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VIDEO COPILOT BLOG News, Updates, Projects Files & Tips |
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Posted at 10:43 pm on August 29th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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
References:
Optional Plug-in used: Optical Flares
The Video Copilot iPhone App: Demon Camâ¢
Hey, we’d buy your app if you made one!
Posted at 2:08 am on August 29th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
Posted at 4:46 pm on August 26th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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!
Posted at 7:42 am on August 16th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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!
We are excited to show you this coverage and
Posted at 12:43 am on August 16th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
Posted at 4:06 am on August 11th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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
Posted at 2:53 pm on August 9th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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:
Posted at 11:08 am on August 8th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
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
Posted at 12:58 pm on August 2nd, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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!
Posted at 5:30 pm on July 19th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
Posted at 7:10 pm on July 17th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
Posted at 5:13 am on July 11th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
Posted at 1:19 pm on July 5th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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.
Posted at 9:48 pm on July 4th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
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
Posted at 1:19 am on June 24th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
After all the exciting announcement for our new Plug-in Element, I forgot to let everyone know, that the stock footage from our recent Set Extensions Tutorials is now online at no charge! Should be perfect to follow along with the tutorial and practice these techniques. The footage is half-hd at 960 x 540 with no watermark thanks to Artbeats.com so if you are looking for a new shot for a project you may working on, check out some of the clips they have, some are even in Stereo 3D.
In the download, I’ve also included, the matte painting PSD file, the smoke/cloud element, the BG sky image and the roto-matte for the front mountains, just in case you don’t want to practice rotoscopting and work on the look.
Posted at 5:54 pm on June 22nd, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
Hey what’s up! It may be Wednesday but I’m excited to share some details about a new Video Copilot plug-in called Element. Formally Code-named Atom, like a secret agent, the new plug-in Element is a 3D geometry-based particle style plug-in for After Effects with many powerful features. I’m working on a demonstration soon that should answer a lot of questions and explain how the plug-in works in detail. Be sure to check out the mini-poster for a list of features that will be available.
All four images were created with Element inside of After Effects.
Posted at 12:57 pm on June 21st, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
In this exciting and detailed tutorial we will transform ordinary stock footage into an evil landscape with 3D fog and mountains. We will cover 3D match moving inside of After Effects using the new Camera Tracker plug-in as well as Particular to create the soft clouds. I know it has been a while since I’ve done a tutorial so I tried to make this one as detailed as possible including many gritty details.
I do my best not to use 3rd party tools as much as possible as you probably know from watching the last 100 tutorials but for this tutorial we needed to generate a 3D camera for the clouds so I used the most inexpensive full featured 3D tracking software around called Camera Tracker. As we get into some more advanced tutorials over the next couple of months we may have to use one or two third party tools but I’ll do my best to keep it to a minimum and only when absolutely necessary! Until then.
Posted at 6:27 pm on June 13th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
This is going to be a fun week! I started playing around with an Aerial shot from Artbeats.com and decided it needed a castle on the coast along with a sky replacement and a moon.
If you watch the video, you can see that parts of the castle show up behind the cliffs and on the left side, there is a small part of the castle on the far mountain that parallaxes with the main castle to make it feel more three dimensional. This comp plays-off the same ideas of the 3D set extensions tutorial coming out this week. Stay tuned for shot breakdowns and more fun tips!
Posted at 6:32 pm on June 6th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
Well, if ever there was a companion to the hands-on approach of Video Copilot, it could be this Hand Book designed to improve the skills of upcoming artists.
At Video Copilot, our philosophy is teach with hands-on experience of doing real-world projects. We start with a specific objective like a sky-replacement or car-hit effect and work through the various challenges as they come up, in real-time. We think it is a great way to learn software and understand the concepts of compositing by applying them to real-world scenarios. It is one thing to talk about a ‘track-matte’ but it’s another thing to see how it is used to solve a real problem.
In fact, our upcoming Crystal Ball promo represents a new level of training for Video Copilot because we focused on making a “real” production and intentionally pushed the limits of what might normally go into a standard video tutorial. Not to say that we made lousy rubbish in the past but for this project we are using an actual commercial to drive our visual effects needs. In other words, we didn’t just throw together a single shot for the sake of making a tutorial, but instead we made a real promo with real challenges that required comprehensive solutions. And these solutions should be quite informative as tutorials and tips. BTW, I’m not saying the new video will be good, only that we tried to make it less crummy than usual!
Now where was I? Oh yeah, the VFX handbook!! What I like about this handbook is that it covers subjects and concepts that are important to growing your knowledge and aptitude of the VFX industry beyond the focus of a single tutorial to give you a larger scope for the future. It is also organized nicely into modules that focus on different areas of post production to make it easy to follow. I encourage everyone to read it and let’s all improve our skills together.
PS, Disclaimer, it was sponsored by the UK government, but luckily this version is in English! … Kidding of course… I just have to be careful with my sarcasm, I still have people remind me that the movie with Will Smith, where he tries to find a cure for a zombie infection is not called Independence Day.
Apparently it is called Men in black. Tutorial Reference
Posted at 7:58 pm on June 5th, 2011 by Andrew Kramer
If you are going to be in LA on Tuesday June 21st, I’ll be doing a presentation at the DMALA user group and you should come check it out! We are going to be taking a look a couple of upcoming plug-ins including Optical Flares for Nuke and our all new tool for After Effects that you may have heard by it’s codename : Atom.
It’s a new plug-in, and it does some cool stuff.
Of course, I’ll follow it up on the website with some feature demos and a release date.
Sign up now to get a ticket for the presentation! And follow us on Twitter for info and updates. @videocopilot