Creating Effective Reflections in Sony Vegas Pro By Jeffrey P. Fisher Here's how to add a mirror reflection that makes your titles and logos stand out. It's quick and easy inside Sony Vegas Pro and it looks great. ...Read More »

C4D QuickTip : MoSpline 01 By Ko Maruyama MAXON's CINEMA 4D R11.5 is full of new features, including several new tools that you'll find in Mograph. In addition to the spline tools that were introduced earlier, MoSpline is a dynamic way of introducing creative spline data to your scene. For some projects, a little tweeking may be necessary. Here's how... ...Read More »

Complete Training for Tricaster Studio: Edit Media Tab By Faraz Ahmed In this clip, host Faraz Ahmed covers the Edit Media Tab in Tricaster Studio. The Edit Media Tab is a full featured non linear editor. It completes the Tricaster Studio, making it a true studio in a box. He goes over the features of the Edit Media Tab, which is great to make intros that you'll play in the Live Production Mode, or you've taken something from the Live Production mode that you've put together and want to make some tweaks to it. ...Read More »

Complete Training for Boris Red 4: Red's Theory of Operation By Steve Oakley In this video, host Steve Oakley discusses Red's theory of operation. He talks about how Red works versus other compositing applications. While some may try to use Red just like After Effects, because they share common elements, they may find themselves frustrated in this approach. Red is centered more around the control window. ...Read More »

300+ Free After Effects Tutorials After Effects has always been a popular topic for our writers and editors. We thought it would be helpful to list - with direct links to them on our After Effects Channel - the more than 300 different After Effects tutorials we have so far. In this list are After Effects training videos, After Effects hands on tutorials and techniques, and lots of After Effects Quick Tips. All professional quality, and all free! Enjoy! ...Read More »

Complete Training for Boris Continuum Complete 4: Working with Basic Controls By James Rankin In this video, host James Rankin discusses the displacement map filter. He shows how to use the displacement map filter on a logo. He details how to use the layer menu choices, the map menu, and so on to create the displacement. ...Read More »

Complete Training for Boris Continuum Complete: Common parameters and suggested workflow By James Rankin Boris Continuum Complete 4 contains more than 160 filters that work directly in After Effects and Premiere Pro, BCC works in the effects control window using the standard After Effects Workflow. In this video, host James Rankin covers the common parameters and the suggested workflow for BCC in After Effects and Premiere Pro. ...Read More »

Basic Training for LightWave v9: Layout By Jarrod Davis In this clip, host Jarrod Davis takes a look at LightWave's layout and goes over some of the differences and similarities as modeler. He details the taskbar and tabs, the different views in layout, including top bottom back, front, right left, perspective, light view, camwera view, and schematic view. ...Read More »

Class on Demand: Basic Training for After Effects 7: Creating the composition By Chris Vadnais In this video, host Chris Vadnais takes a look at Adobe After Effects 7, start putting together the elements to start creating the composition. He shows how to import the files for the project, putting together the composition complete with music, Photoshop files, and more. ...Read More »

Class on Demand: Basic Training for After Effects 7 By Chris Vadnais In this video, host Chris Vadnais takes a look at Adobe After Effects 7, giving an overview of the interface in this version, as well as some of the tools the program features, how to create a composition, safe areas, adding text to your composition, and more. ...Read More »

KILLING LIGHTS in CINEMA4D By Ko Maruyama If you're familiar with CINEMA 4D's ability to export to Adobe After Effects, you know that all of the camera and light data can be saved in a single file - for use within a 3D composition in AE. However, sometimes unnecessary light animation and 3D data makes that AEC file heavy. Here's how to clean up your export file. ...Read More »

Create and Burn Blu-ray Discs Using Final Cut Pro 6, Adobe Encore CS4 and OWC Mercury Pro BD/DVD/CD Burner By Heath McKnight One of the biggest complaints for Final Cut Pro (FCP) editors is the inability to create and burn Blu-ray Discs (BDs) with Macs. Windows apps seem to have all the fun with built-in BD creation/burning software (like Sony Vegas Pro and others). This article aims to help you create those BDs using FCP, Adobe Encore CS4 for Mac, and the excellent Other World Computing Mercury Pro BD/DVD/CD Burner. ...Read More »

