Chart Wars

Information aesthetics has been tracking "chart wars," for example in Political Chart Wars: Health-Care Reform Obfuscated by Infographics, and just posted an intro video by TargetPoint's Alex Lundry:

"He addresses the issues of subjective messaging through visualization, the emergence of open data, some ideal data visualization tools, a set of quick lessons in graphic literacy, and a short list of recommended visualization books, all within the time span of 5 minutes."



Note: see also the responses to the popular National Geographic infographic chart on health care in Graphing The Cost of Health Care by Jon Peltier and Warning: Graphic Politics by Evan Falchuk.

For an overview of infographics and visualization see Interactive Narratives infographics feeds, and click on the tags below. For the on-topic angle, see Bar Graphs in After Effects and Charts and graphs in After Effects.

Artbeats free clip daily

Artbeats is giving away a free clip every day to registered users of their website: "Each and every day, a unique and different clip will be chosen by Artbeats staff to be offered to you absolutely FREE."

HeadsNTails: AE script to pad or crop timelines

HeadsNTails is a new After Effects script from David Torno and AE Scripts that allows you to quickly extend and/or shorten the beginning and/or end of your comp timelines.

Unplugged 18: Robert Leger

Motionworks' Unplugged 18 features an interview with Robert Leger:

"Robert Leger’s Unplugged animation was recently chosen as the winner of the Unplugged Title Challenge. What is truly amazing is that Robert entered the Unplugged challenge with only 1 day left until the deadline. In the first Unplugged for 2010 Robert discusses his background, present work and of course the terrific title animation he created for Unplugged."

Perhaps "Chris Z" can finally be forgiven for his logo contest!

Useful Math Expressions

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the first of a 12-part series, Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book, Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The first installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 1: Useful Math Expressions.

Peter Wiggins on FCP & PictureReady

The Apple Store's Meet The Expert series has an interview with video editor Peter Wiggins, who discussed working on the Tour de France along with some tips and techniques (via Oliver Peters). There's more on his blog, along with his templates through Idustrial Revolution.

One cool thing mentioned was PictureReady, which offers the ability to record a QuickTime movie which is available immediately for editing.

Motionworks walks through Holomatrix

Motionworks walks through a new AE filter, Red Giant Holomatrix, to give grungy text a sci-fi look in After Effects: Holomatrix.

Tutorial Gap December

Many of the items were mentioned already, but here's the latest round up by Topher Welsh, 54 Highly Resourceful After Effects Tutorials at AE Tuts.

One tutorial by Vailancio Rodrigues seems inspired by some recent work by Korb (pictured right).

Logo self destructs into particles

This Logo Will Self Destruct In 5 Seconds, a tutorial on AETuts by Ahmed Nashabe, has some nice particles.

Must.have.3D.text [+ more]

GreyScaleGorilla reminds us why AE still needs a basic 3D extrusion filter with another demo of how to make 3D text inside After Effects. With this tutorial Nick is also joining Maltaannon in going live commando; see How to make 3D Text and use 3D Stroke in After Effects – Live Tutorial.

See previous AEP posts Invigorator and other AE 3D extrusion options and Extrude AE text into 3D redux for other attempts and techniques.

LiveTut3DText3dStroke from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.

Update: here's a similar live session from Maltaannon, Cool 3D stuff,

Update 2: check out this demo of Smoke running on an "unsupported" MacBookPro, More SmackBookPro - 3D Type,

More SmackBookPro - 3D Type from Matt Silverman on Vimeo.

Jack of All Trades with expressions + particle tree

Missed this video tutorial last week from Eran Stern on Creative Cow, Jack of All Trades, Master of Expressions, in which "Eran shows how to create a jumpy and squishy animation using the power of expressions."

Update: Red Giant TV Episode 35, Creating a Christmas Tree with Trapcode Particular by Michael Park, is another useful piece.

