Secret Santa: BCC 3D Spinning Snowflake Tutorial & Project Files
Today Michele Yamazaki from Toolfarm shares a tutorial and project for creating a gorgeous 3D spinning snow flake completely in After Effects and use Boris Continuum Complete 6.0. 3D Objects is the focus here – an amazing new set of plug-ins in v6.0. The project files are AE CS4.
Boris Continuum Complete was used on this one, so if you don’t own the plug-ins, you can download a free 14 day unwatermarked file here. If you love Continuum Complete as much as we do, buy it here.
I created a quick walk through of the template so you can see how to replace the images with your own photos, or even video, if you are so inclined. The video was captured and edited very quickly and easily in Telestream ScreenFlow, which is fantastic. Try a free demo here.
Introducing Knoll Light Factory 3D (Beta)
A Free Set of Tools for Knoll Light Factory Pro
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 Pro 2.5 in After Effects includes fantastic features like Edge flare-ups, color linking, Z-depth intensity, and full 3D obscuration.
Features
- 3D Camera Aware: Link a lens flares to a 3D Light’s XYZ position.
- Z-Depth: Distance of flare from camera effects flare’s intensity.
- Color Linking: Light color effects flare color.
- Intensity Linking: Light intensity effects flare’s intensity.
- Multiple Lights: Apply to every light in your comp.
- World Scale: Control the amount of flare scaling relative to a light’s distance from the camera
- Edge Flareup: As flares near the edge of the comp they automatically brighten and flareup replicating natural lens phenomena.
- Full 3D Obscuration: All 3D layers in your composition can be used to obscure the flare. As the 3D light travels behind a layer, the flare dims and goes out.
- Full RGB Obscuration: As the flare passes behind one or many semi-transparent layers, it mixes the layer colors into the flare.
System Requirements: Adobe After Effects (CS3, CS4) + Knoll Light Factory Pro 2.5
Quick Links
- Watch a tutorial on Knoll 3D Flare. (pops)
- Download Knoll 3D Flare.
- Download a trial version of Knoll Light Factory Pro
- Buy Knoll Light Factory Pro 2.5 (New $399, $99 Upgrade)
Reasons to Buy Knoll Light Factory
- Used in movies such as Avatar, Transformers 1 & 2, The Day After Tomorrow, the Star Trek series, and Dreamgirls.
- Designed by Academy Award-winner John Knoll, visual FX supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic.
- GPU acceleration delivers blistering render speeds.
Rainforest Rescue Video Competition with Coremelt Plugins!
CoreMelt is asking for submissions of existing or new work created using CoreMelt plugins. During this period we will donate 10 percent of our gross sales to Rainforest Rescue with a minimum donation of $7000. Winners will be chosen on Feb 10th 2009. The Grand Prize winner will be chosen randomly from the five best entrants in each category of entrant. There are over $25,000 worth of prizes in the contest.
Read all about the contest and the Rainforest Rescue here.
Become Toolfarm’s Facebook Fan & Enter to Win a Digieffects Megasuite!
This Friday, December 11, we’ll be giving away a license for Digieffects Megasuite. To enter, all you need to do is Become a Fan of Toolfarm on Facebook. We’ll choose a random fan on Friday at Noon PST, so become a Fan to enter.
What’s in the Megasuite?
- Aged Film – Turn back the clock with Aged Film and show which era you set your shot.
- Berserk – 20 award-winning special effects plug-ins including StarField, FogBank, VanGoughist and Laser.
- Aurorix -
A set of updated 26 cool special effects filters including AgedFilm 2, VideoLook 2, Earthquake 2 and Turbulent Flow 2. - Delirium -
Delirium is a set of more than 46+ amazing plug-ins and tools for creating particle-based fire, smoke and bubbles. - Camera Mapper – Simulate a 3D scene from 2D still images or video footage.
- Damage – Damage is a collection of four effects plugins designed for post production professionals who want to create an extensive variety of digital and/or analog defects/errors in your footage.
- Buena Depth Cue -
A set of plug-ins that adds realistic depth effects to 3D layers. - Falloff Lighting – provides an enhanced lighting system to After Effects built-in light.
- Simulate: Illuma – Light and filter options you didn’t have in the field… Halo, Lightracer, Radiance, Photogust, and Luminus.
- Simulate: Camera – Who says you can’t change your mind once it’s shot? Archive, Overexpose, Iris, Destabilize, and Lens Flare.
