After Effects World Conference

Seattle, Wa is the place to be on September 27th-29th because some of the After Effects top gurus will be there and giving some of their secrets away at the After Effects World Conference sponsored by Adobe.  Here is how it's described on the site...

Come to Learn, Leave InspiredAfter Effects is the industry standard for motion graphics and visual effects. It’s a feature-rich program, and now, even includes a new 3D pipeline with Cinema 4D.
After Effects World Conference takes a deep dive into the capabilities and inspired possibilities of this robust software, to improve your proficiency.
Distinct skill tracks designed for the motion graphics and VFX professional, as well as the professional editor just getting started with After Effects.

Great speakers and workshops by industry leading vfx artists such as John Dickinson, Eran Stern, and Mark Christiansen.  So if you are anywhere near Seattle, can get there, or better yet, your employer can get  you there, this would be a one of a kind experience and I can't imagine the ways in which this could improve your skills.

Check it Out! 

After Effects CS6 Ray Trace 3d Title Tutorial

One of the new features of After Effects CS6 is the new ray trace 3d mode which brings some basic 3d effects to what is essentially a 2d program.  Previously you needed to use a 3d program such as Cinema 4d or Video Copilot's Element 3d but the recent version of After Effects changes that.  Layers magazine has a new tutorial by Daniel Bryant that goes through a basic title animation using the new 3d mode.   This a great chance to get your feet wet with 3d in After Effects and if you don't have CS6 it will give you a glimpse of whether the update is worth it.   So head over here for the tutorial and projects files available for you to follow along.

http://layersmagazine.com/3d-ray-tracing-in-after-effects-cs6.html

After Effects Free Text Presets

I'm always working to streamline my workflow in After Effects and one the best ways to help when creating lower thirds or text based presentations is to use text presets.  Harry Frank has some great free text presets that you can get from his Gray Machine blog.  These are helpful and incorporate a lot of useful expressions but if you don't want to bother with dealing with the expressions you don't have to with these presets because they are basically drag and drop.  Harry also does a video explaining what each preset does and how to avoid any problems.  Although these are a few years old, they are still very useful.

Custom Presets After Effects

AE Tutorial for Animated Logo with Dynamic Shadows

Here is an interesting tutorial for an animated logo for AE with Mikey.   Mikey Borup gives a thorough explanation of how how he created his new animated logo but the most interesting thing about the tutorial is the approach he uses for the shadows.   The shadows are created so that they are dynamic and animate along with the logo but really go a long way in adding a professional polish to the animation.  This is a cool effect and have not seen it created like this before using a directional blur along with a matte.  From what I can see Mikey doesn't have a blog but posts his tutorials on Youtube exclusively.  Check out
his channel and watch the tutorial below.

Mikey's After Effects Tutorial intro logo tutorial

  

Free After Effects Templates Daily

Of course everyone likes free stuff and I stumbled across this Facebook page that scours the web looking for free templates for After Effects and posts a new one everyday. So if you are looking for a way to spice up that next project or learn a technique then here is a easy and cheap way to do it. There is also a blog but I found the facebook page easier to navigate.

 FREE AE TEMPLATES

After Effect Electric Shock Tutorial by Adrian Koutz

Here is a fairly involved tutorial for ae.tutsplus.com for creating an electric shock that follows the contours of the body.  They offer along with the tutorial the source files so you can get a better idea of how this effects was put together.   Along with After Effects, you will need Trapcode Particular and Optical Flares.   He also uses Starglow but you could probably find a workaround for that.   This is a half hour video and you need a fair amount of After Effects knowledge.  Here is a preview of the effect and you can view the tutorial HERE...

Hand Drawn Ballpoint Pen Animation Tuturiol

Premium Beat just released this great After Effects tutorial on creating a hand drawn effect that mimics that of a thick ballpoint pen.  It is a really quick tutorial and easy to follow.  I love this kind of stuff and am always looking out for great ideas to animate text.  Watch below or visit the site for a full text description of the video.

Adobe After Effects Creative Cloud Reviews

Adobe has really stirred up the motion graphics community with their decision to stop offering the majority of their products as perpetual licenses switching instead to the Creative Cloud subscription service for their latest release.  So should you stick with your current version of After Effects or is the latest version going to suck you into the cloud with all the shiny new features.  We've rounded up some After Effects CC reviews to help you make that decision.

Creative Bloq

A hands on review of the new After Effects with a list of what they consider the top five new features in After Effects CC.   This  is a positive review that is good for someone considering After Effects or those looking to upgrade.  Also they have reviews of the other apps in Adobe's lineup.

"A must-have upgrade for anyone working in 3D. The integration with Cinema 4D is the standout feature here, speeding up workflow and reducing frustration massively, plus there are plenty of other cool features to get your teeth into if you're not working in 3D."

Full Review

Quinlan

Here is first look from a creative director at Quinlan.   Not an extremely in depth review but just some highlights of the new features and "should I upgrade" overview.

"Adobe has successfully unleashed a seamless pipeline between your Cinema 4D scenes and AE Comps and renders those scenes without leaving After Effects."

Full Review

Maltannon

Video effects guru Maltaannon jumps on Youtube and gives his opinion of the newest version of After Effects.

Full Review

There are not a ton of hands on reviews of Creative Cloud especially for After Effects, a lot of them seem to focus on Photoshop.   I am still running CS5.5 and haven't decided to upgrade quite yet but it's only a matter of time.  Hopefully reading these reviews will help you make the decision or you can hold off and make due with your current version.

Add Polish in After Effects with Secondary Animation

One thing that separates good from great in After Effects is the little details that great animators add that really make your animation shine.  One of those details is secondary animation.  Secondary animation is just adding the kinetic motion to a moving objects that conveys a sense of realism by overshooting and settling in. Joey Korenman gives a very detailed tutorial on secondary animation on his website schoolofmotion.com. Joey animates a logo and using curves with secondary animation gives it a really good look.  You need to have a fair grasp of After Effects but this technique will do a lot to give your motion graphics that polished professional look.  I've definitely bookmarked this site and look forward to future tutorials.  I've embedded the video below but go here to to see it on school of motion.

Intro to Secondary Animation in After Effects