Category Archives: Blog

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Half goofing around, we shot a quick office tour during the Red Giant meeting in Portland. Here you’ll get to put some face to names you might have spoken to or conversed with via email. And you’ll see how my Sony Bloggie camera sucks.

A while ago, when my toddler was still a young baby, I was having lunch with some former students of mine. Somewhere in the background, a baby started crying.  To the 20-something designers, they found it distracting and annoying. Personally, I didn’t even notice it, as the father of a six month old baby.  I realized that my brain had quickly altered its perception based on my personal experience. We were all hearing the same thing, and yet perceiving something totally different.  To me, this is the essence of perception: the effect of experience and individuality on what a person realizes from their senses.

For those struggling with the skill to create and recognize artistic aesthetic, I find that it is often this lack of artistic perception that is holding them back.  I think many fortunate souls are born with an enhanced sense of this vision, which is half of the equation: individuality.  On the flipside of this, it is experience that is key to altering perception.

When listening to music, a musician, depending on experience and training, hears things like key, mode, counterpoint, arrangement, tension, resolution and more.   Art has a similar palette that mimics music, such as order, interval, tension, space, light, color and much more.  To be an artist and designer means to combine your individuality and develop your experience to find tune your perception of what you create, as well as what you see.  Just like the music student that practices every day, and listens to a broad range of music, the designer must exercise their artistic muscle every single day, by creating, watching, and exploring.

This is why artists should watch something new every day. Keep a wide range of books, websites and (yes, put on your shoes and socks) museums on their to-do list.

Here’s just a few places to get great daily inspiration:

http://www.motionserved.com/

http://motionographer.com/

http://ffffound.com/

http://typeinspire.com/

http://showreelarchive.com/

What do we consider? Consider the excellent language of aesthetics as dictated by Paul Rand:

…order, unity, variety, contrast, symmetry, asymmetry, rhythm, harmony, dissonance, rhyme, interval, regularity, coherence, tension, balance, proportion, scale, weight, texture, line, mass, space, shape, light, shade, and color.

In addition to the language of art, motion designers have, quite literally, an added dimension to what we do: story, development, progression, motion, time, perspective. How do we use this incredible language effectively?

This is what you should be thinking about every day as a motion designer and artist.

I realize that expressions can be daunting, and some would rather copy and past useful code rather than learn the language. That’s cool with me. Therefore, I’d like to share with you my 5 favorite expressions. These are expressions I use in just about every project, and I consider them to be incredible workflow enhancements.

Download them as FFX presets for AE CS3 here.

Are you looking to learn more about After Effects Expressions? Check out my complete training series on the topic in the graymachine store.

1. Intertial Bounce

Essentially, Inertial Bounce creates a bouncing motion of any parameter from one keyframe to the next, based on its velocity. Being that true “velocity” includes the vector (or traveling direction in 3D space), the bounce happens in whatever direction the object is traveling. This also accounts for scalar or array values, so you’ll find that this expression works just as well on 2D rotation as it does on 3D position. It’s very cool!

This expression is a bit of a community effort. The seeds were certainly planted by the great Dan Ebberts, and then a modified version was posted on mograph.net. Although I’ve made a slight modification to it to make it a little more user friendly, it’s nothing that I will lay claim to as my own code. Nonetheless, it’s a great helper and I use it all the time.

Modify “amp” for the amplitude or how much bounce is present. The variable “freq” is the frequency, or how frequently the bounce occurs. The “decay” is like a friction or mass setting, a higher value means a shorter decay over time.

amp = .1;
freq = 2.0;
decay = 2.0;

n = 0;
if (numKeys > 0){
n = nearestKey(time).index;
if (key(n).time > time){
n--;
}}

if (n == 0){ t = 0;
}else{
t = time - key(n).time;
}

if (n > 0){
v = velocityAtTime(key(n).time - thisComp.frameDuration/10);
value + v*amp*Math.sin(freq*t*2*Math.PI)/Math.exp(decay*t);
}else{value}

2. Autofade

This is nothing brilliant, but it is something I wrote and use all the time. You’ll also find something similar in the After Effects preset “Behaviors” called Fade In + Out, which uses the Solid Composite effect and a custom interface. But, I like a simpler version that I use on Opacity.

