Bob Donlon’s Adobe TV Blog

In an earlier post, I wrote that Dean Velez (a multiple Emmy Award winning broadcast designer & former Adobe SE) has a new After Effects training DVD (from Total Training, where he's now the Creative Director). Upon arriving back to my office today, I was delighted to find a copy of it in my mailbox -- "Total Training for Advanced Adobe After Effects 7 Pro - Broadcast Design Secrets". Dean is one of the rare talents that can start with absolutely nothing, create some artwork in Photoshop, animate it in After Effects, and come out with an incredibly deep, dynamic motion design piece. I guess it comes from all those years he spent in TV News, having to create graphics packages with an average deadline of 1/2 hour (!).

I just watched the first part -- creating a News Bumper -- which uses the Fractal Noise effect to great effect (sorry) in creating the animated clouds. Fractal Noise is one of those effects that you should always turn to when creating animated backgrounds as the possibilities are virtually endless. Here's a screencap from the training.

Anybody involved in Broadcast Design should have a copy of this disc.