A new definition of software
A new creature comfort arrived at the office recently. I've had a few late nights over the years for the benefit of After Effects. Payback time. :-)
July 31, 2009
June 23, 2009
Dynamic Advertising with After Effects, Flash & Mocha
I was in New York last week for the Promax|BDA conference, where I delivered a couple presentations about After Effects and Production Premium CS4. A couple people have inquired about seeing a recording of the presentations. I don't think there were any recordings of my sessions, but one of them was quite similar to a presentation I have at the 2008 Adobe MAX conference last fall.
Continue reading "Dynamic Advertising with After Effects, Flash & Mocha" »
March 4, 2009
New After Effects customer survey
I just posted a web survey about After Effects usage so now is a great time to tell us what you think!
Please take a few minutes to tell us a few things about yourself, your projects, and your workflow. You'll also get a chance to indicate which potential features are most important to you. Surveys like this to are a great way for you to direct our efforts.
Please go to the URL below to get started. It will probably take about 15 minutes to complete the survey. It is hosted at Surveymonkey.com:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xSnJA5hzOSiziwKPlA4GAA_3d_3d
We know you probably have a million things to do, but if you can take some to have a little influence on the After Effects team, we'd certainly appreciate it.
The information we gather is just for Adobe's use and we promise not to do anything annoying with your survey responses. All data will be kept confidential. No information about you will be sold or furnished to any other company whatsoever, nor will you receive any unsolicited e-mails because of your participation in this survey.
On behalf of the entire After Effects team, thanks!
February 18, 2009
Do you use Stock Footage or Photography?
I've been working on a little pet project related to using stock footage, photography, and audio in After Effects. If you use any stock content from commercial sources like Artbeats, Getty, Corbis, or iStockPhoto, send me a comment to let me know how you use stock content and how it fits into your workflow. Some example questions to think about:
+ what companies do you purchase from?
+ how frequently do you use stock content?
+ which kinds of stock do you use (images, video, audio)?
+ do you use royalty-free footage, rights-managed, or both?
+ once you have the stock footage, do you track its usage?
+ do you charge your clients for using stock footage?
+ do you start working with proxies, then replace with high quality final images?
Thanks!
February 14, 2009
A follow up on 64-bit
When people ask me if After Effects is 64-bit, I am always tempted to ask a follow-up question. I try to understand what benefit they are looking to gain. The answer is usually that they want to be able to render faster, and have longer RAM previews.
If you are running on multi-core system with a 32-bit Windows OS, you're likely to experience better multi-core rendering and longer RAM previews if you move to a 64-bit edition of Windows. Simple as that. If you're running a lot of ram-hungry applications, the benefit is even greater.
Here's why: A 32-bit edition of Windows is limited to a total of about 4GB. Each process on a 32-bit Windows system is limited to about 2GB. By the time you reserve some for the OS and divide the remainder among all your applications and distribute some to each core for rendering in After Effects, it's sliced into relatively small chunks. After Effects isn't the limiting factor, it's your operating system.
Enter 64-bit Windows. A 64-bit OS raises the roof on RAM limits, both for individual processes and the total. After Effects and Premiere Pro are both designed to take advantage of much more RAM than is available on a 32-bit system.
So the remaining question is: Do After Effects and Premiere take advantage of *ALL* the RAM on a 64-bit OS? The answer is no. They would have to be 64-bit native apps to do that. You get some great benefits, and the ball is back in our court. I can't be specific about future releases, but it's safe to assume that 64-bit native applications are a matter of when, not if.
But don't let this stop you from enjoying the benefits of 64-bit. Get a 64-bit OS. Fill up on cheap RAM. Work faster today. I don't want you to miss out on improved performance with CS4 apps on a 64-bit OS.
February 13, 2009
Thinking Vista? Think 64-bit.
I was at an electronics store the other day and I was surprised to see how many of the new systems are sold with 64-bit editions of Windows Vista. I also noticed that a gigabyte of computer memory is now touching the $25 price range.
I think this is a great news.
One of the best ways to get the most out of your Adobe CS4 applications is to run them on a 64-bit operating system. Mac users have it easy because the Mac OS Leopard is only available in a 64-bit flavor. Windows users face a choice between 32- and 64-bit. I suggest walking right past 32-bit Windows and picking up a 64-bit edition of Windows Vista.
