maltaannon.com

Cool 3D stuff

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:23:48 +0000

Random discussion on all the ways of achieving many 3d looks in After Effects with, and without use of external plugins. Covered old school techniques (like duplicating layers), more innovative (like my 3D ShapeExtruder), and plugins.

In the second part (which did not get recorded) we’ve created a Christmas tree using Trapcode Particular and 3D Serpentine. Also – I gave away a copy of Zaxwerks Serpentine, Toolfarms AE Camera Training, and my very own Youveelizer plugin.

It was much fun. See you next year.

Bending the line

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:15:01 +0000

This was an experiment on bending a line into a predefined shape. We ended up using simple parenting and puppet tool. Both ways are good for certain situations. At the end of this episode I revealed an upcoming product that I completed a looooong time ago, but simply forgot about it. THe not recorded part was on scripting and creating a Camera Rig script based on my tutorial.

Creative Breakdowns

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:17:53 +0000

Best session up to this point. We’ve talked for about 4 hours. We discussed the movies you posted links to on my FaceBook fan page. Of course most of the fun stuff happens in the Questions and Answers segment, that never gets recorded. That’s one of the many reasons why you want to join the LIVE sessions.

Here is the list of videos we discussed:
OK Go – WTF?: http://vimeo.com/7166047
The Presets – My People: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ufW2INWmM
I Don’t Know Ya’ll: http://vimeo.com/7437001
Flexifoil: – http://www.hadlowpro.com/
Panic Attack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk

Rotoscoping made easy

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:10:04 +0000

Rotoscoping principals along with some tips, tricks and techniques I developed over few years. Learn how to create a perfect roto without killing yourself on the way.

Zaxwerks Plugins vs. 3D applications

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:21:20 +0000

Presenting the advantages of using Zaxwerks 3D plugins (Like Invigorator, ProAnimator and 3D Serpentine) as a replacement, or along with regular 3D applications like 3D Studio Max or Cinema 4D. We also had a giveaway of Red Giant Software Holomatrix plugin. To bad you missed it. Make sure to catch the next live show.

Simple Camera Rig

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:04:19 +0000

If you ever struggled with your After Effects 3D camera than this tutorial is for you. Learn to rig your camera in seconds or buy a my script that will do it for you.

Get Simple Camera Rig Script 1.0 (CS3) for only 14.90 USD

I don’t know about you my friends, but each time I’m thinking about using After Effects camera I get the shivers. It’s good for panning and zooming, but once you start to make a more classy and smooth motion, or you want to sex it up a bit with some curves you get into trouble. You need to keep track of zoom, point of interest, position, orientation and rotation keyframes all at once. We should be very grateful for Separate Dimensions feature in After Effects CS4, but it does not solve all the problems.

In this tutorial I will show you a technique that is widely used in camera animation by many artists that work in 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, or any other 3d application. I hope it will open your eyes on the subject of camera animation, and that you’ll start making your own more complex rigs. Good luck. Enjoy the tutorial.

And for those of you who don’t have time to build the rig each time you need to use it here’s a handy script that will set up the camera and the rig for you. Enjoy!

Get Simple Camera Rig 1.0 (CS3) for only 14.90 USD

Expressions, particles, and random numbers

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:12:05 +0000

A couple of tips and tricks to improve your workflow with Trapcode Form and Trapcode Particular using expression and randomly generated values. If you missed the live session you also missed an additional hour of questions and answers. It was awesome.

Back to work!

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:36:59 +0000

Hello my friends. Sorry for the long absence. I had a lot of things on my mind lately, not to mention the fact that I was totally out of reach of any technology for the past two weeks – no internet, no cell phone, no nothing. But now I’m back.

I’ve noticed that I messed up the setup of my autoresponders for maltaannon.com related emails, so everything you sent to me during last two weeks got lost on the way. I’m really sorry. On top of that I found out that some WP plugs got updated just before I left and due to that you were totally unable to watch tutorials. And if that’s not bad enough the stats stopped working. But I fixed it all in the end and everything should be back to normal.

If you sent me something very important and did not hear back from me it’s because the messed up autoresponders. Sorry. I always do my best to respond to your emails ASAP, but in this case I just can’t since the emails got lost. But you can still send it to me again, so give it a try.

Other than that I’m getting back on track with the tutorials, live sessions, and some training DVDs, so stay tuned. More exciting content coming soon.

Name the price

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:05:59 +0000

Discussing the process one would take to estimate the time and cost of a custom motion graphic. Learn about my process of planning the work, naming the price, and picking the client I want to work for. Learn those skills and you’ll always be happy with your work… well… most of the time anyway.

Know your 3D

Jerzy Drozda Jr — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:05:18 +0000

Discussion on how to improve the After Effects and 3d environment workflows for better compositing and faster rendering. UV Passes, Normal Maps, RPF format… all that good stuff. Question and answers was also very very cool, but it was not recorded. It never is. If you want to ask me a question and get an answer make sure to register and join the next live session of “Happy AfterEffecting with Maltaannon”