RSS Feeds for Plugin Cafe
The other day I was poking around in the Plugin Cafe forums and I saw somebody request RSS feeds for the forums. Later the same day, I asked a question regarding a little plugin I’m writing to help improve the 3D pipeline over at one of my favorite studios. (Why would I do such a thing? Oh yeah, it’s all part of being versatile)
Anyway, after receiving a very thorough response from the community over there (including Matthias from Maxon), I decided to go ahead and fulfill the RSS Request, as there had yet to be a response on the issue (I’m sure Maxon has their little noses to the grindstone improving openGL support on the mac, etc…)
So without further ado, you can get your Plugin Cafe RSS feeds at:
http://chriskelley.tv/plugincafe/
Keep reading to find out more about how I create the feeds.
Continue Reading…
Loop Particular the Right Way
Download the After Effects file for this tutorial:
I’ve seen this question floating out on the web a few times, and I personally run into it often when I’m working on broadcast stuff. Most of the time I see people recommend just fading your particles off, or crossfading between to layers, but I don’t like that. Here is a video about my workflow on how I make Trapcode Particular loop “the right way”.
5 tips to Speed up your After Effects workflow
I’ve worked with a lot of other artists over the last 8 years and sometimes you work with people and think “Damn they turn stuff out quick”. Other times it’s the exact opposite, and you’re convinced they must have slipped in to a coma because how on earth could that logo resolve take so long to animate…
To no suprise, much of the delta between these scenarios comes from workflow. A smooth workflow and the ability to adapt for each project are crucial characteristics of a successful animator. I’m going to share 5 of my favorite After Effects-related animation workflow tips.
Using Unmult on Whites
For years and years Unmult has been one of the best free (and essential) plug-ins out there. If you don’t already use it, Unmult (though certainly offering a more technical role… but I’ll leave that to Stu and Mark) is often used to simply “knock out the black” from a layer in After Effects. For example, say I have a sexy lens-flare that I want to have alpha everywhere the flare is not… sure, I could put the layer in “screen” or “add” mode, but I don’t want to fuss with transfer modes and how it will affect my composite. So in steps Unmult - apply to your layer, and BAM, alpha everywhere you want and not where you don’t.
Ok great, so that works fine for black backgrounds. WTF, the headline says unmult on whites - what are you on about? What if I have a layer with a white background that I want to knock out?
Lessons from the Auction Floor
My Mom was the type of mom that believed her kids should always have jobs. I always appreciated the sentiment, and before I got people to pay me for being a geek I held many different job-titles. I sold snowboards, I was a cashier at a home-improvement store, I built mountain bikes, and I got all the free ice-time a hockey player could want working at an ice arena. But one job taught me more life skills than most of the rest…
I was a driver at an auto auction house. And it was awesome. For three hours every Wednesday night I would go to my rival town, sign in, plop down in the first car for the night and fire her up. I drove the “S” line, which was basically the worst of the worst. About 10% of the cars wouldn’t even start and I had to be pushed through by a tow-truck, trying with all my might to keep from scraping the walls of the auction house without the aid of power steering
I digress. I’ve come to realize that many of the principles I learned while doing this job have been very relevant to my career, and I am going to share my top 5 with you, explaining how you can use the principles to better your career as well.
Shhhh… Silent Launch!
TheMographBlog.com is open to the public. I have a bunch of articles in the queue and will start releasing them as I touch them up. Feel free to participate in the comments and let me know what you think!
Thanks
Chris Kelley