The advantage to running CS4 applications on 64-bit OS is that you can install and use large amounts of RAM. Here's how it works with After Effects: When you are rendering in the Render Queue or building a RAM preview, After Effects can use multiple processor cores to render several frames at the same time. Behind the scenes, After Effects starts a process on each available core. Each process can address up to 4GB of RAM. The After Effects Help on the Web has all the details about memory and multi-core rendering.
How much RAM should you have when running AE? A good rule of thumb is 4 GB per core, plus whatever you want to use for your operating system and other applications.
Speaking of other applications, say you're running Premiere Pro CS4 along with After Effects CS4. Premiere Pro can also take advantage of extra RAM. Throw in a couple more gigs for Photoshop, Illustrator and web browser, and it's looking like the sweet spot is now 16-32 Gigs on a 64-bit OS.
Windows users should make sure that your hardware drivers are available for the 64-bit edition of Vista. It's been a while since Vista shipped, so this is becoming less of an issue every day. Also, it's good practice to update to the latest versions of your software. For Vista, get Service Pack 1. For Adobe software, be sure you are using Premiere Pro 4.0.1 and After Effects 9.0.1.
For those of you who aren't interested in moving to 64-bit, send me a comment and let me know what's holding you back!
New Adobe Installer Blog
From time to time customers ask me about installer, deployment and licensing issues. Adobe has a team dedicated to the out-of-the-box experience and these folks are often the source of my answers. In the past, they have made guest appearances on John Nack's blog. But now you can skip the middleman and go directly to the source by checking out the new Adobe Installer and Licensing Blog. I'm sure it will be a great way to get the latest information and to provide feedback about the some of the issues that are important to you.
February 10, 2009
Paint shortcuts we might have forgotten to tell you about
Getting into the flow while painting or rotoscoping is all about the ergonomics of moving quickly. We have a bunch of single key shortcuts to make this easier, but it seems that we forgot to mention a couple shortcuts in the usual place. These are available while you have a paint tool selected:
- 1 — Step forward by the number of frames indicated in the Paint panel
- 2 — Step backward by the number of frames indicated in the Paint panel
- 3 — Choose clone preset #1
- 4 — Choose clone preset #2
- 5 — Choose clone preset #3
- 6 — Choose clone preset #4
- 7 — Choose clone preset #5
Of these, I think the 1 & 2 keys are particularly useful for right-handers because you don't have to reach across the keyboard to the Page Up/Page Down keys. And since they move the current time indicator by the amount indicated in the paint panel, you can easily paint "on twos", or whatever increment you need.
Comments Are Enabled Again
I thought things were a bit quiet. Due to operator error, the commenting feature was turned off for my last few posts. It's on again, so if you have something to say, have at it!
February 6, 2009
The Orphanage Closes Its Doors
I read this news with sadness today.
Rarely do people and organizations function so well as "multipliers" -- those who raise others around them to new levels. The Orphanage is one such place. So I'd like to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has worked at the Orphanage over the past decade. You are a positive influence on the After Effects team at Adobe. There's more than a little bit of your blood, sweat and tears in After Effects today.
The Orphanage might shuffle off this mortal coil, but you can't kill the ideas and skills it has unleashed upon the world. I can't wait to see what becomes of the new orphans.
January 10, 2009
Adobe Crash Reporter Privacy
As some of you have probably noticed, we have integrated some new Adobe technology into After Effects CS4: the Adobe Crash Reporter.
Paul Uusitalo describes the details in a guest appearance on Todd Kopriva's Region of interest blog.
I received a question about customer privacy when using the Adobe Crash Reporter. Adobe is not monitoring your activity. After Effects detects the crash and we don't know anything about it until you send the report to Adobe. The report originates on your computer. If you choose to submit a report (and we very much appreciate if you would) only non-personally-identifiable information is sent to Adobe. This includes information such as which part of the software encountered an issue.
Adding more information, such as what you were doing when the error occurred, is very helpful in diagnosing the problem. If you choose to provide your contact info such as your e-mail address, it will only be used in case we want to contact you about your crash. It will not be used for marketing purposes. You can send the report anonymously if you wish.