This is a slightly enhanced version that I’d revamped since I posted it in the “Auto Slideshow” presets and added the option to use markers. If there are no markers, the transition variable is used (where is says “transition=20″, this is in frames.) If there are *2* markers, the first marker is used for end point of the fade in, and the second marker is used to define the start of the fade out.

//Autofade: Add to opacity

transition = 20;       // transition time in frames
if (marker.numKeys<2){
tSecs = transition / ( 1 / thisComp.frameDuration); // convert to seconds
linear(time, inPoint, inPoint + tSecs, 0, 100) - linear(time, outPoint - tSecs, outPoint, 0, 100)
}else{
linear(time, inPoint, marker.key(1).time, 0, 100) - linear(time, marker.key(2).time, outPoint, 0, 100)
}

3. Snap Zoom In/Out

This is a cool expression to use on text. It creates a “snap” zoom on the in and out of the layer by modifying scale.

//Snap zoom in and out: apply to scale
snapScale = 300; //percent of scale to zoom

trans = 4; //  transition time in frames
trans = trans * thisComp.frameDuration;
inTrans  = easeOut(time, inPoint, inPoint + trans, [snapScale,snapScale], [0,0]);
outTrans = easeIn(time, outPoint, outPoint - trans, [0,0], [snapScale, snapScale]);
value+ inTrans + outTrans

If you prefer to use Z space position instead of scale, try this one:

zoom = 5000; //distance to zoom
trans = 4; //  transition time in frames
trans = trans * thisComp.frameDuration;

inTrans  = easeIn(time, inPoint, inPoint + trans, [0,0,zoom], [0,0,0]);
outTrans = easeOut(time, outPoint, outPoint - trans*2, [0,0,0], [0,0,zoom]);
value+ inTrans - outTrans

4. Y Axis Jitter

This is from Lesson 5 of my expressions series. This creates a random jittery motion in the Y axis. You can modify probability to make or less jitter, and the pos variable to define how large the jitter is.

// Y Axis Jitter
probability = 8 ;  //higher is less likely
pos = 50;

val  = random(-probability-2, 1);
m = clamp(val, 0, 1);
y = wiggle(10, pos*m)-position;
value + [0, y[1]]

5 . toComp

This one you’ll have to watch a short tutorial for here, and you can read a lot more about it at motionscript.com. The idea is that you can apply the equivalent 3D location to any 2D location. This might not sound exciting. But, think of all the 2D parameters out there, like lens flare location, Shine source, beams, etc. It is probably my most commonly used expression.

But, the basic idea is this:

layer = thisComp.layer("Null 1")
layer.toComp([0,0,0])

Note: I intentionally left off the semicolon, as you techinically don’t need it in this case. Therefore, all you need to do is pickwhip your layer where the “layer =” variable is.

Dear visitors and loyal fans,

As many of you well know, my current professional career is split between two distinct sides of the same coin. One one side, I mostly spend my days working as a freelance motion designer. This has garnered many memorable experiences of working with tremendously talented people — from my roots, working with the unrelenting post-production and design professionals of Detroit, to Digital Kitchen in Chicago’s cold winter, and on to great studios like Blur Studio here in sunny LA. From National Geographic, to NBC, to TV Land, I’ve seen all the nooks and crannies of the life that a motion designer can see. But I’ve reached a point where adding one more big name isn’t going to improve anything for me, especially my happiness.

On that other side of the coin, I’ve been involved with communities that focus on learning, sharing, connecting and growing as a motion designer and visual effects artist. Graymachine and The Motion Exchange have been very personal endeavors of mine, and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning and growing, side-by-side with you.

When I study the two sides of my career coin, it is now obvious what has always brought me more joy. I’ve learned that happiness is not found along the path of making reality show graphics, sizzle reels, or commercials for sugar water. It is not found in the daily stress of courting new clients, while trying to get existing clients to pay their overdue invoices, while juggling three jobs that are all over budget. It is not found in a job where last minute changes and late nights that keep me from reading my son a bedtime story.

