The Genesis Project

The genesis of the idea (yeah, I couldn't resist) came from watching a motion background at a service recently.  It was kind of cheezy but Christmas like and it served its purpose.  I nudged my wife and said I thought I could do better.  I'm not sure I did, but the journey to create this was fun.

The ideas for this animation are similar to what I normally preach (have you got an idea that I'm running away with playing on this theme yet?):  basic transforms, simple operations and a few concepts to know in After Effects and you're off and running.

Here's a basic idea of how I created this:

1. I built three separate landscape comps with a couple of shapes I created on colored solids.
2. Then I positioned these three in 3D space and rigged a camera and light.  The light ended up being fixed and the only change I made was the width of the angle of the beam.
3. Then I created and adjustment layer and added some CC Snow plugin.  At this point, I added a CC Snow plugin to each of the landscape comps to give it added depth. 
4. While I was at it, I enabled the depth of field option and changed the camera F-Stop to make the blur pop a little bit more.
5. Then I added the Merry Christmas title.  Essentially, take a script font (I used brush script so you'd likely have the font) and then draw one or masks on the letters.  Then apply a Stroke and animate the masks and choose 'reveal original image'.  This will give it a write on style effect.
6. Then I added a particle to wipe on the letters.  I used CC particle world and then created a snowflake by hand by using shape layers in a comp
7. Go back and create a Snowman by using masks and animating the expansion parameter
8. Create a Big Sky: I grabbed a star field picture on the web, created a gradient to add to the night sky.  Afterwards, I decided to add some light beams. This was the tricky part.  I created a comp called heavenly light and created a shape layer.  I added dashes to the shape layer and then applied a CC Radial Fast blur to give it that shining light look.  I had to pre-comp it to have it look right in my main comp.  Its a neat little trick though.
9. I was close to finished, but given the season, I decided to add a lens flare to speak to the star that the three wise men followed. 
10. I added a sled sliding down one of the hills and then grabbed some audio to drop in.

You can download the zipped project files here: Christmas 2008.  You'll notice that I've begun to use Acrobat.com to make files available for you to download.  I'm thinking that it's faster than the blogging server.  The download is about 6MB.  Let me know what you think of the experience.

I'd like to type up the step-by-step tutorial on this, but as is often the case these days, time just doesn't permit it. If I had to do it one more time, I'd probably make the snowman 3D by using CC Sphere on each of his segments. 

Enjoy and my best wishes to a successful and fun 2009...

Dennis

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 7:15 PM | Permalink

Good news for Matrox owners - CS4 compatibility along with 64 bit support is around the corner.  What's not to like about that?  RT.X2 owners will get it in a few days while Axio customers will have to wait a bit longer, but overall, this should be a huge boost for everyone.  I have to tip my hat to the guys at Matrox as well because I never expected them to be the first hardware manufacturer to support CS4, but they did so congratulations!

Matrox announces CS4 and Vista 64 support

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave from Dav's Tech Table emailed me this story from Jan Ozer about his recent interest in 64bit computing.  As always, Jan tells with it with thoughtfulness and insight.  It's a good morning tech read...

Digital Content Producer - 64 bit computing

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 5:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we are and the field team that supports video is pretty excited.  It takes a ton of work, planning, preparation etc...but we believe in doing them and we've heard from our customers as well that they are important to you. While e-seminars and the Internet and a host of other things are good, sometimes there is no subsitute for seeing it in person and having the chance to talk to Adobe reps.

In addition, there will be a number of our valued partners that will be presenting as a part of our collaboration.  So, you will have a chance to see and meet AJA, Matrox, Blackmagic Design and others as we bounce around the country.

What does all of this mean to you? I hope you'll say it's a great opportunity for you to learn and decide if Production Premium is right for you.  At a minimum, you'll be educated and entertained.  Lastly, if this kind of thing has interest to you, be sure to sign up.  I can't tell you that there will be another roadshow coming soon (or ever) if this one isn't filled with people. So, if you're feeling in a giving mood, please sign up and tell a friend as well.  Below is the link and the cities where we'll be.  I hope to meet many of you in the next month or so. ;-)

Dennis

Adobe CS4 roadshow

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just a quick story from yesterday: I was at the Sports Video Group show in New York which is focused on broadcast sports technology and during a slow time the Canon guy came up to me.  He asked me, "So I hear the latest version of Premiere Pro can play AVCHD natively.  Is it really native or is it just native?"

I know his question is kind of funny, but there is a lot of smoke and mirrors going on when it comes to handling this codec!  I responded to him and said, "No, it's really native - bring me your camera."  We hooked up his AVCHD Camera (which looked great by the way) and proceeded to import his media into Premiere Pro CS4 and play it from the timeline with no dropped frames.  He walked away pretty impressed and here's the point: that's what I get everytime I show our AVCHD story to someone who knows the issues facing any NLE provider.  The fact that it played so smoothly natively is just icing on the cake.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 7:21 AM | Permalink

Well, in point of fact, it seems to be something that is cropping up in these econmomically challenging times and by none other than professional video manufacturing giant Sony corp. 

I recently had the privilige of going up to their headquarters in northern New Jersey and do a taped video segment for this tradeshow. During the interview, we discussed a lot of things about how Adobe handles various Sony formats such as HDV, XDCAM and XDCAM EX.  I had a blast doing it and if you're at all interested in the interview, I hope you'll consider signing up. 

What's more, is that a couple of Adobe people including myself I hope, will be manning our 'booth' and talking to you via the web.  This really could be an interesting take on an old concept.  Here's the link if you're able to sign up.  The date will be January 15th

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The RED camera support for Adobe is out the door and while it's still a beta, a number of our beta testers are getting some work done on it and that's the most important thing.

I can profess to be a RED camera expert - though I'd love to have a camera!  However, the way it works with Adobe software is pretty much the same thing that we're doing with DVCProHD, XDCAM, AVCHD and any other native format that comes our way: we handle it natively.

So, with that in mind, you should go get the plug in here

When you've downloaded it, you should check out the lengthy video from my Adobe co-worker Dave Helmly: Red Workflow

Here's the basic advantages of an Adobe workflow:

• Mac and PC - You still have a huge audience on PC that is looking for compelling ways to edit RED footage
• Native - Final Cut still takes you to a Log and Transfer, so I'm wondering why that is...
• works on laptops and desktops

Is there still work to do? Oh yeah, you betcha.  But it's a good start.

As for blogging - I'll probably be a little dark through the rest of the year, but I will be working on getting a bunch of stuff built up.  My apologies for not staying active, despite the software glitches.  Adobe's got me on some exciting new stuff and it's going to take a lot of my time - but I'm committed to trying to keep publishing information, blogs and tutorials whenever and however I can.

Thanks for your patience and understanding,

Dennis

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)