On Wednesday September 10th, I’ll be releasing our mini-movie. More like a worthless excuse to use visual effects, oh well I finished the VFX and now all that is left is soundtrack and audio mixing.  The release date for the tutorials has not been set but they will be released very soon in 2 waves, the first set and then the second set.  On Wednesday you will see the 2 shots I am referring to and what you can expect to learn. It’s pretty serious stuff!

We’ve produced a mini-film to demonstrate the VFX shots covered in the new training series. There are basically 2 shots in the film we will be working on from start to finish. The first will be demonstrate compositing your 3D animation in After Effects without 3D tracking, similar to the set extensions tutorial but more advanced. The other shot will cover matchmoving 3D animation for AE compositing. Both shots are pretty exciting and cover a wide range of information and tricks. This is not a Short-Cuts tutorial

Admin Note: I don’t like to bring this up but as a community we need to remember to maintain the atmosphere with regards to some comments on the blog. There will be times, like this past month when I may have projects that take me outside of Video Copilot but this is just an opportunity for me to bring back new information and knowledge. I want people to see the great individuals that visit here and feel excited to participate. Remember to relax, be patient and you WILL learn cool stuff. And please, no need to apologize, this is just a reminder. I  want to keep us on the right track!

Besides it’s partially my fault for putting up these riveting teasers ;)  The truth is, sometimes a screen shot is all I have…

It was an average afternoon. Tino sat curb-side playing his favorite card game when suddenly everything changed. He was running for his life. Could this be the end? Could this be the beginning of the most awesome free training series ever? We’ll see soon…

Trivia: What is the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?

Katie helping set up in the backyard

Big weekend! My wife and I celebrated our daughter’s first birthday and we had the friends and family over. Lots of fun. Katie is now 1 year old today and I’ll try to post a picture of the little angel when I get back in.

I got a lot of work done on the tutorials yesterday and today I’ll be out with the family but be ready this week for some fun and exciting stuff. I might even teach something cool.

I may even be able to show you a little of what I’ve been working on. Who knows… Have fun today and enjoy life!

Well it’s no secret, I’ve been busier than a beaver in a chopstick factory but the good news is one of my projects is almost complete. Monday is a holiday and I think I’ll spend some time editing a few tutorials and get some things moving around here.

Something I learned: I’m doing a concert stage scene with a rock band and instead of compositing in AE, I matched the color in AE and brought in to 3D max for compositing. This way It will interact with the atmosphere effects and blend with the lighting correctly without as much work.

Until then, remember everyday is an opportunity to learn cool stuff! Like Hockey-Basketball!

In addition to After Effects there are other great tools I found myself using frequently on this latest project:

Trapcode Horizon
This great little After Effects plug-in makes it easy to add environments to 3D scenes and saves a ton of time. I use it almost as much as Particular. www.Trapcode.com

Lenscare
Probably the best tool for creating realistic blur for individual layers or by using a depth matte. http://www.frischluft.com/lenscare/lenscare.php

HDR Shop
This program is hard to describe but I use it to create spherical environment from digital still images to create 3d Environments and backgrounds. http://www.hdrshop.com/ Learn as much as you can on this subject it is great.

Nodal Ninja
This tool makes shooting still images for panoramic easy and consistent. Be sure to check it out all the helpful resources within.
http://www.nodalninja.com/

Here are some screens of the stuff I’m working on. Some of it is abstract futuristic and the other is part of an action sequence. Wish I could show more…

High Resolution

I’ve been meaning to post some new stuff lately but I’ve been smashed working on a couple of projects… One aspect involves emulating the look of a first-person-shooter like Call of Duty… What I did was started playing! I ran through the action inside the game and screen captured the video. Then using 3D tracking software I was able to extract the camera movement and bring it in to my 3D game world. Admittedly, I’ll have to slow down the movement since it will seem strange to people who are not as good as me *yawn*

The boujou stuff is still on the way and will be the first thing out when this is all over, just need to edit and compress the videos.  I’ll try to sneak another shortcuts episode in later this week if I can find the time. In the mean time, if you hit the HOME key in After Effects it will bring you back to the beginning of the comp. NICE!

Not really sure what to say about this video but it’s pretty cool. The video discusses specialized methods & technology for enhancing altering video.

Check it out