AE Freemart, Your After Effects Resource, Toolfarm

Switching over to Wordpress

2007-03-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

AE Freemart is undergoing a tedious switch from Blogger to Wordpress. You may notice some weirdness at this domain until we get it all sorted out. Please stay tuned for vast improvements.

Newest Boris FX demos available at Toolfarm!

2007-03-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

Take three of the latest cool tools from Boris FX for a spin. Boris Graffiti 5.1, Boris FX 9.1 and Boris Red 5.1.

We have lots more, so check out our Free Demo Downloads right now. And don't forget to check the checkbox of the demo you want to try. Very important. No go!

Extrusion Shadow

2007-03-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

It indeed should be simpler in AE, making an extruded shadow.. the kind you find in many NLE programs.

This uses the AE Type tool, and black solids with "Set Matte". Each solid is offset 1 pixel in X/Y.

I'd recommend leaving this as its own comp, or placing your layers below the existing layers in this comp, as the expression is based on the layer number of the type.

Download the project here

Cineform Intermediate 2K and HD Codec for Mac and Final Cut Pro Now Available as a Public Beta

2007-03-07T19:19:00.000-08:00

Intel-based Macs Running Final Cut Pro Gain the Benefits of High Visual Fidelity and High Bit Depth Precision Offered by CineForm Intermediate Software

Solana Beach, Calif., March 6, 2007 - CineForm®, Inc. announced today that it has released an unrestricted public beta of its CineForm Intermediate software codec for Intel-based Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" systems running Apple's Final Cut Pro. CineForm Intermediate is now offered as an extremely high-quality QuickTime movie running under Mac OS X. These QuickTime movie files offer 10 bits of arithmetic precision with spatial resolution up to 2K (2048 x 2048). Intended for Professional and Prosumer applications that demand high visual fidelity without the need for specialized hardware, CineForm Intermediate QuickTime files are visually identical to the .AVI files CineForm has supported on the Windows platform for many years. Further, CineForm QuickTime movie files are completely cross-platform (Windows or Mac) compatible, and may be created and played on either platform.

Read full press release

"CineForm's compressed Digital Intermediate workflow has become synonymous with high visual fidelity and efficient software performance on the Windows platform", said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm. "With Apple's recent move to Intel CPUs, the Macintosh, where perhaps 70% of independent film productions originate, has now become an extremely high-performance platform for our software. Combined with the broad market reach of Final Cut Pro, we're enthused to offer our online workflow to the largest content-creation community while also enabling cross-platform file and workflow compatibility".

In additional news, Wafian Corporation (www.wafian.com) is now shipping its HR1 direct-to-disk HD-SDI recorders with the option to record directly into Cineform Intermediate QuickTime movie files. This allows Wafian customers to choose either Mac OS X (Final Cut Pro) or Windows (Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas) as the primary editing platform.

Product Overview

The CineForm Intermediate codec for Mac OS X offers the same visual fidelity as its Windows counterpart, with 10-bit precision, 4:2:2 chroma, and up to 2K spatial resolution. Numerous workflow features plus codec performance will be updated regularly throughout the beta period, including adding support for CineForm RAW, spatial and temporal image resampling, plus HD-SDI and HDMI acquisition interfaces. The software requires an Intel-based Mac and is compatible with Final Cut Pro. CineForm QuickTime files created on either Windows or Mac OS X machines may be moved between platforms with full compatibility. CineForm intends full support for the next version of Adobe® Production Studio for Mac OS X when it is released later in 2007.

Pricing and Availability

CineForm Intermediate software for Mac OS X is available now from CineForm's website (www.cineform.com) as an unrestricted no-charge public beta for all users with Intel-based Macs. The beta period will last into May of 2007, after which CineForm will announce pricing and feature details for its production release.

About CineForm and CineForm Intermediate

CineForm, Inc., located in Solana Beach, California, develops software products for use by media professionals in high-resolution acquisition and post-production applications. Powered by CineForm Intermediate, CineForm's acclaimed products provide unmatched visual fidelity and real-time performance within an editing environment while enabling an online compressed digital intermediate workflow that runs on affordable Windows or Macintosh PCs. For more information, contact CineForm at 858-345-2645, or visit CineForm's website at www.cineform.com.

Lite Brite with Particular

2007-03-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Lite Brite.. I'm sure you had one. Now you can relive the good old days in After Effects using Particular.

This uses two Layer Grid emitters, each one producing ever other line and offset from each other in the X axis, to get the distinct pattern. Drop your own video in the "Source" comp and watch the Lite Brite magic.

