This is a tutorial I did for Hillsong conference. It’s my solution for doing 3D titles in After Effects. It’s a lot of render time, but the result isn’t too bad.

In Hindsight Jordan did point out that tutorial looks like I am teaching you how to make a 3D movie. umm.. this is not true. Sorry that I have misled you, I just thought 3D glasses looked cool

Or something to that effect. I don’t really blame my tools, I generally blame ppl

That being said, a question I get asked a lot is what software  I use. So I thought I’d share a little of that with you today.

EDITING : My current program of choice is Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Mostly because I find the Mac platform really stable and lets face it, it’s a brilliant program. Robust and has a lot of brilliant features.

However if you are not on the mac platform, I would suggest Sony’s Vegas. Why not Adobe’s premiere pro you ask? Well to be honest I haven’t been happy with premiere since 6.5. And historically 6.5 was the worst, but it scarred me so bad that every time I have revisited the program, it just brings back bad memories. Plus Vegas is waaaaay more stable. Even on PC it doesn’t crash nearly as much as premiere. But the Vegas editing workflow is pretty different than most PLUS it doesn’t port across to other Adobe apps as seamlessly as Premiere. But perhaps the price tag could convince you otherwise (Vegas is significantly cheaper than Premiere!)

COMPOSITING : Adobe After effects. Well there is no other app I have used for compositing other than Combustion 2 (but that was way back in the late 90s!). Not exactly nodal based like the rest of the other compositing programs out there, but it can do a surprising amount more than it looks like it can do. Videocopilot.net anyone? It’s probbably the cheapest of the compositing programs out on the market anyways and in the right hands, can give you the extra “oomf” your video needs.  (BTW if you don’t know what compositing is, check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing) PLUS these are the list of plugins I currently use:

• Trapcode Particular 2

• Knoll Light Factory

• Automatic Duck (converts the FCP project in After Effects)

• Trapcode Horizon

SOUND MIXING AND MASTERING : I personally don’t do the sound mixing, I just design the layout and timing of sequences in Final cut and then OMF them to ProTools. But the sound guys swear by this and honestly, it really comes down to the engineer more than the program. But the plugins and hardware you can get for protools is pretty sick.

GRAPHICS : Adobe Photoshop. Nuff said.

3D : I actually use Blender cause I can’t be stuffed buying Maya and learning it. But the other boys here use a mixture of Maya and 3D studio Max ( of which 3D studio Max has a slightly easier learning curve).  But if you can’t be buggered buying software for 3D cause you’re too cheap like me, check out www.blender.org . You might be surprised at what you can do with this app. Surprised me!

Ok now for the list of programs I will never use (cause I am a snob and if I catch you using them, I’ll smash you!)

• Premiere Pro – I’m sorry have I made it clear how much I hate this program?

• Livetype – it’s kinda fun when you start out, but it’s pretty bad.

• Apple Color – Slow as molasses and not quite getting the results I want. Has a lot of potential though.

• Windows Movie Maker – tragic tragic program.

But seriously, everything I have listed here is nothing without good creativity. Like the guys from Pixar say, let the art challenge the technology and the technology challenge the art.  Have a good balance of both and you should be in a good place

Finally got this bugger online!

Ok earlier this year we made a documentary on how we made church news from the initial script writing to the final playback on a sunday. It covers everything from camera operation, post production skills, editor management and dealing with departments. I hope you guys enjoy it! I think it turned out alright!

So I wanted to bring to light some favourite directors of mine whom I like to call Lo-Fi directors. These are namely

• Spike Jonze (Where the wild things are, Adaptation),

• Michel Gondry (Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Be kind rewind)

• Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The life Aquatic with Steve Zissou)

Despite any of the shortcomings any of these directors and their films show, there is definitely that element of charm behind the fact that they persue lo-fi techniques to tell their story. Reversing footage, compositing things optically, trick photography, using real sets instead of green screen. I think it’s really important that as directors and filmmakers that we don’t overshadow our films with just a ridiculous amount of high end technology and really find creative ways to express our stories. A common misconception is that ppl think that the audience wants us to make the images on screen we see look “real”. But the reality is ppl just want you to make it look cool. I do miss the days when I watched a movie and had no idea how it was done. Nowadays there is no mystery. It’s all done on computers! ha! well sorta…

Anyways I was going to do a tutorial on how to make that damned transformer but the reality is, it’s gonna take a while. (I mean frig, the rigging alone will just be one lesson). So I am going to have split it into parts. But in the meantime, here’s one I prepared earlier…

PS. Star Trek just came out on DVD and Bluray and man is it ever sweet! I wanna be Spock!!