Secret Santa Freebie: Logo Reveal Tutorial by Rob Birnholtz
Dec. 10th: Logo Reveal Tutorial by Rob Birnholtz
Author: Rob Birnholtz, Absolute Motion Graphics
Hosts: After Effects (project files use AE CS4)
Plug-ins Used: Knoll Light Factory, GenArts Sapphire (Get free trials of Knoll Light Factory and Sapphire here.)
Project Files: Download Project files (right click/option click to save. Format: .zip)
Other: Dust footage courtesy of Pond5.com. The clip can be purchased and downloaded here. A low-res comp is included with the project files.
Create an Animated Logo Reveal with a Stroke Wipe in After Effects from Toolfarm on Vimeo.
Rob Birnholz shows you how to create an animated logo reveal with Adobe After Effects. He uses a couple of great plug-ins, Knoll Light Factory from Red Giant and Sapphire from GenArts (both free demos available here).
Rob gives you several interesting techniques in this one tutorial.
This tutorial video is part of Day 3 of Toolfarm’s Secret Santa Holiday Giveaways. Enjoy and thanks to Rob Birnholz for his fantastic contribution!
Rob Birnholz
Rob Birnholz is owner of Absolute Motion Graphics, Inc., near Orlando, FL. With more than three decades of production and post experience, he’s not only older but hopefully wiser.
Rob graduated from The University of Florida with a degree in Broadcast Production, then began his career freelancing in the South Florida film industry, working on major features and commercial shoots. In the early 1980′s he formed his own video production company shooting, directing and editing high-end corporate projects for clients including PepsiCo and the Knight-Ridder Newspaper chain.
After relocating to Central Florida in the late 1980′s, Rob continued as a freelance Lighting-Cameraman and Editor working on projects ranging from Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” to cutting Super Bowl highlight packages for ESPN.
With the advent of desktop editing Rob discovered After Effects (version 1!) and his life changed forever. Shooting and directing faded into the background as Rob focused on new digital postproduction solutions, and his company, Absolute Motion Graphics, was formed.
Working largely in the non-broadcast arena, Rob loves recreating high-end looks and effects without having the same big-time budgets. He is a frequent guest speaker at user groups around the country, and many of his After Effects tutorials were distributed on the Digital Production Buzz newsletter.
Recent projects have been completed for T•Mobile, Walt Disney World, Kodak, General Motors, Long John Silvers, KFC, Subway, Cricket Communications and The Palm Springs International Film Festival. Rob’s website is at absolutemotiongraphics.com
Tutorial: FreeForm AE ‘Metal Man 2′ by Chris Heuer
In the second tutorial of this series, we will go a step further and add a little "punch" to our displacement mapping by combining it with Freeform’s other main feature, Mesh Warping. By adding Mesh Warp, our stamped in effect will do a little more damage by creasing and buckling the entire sheet of metal. We all know Digieffects loves "Damage", so don’t miss this one! We’ll also tweak our lighting to add a little mood to the scene.
Toolfarm :60 Ep 11: Ghost Effects
Alicia VanHeulen of Toolfarm walks you through how to make a spooky ghost effect. It’s very easy!
See all of the Tooolfarm :60 episodes
Tutorial: Fractal Noise Fade in AE
Harry J. Frank has created a great new tutorial called Fractal Noise Fade. I always learn so much from Harry. Also, if you haven’t seen it, check out Harry’s new Video Rock, an awesome new DVD library of pre-rendered QuickTime elements and still images set in a vintage style.
Fractal Noise Fade from graymachine on Vimeo.
Learn how to use Fractal Noise to create a textured fade on a layer in After Effects. Then add some more effects and elements to finish up the title effect.
Unplugged 13: Chris & Trish Meyer – Part 1
John Dickinson interviews Chris and Trish Meyer, pioneers of desktop video and authors of Creating Motion Graphics, After Effects Apprentice and other books. Watch the interview here.
Expression To Drop Every 10th Frame In After Effects by Brad Chmielewski
Brad Chmielewski, who I follow on Twitter has posted a new tutorial. I didn’t know this trick!
Expression To Drop Every 10th Frame In After Effects from Brad Chmielewski on Vimeo.
In this After Effects tutorial I show you how to add an expression to your footage that will drop every 10th frame. Here is the expression used;
f= timeToFrames();
p = Math.floor(f/1);
framesToTime(p*1.1)
For more information on expressions in After Effects check out aenhancers.com and the tutorials by Harry Frank over at graymachine.com.