Download the Lite Brite project
(AE 7)

Outline Type Preset

2007-03-06T06:03:00.000-08:00

I was recently working up some type in After Effects and I was trying to get it to look like a Photoshop type preset, with a colorful stroke, a little bit of bevel, and a little bit of noise. As easy as this is to do in Photoshop, it is a surprisingly complex task in AE. I ended up using some blur, colorama, alpha noise, and bevel alpha. With it being AE type, we are free to animate it however we please!! Actually, this preset does included a basic blur/fade on by letter.

So, this is an AE7 Animation Preset. To use it, simply type some text in After Effects. With it selected, go to Animation>Apply Animation Preset.. and locate this preset after you download it.

Download the Outline Type preset

Free Comp from LME! Amazing Video Walls & Displays

2007-03-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

LME has graciously provided a freebie that is an extra bonus file from each of their sets of gorgeous comp files. These are Toolfarm exclusives and we'll be posting one per week until they're gone. Here is the first in the series. This sample is not included in the Amazing Video Walls & Photo Displays collection.

Download the Free Comp (AE 6.5.1 and up)
View sample movie
View Amazing Video Walls & Photo Displays gallery - see what's included in the full collection
Buy Amazing Video Walls & Photo Displays - Only $132 (Save 5%!). 101 comps and over 137 precomps in the collection. The possibilities are only limited to your imagination. No plug-ins needed. Works with After Effects 6.5 or higher for Mac and Win.

Tutorial: Make Realistic Auto Gauges in After Effects

2007-03-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

Make some photorealistic auto gauges that you can composite into your auto scene! Steve Audette, AE hobbyist and Documentary editor for the PBS Series FRONTLINE, created this project and tutorial for Toolfarm. It's a really a simple procedure but looks complex. There are a couple of wiggle expressions and a smattering of effects. Before you know it, you've created a beautiful set of gauges for an older muscle car.

Go to the Auto Gauges Tutorial

By the way, if you want an odometer, check out this tutorial.

Plug-in Freebies for Final Cut Studio by Idustrial Revolution and Noise Industries

2007-03-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

Freebie Pack 1 - Four Free Filters for Final Cut Pro and Motion

idustrial revolution Freebies!

Brought to you by Peter Wiggins, author of the Volumetrix plug-ins for Final Cut Pro and Motion, idustrial revolution Freebie Pack 1 includes four fun, useful (and absolutely free!) plug-ins:

MultiSpace: Puts two inputs into true 3D space with global and independent XYZ translation & rotation. Planes can intersect too.
iSight Live!: Get a live input on your timeline in Motion and FCP. Very handy for picking a color off a client's brochure.
Rack Focus: Racks the blur from one input to the other with one parameter. Both blur values for each input can be set independently.
Opposites: Two-input parameter linking: move one left, the other goes right. Rotate one clockwise, the other one goes anticlock.

AE Power User Tip

2007-02-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

I dug this one up from the old AE Freemart.

To save time when you pitch your preferences, set up your settings exactly as you like them, duplicate your preference file and store it someplace safe. Then, when things get buggy, replace the bad preferences with your good copy. Be careful to rename it exactly the same.

Paint Tricks #1: Spray Paint Stencil

2007-02-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

I'll be doing a series on tricks with paint and clone tools. Here is number one. A student asked me how to achieve this effect a few months back. It's very easy, but as you can see, I'm not much of a tagger.

If you don't have AE 7, here's the basic technique. Put your text or logo on a layer. Add a solid, we'll call it 'Paint Layer'. Make sure it's below your text layer. Use the Paint brush, with a big fat fluffy brush setting. If you have a tablet, even better! Set the pen pressure settings for roundness, flow, etc. Paint your strokes and make any adjustments. Then, apply Scatter to your layer. Adjust as necessary. Set the Track Matte of your 'Paint Layer' to Alpha Matte Inverted. If you don't have that option, your text layer is not above your 'Paint Layer'.

Watch Sample | Download AE Project (AE 7) (Link fixed)

New Free Demos at Toolfarm!

2007-02-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

We've added new demos to our Free Demo Downloads page.

Silhouette FX Roto and Paint have been updated to 2.3
Reflecmedia Mattenee has been updated to FxPlug for FCP
Digital Trove PRIME is now available for Windows

Go to the Free Demos page now!

When you fill out the form, please make sure you check the box next to the demos you would like to try.