The reports are often submitted with a colorful expletive or two. :-) While this is understandable and we take no offense, just remember that if you are inspired to express your frustration, throw in some details about what you were doing at the time of the error.
These reports go directly to your friends on the After Effects team and it's a tremendous resource for you to help us improve the product. It's my hope that you'll take advantage of it.
January 7, 2009
Frischluft Fresh Curves
Good news for people who like to color correct with curves: The folks at Frischluft have released a new After Effects plug-in called Fresh Curves. It has a great user interface and adds controls such as additional channels, histogram view, bezier curve drawing. Graphs are scalable and drawn in color -- a nice upgrade from the standard, small black and white curves editor. The two plug-in package includes a separate plug-in for "relative curves" which makes it easy to accomplish tasks like increasing saturation for a particular hue. So making your washed out sky look more interesting is now just a few clicks away.
December 20, 2008
After Effects 9.0.1 Released
The After Effects 9.0.1 update is available now, free of charge, to all After Effects CS4, CS4 Production Premium and CS4 Master Collection customers, through the Adobe update manager (accessed through the Help menu in the application). This update includes quality improvements and support for the RED camera plug-in, which allows customers to use RED Camera R3D files directly in After Effects and Premiere Pro.
September 26, 2008
Dear After Effects...answered
Some call it gripes, but we on the After Effects team prefer the term 'feedback'.
That's what's going on over at Dearadobe.com. A gripe is just something that goes into thin air, unheard by the real target of the criticism. But we're listening, even when we're too busy to pick up the phone and call.
I downloaded the top 25 After Effects gripes and the considerate folks at Dearadobe.com have published my response to each one. Many suggestions were already in the shipping version of After Effects, or soon to be addressed in After Effects CS4. Of course, there were also some great feature requests in there. You have to know we want to do these as much as you need them. You can check out the official After Effects comments on their blog.
Of course, the more direct route for your feedback would be to comment here, or simply use the Adobe feature request and bug submission form. This form goes directly to After Effects team members, so don't worry about your feedback going into thin air, and don't let those good ideas and questions turn into gripes!
September 24, 2008
After Effects CS4 Announced Today!
It's official! CS4 is announced today!
The Adobe website has been updated with all the info about the release. I'll have more to say here shortly, but I wanted to make a quick post to point you all towards the After Effects CS4 info. A new After Effects is very exciting by itself, but be sure to also check out the whole Production Premium suite -- there's some unbelievably cool features throughout the suite that will save you time and expand your creative possibilites! More to come later...
August 16, 2008
After Effects Mac PowerPC plans
I'm sure that it will come as no surprise that the After Effects team is hard at work, creating loads of great new features for the next version After Effects. What are we up to? I can't mention any specifics just yet, but we've added some great new creative options, streamlined workflows, and thrown in a bunch of small refinements that add up to make a big difference.
From my point of view, one of the hardest things about making software is that there are always more ideas and hotly requested features than engineers and time. This means that we’re always making trade-offs about what goes into a release. These trade-offs get harder as you support more platforms, different CPUs, graphics cards, and versions of an OS. Even something as simple as an OS update can soak up a lot of engineering and testing time. It adds up to a large part of the overall effort.
As we planned this release, we had to decide between a bunch of great new features and keeping support for PowerPC Macs. Should we continue to invest in PowerPC or should we add cool new Photoshop integration? How about a new way to work when taking your After Effects projects to Flash Professional? Hard choices, indeed.
Our research data and our customers tell us that the adoption of Intel-based Macs is happening at a very quick pace. The vast majority of our professional Mac customers will already be using After Effects on a Intel-based mac by the time we ship the next version. Not surprising, really. The performance advantage of multi-core Intel Macs is impressive. There are plenty of reasons for this trend to continue.
After considering all the information, we decided that the benefits of the new workflows and features outweigh the downside of dropping PowerPC support. As a result, After Effects CS3 will be the last universal binary Macintosh version and the next version of After Effects will be Intel-only on the Mac. Premiere Pro, Encore, and Soundbooth are already Intel-only in CS3, so Production Premium Suite users will already be accustomed to this requirement.
