Cassidy Bisher of DropDrop.com (a great place to get awesome After Effects templates) has made an AE project with 77 color grades. Just add your footage below his Adjustment Layers and you’re set. To get the file you need to goto DropDrop.com’s Facebook page and Like it. Go now.

Last week Andrew Kramer showed us how to put Particular aside and shoot the real thing. This week you can download 15 free HD (720p) clips of what he shot. Included is a tutorial with some ideas on what to do with your new footage. Click here to download the clips and watch the tutorial!

Yowza! Nick Campbell just added a new preset for Trapcode Particular over at RedGiantPeople. Sign up and download it for free!

“Generate realistic textures such as Steel Plates, Bricks, Clouds, Granite, Wooden Planks, and Rock with the Boris Continuum Materials Unit! The textures are procedurally-generated to ensure smooth render at any scale. Each filter provides a variety of animation parameters including controls for the color, width, height, and other aspects of the material. Many of the filters let you add 3D detail to the material surface and include lighting controls. Apply the materials as realistic surfaces or use them as animated organic backgrounds. Each filter includes presets that make using the materials a point and click operation – even for complex animations.”

Click here to get it!

Video Copilot released a very handy script today which is great for cleaning up messy timelines. Andrew Kramer‘s Trim Compose script can take multiple layers and automatically pre-compose each of them. Now you’re free to heap on the effects, background layers, mattes and whatever else it is your cookin’ in each pre-comp keeping the main time nice and neat. Speaking of which, the new pre-comp layers in your main comp are given a close shave so you have a visual on where all the action is in each layer (no more long slabs of layer over layer). Get the script and watch the tutorial which also comes with some handy info on proxies here.

Stu Maschwitz has updated the free scripts which were included in his book DV Rebel’s Guide. This collection “creates a tool palette that turns After Effects into a full-featured onlining tool.” Watch the tutorial and head to Stu’s blog Prolost to download them for free.

Frustrated with Cinema 4D‘s mysterious lack of ability to kern type? Not a problem anymore with… the Kernimator! This FREE “plugin”, more a library object, gives you full control of Mograph text and let’s you tuck in your characters on a letter by letter basis. The Kernimator’s website says it works on both Mac and Windows and was tested in R11.5 and R12. (I’m using R11 and it works just fine there!) Learn more and download the free kerning goodness at http://www.kernimator.com.

Here’s a quick how-to:

Pond5 has 40 FREE stock items up for grabs now thru December 31st. The batch includes 12 HD video clips, 25 sound effects, 2 music tracks and 1 After Effects template. Click Here and start downloading!

Andrew Kramer has posted a free After Effects title project which you can download at VideoCopilot.net. The project includes the necessary footage and the particles are from AE’s built-in effects. It also uses Optical Flares, but don’t fret if you’re not equipped. The text treatment is very impressive, even up close and that alone makes this a must have download. Get it here.

— John Stanowski

Aharon Rabinowitz from All Bets Are Off Productions and Red Giant Software guru has posted a After Effects template that’s up for up for grabs.

It’s plug-in heavy as it uses Trapcode Form, Knoll Light Factory and Magic Bullet Looks. Download it and modify to suit your needs, reverse-engineer or just poke around an AE jedi’s work.

Download the project at Red Giant People.

— John Stanowski