Toolfarm presenting at MCAI meeting Feb 20, Grand Rapids, MI

2007-02-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

The topic for the February 20 MCAI meeting is Motion Graphics Trends, held in conjunction with the West Michigan Animation & Effects User Group. We will meet at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center, 600 Forest Hill Avenue S.E. for food & schmooze at 6:30, with the program starting at 7:00.

John Bischoff, long time MCAI member and Technical Services Supervisor for the Fine Arts Center, will be our host. Presenters are the co-founders of WMAEUG, Matt Schirado, editor at WZZM, and Michele Yamazaki, VP of Marketing/Content Creator for Toolfarm (www.toolfarm.com).

If you're in the area, please stop by.

Controlling Focus Distance in AE

2007-02-17T06:34:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine was asking about easier ways to control depth of field in After Effects.

Although it isn't complicated, AE cameras measure depth of field with a single number, measured in pixels. So, it isn't very easy to visualize and estimate when and where
objects are in focus, aside from scrubbing the "Focus Distance" control and trying to put objects in focus by trial and error.

But, expressions come to the rescue. If we want focus distance to be equal to the distance between the camera and and exact, controllable point, we can do this. If we create a Null and use this as the point that we want in focus, we can add an expression to the Focus Distance to be equal to the length in pixels between the camera and the Null. Fortunately, there's an expression term, "length" that retrieves the absolute distance between the anchor points of any two objects, regardless of position, rotation, scale, etc.

In the example here, the Focus Distance expression is:

length(thisComp.layer("focusControl").position, position)

So, it is the length between two numbers, think here in terms of length(a,b). The first number, via pickwhip, is the position of a Null called "focusControl". The second number is shown as 'position'. Being that this expression is on the camera's Focus Distance, "position" in this case refers to the position of the camera. And that's it!!! The expression will dynamically update the focus distance to be the exact distance between the Null and the camera. Just put the Null where you want something to be in Focus.

You could also just use the camera's Point of Interest, with the expression like this:

length(pointOfInterest, position)

But, I like the Null, myself. As I often turn off the Point of Interest on my AE cameras.

Download the Focus Control project here

Boris FX "How Did They Do That?" Contest

2007-02-15T18:24:00.000-08:00

Submit your best Boris "Tips and Techniques" and win fantastic prizes!

Boris FX is pleased to roll out the "How Did They Do That?" tips and techniques contest. Participation in the contest is simple. Submit your favorite Boris FX work with a short brief on how you used Boris FX tools to realize your project. You may download fully-functioning 14-day Trial Versions of all Boris FX products here

Submissions are judged based on your application of the Boris product and the style and final result of your piece. Contest winners receive great prizes including an NAB conference package, Boris products, and Boris memorabilia. Entrees will be posted on borisfx.com where thousands of industry professionals visit daily.

Submission Dates and Deadlines

We are now accepting submissions!
Submission Deadline: March 23, 2007
Winners are announced on March 30, 2007
Go here to review the submission format brief

Boris "How Did They Do That?" Winners Receive

First Prize (1)

iPod
Boris NAB Package: includes an NAB Conference and Exhibition Pass
Boris product of your choice
Work featured at the Boris FX Worldwide User Group held at NAB2007
Profiled in the Boris FX Newsletter

Second Prize (1)

Boris NAB Package: includes an NAB Conference and Exhibition Pass
Boris product of your choice
Profiled in the Boris FX Newsletter

Third Prize (10)

Boris Memorabilia (Boris FX Cap)
Profiled in the Boris FX Newsletter

For questions regarding the contest, please contact Janice Dolan at janice@zazilmediagroup.com

New After Effects Tutorials from Damon Ledet

2007-02-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

Damon Ledet is a certified Adobe, Macromedia, and Apple instructor. His main focus is video applications like Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe After Effects; however, he teaches a wide array of applications. He has created some terrific tutorials, just for you!

Heart wipe with Particular

2007-02-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

This project contains two comps. The first, called Heart, uses a heart shape mask layer in the precomp with Hue/Sat applied. There are wiggle expressions on the Hue and Saturation to give some variance in the color.

The second, which is the main comp, has some text that wipes on using a linear wipe. The heart effect is Trapcode Particular. I modified one of the presets quite a bit and used the heart layer as my image. I timed the linear wipe and the movement of the heart wipe and voila! Love is in the air.

View movie sample

Download Preset

If you do not have Trapcode Particular, download a free demo.

Today is also my cat Charlotte's 15th birthday.

Troubleshooting After Effects 7

2007-02-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

Jonas Hummelstrand's great blog, General Specialist, had these excellent tips for fixing problems with After Effects.