By focusing on Intel Macs, we save a huge amount of engineering and testing time. This means that we will be able to complete more features for a larger group of customers and deliver the best release possible. Plus, some recently added technology is so new that it never existed on PowerPC Macs.
Adobe has always supported prior versions of our software and this will remain the case with After Effects CS3. I should also mention that this decision only applies to After Effects and not to other Adobe applications such as Photoshop.
If you must have a universal binary version for your PowerPC Mac, After Effects CS3 is the way to go. Keep in mind, however, that we will no longer sell After Effects CS3 after we have shipped the next version.
This wasn't an easy choice, and I recognize that that this may cause concern for some customers. I wanted to make this decision known as early as possible to give our customers as much time as possible to adjust their plans with as little disruption as possible. In the end, this gives our team the ability to focus on innovation, advanced workflows, and modernizing the engine that powers After Effects. We think these are good things.
August 8, 2008
Pause — Ideas in Motion
If your creative energy needs a recharge or you're looking for inspiration, you might want to head to New York CIty in November for a brand new motion graphics event, Pause. Pause is brought to you by the same folks who produce the well-known FITC interactive design conferences. Pause is different, though — it will focus exclusively on motion graphics and feature an exploration of creative and technical work from a range of broadcast and film designers. The list of presenters includes some fantastic leading-edge creative talent:
Digital Kitchen
Hush
Smith & Foulkes
Kyle Cooper
Joseph Kosinski
Buck
UFO
GMUNK
Brand New School
MK12
FITC founder Shawn Pucknell has generously provided a 10% discount for readers of this blog. When you're registering for the conference, just enter the following discount code: COLEMAN.
August 7, 2008
Todd Kopriva Introduces a New Region of Interest
After Effects team member Todd Kopriva has recently introduced a new blog titled "Region of Interest". Catchy title! Todd is a regular presence on other public After Effects forums and the man behind our documentation, so it's a natural fit for Todd to write a blog as well. I've always appreciated Todd's tireless crusade to connect the After Effects community to handy resources and information. Anyone learning and using After Effects will want to keep up with his writings, which can be found at http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/. I'm pretty sure he'd hate this, but here's a recent picture of Todd. (Sorry Todd, couldn't resist). Welcome!
July 31, 2008
Native Red support coming soon
On the heels of some great camera announcements at NAB, Red has announced new support for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. This means that you will soon be able to use your native, non-transcoded R3D files directly within Premiere Pro and After Effects CS3. Check out the details and discussion over at the RedUser.net forums.
April 14, 2008
It's NAB time!
Greetings from Las Vegas!
Every year, I look forward to the excitement and activities of NAB. All the broadcast industry news, announcements, and new products come together in frenzy that could only have Las Vegas as a backdrop. If you haven't seen the NAB show floor before it opens, you'd be amazed at how fast it comes together. It's like building an entire electronics mega-mall in a single weekend. For a few days, it's a chaotic mix of partially assembled technology, fresh carpet, whirring table saws, and hurried forklift drivers. At a local computer store yesterday I ran into some friends from another company (who shall remain nameless). They we're buying new computers for their booth. I love it.
If you're here at NAB this week, be sure to stop by the Adobe booth to say "hi" and see what's new. We have several exciting announcements that will be detailed on this and other Adobe blogs. If you can't make it to the show, we're going to a special addition this year -- all of the theater presentations are going to be recorded and published on Adobe TV which you can watch in the new Adobe Media Player. The sessions this year include Adobe customers showing how they did some amazing projects with Adobe tools as well as numerous Adobe presentations. Be sure to catch Hart Shafer's sessions for a glimpse into Adobe's future. The videos of the sessions will be on Adobe TV by the middle of next week. In the mean time, grab the Adobe Media Player from the Adobe web site and you can get started watching premium content from CBS, MTV, and others.
If you can't visit with the After Effects team at NAB, maybe there's a chance we can visit you! Head over to our survey site to give us your contact info. The AE team has a continuous schedule of customer visits where we like to learn about your workflow and gather input on future versions. When we're in your city, we'd love to stop in and visit.
That's it for now...Off to the show!
February 7, 2008
QuickTime 7.4.1 released today
That was quick! Apple released QuickTime 7.4.1 today. I'm happy to report that 7.4.1 addresses the issues that appeared when using After Effects with QuickTime 7.4. This release is highly recommended for Adobe customers who are using QuickTime 7.4. Thanks, Apple!
