The Genesis Project

Let's get it out there right now, "Our Customer Service department has issues."

There... I said it.  Phew, I feel better... But what's more important is that our VP said it as well and addressed it to you.

I'd encourage you to download the small PDF and give it a thorough read. While it's nice to hear that a corporation can apologize, it's better that the letter points to a better result in the future.  It also gives you a source to solve your problems in the interim if you're not getting the results you need.

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Hey there everyone.  Blogging away on supposed vacation time - I need some help. We'll keep this one brief.  Episode #25 is online and available for your perusal.  It's pretty short and to the point, so it's easy to digest and consume.  In it, I take our Photoshop texture and quickly create a 3D box by utilizing a script from AEScripts.com

From there, we'll put it all together in the next episode and hopefully the result is something you like. 

Read on for the embedded version of the tutorial.

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Photoshop,Adobe TV,Painting,Brushes,Textures

When I started at Adobe, I certainly had that feeling that I needed to learn a lot about how to use Photoshop to create textures.  Certainly, there are a lot of ways and to be honest, I'm only covering one in this episode, but I think it's a great way to open the eyes of people to just how easy it really is.

During the tutorial, I mention MyPhotoshopBrushes.com so you may want to stop there first and grab a few of the ones that may interest you.

As always (and forever), please let me know what you think and offer up any ideas for other episodes...

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These people rely on the mouse far less than the average user. All things being equal, a keystroke takes far less time than a mouse move and click.

The Logic Keyboard line is well thought out and I've got a couple at my HD room in NYC.  If you're not much of a keyboard user, I understand - but encourage you to start adding some finger stomps to your mousy repertoire! Perhaps this AIR app that helps with Adobe keyboard shortcuts will get you started to keyboard shortcut mastery!

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Dan Goldman is one seriously bright person within Adobe and he's put out a couple of videos. I may have put the first up before, but either way, both of these videos are fascinating glimpses into what could be in future versions of Adobe products.  The sad truth is that not all academic studies make it into actual products. But here's to hoping! ;-)

Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

PatchMatch: Structural Image Editing from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

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Yes, I know.... a shamelessly provocative title. 

I came across Mr. Soule's latest offerings which offer some insight into our current workflow with the RED camera as well as how similar workflow videos with Apple's Final Cut Pro and Avid's Media Composer software.

Adobe Presentations 2009

However, I think the most interesting one could be the sneak peak of Adobe's Story application which was first shown as a technology preview at NAB 2009.  That one is embedded below.  Enjoy.

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Anyway, I think they'll be helpful to a bunch of people.  In the first one, I'm showing how to paint some dirty, grungy textures.  In the next, I take that and with the help of a script from aescripts.com I build a 3D box from the PSD document.

The last one is the fog creation one that I mentioned in an earlier post.  So, you've got a couple of weeks to wait on that one, but hopefully it will be worth it.

Where this project ends up is a mystery to me, but I'm thinking I have at least one or two more episodes before I cry, "it's ALIVE!"  I hope it turns out okay. ;-)

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I've held true to my promise to not do everything about After Effects! Huzzah! 

In this one, I go in and show you how easy it is to create gradient wipes for use in Premiere Pro.  We don't always use transitions, but when we do, it's nice to have something new and fresh. Custom gradient wipes can be the ticket!  I hope you'll give it a view and tell me what you think.

As always, I'll mention that the Adobe Media Player is a free download and what's better is that many of the tutorials you get (including mine) can be downloaded and played in an 'offline' mode whenever you want.  I always think it's cool to possibly be able to watch tutorials when you're on the plane or whatever.  Anyway, if you don't have AMP, I would recommend getting it.  Click on the link above.

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Steve Holmes has always been one of the more powerful AE artists who has been able to successfully marry great design in a fun tutorial and instructive setting.  Steve build up his 'brand' by being one of the principal instructors for Total Training for several versions and now has turned up at Artbeats.

Artbeats and Mr. Holmes have already teamed up in several tutorials, so this probably isn't totally new to many people.  Nevertheless, click here for the link.  From there you can subscribe via iTunes if you're so inclined.  I've watched a couple and they're fantastic as you would expect.  Good stuff - go get it.

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Anyway, a few random thoughts here for your input and consumption.