Here is an excerpt:

Having problems with After Effects? Here's a collection of tried and true remedies:

1. Check that your system harddrive and the harddrive where you store your After Effects project and footage aren't full, and then run a disk check to make sure they aren't damaged.

2. Uninstall QuickTime, restart your computer.

3. Uninstall any third-party video and audio codecs for QuickTime and Windows Media, such as XviD, DivX, FFDShow, BlackMagic, Aja, Avid, Flip4Mac, etcetera.

4. Reinstall the latest version of QuickTime.

Lots more great tips await you.

Tutorial: Obscure a logo, face, license plate in After Effects

2007-02-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

Have you ever needed to blur out a logo or someone's face or even a license plate? Ever not gotten all of the releases you need for your documentary? It's easy to blur or create a mosaic effect to disguise something.

This Adobe After Effects tutorial explains the basic technique of motion tracking your object, then applying the effect to just that area.

Go to the tutorial

After Effects New York User Group's First meeting Feb 22

2007-02-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

Adobe After Effects New York (AENY) first meeting is set for February 22. There is no fee for this event, thanks to sponsorship from Adobe and Pratt Manhattan. They are covering Maxon Cinema 4D 10 and After Effects Integration, as well as Mograph, Stephen Neary will present "Bigfoot's Eulogy" and Aharon Rabinowitz will be presenting some quick After Effects tips. I met Aharon at NAB NY.

They're giving away LOADS of door prizes including Red Giant Software: Magic Bullet Suite, MB Colorista and Trapcode Suite (all Trapcode Plug-ins), three Wondertouch particleIllusion licenses, GridIron Nucleo and Nucleo Pro, Cinema 4D and Mograph, Sorenson Squeeze Power Pack, Automatic Duck, Digital Anarchy PlasmaFX, Cycore FX and more. Wow.... good stuff, indeed.

Take After Effects Training with Harry Frank!

2007-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

This was in my inbox today from a Michigan based film and video list that I subscribe to. Harry, is of course, the other half of the AE Freemart. Come to a 3-day INTENSIVE workshop, February 19-21 (9a-5p).

New Tutorial: Color Match Better in Boris Red

2007-02-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

Editors often find themselves needing to touch up and refine their color to get the right look. A new tutorial by John Lafauce, Jr. on studiomonthly.com shows Boris Red's Color Match feature that lets users quickly and accurately balance color.

Flash Tutorials at Toolfarm.com!

2007-02-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Check out some new Flash tutorials by Collis Ta'eed of FlashDen.net.

Bend and Snap - Using Shape Tweens to do something different
Super Zoom - Using a sequence of images to zoom in and out

I'll be adding a few more tutorials from Collis later this week. Enjoy!

Procedural Smoke Wisp

2007-02-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

I never cease to be amazed at the flexibility of Trapcode Particular. Just when you think you've maxed it out, someone else gives you another idea.

Although I did create this preset, it is largely inspired by the trapcode-people.net preset "Gridsurface 4D Fractal" (I believe made by Peder Norrby, I could be wrong).

The wisps are pretty flexible. Their shapes are simply created with animated mask shapes. This was created specifically for some rising steam from a branding iron, but use it for whatever you want.

Download the AE7 project here

Harry and Michele at the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival

2007-01-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

Harry and I both taught Master's Classes at the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival. This photo was taken at Bridges Media Group at the mixer last Friday night. It's a great facility and Bridges puts out some really sweet motion graphics work. We met a lot of very cool people, many from a surprisingly long distance from Chicago.

The Festival was a lot of fun. I taught a Master's Class in After Effects where we dove deep into masking, keying and expressions and also spent some time with 3D, cameras and lights. Harry taught a Maya class. We also attended a couple of screenings of professional and student work, which were really good. I've added one sample to Toolfarm's Inspirations section and I'll be adding more as I find them. There was one called "Duct tape and Run" that I can't find anywhere. It was done by a student at Columbia College in Chicago. If you know where I can find it, please drop me an email.

On Sunday, we attended an educational panel. I especially enjoyed the panel on motion graphics, which discussed workflow, attaining clients, networking and so on. There were panelists from post houses, gaming firms, freelancers, Feedburner. Adobe had a speaker come in the afternoon, which I unfortunately missed because I had to catch my train. Eric, my former student stayed and said it was a terrific presentation. I won a book and DVD in the raffle and so did Harry, and the same former student Eric won After Effects 7.0! Congratulations to Eric!

I'd like to thank Mason Dixon and the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival for having us. The festival is so well organized and has so many different elements to it. You MUST go in 2008!