I'm flying home to Seattle tomorrow and now I might rent a show or two from iTunes to pass the time on the plane. I've been wanting to catch up on the new Terminator series. By the way, if you're doing the visual effects for that show, send me a comment!
January 22, 2008
After Effects 8.0.2 is now available
The After Effects 8.0.2 update is ready to go! Among other fixes, this update allows you to natively import and edit content from Panasonic P2 equipment, without transcoding or rewrapping. Check out our LiveDocs for detailed information about P2. 8.0.2 also adds support for running After Effects on Mac OS Leopard.
To get the update, within After Effects, go to the Help menu and choose "Updates".
This update is inclusive of previous updates, so if you're currently using After Effects 8.0, you can go directly to 8.0.2 and skip the 8.0.1 update.
For complete information, read the After Effects 8.0.2 TechNote. We have also posted additional information about how 8.0.2 can help those experiencing certain gamma issues. Lastly, if you use custom interpretation rules, you'll find some important information on our support site.
January 21, 2008
Don't update to QuickTime 7.4
I know you all are probably dying to rent movies from iTunes, but please be aware that the recent QuickTime 7.4 update introduces a serious incompatibility with After Effects and Premiere Pro. At this time, we do not recommend QuickTime 7.4 for our customers. We're working with Apple to resolve the problem and I'll post an update when I have more news.
December 20, 2007
P2 and Leopard update
In order to give the After Effects team some time make additional quality improvements, we've decided to release the 8.0.2 update until mid-January 2008. We know that many of you are looking forward to the P2 and Leopard compatibility in this release, so we'll have it to you as soon as as it's ready!
November 13, 2007
Coming Soon: Panasonic P2 support in After Effects
One of the most exciting changes in the video production world today is the trend toward tapeless workflows. With it's P2 line of cameras, decks and media, Panasonic is certainly a leader in this area. Adobe Premiere Pro is already supporting Panasonic P2 file-based video clips.
Soon you'll be able to import P2 files into Adobe After Effects CS3 as well. No transcoding, no wrapping. No muss, no fuss. Keep an eye out for this addition in an update to After Effects coming in the next few weeks. In the mean time, be sure to head over to DAV's TechTable for a great demonstration of After Effects directly working with P2 MXF files. As a bonus, he's also showing the excellent Dynamic Link between After Effects and Premiere Pro.
November 5, 2007
After Effects and Leopard
If you're a Mac user, you may have noticed that Apple released Mac OS X Leopard last week. It's a feature-packed release with some cool new features and I'm looking forward to installing it on my MacBook Pro very soon.
As outlined in Adobe FAQ (PDF) on Leopard support, After Effects CS3 is not fully compatible with Leopard. But I'm happy to say that we expect to release a free update in early December that will address key issues with After Effects on Leopard. If you decide to run with Leopard before this release, you may experience problems with various After Effects features such as the File > Import dialog and OpenGL hardware acceleration.
Until then, I'll be creating backgrounds in After Effects to use as backdrops in my iChat sessions....
October 6, 2007
Creating Interactive Video with After Effects and Flash
Thanks to all the people who attended my presentations at Max earlier this week! For those of you who weren't there, the project that I presented demonstrates how to combine After Effects and Flash techniques to create a graphically rich video user experience with a dynamically animating heads up display. The final output is a SWF file suitable for a web site.
One of the unique aspects of this example is that the location of the HUD is being dynamically driven by event cue points in the FLV video. The cue point metadata is generated using the motion tracker in After Effects and embedded into the FLV output via the After Effects render queue.
You can watch a recorded version of the presentation to see how the project is built. It's a very thorough demonstration -- about a 40 minutes -- so grab a cup of coffee, a comfy chair, and enjoy the show. It's almost as good as being at Max, except you don't get to hear any of my corny presenter jokes. :-)
You can also download my source files and step-by-step directions to try it out for yourself. (By the way, these two links introduce some new toys that will require the latest Flash player. I'm sharing the video via the Adobe Acrobat Connect which is a great way to collaborate with others online. I posted the files to a new service offered by Adobe called Share. Share was also announced at Max, and allows you to easily share, publish and organize your documents. This is the first time I used the Share beta and it was a piece of cake and incredibly convenient.)