Glass Orbs in After Effects

Video Copilot has come up with their 100th tutorial (with project file) to tide you over the holidays. Glass Orbs leaves you some work to finish on the shadows and reflections:

"In this tutorial we will create a reflective orb using only built-in After Effects plug-ins. The key to this tutorials is building a proper spherical map and utilizing the raytrace capabilities of the CC Sphere effect."

'Motion Control' with After Effects

Motion Control with After Effects is an episode of Bert Monroy's Revision3 show PixelPerfect, with Richard Harrington showing motion control in After Effects. He turns old photos turned into 3D scenes with Photoshop and After Effects, showing how to scale objects, view in different perspectives, use camera presets, control focus, and add custom shadows and lights.

See also a way to automate some of this with a new script from Paul Tuersley in Multiplane script and demos. Here's PixelPerfect:

Unplugged 17: interview with Lloyd Alvarez

Motionworks' Unplugged 17 features an interview with Lloyd Alvarez (Twitter @aescripts):

"Lloyd Alvarez, the talented and generous founder of aescripts.com, planned to be a doctor. Somehow that didn’t work out and these days he’s an in-demand freelance designer and creative director, working for some of the biggest name companies around. In this up-close and personal chat, Lloyd reveals how a willingness to set aside ego and do the most mundane tasks has lead to a successful career in motion graphics and visual effects. Lloyd shares his love for scripting, introduces us to aescripts.com and explains how scripts can be great time savers and give you edge in your productions.."

Update: Brian Maffitt posted on "Wonder Pets" (mentioned in this interview) on the AE-List,

"Yay, Wonder Pets! Yes, the whole show is done in AE, with characters and sets painstakingly crafted in Photoshop. Dan and I designed a whole workflow for Little Airplane Production, including a set of custom expressions and plugins that allowed them to build libraries of animations for their characters, to make ongoing animation efficient. Basically, think of animation presets that capture the entire state of a comp, with all its layers, precomps, etc. and then a system for saving, naming, and recalling these complex presets. So to animate a character, you just import its Photoshop file as a comp, launch our custom palette, and click on "walk in", "stop", "look left", "run off left" etc. A whole episode could be assembled very quickly this way, and let the animators focus just on the custom characters for each particular episode.

The system works beautifully (Thanks to Dan's brilliant programming) and saved them tons of money. We toyed with the idea of making a commercial product out of it, but the workflow was so specific to Wonder Pets that we figured the general demand wouldn't be there.

The tin can phone never goes to voicemail because they turned it off--too many crank calls from the Rugrats."

Update: Lloyd is teaching an Intro to After Effects Scripting course at fxphd this term.

'Super tight' garbage mattes in After Effects

Topher Welsh has a quick tip on creating "super tight" garbage mattes to aid keying. He uses a basic After Effects color key like Color Range then applies the Simple Choker filter with a negative setting, expanding the matte to let an advanced keyer like Keylight to work more subtle magic. This technique that can also be found in Making It Look Great 5 with Maltaannon.

The technique is inspired in part by an older video by Aharon Rabinowitz, Super Tight Junk Mattes which used Auto-Trace and the Simple Choker to refine garbage mattes (project files are still available at Cow). Aharon similarly leverages convenient Red Giant filters in a more recent tutorial, RGTV Episode 4: Better Compositing Techniques.

Also there's no reason you can't use a copy of the matte with Simple Choker to do a choke for a hold out matte to preserve the keyed subject (as seen in Commotion Complete by Matt Silverman and recent keying training from Toolfarm). Here's Aharon's older tutorial and the new one by Topher:

BBC 'Life': 2-year timelapse, 96 layers in After Effects

The 'Plants' episode from the BBC nature series, Life (with David Attenborough), features a making-of segment that shows a 2-year timelapse of plant growth that is composited in After Effects (via @tomguilmette). Here's that segment and a preview that discusses how other state-of-the-art techniques help capture extraordinary images:

Life - A preview of the series. from Documentally on Vimeo.

Video in magazines of the future + Apple's Tabula Rasa

With e-book readers and computer tablets coming to the fore, the publishing industry hopes for salvation. All Things Digital covered the backstory, especially Wired's effort, in November. Apparently, "Adobe is creating a publishing tool for the new format, as well as magazine-reader software that may come pre-installed on the devices or may require a download."

