It’s true, I’ve been holding out on you and it’s killing me too!!  I decided to develop a few (and by “few” I mean awesome) additional features for Element 3D that were not originally planned but  are well worth it.  Like this 3D shading effect that adds real depth to each object. I want this plug-in to go BEYOND your expectations as it has already surpassed mine.

The above image was created entirely with Element 3D (screenshot), taking advantage of the impressive render speeds and powerful shading engine.  This is an robust system that mimics many attributes of a true Global Illumination render engine at a fraction of the time.

I’m pleased to tell you that the graphics card requirements have NOT changed from our original expectations so even decent cards from the last couple of years will work great. We recommend at least a 512 MB of vRam using an Nvidia or ATI graphics cards but a 1GB card will allow greater flexibility.

Thank you for your patience and please stay tuned for official updates and in-depth demonstrations of new features. Believe me, there are some big surprises ahead… I can’t tell you everything YET.  Even though I really want to…

Explore tips for shooting Car interiors for Post Production with Andrew Kramer.

Watch on Vimeo

Watch on Youtube

I’ve been experimenting with some advanced chroma keying methods to specifically deal with reflections and subtle details like this car plate.

Often times we use keylight to get rid of everything that is green but in some cases we want to keep some of the reflections to make a shot more realistic.  Some of these tips are quite noteworthy because the footage being used is from a Canon 5D which can be particularly noisy due to compression artifacts.  Pulling a good key is already challenging enough but leaving in small details without flicker is even more problematic.  I think I have figured out a few good methods and we even filmed another behind the scenes video to show how we setup the shots. Look for the video and tutorial soon.

Looks like we are having another free stock footage day that includes 15 new HD (720p) particle clips and a quick tutorial with some compositing tips & ideas. For tips on creating your own footage check out Flour Fusion show.  Sweet Deal!!

Example Footage

Watch Tutorial

FREE Particle Stock Footage:
Download Stock Footage (162 MBs)

Footage is in h.264 compressed MP4 files. Usage License. Enjoy!

After the Flour Fusion experiment I began testing the footage in some of my after effects projects and found them to be quite useful and interesting. So later this week, I’ve decided to post some Free HD clips for everyone to try.

This comp was created using some snow images placed in 3D space.  Then the snow particles were comped over the entire screen in 2D. I’m sure with a little more work the particles could be in 3D space as well by making multiple copies. You could even use particular to create some additional 3D particles to really sell the depth… so many ideas.  How will you use the clips?

Creating particles in After Effects is awesome!  We have all used Particular and Particle world but why not combine those particles with some real ones!  Sometimes you need to create elements that are so complex and organic that you are better off taking out the camera and making a mess.

In this example we use a little bit of flour to mix things up!

Watch on Vimeo

Step into a new dimension with this exciting new tutorial from the Demon Cam video featuring a powerful portal effect with advanced compositing tips.  This tutorial is one of many upcoming lessons based on the visual effects for our Demon Cam film, stay tuned for more.

Includes many techniques including:

• Chroma Keying, Screen equalizing, Spill Suppression
• Building the Portal using included Smoke Clip
• Color Correction, Glow Effects & Optical Flares
• Planet of the Apes Reference
• Accurate depth revealing effect using ZPass from a 3D program

Watch Tutorial Now!

References:

Optional Plug-in used: Optical Flares

The Video Copilot  iPhone App: Demon Cam™
Hey, we’d buy your app if you made one!

We are getting ready to release a new tutorial for the Portal effect from our Demon Cam promo video but  I wanted to share one of the many additional tips you will find inside of this upcoming tutorial.

In this example, I’ve reused the original footage but implemented a system for realistically revealing the face coming through the portal. This could be useful for passing through energy fields or some sort of stargate time-travel thingy.

Sample Video

Animating the Camera in After Effects has always been a fun and challenging proposition. We created several tutorials and even our free plug-in Sure Target to assist users get better results. In some cases these “results” are just too perfect so I wanted to create a simple way to give the camera a more hand-held feel of an imperfect camera guy or girl. One that doesn’t follow the motion perfectly…

I’m still figuring out how to work this into the site… either through a tutorial or preset but after we start rolling out the Demon Cam tutorials next week, keep an eye out!

Watch Sample Video

Last week we released a promotional film for our new iPhone app: “Demon Cam”!
Watch Demon Cam Film

Much like our Demon Face Warp tutorial, this new app allows you to record a video and transform someone into a Demon of your choice.  To help people learn to use the app, we created a film with a supernatural back-story and more importantly, a platform to create some fun visual effects.  Before watching the behind the scenes, you should probably watch the short film first. Watch Demon Cam.

