Steve Whatley's After Effects Cookbook

A few months ago I approached the Maxon Cinema 4D folks with an idea to create a tour showing the powerful the integration between After Effects CS3 and C4D. If you use 3D software now or are interested in learning about both applications, you won't want to miss it. It is called the ADOBE-MAXON POWER INTEGRATION TOUR.

Some great 3D artists from Maxon's Cinema4D and I are going to tour 6 cities in July-August to show how great the integration is between After Effects and C4D. We are working hard to create a cool demo to showcase this integration. It is now posted on Maxon.net, url posted below. We will show both Adobe and Maxon software and a complete workflow solution as well. Check out Adobe's new CS3 info and feature movies on our website and Maxon.net for a peek at what Cinema4D and BodyPaint are about.

We are thinking of making the demo files available on Maxon.net after the tour, if you think this is a good idea, let me know.

Posted by Steve Whatley at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, can I say that after years of prodding the Photoshop team for more video features, they really pulled it off this time. They always surprise us every release with new features, but there are some extra special ones in PS Extended in CS3, and one of them is opening a movie or sequence in Photoshop. The feedback on this at NAB in the booth was overwhelming...."Holy S--T, are you kidding me?" was the normal response when I demo'd it. I had a chance to speak with John Nack (has a great blog) and the 2 engineers who pioneered this new feature at NAB this April and after sharing your collective responses to them they, to say the least, grinned like proud parents.....and rightly so! After Effects has great Paint and Clone capabilities, but always wanting more, especially in the film business having all of the PS tools available opens up new territories.

You can open .mov files or image sequences in Photoshop CS3 Extended and use all of the paint or clone tools options. For painting/cloning on video the animation timeline works well, for both working on Video/Movies/Film, but another great feature is the ability to create a blank video layer and create frame by frame animation using the paint/clone tools...not forgetting here the wealth of filters available as well.

So here is the tip of the day.....there isn't a keyboard shortcut to advance or step through frame by frame as in AE's page up and page down (please request this as a feature for next release), but if you go into Edit - Keyboard Shortcuts - Animation Timeline - GoTo, you can set Next Frame and Previous Frame key shortcuts. I used Option+Command+F1 and Option+Command+F2 and other than it is a finger/thumb stretch, it allows you to use your thumb sideways to push both Option and Command keys at the same time. Also this combination keeps you on the left side of the keyboard and free for mouse or preferrably Wacom Tablet use while painting.

There is also a great little movie that shows a hand drawn animation in the Photoshop CS3 Samples folder called "CheeziPuffs.mov" check it out.

Don't forget to load all the great Video Actions that ship with PS CS3 Extended there are a bunch of new ones this time.

Posted by Steve Whatley at 09:16 PM | Permalink

Welcome to Steve Whatley’s After Effects Cookbook Blog. If you love After Effects like I do, you are in the right place. My idea here is to pass on, After Effects (AE) cool stuff with a focus on the 3D side of AE, integration with 3D applications, 3rd party plugins and WORKFLOW. If you are all about motion graphics and effects you can’t go wrong here.

Bio: Who is this guy?
Joined Adobe in 2000 as a Systems Engineer for Adobe Dynamic Media, that means Creative Suite CS3 Production Premium, ie Premiere Pro, After Effects, Sound booth (Audition too) Encore, Photoshop and Illustrator. My job at Adobe as a Field Techincal Resource takes me all over the US showing our CS3 apps and visiting Adobe Customers (You)

What I’ve done: Does this guy really know what he is talking about.
Yes, I’ve been around the block a few times, ok, maybe more than a few. But for those interested, I started as a fine artist, moved to Airbrush illustration also doing photo-retouch (before Photoshop) combining that with 20 years in the graphic design industry, a bit on the web side and finally finding my home in the 2D/3D world doing After Effects work since version 3, and on the 3D side starting with Strata Studio, Infini-D, Electric Image, Power Animator and Maya. My new favorite is Maxon’s Cinema 4D.
And yes, I still have my original COSA dongle.

So…to the point, and keep in mind these are my personal views….not Adobe’s

So here is the plan, and what I plan to blog about in the future.

1. Where I’ve been – seen that you may find interesting

2. AE 3D Layers, Cameras, Lights, 3D channel effects filters (old but still valuable)

3. 3D Software Integration with C4D, Maya and other formats

4. Plugins for AE

5. Some tutorials as well

So, stay tuned for more…and if you like it…Pass it on.

Posted by Steve Whatley at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)