R11 C4D QuickTip #01 By Ko Maruyama In this QuickTip, I'll show you how easy it is to navigate your scene with R11. Of course, you could create something similar in earlier version, but it was never this easy. ...Read More »

60+ Free Adobe Premiere Tutorials Here are over 60 Adobe Premiere training clips, advanced Adobe Premiere techniques, and loads of Adobe Premiere tutorials and tips. And all free! ...Read More »

125 Final Cut Pro Professional Training Tutorials We thought it would be useful to bring all our Final Cut Pro training tutorials (all so far that is!) into one place so you could have easy access. So here they are: 138 Final Cut Pro training clips, hands on tutorials and quick tips! Oh yes - they are free! ...Read More »

Three Great Overlooked Features of After Effects By Kevin McAuliffe I use Adobe's After Effects alot and I always find myself showing other editors great little hidden features (and sometimes not so hidden) that really help me speed up my workflow. Here are three great ones I use all the time. ...Read More »

Cycore Path Tools For Type at the Edge By Jean Hauptman Before we get to the "How To," I want to briefly discuss both new Path Tools. The two filters are simple for beginners, but include multiple levels for advanced users--so the options for custom effects seem limitless. ...Read More »

Tips to Slim Down (your project) in 2009 By Ko Maruyama It's time for those New Years resolutions to start piling up. You know the ones: I'm going to eat healthy food. I won't slouch at my desk. I'll spend less time on Facebook, Twitter and (insert your own). . . I'M GOING TO SLIM DOWN. Well how about some slimming tips you might actually stick to? Here are some ways to slim down your After Effects projects in 2009.... ...Read More »

After Effects CS3 Level 1: Adding a movie with a mask By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer how to add a movie to a composition and adding a mask in After Effects CS3. He shows how to drop the movie onto the timeline in full screen and then goes about showing how to add a mask with the mask tool. ...Read More »

Motion 3 Level 1: Working with movies and masks By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer covers working with movies and masks. He shows how to set the project standard from the preset. He shows how to deal with multiple objects in a project, how to make a composite of several movies, and how to bring in multiple files as well into your Motion project. ...Read More »

Motion 3 Level 1: Understanding keyframe and behavior animations By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer covers the difference between animating with keyframes, and animating with behaviors. He launches a project that has both keyframe and behavioral animations to show how to work both ways. ...Read More »

Easy color modification in particleIllusion By Ko Maruyama Now that the holiday season is coming up, you're going to need to put more sparkly graphics on you or video. While there are many different types of particle applications out there, none is as fast, and gives real time feedback the way particleIllusion does. even with all of the free libraries, you may need to modify some properties like color. ...Read More »

After Effects CS3 Level 2: Shy layers and introducing duplicating keyframes across time By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer discusses Shy layers and introducing duplicating keyframes across time. When you start building your projects out, you soon find out that your timeline is full of layers, which causes a lot of scrolling. A fix for this is to make the layers shy, which is sort of the opposite of turning the layers on and off. He details some of the solutions for the clutter, and shows the shy layer button, and how to turn it on. ...Read More »

Answer to Gears By Ko Maruyama I got a few questions about how the shape layers work, why the boolean operation does what it does in the shape layer, and specifically how to make the hole in the middle of the gear. Well, I got enough email questions about it that I figured it was worth a tutorial explanation. So here it is. ...Read More »

After Effects War of Gears: Expressions By Ko Maruyama We covered the ability to make gears in the earlier tutorial, but using the shape layer repeater allows for it to rotate in one direction. In this tutorial, we'll set up a secondary gear to rotate in the opposite direction so that the gears' teeth will mesh together. ...Read More »