Now that the project is released, we are excited to share the behind-the-scenes video, outlining everything that went into creating the effects as well as the app design.

As planned we will be breaking down many of the VFX shots for complete Video Copilot tutorials over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for that!

Watch Demon Cam: Behind the Scenes

Video available on Youtube & Vimeo!

FAQ: Android Version?
We’re gonna try!

Later today we will be releasing the behind the scenes video for our Demon Cam film. Now along the way, we tried to film everything that went into the production, unfortunately some scenes didn’t make the cut.

Now that we have released our new promo video for ‘Demon Cam‘, it’s time to start sharing the fruits of the project to you! One of the most used elements was the mystical smoke found inside of the Orb, and now it’s yours!

Be sure to mix it with additional particle effects like this crazy energy ball!
Download Smoke Elements

SPOILERS:
Now if you have not seen the film yet, please check it out first before reading on…
Watch Demon Cam Promo NOW!

So what’s next?
Well, now that the film is out we are going to be sharing the secrets of our VFX compositing workflows for nearly all of the challenging VFX shots to help everyone see what is possible.  Our goal was to make a promo video with as many impressive VFX shots as possible so we can try to push the limits of our tutorials and production values of a real-world project.

Now, I agree this was a lot of work to put into a ‘VFX App’, but what’s AWESOME is that even if we don’t hit it big like “Angry Birds“,  we still have some sweet real-world FX shots to make exciting new tutorials for months to come!

…Pretty clever

So get ready for a new tutorial or breakdown every week AND an impressive behind-the-scenes video covering various aspects of the production just for the Video Copilot community!

Here is an inside look at some of the shots we will be working on. Until then…
View Inside Look

Discover the secret of the Orb! Unleash the demons… with Demon Cam.

In the beginning of the year our team decided we wanted to try something new and take on a project with creative challenges  and help push the limits of our tutorials.   Instead of making a single shot-effect, we wanted to try creating a real-world project with a bigger scope and difficult visual effects that we could share with the community…  With a little inspiration from Sam Loya 2007, we created Demon Cam!

Don’t let our secret be lost for centuries,  help spread the word!

Turn up the speakers and watch in HD:

Watch Film  Promo Now

OK. It’s really happening, finally! Our crystal ball promo video is going online tomorrow!  After many months of tinkering away in our extra time we have finished producing an odd but interesting new project and it all started here at Video Copilot

So before we launch the film, check out this short clip from our Behind-the-scenes action.

Watch Now

Get Notified:
We will be announcing the video from our Twitter account a little while before posting on the blog so If you want to be the first to watch,  sign up and be ready! Connect Now

Just saw this cool article on CGSociety about the work by Digital Domain on Transformers 3 and was amazed to see our plug-in Optical Flares mentioned!

From the Article:
“Michael Bay is big on lens aberration, lens flares. “He’s always, ‘Ping my lens man, don’t be afraid to ‘ping my lens’”. Adobe After Effects has a great plugin called Optical Flares from Video Co-Pilot which is phenomenal for generating lens flares. We’d save it out, bring it into Nuke and worked a treat, he loved it.”

Besides that fun bit, the article has some great production insights and a fun point about Hyper-Reality vs actual reality. Check it out at the end.

Of course the other interesting news, is that our plug-in Optical Flares is being ported to work natively inside of Nuke and we are entering the final stages of testing.  We have added some innovated solutions for working with objects and lights within the Nuke 3D space that should be a nice time-saver. If anyone at Digital Domain wants to help beta test, just send us an email!

Using After Effects for Photoshop work:

My guess is that most After Effects users utilize Photoshop but very few Photoshop users take advantage of After Effects. I realize that many Photoshop users are photographers and don’t necessarily need graphics but what about the graphic designers in the group? Why don’t they use AE at a higher rate?

I often use After Effects to create elements specifically for my Photoshop designs and I think it’s a powerful exchange.  In  After Effects it’s easy to build a quick lens flare or detailed particle cluster using Particular or CC Particle World and then I’ll render a frame out to Photoshop. We even built a tool to Copy and Paste screen shots from After Effects to speed up this workflow.

I know there are many AE users that rely on Photoshop to build titles or logos and then import these into After Effects for animating and compositing.  There is even an option inside of After Effects to create a PSD file! (Not that I have ever used it.) But with all the amazing imagery possible through After Effects, why is it used by so few Photoshop graphic designers who would probably benefit from integrating both.