The pervasiveness of the internet has meant that now information is completely and utterly available to anyone and everyone. which is not to say is a bad thing. When I started doing videos when I was sixteen, the internet was ridiculously expensive to have at home and editing on computers was something that cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.

But nowadays it seems everyone has the freedom to express their ideas in a digital format in one way or the other and this has leveled the playing field for a lot of people. No longer are creative people limited by their cash flows, they can use powerful tools that even the big guns in Hollywood and major design studios use. Powerful tools at the grasp of mere mortals.

But like all powerful tools, there are many who use it for evil…

Now I must preface this next section saying I am not in any way having a dig at Andrew Kramer or Videocopilot (which is an awesome place for video tutorials and general video workflow stuff), but I must say that in a lot of ways Andrew Kramer (and lots of other tutorial sites) is giving rise to a lot of video hacks which annoys me no end. I define a hack as someone who comes along and takes someone’s existing project, changes some colours and titles and then shows it to a client and says “that’ll be $500 please”. Now granted that client probably had no idea where the project came from, or would be able to create it, but the reality is, they stole someone else’s hardwork, and sold it!

Not cool…

I implore you, as a designer, motion graphics specialist or video editor, if you’re gonna take someone else’s work, please, PLEASE, make it your own and don’t try and pass it off as you’re own work. You’re better than that. And if you think it’s fine that you are selling someone else’s hardwork, let me warn you now, hacks will be found out.

Sounds harsh. It should be. PEACE!

So I have been deliberating on what are the most common (but easy to miss) mistakes that people make when you start out doing videos.
I have narrowed them to five. I have called them “the terrible five!” dun dun dun.

1. Bad audio - This for me is one of the biggest deal breakers in making your video either the best thing or the worst thing on the planet. It doesn’t matter how good your video is, it could be shot with the best prime lens on the RED camera and graded by Glenn Stewart himself, if the audio is crap, it will be percieved as pretty… erm crap…
Pay attention to your audio. it will save your life.

2. Title safe - I hate, I HATE, when people don’t pay attention to title safe. When you make your videos, make sure you titles are within the title safes. For me there is nothing that screams more “I don’t know what I am doing” than making your titles OUTSIDE title safe. Get the titles inside the lines guys, it’s not that hard!

3. Over exposed footage - When you’re out in the field and your shooting your footage, overexposing your footage is what I like to call “destorying” your footage. In reality you can grade things in post to give that overexposed look, but you can never go back the other way. Once you lose that detail, you lose it forever. Digital video (apart from shooting red) gives you little or no latitude when exposing things,  so if you are losing that detail in the view finder, you’re gonna lose it when you bring it back to the computer.

4. Bad lighting – This is an area that a lot of video professionals seem to neglect a lot. Lighting will set the mood and tell your story better than your camera can. It can take some time to set up right, but once you get it, every shot will look like a million bucks and then it means less time in post grading and more time telling your story!

5. Too many fonts! - if you wanna show people how terrible you are at video design (or just design in general) just use too many fonts. It’s so simple! Start with comic sans and work your way to windings. The more fonts you have, the more amateur you will look!but Seriously keep it simple. Choose one or two (at most).

And with that I will leave you with this amusing video on local commercials:

I have finally decided that I am going to make this tutorial, but I also realised that its going to be made into parts (some of the sections are deliciously elaborate). But the brilliant thing about this tutorial is that was made completely in after effects without the use of any external 3d apps (but I did use some particular and horizon to spruce things up a bit).

So this week I had contracted the infamous swine flu (or so I think, they didn’t actually test me per say, they just gave me the drugs and sent me home). That being said, I was confined to my house for the next 3 days which were boring as hell! So I had to occupy my time somehow. And this is what I came up with!

Now this bad boy was wholly created in after effects. There is no 3d per say, although of course, good ol Optimus here is created using 3d solids in after effects, so technically it is 3d, but no external 3d apps.  I am not the greatest animator, but I am going to get some 3d animation tests on here eventually and in the foreseable future, show you guys how I created this bad boy!

stay tuned!