Quote...

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.

Robert Bloch

AFTER EFFECTS TUTORIALS

PART ONE
I am an avid After Effects user. I've been using it for about a year now and I've found it to be a truly amazing and innovative program. I'm getting better everyday and I thought I'd share some of the tutorials that have got me to the stage I'm at now. These tutorials are only use the default plugins that come with after effects because that's all I have. The ones I've put here aren't about teaching you, bit by bit, how to do a cool effect. They're about teaching you techniques so you can generate your own.

So here goes:

1 - VideoCopilot Basic Training

Hosted by Andrew Kramer from videocopilot.net, this is a fantastic introduction to the main components of AE.

2 - VideoCopilot Set Extension

Staying with VideoCopilot this is a great tutorial for using motion-tracking and null objects in a real-world project.

3 - VideoCopilot 3D Stroke

One more from Kramer. This shows you the basics of creating a 3D environment, using depth of field, and, most importantly, gives you an expression for more control of CC Particle World.

4 - The MoGraph Blog - Mastering The Render Queue

Not the most exciting tutorial but, sooner or later, this will be one of the most helpful tutorials you will ever come across.

5 - Graymachine - Reverse Shatter

Great tutorial which shows a neat trick with illustrator and also, more importantly, a quick lesson in how illustrator and after effects combine.

6 - GreyScaleGorilla - How To Use Simple Shapes and Masks to Create an Entire Animation

Not the snappiest title I've ever come across. But if you're looking for a tutorial that demonstrates how a simple idea can really work, this is it.

Well, I think we'll leave it at 6 for now. I hope you find these tutorials as helpful as I have. Check around these sites for more great stuff too.

I'll have another couple of great tutorials coming your way soon!

QUOTE...

Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.

Douglas Adams.

Humour is like creativity, in that it takes 2 previously disparate entities and fuses them together in a new and interesting way.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-DULL HINTS

WARNING: SPOLIERS

After a huge build-up and an extended wait, I finally got to see the sixth installment of the Harry Potter film franchise last night. As expected the cinema was packed and, as we arrived at 7:25 for a 7:30 showing, my wife and I were sat pretty near the front. We had a good view though, and we were at the end of a row so we didn't feel like we were watching a game of tennis during scenes with more than one person in. And so, with great anticipation, horrible popcorn, and 6 days of trailers I sat with great anticipation (I say I because my wife really only came for me. She's a fantastic wife, I know). 3 hours later I left the cinema with a wonderfully consuming feeling of... hmmm.

This isn't a bad film. Far from it. It is visually stunning. Well scripted, with a good balance between dark and funny. It has the most mature performances from the cast to date. And it's definitely the funniest film so far (and special mention must be made of Rupert Grint whose comic delivery was superb).

But saying all that, it was still a very subdued movie.

Don't get me wrong, I knew this would be a subdued film as, for the most part, it is a subdued book. It is, essentially, a Voldemort background story, and a setup for the big finale of Deathly Hallows.

However, in the book, you are rewarded for all your patience with an explosive ending, leaving you shocked, horrified, depressed, elated, satisfied and begging for more. In the last 100 or so pages we get Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, Malfoy's internal battle, a ferocious battle between the Death Eaters and The Order and the biggest shock of all (which I'll not mention here). It's intense drama and action that leaves you stunned.

While the film has all the same stuff, it is delivered with all the passion and drama of over-cooked pasta. It still fills a hole but it's a bit wet and soft.

But, like the book, this is prequel to a larger event in Deathly Hallows 1 & 2. So perhaps all the atmosphere was meant to induce a sense of foreboding and hint at something bigger. All it produced was a sense of foreboredom.

Sill, it was alright.