I’ve only been bestowed a small number of gifts in life, among them my wonderful wife and awesome little boy. But, another is my ability to understand the ambiguous, imagine the creative, and bridge the two together. I’m somehow also able to put this process into words for others to understand. But I fear, if I continue to use my talents to create cultural pollution for television, I’ll have little to show as a legacy for myself, nor will I feel like I’ve done much good with my time on this planet. Nearing my 37th year on Earth, it’s time to make a change.
In short, I am largely leaving the world of freelance motion design. I am proud to announce that I will be joining Red Giant Software on a full-time basis. Since this career epiphany hit me last Fall, I had been determined to find a partner that sees eye-to-eye with what I want to accomplish in my career, and support what I value in life. I am so grateful to have been working with this great company for years, and I am humbled to be extended an invitation to join them.
In partnering with RGS, my efforts will be focused on helping you find the right tool or idea for your next job, film or project. And no other company represents this set of artistic set of tools more completely, especially with what we have collectively planned for 2010.  I’m excited to share this new opportunity with you. So, follow me, and I will continue to do what I do here — help others — without the hurried pressure to “get back to work.”

So what does this mean for graymachine?

It means more time to devote to what made graymachine a useful resource for the community in the first place. You’ll see more tutorials, free content, templates and news. But, instead of just seeing it here,  you’ll see it in other places too. You might see some products become exclusive to RGS, and new products mostly be for RGS. But, honestly… how often has something I’ve done NOT centered around Red Giant products?

So, stick around and you’ll see great things. Until then, talk to you soon!

Harry

Introducing Trapcode Particular Presets: Holiday

Red Giant and I got together for a bit of holiday cheer this season. They had an idea to create some festive and useful compositions for the holiday seasons. With time of the essence as the holiday lights are already burning full throttle, I quickly turned around a set of 55 AE CS3 compositions featuring a mix of motion backgrounds, reveals, type compositions, using a number of AE and 3D pre-rendered elements.

Visit Red Giant Software to check out the package

The issue of how After Effects uses RAM is one of those topics that seems to get asked just about every forum, at least once a week. I’d like to clarify some of the confusion on this.

The fundamental issue revolves around the following issues:

• Despite the amount of RAM one has in their computer, when launching After Effects the splash window (or the About window) will show a much lower amount being used, such as 3GB.
• Furthermore, there is a preferences panel that gives the impression that one has more control over this RAM allocation, and that there is some magic setting to fix the issue.
• That because After Effects only seems to use 3GB of RAM at best, that having between 2-4GB of of RAM is “plenty.”

Cutting to the chase, and to make you a more informed user, I’d like to present the facts, and then explain them in a little detail:

• You SHOULD have more than 4GB of RAM in your computer
• Your computer most likely can and will use more than 4GB of RAM for After Effects

Currently, After Effects on Mac OS X can use up to 3.5 GB of RAM.  After Effects on 32-bit Windows operating systems (XP, Vista 32) can use up to 3 GB of RAM; however, to use more than 2 GB in After Effects, you must configure Windows XP or Windows Vista appropriately.  For details on this, see Jonas Hummelstrand’s website: (www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_jonaswindows3gb.) After Effects on 64-bit Windows operating systems can use up to 4 GB of RAM with no special configuration.

So, where does the other RAM come in? If you bought 12GB of RAM, was that a waste of money? No!!

When you work with After Effects, knowing full well that it is limited to that RAM that we just spelled out, there’s more going on behind the scenes that you might realize. If you proceed to Preferences>Multiprocessing, you’ll find an option to enable multiprocessor rendering. In fact, you’ll see a very description paragraph as to what multiprocessing actually is doing.

After Effects will “use multiple processes to speed rendering for RAM preview and final output”, ie. rendering.

What are these “multiple processes?”

Behind the scenes, when you render or perform a RAM preview, additional applications launch in the background that you do not see. In fact, the only way to see them is to launch a process viewer. In Mac OS, you can use the Activity Monitor. What you will see are processes called “aeselflink” (AE Self Link.)

These are helper applications that can use up to 2GB of RAM for each CPU. Being that even one “duo core” has 2 CPUs, you can see how this might add up very quickly. A dual quad core computer has 8 CPUs, which can easily eat up as much as 16GB of RAM when rendering. And this doesn’t count any additional programs you might try to run in the background.

If you have a small amount of RAM (less than 4GB), there is a distinct possibility that using multiprocessing will slow down the rendering process. If you lack the RAM for the helper application(s), your computer will use virtual RAM (hard disk space.) This, most likely, will slow the rendering process. This obviously depends on how many CPUs you have, and how much RAM.

So, get that RAM. You SHOULD have a lot of RAM as an After Effects user. For as much as you spent on that computer, having a low amount of RAM will greatly reduce the potential speed of your machine.  This goes for AE CS3 and CS4.