Hello, everyone.  Stalkers, lurkers, and freeloaders alike.  I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, as I will be a guest writer on AEFreemart.com regularly.  My name is Topher Welsh.  If you hang around the VideoCopilot.net forums, you may know me, or you may have frequented my site, VisualFXtuts.com.  Either way, I will be helping to bring you an overload of free stuff from throughout the visual effects, and motion graphics realm of the internet.  If you haven’t seen my site yet **shameless plug** please visit www.VisualFXtuts.com.  You will find a HUGE collection of free tutorials from throughout the net, as well as presets, project files, and even products for sale.  Being kind of a “tutorial wrangler” myself, I figure that I might as well contribute here, since it is one of my 100 or so sites I check daily.  I will be posting some of the coolest, most informative things I find, for you to explore, exprerience, and experiment with (sorry, I like alliteration).

A little bit about me:

I am a 22 year old, practically self taught visual effects and motion graphics artist living about an hour south of Seattle, Washington in a nice little city called Tacoma.  I am a stay at home dad, with an almost 16 month old baby boy named Brennan and a fiance named Mary Beth to call my family.  I like dogs more than cats, and I like Windows more than Macs.  Sorry, its just the way it is.  I work mainly in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid, 3DsMax, and C4D.  I keep myself busy with watching movies, AE-ing, hanging out with the family, and BBQ-ing.  I’ve been in the video world for around 6 years, starting in high school and transitioning to making it a full time career, slowly but surely.  I was inspired into this field by those that have led the way for people like me with sharing their knowledge with the rest of the world.  People like Andrew Kramer, John Dickinson, Harry Frank, Maltaannon, and the rest of the “big hitters” in the AE world, as I like to call them.

I hope to be quite active around here, and to share what I have learned with all of you and point you in the right direction, for whatever your needs may be.  This is the AEFreemart, and from what I hear there are big things in store for Toolfarm and its little chapters alike.

-Topher out.