J.J. Abrams 'took' over Wired magazine as a guest editor this month and injected some of his inspiring philosophy and clever wit. It's a fun read if you get a chance to check it out.

Now if you look hard enough, he even mentions Video Copilot as something he wishes was around when he was younger. Read that part. Needless to say, it was pretty freaking cool to see this in a magazine. Definitely put a big smile on my face.

What's more awesome, was actually working with him on the Main Credits for the new Star Trek movie! It was an honor to collaborate with J.J. again and I can't wait to see the movie on the big screen! I hope you guys will be there too.

Well I just posted one of the most in-depth tutorials to date and apparently some people were quite interested that I was using Vista & AE CS4. So I thought I would fill you in to the mystery.

I've actually been using CS4 for about 3-4 months, I just keep making tutorials in CS3 because so many people are still using it. In fact, I'll probably continue to use CS3 for product training and future tutorials for at least a few more months, this tutorial was just an exception.

More importantly, I will continue to focus on the core functions of this great software and less on "new features" that maybe not be available to everyone yet. In fact, 90% of our free tutorials work with at least AE 7 and up and our products work with even AE 6.5 and up!

Yes, I am using Vista 64 which allows the program to access to more memory despite AE being a 32 bit app. Since Vista has been out for a while, I haven't had any problems getting my software/hardware to work, but it's always a good ideas to test the waters before jumping in. 64 Vista definitely yields a nice improvement in speed.

My thoughts on CS4... it's just fine. I like the new interface although it took some time to get used to. One nice feature is the appearance settings can be tweaked to make everything nice and dark. There are also many new features that you can look up at Adobe's website. I like that CS4 handles additional memory and processors more effectively; although improvements are always welcome.

Someone also notes that I seemed to save a lot during the tutorial... This is not unusual, I always save after every major step, but in CS3 there is not a progress bar.

Just so you know, I don't really like to make computer comparisons and techno-mubo-jumbo. Amazing things have been done with all sort of systems and software. Always remember to focus on the craft, and then if there is a new feature that will save you some time... great. But you still have to use your imagination and creativity.

In this exciting 46 minute tutorial we will build a furious procedural disintegration using displacement maps, turbulent displacement and CC particle world. Be sure to stay tuned until the very end for a fun bonus video...

Watch Tutorial

Watch Final Video

BTW, to help support everything we do here and behind the scenes be sure to check out our impressive tools and stock footage collections. We just added a new database server to keep up with all of the daily queries so Video Copilot will be here when you need us.

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Or is it? Soon we will find out if Sam will be destroyed in the upcoming disintegration tutorial. Only time will tell...

*UPDATE BELOW

Here is a quick example of what I like to call 'procedural disintegration'. In this sample video you will see an interesting effect but what is more interesting is the technique used to build it. A tutorial will be online this week and it will be a cross between VFX and Motion Graphics (100% AE). I might even produce 2 tutorials since this technique has so many uses; I don't want it to be lost in the mist of specific visual effects shot.

View Sample Video

INSIDER INFO:
Occasionally I'm asked "How do you come up with ideas or techniques for your tutorials?". Well the truth is, I spend a fair amount of time playing around inside of After Effects. Ideas come from many sources and it's important to stay fluid so that you don't overlook something useful. Often times my experiments will be completely different than what I began developing. These projects are usually more functional in order to prove an idea or technique. It's only after I'm happy with one that I try to work it into a real-world project and tutorial. Most of all, I try to focus on things that will benefit this amazing community, you guys motivate me to push the limits of After Effects and we've only began to scratch the surface...

UPDATE:
The grenade example does not use shatter or particular and the grenade is an image... By changing the source image, the burn updates automatically as seen here.