1. Thinking of doing an Adobe TV class on creating semi-realistic fog in After Effects. I've looked around and surprisingly didn't see anything good on it. If you see something on it, pass it on. On that same idea, I know that fog isn't all that exciting, but its a super great element to add to a composition to give it a TON of depth.
2. Always looking for more ideas on Adobe TV and/or blog.  I've got to go back to some of my entries where I've asked the question before to review them, but if you're so inclined, please place a comment and tell me what you'd like to see.  Generally, I'm trying to keep the topics pretty digestible (meaning easy) but I'll listen to anything.
3. Really, really, REALLY liking the new aescripts.com website. If you're a regular AE user, do your level best to support these guys because the work they do is good for all of us.
4. Also spending some time learning the AE and Mocha trackers a bit more. Hopefully can turn it into some kind of tutorial in the future.

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About a year ago, I met Carlos who was in the midst of cutting his film Second Skin.  He was using CS3 at the time and moved up to CS4 prior to finishing up the edit.  The final product (at least the trailer) is very well done and it's also a great story about how people are finding/losing their lives in immersive games.  Read on below to see the trailer.

The neat thing for me (and Adobe) is it is further validation that Premiere Pro and Production Premium are continuing to enhance and change the way editing is done.  Carlos was clear that he could not have done what he did without Adobe products.

It looks like the movie will be playing in NY and LA in the month of August.  If it piques your fancy, click on the cities to get your tix.

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I've always been fond of saying that After Effects can - "take anything in, do anything to it and output anything."  Or another catchphrase you might hear from me is, "If you can think, you can do it in After Effects." 

A lot of this power comes from the scripting abilities in After Effects. Scripting offers users the ability to automate a bunch of things and in some cases extend the functionality of After Effects today.

Now before you jump from this blog entry, read this - there is a suggested donation amount for any of the scripts, but Lloyd and the rest of the folks there make all of the scripts available for free.  You can add anything to the cart and then change the price to $0.00 if you so choose.  My thoughts would be that if you try it and use it a lot, then you should throw them a few bucks. Help support them so that they keep doing it!!!

Lloyd Alvarez is one of the primary contributors, but there are a number of things there that are worth getting.  Below are a few of the ones I really like. 

BG Renderer - allows you to have background rendering in After Effects.  Perhaps not as full featured as Nucleo Pro, but it works with CS4 today and it's free!

Throttle 1.2 - Allows you to have access to many of the most important preferences inside of After Effects.  Great little utility for regular AE users.

Mocha Import - If you're using Mocha AE (a part of AE CS4) for tracking, this could be a very powerful little script for you to utilize.  I've been meaning to work on a tracking/stabilize project for my Adobe TV show, so I may incorporate this into the upcoming episode.  Watch the video as well - explains what this script does.

Create3DShapes - I was one of the guys that was bummed when we stopped licensing 3D cubic lite from Digital Anarchy  This product has since moved over to Red Giant but now there is a great way to create some basic 3D shapes inside of After Effects without going crazy.

One thing you'll want to know is that many of these scripts can be a dockable element inside of AE CS3 or later.  There is a video tutorial on how to do this.  I highly recommend it. 

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It's probably been done a million times, but hey(!) I focus on the basics so everything is fair game! In all seriousness, if you're relatively new to Photoshop and are a video person, this tutorials is instructive simply for using a couple of the more powerful selection tools.  As I mention in the tutorial itself, knowing the selection tools in Photoshop is the key to being a good Photoshop user.

As always, I would love to get some feedback on the episodes.  Rate it in Adobe TV for sure, but if you have a thought or comment, please come back here and drop me a line.

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It's always easy to say things like '#1 market leader!'.  There are some particular companies who come to mind where truth is secondary to the marketing message. 

For Adobe, we want to proclaim our 'awesomeness' as much as the next company, but we try to stay within the realm of reality and show some respect to our customer's intelligence. 

To that end, we've recently published some findings from a research study done around real world time saving features.  Pfeiffer Consulting found that there were significant time savings to be gained by using CS4 over CS3.  In addition, it demonstrated substantial benefits in video when using Production Premium over other video editing programs.

These segments are short and sweet - probably not more than 4 minutes long so if you've got time, give it a look.  My favorite one on video is embedded below for your viewing pleasure! ;-)

Adobe TV Benchmarks

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