This of course goes beyond "book video" and what's now called the "Vook," both discussed here on AEP earlier this year. Here's a few examples of what's in development by Wired (loud audio), Sports Illustrated, and Berg with Mag+:

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Update: Recovering Journalist takes an overview in Apple's Tabula Rasa.

Easy download of video from US warplanes and drones

As the Pentagon is busy trying to control lightning, Wired notes that it's easy to download video from US warplanes and drones using a $26 app; see Not Just Drones: Militants Can Snoop on Most U.S. Warplanes and Insurgents Intercept Drone Video in King-Size Security Breach.

Wired also posted this 2002 video from CBS, showing an intercept in the act:



Update: there was a segment on The Rachel Maddow Show too,

Exploring YouTube's HD format

Jan Ozer's Streaming Learning Center has numerous tips for improving streaming video quality. Among the tips are details on options for uploading SD video to YouTube and exploring YouTube's HD format.

He summarizes his experience with YouTube HD:

• YouTube appears to encode all 1080 files uploaded to the site into 1080p format.
• The file is produced using the H.264 codec at about 3.5 mbps, in the High profile with CABAC enabled, but no B-frames. YouTube also creates at least two other formats for lower resolution playback.
• The most reliable way to play the 1080p file is to click the full screen option in the YouTube player.

Duik Tools tutorial (IK script for After Effects)

Duik Tools, the inverse kinematics script for After Effects from France, now has an English language video tutorial. Here's an embed but check out the Vimeo page for more info and a skeleton source file:

DuIK Tools - Inverse Kinematics for After Effects! from FAMOS on Vimeo.

Knoll Flare 3D (Beta)

Red Giant is introducing Knoll Flare 3D, free 3D lighting tools for Knoll Lens Flare Pro 2.5 users:

"Introducing Knoll 3D Flare (Beta), a new free set of tools that allows you to easily create Knoll Lens Flares in After Effects 3D space. This add-on for Knoll Light Factory (2.5) in After Effects includes fantastic features like [AE Camera Awareness,] Edge flare-ups, color linking, Z-depth intensity, and full 3D obscuration."

You can also check out the Knoll 3D Flare intro tutorial.

Sneak peek of Flash CS5 + physics demo

Lee Brimelow posted a Sneak peek of Flash CS5:

"I just uploaded a new video that shows all of the exciting new features coming in Flash CS5. In a previous video I focused on the new iPhone development features but this video shows the rest of the cool stuff we have in store for you. This includes the XFL format, the new text engine, and the one and only Deco tool. Again, this is a prerelease version so everything is subject to change."

Update: iPhone and physics demos of CS5 (via CS5.org),

Poly Blink preset for Particular

Trapcode Sharelog posted a free preset and demo movie for Particular 2, Poly Blink. This note comes via HashAE's unbeatable Twitter stream, which notes many other bits of After Effects news.

Poly Blink from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.

Smoke on the Mac is shipping + demos

via Oliver Peters, Autodesk Smoke on the Mac is shipping today and there's a 30-day free trial version available. Check out the Fxguide coverage Smoke on Mac Part 1: Overview and various tutorials in Autodesk Area (essentials).

There's also various presentations, like in SF today and LA & NY, and a Technology Preview Webcast on Thursday December 17.

Update: the Smoke on OS X blog by Scott Malkie has an overview of resources; Autodesk also posted some movies on YouTube -- here's one,

3D Mandelbulb fractal filter for Pixel Bender and Quartz Composer

Subblue has free Pixel Bender and Quartz Composer versions of the 3D Mandelbulb fractal, which made a splash last month.

See also Subblue's previous Pixel Benders from the last year or so: a Droste Effect filter, the Fractal Explorer, and a 4D Quaternion Julia Set Ray Tracer with added ambient occlusion.

