John Dickinson shows you a quick way to add a vignette using Curves, Circle and CC Composite. (This looks a lot better than the way I’ve been doing it!)

After Effects CS6 offers a new ray tracer and 3D capabilities. But does that mean you’ll no longer need special 3D plugins from Zaxwerks or Boris? John Dickinson talks to Zax Dow about the continued relevance of 3D Invigorator and ProAnimator.

John Dickinson shows you how to use Boris Continuum Complete‘s 3-Way Color Grade and Film Glow filters to rescue a dull clip in After Effects.

I also asked John for some random clarifications. Apparently the new 3D layers will cast proper shadows on regular 3D layers and regular 3D layers will reflect onto the new 3D layers. In case you haven’t realized this yet, this means AE CS6 now more or less has built-in shiny, reflective floors like Motion does. Also, if you collapse a precomp with the new 3D layers contained in it, it will “unfold” and behave the same way the regular 3D layers would. And perhaps most exciting of all is that you can mix the new 3D layers with regular 3D layers. For example, you have a 2.5D “postcard” animate in front of and behind one of the new 3D layers, something that’s not possible with the 3D plugin alternatives.

Motionworks‘ John Dickinson shows you a couple of ways to stretch out your keyframes without slowing down the action!

John Dickinson demonstrates the creation of a logo reveal using Boris Continuum Complete 8 and its new Particle Emitter 3D effect.

John Dickinson posted a new tutorial/walk-through on creating a dolly into a spooky 3Dish hallway using Photoshop‘s vanishing point filter. Besides being a great review of what’s possible with .vpe files in After Effects, John also makes extensive use of stock footage to add layer after layer of eerie atmosphere. One particularly interesting effect is the way he uses 2 different pieces of stock footage for a single logo reveal. So dim the lights, sit back and click here.

At first glance the Blend effect doesn’t really do anything that a twist of a layer’s opacity setting couldn’t accomplish on its own. But looks can be deceiving. Check it out here.

Next up is the Block Dissolve effect. Also appearing equally simple to fresh eyes, its true potential is fully revealed in John’s video tip.

Hopefully there will more A-Z coming from Motionworks.

John Dickinson of Motionworks has a new tutorial revealing the many different ways you can generate automatic keyframes in After Effects. It’s basic, non-project-based approach in an uncluttered introduction to automation in AE for beginners. It’s probably even a good refresher course for intermediate users as well. (Myself, I saw quite a few things I didn’t know about.) Topics include: Keyframe Keyboard Shortcuts, Motion Sketch, The Wiggler, The Smoother, The Wiggle Expression, separating Position coordinates, converting Audio to Keyframes and more. And this is just part one. Be on the lookout for more at Motionworks. Watch it here.

— John Stanowski

— John Stanowski