Enjoy!
September 25, 2007
After Effects at Adobe Max
Next week is the start of the Adobe Max conferences. This fantastic event brings together many of the best designers and developers involved in creating rich experiences with Adobe products. It's a great opportunity learn a few new tricks, to get inspired, and to meet other members of the Adobe customer community. It's one of my favorite conferences of the year.
There are several educational tracks, but anyone interested in After Effects should check out the Web, Video and Interactive Design track. It's ideal for anyone those of you who are creating rich interactive content, bringing video online, or building content for mobile devices. There are 3 different sessions dedicated to learning After Effects techniques:
- Introduction to Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
- Hands On: After Effects 101 for Interactive Designers
- Creating Interactive Video with After Effects and Flash Professional (presented by yours truly)
Meet the After Effects Team at Adobe Max
I'm particularly excited about this year's event because several members of the After Effects development team will also be at Max. We've set aside some time to meet with our customers to talk about how they use After Effects. If you are going to be at Max, we'd love to sit down with you to chat about your projects, the future of our products, and how we can make After Effects better for you! Send me a note at mcoleman at adobe dot com to reserve your time with the After Effects team.
Looking forward to seeing you at Adobe Max!
September 18, 2007
Tell us what you think!
One of the best parts of being on the After Effects team is how much interaction we have with our customers. We visit many of you just hear what you have to say about After Effects and the projects you are working on. While this is informative and a lot of fun, eventually we have to head home and get to work!
Since we can't speak with every one of you personally, we're also conducting a survey about After Effects usage. You are invited to take a few minutes of your time to tell us a few things about yourself, your projects, and your workflow. You'll also get a chance to indicate which potential features are most important to you. We often use surveys like this to guide future development efforts.
Please go to the URL below to get started. It will probably take about 15 minutes to complete the survey. It is hosted at Surveymonkey.com:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Z5yi_2fNpZQYa9YvbVuGMSuA_3d_3d
We know you probably have a million things to do, but if you can take some to have a little influence on the After Effects team, we'd certainly appreciate it.
The information we gather is just for Adobe's use and we promise not to do anything annoying with your survey responses. All data will be kept confidential. No information about you will be sold or furnished to any other company whatsoever, nor will you receive unsolicited e-mails because of your participation in this survey.
You may see another survey invitation from me on other forums or e-mail lists. It's the same survey and there's no need to do the survey again.
On behalf of the entire After Effects team, thanks!
July 5, 2007
Adobe After Effects CS3 is now shipping!
I'm very excited to let you know that After Effects CS3 is now shipping!
The new features in include:
- Shape Layers
- Puppet tool
- Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended integration
- Adobe Flash CS3 Professional integration
- 3D per-character text animation
- Brainstorm
- Complete color management workflow
- Adobe Clip Notes
- Enhanced performance & multi-core support
- Video for mobile
- Plus much more!
I could write volumes on the new features, but I invite you to visit the Adobe After Effects web site to explore the product information at your leisure.
After Effects is also a component of Creative Suite 3 Production Premium which is also shipping! Production Premium has everything you need to create rich media for broadcast, film, web, or mobile devices. If you already own one of the components of Production Premium (like After Effects or Photoshop) we have a great upgrade deal for moving to Production Premium.
On behalf of the entire After Effects Team, thank you for all your support and feedback. One of the best parts of our job is seeing all the great creative work done by the After Effects community. We build After Effects for you and we're very excited to release CS3 today. Enjoy!
June 19, 2007
For your reading list
One of the things I love about people in the After Effects community is their willingness to share knowledge. A number of them go so far as to write an entire book. In the past few months, a couple noteworthy books have come on the scene.
If you're new to After Effects, check out After Effects Apprentice by Chris and Trish Meyer. This book is an essential primer for anyone looking to get started with After Effects. The authors are collectively half artist, half teacher and make a perfect team to create a book like this. It's exceptionally well illustrated and does a great job of revealing the essential features you need to get your started using After Effects.