Subblue says: "Animations can be created in Adobe After Effects using the .pbk files, but it will be very slow to render as the calculations have to be performed on the CPU rather than the GPU. The following videos were created using the QuartzComposer patch and took 15-20 minutes to render at 720x576 for about 720 frames. If only After Effects would support GPU rendering too..."

Mandelbulb zoom from subBlue on Vimeo.

ShareLog: a new Trapcode sharing spot

Check out ShareLog -- an area at the new Trapcode site (still in development) where you can post presets, training, tips etc.

If you still pine for more, check out an older collection (re)posted by JMDesign, Trapcode People Resurrected.

Multiplane script and demos

AEScripts has a new script from Paul Tuersley, pt_Multiplane:

"Instantly turn layered Photoshop or Illustrator files into 3D multiplanes. It adds expressions that let you freely move layers on the z axis without changing the look of the shot from the original camera position, making it easy to experiment with depth in your scene."

There's also a nice 10-minute video tutorial with 3 demos, and more on multiplane cameras from an old Disney show:

Jumbotron in After Effects

Motionworks has a new tutorial, After Effects: Jumbotron Column:

"In this extended tutorial learn how to identify the field order of footage and interpret it collectly; create a realistic Jumbotron-style look using CC Ball Action, Glow, Levels and Curves; turn the jumbotron into a 3D column mounted on grungy wire mesh using Zaxwerks 3D Layer Warps; and fine tune the look by adding animated arrows plus a touch of Trapcode Shine and Magic Bullet Looks."

There were also a few other tutorials on creating a jumbotron look by Maltaannon and below by Aharon Rabinowitz.

New AE tutorials from Peachpit Press

Todd Kopriva noted some new tutorials in Video Made on a Mac podcast from Peachpit Press, from a book by by Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman. Here's an example tutorial, Pan and scan with After Effects:

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

A friend got one and it seems Boing-Boing is right, Livescribe Pulse Smartpen: It's a Keeper. It's a great idea that lets you keep track of story ideas or even generate information & training videos, and seems to open up all kinds of possibilities when combined with other new and future tech. Here's a bit how it works:



Here's an example "pencast:"

Stars Wars notes brought to you by Livescribe

More mocha tracking & roto

A recent thread on the AE-List and an interview with Ross Shain at Motionworks reminds one that options for tracking and roto in After Effects can be a bit complicated.

While not simple, the 3rd party workflow from Imagineer Systems offers accuracy & more features, with mocha AE version 2 (version 1 was bundled with AE CS4) and a newer plug-in mocha shape for After Effects. Both are discounted this month along with many other digital media tools. Mocha for After Effects v2 adds:

• Exports of any resolution, per-point variable edge width roto shape data in the mocha shape format
• Allows users to export tracking data as After Effects Corner Pin with motion blur

Imagineer has quick intro videos for mocha shape and mocha AE v2, and a bunch of other AE training projects even if you aren't upgrading.

Additional functionality and ease of use is offered by an After Effects script called MochaImport (streamlining the connection to CC Power Pin and Red Giant Warp), which is available at the price you name at AE Scripts. The script's creator, Mathias Möhl, has also provided several more training videos (see especially MochaImport 2.0 - New Features), which have been mentioned in previous AEP posts on mochaAE. Also, his post Mocha and Perspective Distortion clarified some confusion over tracking perspective distortion.

Of course tracking and roto doesn't require 3rd party tools (Mocha, RE:Vision Effects PV Feather, etc.), and there's plenty of training around.

Plus there are several scripts to ease workflow issues, like TrackerViz, Tracker2Mask, and KeyTweak -- all available through AE Scripts. For an overview of appropriate uses of Mocha and the scripts, see comments (excerpts) by Mathias Möhl on his blog.

Unplugged 16: interview with Ross Shain

Motionworks' Unplugged 16 features an interview with Ross Shain, now with Imagineer Systems:

"Ross Shain shares his journey from art college to Avid to Imagineer Systems – makers of the powerful Mocha, Mokey and Motor software applications. Ross clearly explains the difference between these popular tracking and rotoscoping packages and hints of great things just around the corner. "