I think one mistake we make is limiting our use of tools based on the specific purpose it was designed for, instead of figuring out its actual capabilities. There is a fun story I just heard about a guy who did not speak English but was learning After Effects in English. Since he did not understand all of the names of parameters, he just adjusted them to figure out what each one did.  He probably didn’t know what the plug-ins were “Meant to do”, only what it “Could do”.

This principle of exploring creative ways to use common plug-ins is something we try to do at Video Copilot through our tutorials but perhaps this principle could have bigger implications across the creative spectrum.  Even though After Effects is ideal for “Video” and “Motion” that doesn’t mean it can’t be extremely useful for graphic designers as well. I say, use whatever tool helps you be more creative and get the job done faster.

What are some things we do in After Effects that you would recommend for Graphic Designers? Do you think After Effects is a useful tool for Graphic Design?

ASIDE: The background design above was created in Photoshop but I used some elements from our Action Essentials 2K video collection to build the glass.  Even though the most elements are video files, I simply saved a few frames and imported into PS. It was great because each clip has hundreds of unique frames so I didn’t have to use the same looking glass pieces over and over, I just scrub through the clip and everything changes nicely.

Element 3D is well underway including some interesting new features but I need to save some surprises for the launch! So instead I thought I would throw out a few responses to some frequent questions from the Video Demonstration while trying to save some secrets for later. Our goal is to release at the end of August but it could be early September so this is just an estimate.

1. Reflections: Does Element 3D reflect other particles?

Element uses HDR or non-HDR images for reflection & refraction maps but the system does not do real “Ray-Tracing” so objects do not “truly” reflect others. HOWEVER, as you can see above there are ways to “fake” reflections to get realistic results in a fraction of the render time compared traditional ray samplers. Speed is our goal, not replacing a 3D program!

2. Price: It’s going to be around $149.95! (Yes I said around…)

There I said it.  Although, we could probably sell it for more, especially considering the feature list but we wanted to maintain our philosophy of exceptional plug-ins at reasonable prices.  The truth is, we thought maybe we SHOULD sell it for more than $149 and charge at least $249 for the sake of the perceived-value compared to other products on the market.  We didn’t want people to think, “Oh, it’s ONLY $149.95″ so it must not be as good as other tools out there.  So please don’t let price confuse you, it’s quite powerful on so many levels so we ask that you judge it based on what it can do, not just the price. Otherwise we would have to sell it ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!

3. 3D Text: Will you be able to render models of 3D text or logos with Element?

Look, Element was not designed to be used as a 3D text tool but rather an intelligent particle array system that uses 3D objects as particles.  We built a massive 3D rendering engine that runs extremely fast on moderate graphics cards, objects react to AE lighting, ambient occlusion, 3d model deformation, Material Options, Depth of Field, Motion blur, 3D Fog and much more.  We wanted to make a plug-in that took After Effects to the next level.

So, can you use Element 3D to render 3D text and logos?
You better FREAKING BELIEVE IT! And it’s pretty sweet too.

Soon. Unfortunately today all I can show is another teaser for another project that I can’t publish yet… I know, but I just want to show you proof that we’ve been busy doing something, at least. This is the update: we  are waiting for some paperwork to get finished and some minor legal dealing and then I’ll be posting the video.  And no, it’s not a movie. Not exactly… not even close really.

Let’s just say in my limited free time for the past six months, minus the 3 months of work I did for Super 8,  developing Plug-ins, and enjoying my family, I’ve also been chipping away at this unusual project. It’s finally almost done.  If I tell you what it is, then it may somewhat ruin the surprise, if I build it up too much,  you might get disappointing. So Just keep an eye out for it, no big deal, but I really am looking forward to sharing it with the community! Thanks.

I want to thank everyone for their patience as we get closer to launching our new Plug-in Element.  I know there are many questions about the plug-in and I expect many more after watching this video.

With this short demo, I want people to get a sense of the plug-in and what kind of speed and quality to expect since this was our primary goal from the beginning;  To offer 3D quality at the speed you expect when using After Effects.

There is still tons of cool features to demonstrate so believe me when I say, “You haven’t seen anything yet!”   The price and availability are still undetermined but it will definitively be competitively priced as well as offer unrivaled value and powerful 3D features.

Watch Element Demo

July is going to feature some exciting new content including a first-look at our new Plug-in Element and the launch of our Crystal Ball Promo!! But before we get to that, I want to start this month off with a massive 30% OFF all Video Copilot Products.

All the favorites such as Optical Flares, Pro Presets 2 and Action Essentials 2 are on sale.  And remember you can take 30% off BUNDLE PRICES too! See our Bundles.

Use Coupon Code: REAL30

Shop Now!