After Effects CS3 Level 2: Motion blur and reducing flicker By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer covers motion blur and reducing flicker. He discusses how text might act upon the screen and how to reduce flicker of text by adding a blur to the text. He says that anything that moves should have a little bit of blur on it. He discusses several options to soften the text, including applying blur to all the layers in the project or turning on motion blur which is built into After Effects. ...Read More »

After Effects plugin: BORIS UPREZ By Ko Maruyama As we look at the archived footage in our data vaults, most of it is in standard definition size (or smaller). Now that most of our animation deliveries are rendered in 1920x1080, it's important for Adobe After Effects users to find easy ways to scale the old footage cleanly. Boris FX's Uprez is a new plugin to help you do it in a few steps. ...Read More »

Using Add TransferMode in FinalCut By Ko Maruyama Joel Holland has offered up some free footage in both High Def and Standard Def formats - so why not use them? But if you don't know how to composite in Apple's Final Cut Pro, don't worry that these free graphic elements don't come with alpha channels, you can use transfer modes to drop out the darkest parts of the movie without keying. ...Read More »

Adjust to TransferModes in After Effects By Ko Maruyama Joel Holland has offered up some free footage in both High Def and Standard Def formats. It's pretty easy to jam them into an After Effects comp, then start to build a background graphic, but you can take advantage of adjustment layers to get an overall transfermode on top of your comp too. ...Read More »

After Effects Iris Shutter thing By Ko Maruyama Often there are some simple graphic elements that you can make by using multiple layers in After Effects. Sometimes, you can recreate those graphics within a single shape layer. The shutter effect or iris effect is one of those effects you can achieve with a single shape layer. To control the aperture, you can set up a simple expression to open and close the elements. ...Read More »

After Effects Lens Shutter thing By Ko Maruyama Often there are some simple graphic elements that you can make by using multiple layers in After Effects. Sometimes, you can recreate those graphics within a single shape layer. The shutter effect or iris effect is one of those effects you can achieve with a single shape layer. ...Read More »

Final Cut Pro 6 Level 2: Preferences, projects and sequences By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer discusses preferences, projects and sequences. The preferences in FCP have been sub grouped in different headings, making it easier to find things. He shows the FCP menu and goes over each of the preferences in the menu, starting with the Audio Video settings. he also covers preferences under the General tab, editing, Timeline, Render control, and Audio outputs. ...Read More »

Final Cut Pro 6 Level 3: Ripple and Rolling edits By Jerry Leer In this training video, host Jerry Leer covers ripple and rolling edits. He setys up FCP for Ripple editing and describes what a ripple edit is and what it does to your timeline. He also covers what a rolling edit is as well and gives detailed explanation on how to perform a ripple and rolling edit. ...Read More »

Type Tricks in After Effects with Boris BCC Filters By Jean Hauptman I was pretty happy when a national TV show I freelance with gave us Boris BCC filters. On the surface, BCC filters are simple for fast turnaround, but each filter has tons of options for custom effects that will have the anti-filter snob in the next cubicle eating his/her heart out. The four text effects we will cover were all made with BCC Glitter. Normally, BCC Glitter is used for twinkling stars, ala ET. Like Trapcode Starglow, it follows the alpha, which makes Glitter good for type effects. ...Read More »

BORIS FX Glitter By Ko Maruyama If you've been using Avid, Final Cut, or After Effects for any amount of time, you probably know the Boris FX filters, but in the event that you've missed them, Boris wants you to check out their glittery offering from the Continuum Complete set. In other news, Boris now offers sparks for Autodesk products. The glittery plugin is great, but you might notice a couple of gotchas. This might help. ...Read More »

See CMI's CINEMA4D R11 By Ko Maruyama They're launching their 7th training video for Maxon's Cinema 4d R11 3D application, but this time it will include the extensive use of the new tools Doodle, BodyPaint 4, and Projection Man. Content for this show was created in partnership with Chris Maynard, Michael Marcondes and Saizen Media for the commercial group cmi-saizen studios. The product series has been in development for nearly a year, and is fine tuned to work with a variety of different skill leveled users. ...Read More »