3D Plug-in for After Effects CS3 through CS6 on both Windows and OSX. It’s a 3D object based particle array system with a fast Open GL render engine, and a simple yet powerful animation engine. Check out these demo videos to see Element 3D in action: (more…)

Adobe Kills Upgrade Pricing for Older Versions of Creative Suite

Ryan Koo — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:30:00 +0000

I just took advantage of Adobe’s 20% off upgrade for Creative Suite 5.5, and it’s a good thing, because apparently Adobe is killing upgrade pricing entirely for the Creative Suite — and its individual components — unless you’re running the latest version. This means when CS6 is released next year, if you’re not on CS5.5, you’ll have to pay full price. Here’s what they had to say: (more…)

Coming Soon: The NoFilmSchool Hac Pro

Ryan Koo — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:08:42 +0000

When I priced out the components of the new Mac Pro, I realized Apple’s pro line is not a good value proposition. When the same new Mac Pros left off an nVidia graphics card as an option, I took it as a slight to Adobe. When I asked you guys if you’d like me to build a hackintosh in an attempt to have the best of both worlds, you said yes. So I’ve done the research, priced out the components, and drawn my conclusions. Here’s what I think is possible for a video editing-optimized hackintosh: compared to the $2,500 Mac Pro base model that will ship this month, I believe the Hac Pro can have a faster processor, four times as much RAM, a Blu-Ray burner, USB 3.0 connectivity¹, more storage space, and an nVidia graphics card that accelerates Adobe CS5. The kicker? This Hac Pro will cost $1,000 less.

PPBM5 Can Settle the Mac-vs-PC Editing Debate with Hard Numbers

Ryan Koo — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:30:28 +0000

Mac vs. PC is a never-ending debate, but when it comes to video editing, what we need are hard and fast numbers. It would be impossible to generate a comparison of apples to apples (zing?) by using Final Cut Pro, since that NLE is only available on one platform. Instead, Adobe’s CS5 suite is the ideal candidate — and considering CS5 is 64-bit native on both OSes, it should be a fair fight. The best way to settle this would be to open the exact same CS5 project file on a Mac and a PC, play it back, render it out, and measure it in other ways — on various machines, at different price points — and compare the results. If only someone would create such a benchmarking tool and upload the results to a database… As it turns out, someone has done just this. (more…)

Apple Drops nVidia from New Mac Pros to Snub Adobe

Ryan Koo — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:17:57 +0000

Apple today announced new Mac Pros, marking the first updates to the fruit company’s pro line since March of 2009. Pricing starts at $2,500 for the base 4-core model, $3,500 for the 8-core model, and a wallet-annihilating $5,000 for the 12-core model. The new machines use the latest Intel Xeon processors, there are new SSD options for storage, and higher-powered ATI graphics cards are now standard. No USB 3.0 or Lightpeak as rumored, and still no Blu-ray option. None of this is particularly surprising, but there’s an interesting angle to this announcement concerning the ongoing feud between Apple and Adobe.

The iPhone 4 Does Not "Change Everything Again"

Ryan Koo — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:08:40 +0000

I was at a rental house checking out $500k of video equipment (not for my own project — I wish) when Apple announced the iPhone 4 yesterday, so I forgot it was the day I was supposed to figure out whether my next editing machine was going to be a Mac or a Hac. When I got back home, however, I saw 30 billion posts on the internet about the iPhone — a platform for interacting and consuming — and nothing about the Mac — a platform for creating. (more…)

How to use After Effects

Ryan Koo — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:48:22 +0000

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.

Adobe and Apple still getting along in the editing world, at least

Ryan Koo — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:42:35 +0000

Most of us use both Adobe and Apple products — most commonly Adobe Photoshop and Apple Final Cut, I’m guessing. With the ongoing feud between the two companies reaching a joke T-shirt-spawning level, however, it’s nice to know that their respective NLE programs still talk to each other (thanks to standards-based XML files). Since CS4, Premiere Pro has been able to open and export Final Cut XML files (which is handy for getting FCP sequences into After Effects, an action that used to require a $500 plugin). CS5 tutorial after the jump: (more…)

Green screen keying and time remapping in Premiere Pro CS5

Ryan Koo — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:39:09 +0000

I don’t work for Adobe or anything, but since CS5 is the NKOTB, this site’s a bit Adobe-heavy these days. Adobe’s Jason Levine is rolling out the free tutorials to promote the suite’s release, so here’s another one on doing keying and time remapping in Premiere Pro CS5: (more…)

Free Adobe workshop on DSLR video and CS5 this Wednesday

Ryan Koo — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:08:15 +0000

This Wednesday, May 26th from 1-2:30pm (Eastern), Adobe is running a free online workshop on DSLR video and Production Premium CS5. Adobe guru Richard Harrington promises, “You’ll learn everything from practical shooting techniques and essential lighting to easy editing strategies and online sharing. You’ll also be introduced to the latest Dell Precision workstation and NVIDIA Quadro graphic solutions to help you make the best decision to outfit your editing needs – including taking advantage of the latest performance improving updates in CS5.” No word on whether they’re capping the number of virtual attendees, so sign up now if you’re interested.

Link: Working with DSLR Video with Adobe CS5 Production Premium

[via Cinema5d]

Native DSLR editing in Premiere Pro CS5

Ryan Koo — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:42:15 +0000

And the exodus I spoke of begins. In Final Cut there is no (updated: good) way to edit DSLR footage without transcoding. In Premiere Pro CS5, now shipping, there is. I’m also hearing anecdotally that Adobe finally took the “Pro” moniker seriously and the latest version is significantly more stable than previous versions. Here’s Jason Levine with an 8-minute demo of DSLR editing in CS5. (more…)

Why filmmakers might switch from Macs to PCs in 2010

Ryan Koo — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:00:17 +0000

This isn’t for anyone who works at a huge corporation or has a lot of money, but for the rest of us, I think the best guerilla solution for filmmaking in 2010 will be a PC. I’ve been a Mac guy for the past four years but I suspect things are about to change; here’s why. (more…)