Visual effects ace Stu Maschwitz brings us a very cool new book. Stu is co-founder of The Orphanage, the visual effects studio that has brought us amazing effects for films such as Harry Potter, Sin City, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Stu's book, The DV Rebel's Guide: An All Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap, will help you shed the idea that you need big budgets to create killer visual effects. It covers the full workflow of creating a movie, including editing and sound effects. Of course, it's full of techniques for making effects like gunfire, aircraft, and treating your video footage look like film. If you've always wanted to make an action movie, this book is for you.
May 21, 2007
"Fotomation" with Speaking Pictures
Those of you who follow the film festival scene might already be familiar with this excellent science fiction short film from Speaking Pictures. Filmmaker Jerome Oliver wrote and directed Missing Pages, the story of a professor who invents a time machine and touches off a war. The 24-minute "amended" version of Missing Pages is now available via Speaking Pictures or iTunes.
What makes this piece particularly unique and visually stunning is that the story is created entirely with 40,000 pictures from a digital camera. The still images were processed and animated using Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop using a technique the director calls "fotomation". To get a glimpse of the creative process behind Missing Pages, check out Toolfarm's interview with Jerome Oliver last year.
Despite being based in still photography, Missing Pages makes you think about about motion and dynamics and it raises questions about the classic persistence of motion film theory. It's definitely somewhere between photography, motion graphics, graphic novel, and filmmaking.
May 19, 2007
Speed Rendering with After Effects CS3
One of the most exciting developments in computer hardware is multi-core processors. It's almost like having several computers in one. I don't really know how it works, but hey, it sounds faster and I know faster is good.
Of course, it helps if your software is optimized for multi-core computers and that's exactly what the After Effects team has been up to for the CS3 release. When you use After Effects CS3 on a multi-processor computer, you now have the option to render multiple frames simultaneously on multiple processors. This applies to RAM previews and Render Queue rendering.
Even though After Effects has a long history of rendering single frames across multiple CPUs, some operations don't lend themselves to being spread out like this. The new option opens the door to new levels of performance, right in time for the great new hardware available today. Anyone that stopped by the Adobe booth at NAB got a chance to take a look at this feature running on the latest iron from Apple and HP.
The folks over at BareFeats.com downloaded the After Effects CS3 public preview and put it through it's paces. This is a great site for you Mac performance junkies out there. They really know there stuff which is why we're honored to have them call After Effects CS3 "an application that, by itself, can justify the purchase of an 8-core Mac". Based on our own internal tests, I can say that their results are consistent with ours.
While I'm at it, I should mention that After Effects CS3 can also take advantage of larger amounts of RAM for additional performance improvements. And for our Mac customers, CS3 is also universal binary, so this is quite a release in the performance department.
We like to live by the notion that every hour we save you is an hour of creativity unleashed on the world. Or an hour of sleep. That's good, too. Enjoy.
May 1, 2007
Frame One
On an otherwise forgettable day, a small thing happened. A co-worker stopped by my desk and gave me a new piece of software. "Hey, I heard you know about multimedia. Take a look at this software. Tell me what you think", he said.
The word 'multimedia' should date the conversation like red Reebok pumps and fanny packs. It was 1993 and I was working as a designer in the creative services department at Aldus. Revolutionary publishing wasn't a blog or even a web page. It was a CD-ROM that came in the mail.
I installed the software and played with it all day and nearly all night. When my co-worker returned, I told him I wasn't giving it back. Sorry. It's mine. The software was CoSA After Effects 1.0 and I was hooked.
The next day I found out that Aldus would be aquiring CoSA and soon I became co-workers, friends, and literally neighbors with the team that created this amazing software.
The experience was powerful enough that my career pivoted around these events. I left Adobe (which had aquired Aldus) to take on a career in visual effects & motion graphics. In 1999, I returned to Adobe to be the user interface designer for After Effects and the lead user experience designer for the Adobe Production Studio.
I now find myself lucky enough to be the product manager for After Effects. And you know, I think I might just have the coolest job in the world. I've created this blog to reach out with news, tips, and thoughts on After Effects and related topics. To the community of After Effects users, I hope you'll enjoy what I have to share here. Feel free to drop me a line and contribute your thoughts and suggestions. My name is Michael Coleman and my email address is mcoleman {at} adobe.com.
They say all big things start small. To that I would add: Every movie begins on frame one.
Welcome to Keyframes.