High Quality After Effects Plug-In Providers

The vast and spacious world of plug-ins can become cumbersome and daunting. More time and patience is required to unravel the capability, and this alone can become frustrating. To help reduce the stress, scouting efficient and reliable plug-ins can become a life saver. The common denominator for plug-ins are the creators. Consistency drives quality. Below are a number of innovators in plug-in creation for Adobe After Effects.

Red Giant

The most arguably well-known plug-in provider in motion graphics, color-correcting, video editing, compositing, and visual effects is Red Giant. The most popular of their offerings is their Trapcode Suite. The Trapcode Suite contains particle and energy systems with additional lighting, compositing, and glow plug-ins sprinkled in. This is the essential package to create almost anything within After Effects at a professional level. Magic Bullet Suite is their second most popular product that provides color-correcting tools for colorists.

Video Copilot

If not all, then the majority of After Effects users have at least heard of Video Copilot tutorials. Andrew Kramer is a legend in the motion graphics and visual effects industry. The legend keeps delivering by constantly rolling out new plug-ins. For those financially strapped, Video Copilot provides free plug-ins that are regularly updated. 

Have a few extra bucks? Element 3D is Video Copilot's fantastic 3D object and particle render engine. Element 3D is GPU-accelerated: which adds an extra boost to productivity when dealing with reflections and refractions in 3D scenes. It should be noted that Video Copilot's Element 3D package was used during post-production for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Andrew Kramer divulged more information about the process of creating the visual effects in The Force Awakens.

Boris FX

A lesser known company, Boris FX, provides plug-ins for motion graphics and visual effects. Their Sapphire plug-in is their headlining product: which includes a number of presets and effects. Sapphire's target audience is geared toward the broadcast industry.

The creators of Mocha Pro (Imagineer Systems) were acquired by Boris FX and provide an example of what this team is capable of creating. For extremely high-valued tracking and advanced roto capabilities, explore Mocha Pro: which is compatible with After Effects, Premiere, Avid, The Foundry's Nuke, and Blackmagic Fusion.

AEScripts + AEPlugins

Unlike the previously mentioned After Effects plug-in creators, aescripts + aeplugins is a community focused distributor for 3rd party scripts and plug-ins. There is a massive library that is updated on a regular basis, and the site does a fashionable job advertising the most optimal content. Of course, with the excess of quality, the process can become frustrating sifting through the good and the bad. Motion Boutique recently released a plug-in called Newton 2 on the site, and that deserves to receive a prospect from designers. Be sure to check it out!

Closing Time

These are just a few of the dozens of plug-in providers that support After Effects. Adobe provides a list of well-received curators that deserve a look and appreciation for their love and support. Without plug-ins, creators would not be able to create to their fullest potential. Give a hand and reinforce the industry by word of mouth, and with your pocket.

 

Films That Top Off 2016

As we all say after the end of every year, where did the time go? Good news! There are a wide variety of films making their debut in the next five weeks. In this list, I include the standard blockbuster, the notorious poorly received yet fun film, and a few hidden gems. I should note these films I personally find appealing and attractive to close out a wonderful year. The following films are presented in chronological order by release date. I welcome comments and suggestions regarding this list, and share this with any and all movie buffs you know!

Keeping Up With The Joneses

Release Date: October 21, 2016 (USA)

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Action/Comedy

Director: Greg Mottola

Premise: The Gaffneys, a suburban couple, become embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that the Joneses, their seemingly perfect neighbors, are governmental secret agents.

Doctor Strange

Release Date: Novermber 4, 2016 (USA)

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction

Director: Scott Derrickson

Premise: Dr. Stephen Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) life changes after a car accident robs him of the use of his hands. When traditional medicine fails him, he looks for healing, and hope, in a mysterious enclave. He quickly learns that the enclave is at the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying reality. Before long, Strange is forced to choose between his life of fortune and status or leave it all behind to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence.

Hacksaw Ridge

Release Date: November 4, 2016 (USA)

Rating: R

Genre: Drama/Action

Director: Mel Gibson

Premise: The true story of Pfc. Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), who won the Congressional Medal of Honor despite refusing to bears arms during WWII on religious grounds. Doss was drafted and ostracized by fellow soldiers for his pacifist stance but went on to earn respect and adoration for his bravery, selflessness, and compassion after he risked his life -- without firing a shot -- to save 75 men in the Battle of Okinawa.

Bleed For This

Release Date: November 18, 2016 (USA)

Rating: R

Genre: Film/Sport

Director: Ben Younger

Premise: Vinny "The Pazmanian Devil" Pazienza (Miles Teller), a local Providence boxer, shoots to stardom after winning two world title fights. After a near-fatal car accident leaves him with a broken neck, he is told he may never walk again. Against all odds and doctor's orders, renowned trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart) agrees to help Vinny return to the ring just a year after the accident for what could be the last fight of his life. Based on a true story.

The Edge of Seventeen

Release Date: November 18, 2016 (USA)

Rating: NR

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig

Premise: Everyone knows that growing up is hard, and life is no easier for high school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), who is already at peak awkwardness when her all-star older brother Darian (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). All at once, Nadine feels more alone than ever, until the unexpected friendship of a thoughtful boy gives her a glimmer of hope that things just might not be so terrible after all.

Allied

Release Date: November 23, 2016 (USA)

Rating: NR

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Premise: In 1942 North Africa, intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) encounters French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Reunited in London, their relationship is threatened by the extreme pressure of the war.

Man Down

Release Date: December 2, 2016 (USA)

Rating: R

Genre: Fantasy/Drama

Director: Dito Montiel

Premise: With help from his best friend (Jai Courtney), a Marine (Shia LaBeouf) embarks on a desperate search to find his wife (Kate Mara) and son (Charlie Shotwell) in post-apocalyptic America.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Release Date: December 16, 2016 (USA)

Rating: NR

Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction

Director: Gareth Edwards

Premise: In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

Passengers

Release Date: December 21, 2016 (USA)

Rating: NR

Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction

Director: Morten Tyldum

Premise: On a routine journey through space to a new home, two passengers, sleeping in suspended animation, are awakened 90 years too early when their ship malfunctions. As Jim and Aurora face living the rest of their lives on board, with every luxury they could ever ask for, they begin to fall for each other, unable to deny their intense attraction until they discover the ship is in grave danger. With the lives of 5,000 sleeping passengers at stake, only Jim and Aurora can save them all.

Sneak Peek Into 2017

Live By Night

Limited Release Date: December 25, 2017 (USA)

Full Release Date: January 12, 2017 (USA)

Rating: R

Genre: Crime/Drama

Director: Ben Affleck

Premise: It's the Roaring '20s and Prohibition hasn't stopped the flow of booze in an underground network of gangster-run speakeasies. The opportunity to gain power and money is there for any man with enough ambition and nerve, and Joe Coughlin, the son of the Boston Police superintendent, long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoils of being an outlaw. But even among criminals there are rules, and Joe breaks a big one: crossing a powerful mob boss by stealing his money and his moll.

Myth Behind The Megapixel

There is no doubt that the electronic consumer market is heavily bombarded by the smartphones, and developers are spouting new displays, processors, and OS improvements. To a conscious consumer, phone manufacturers tout the ever-so-popular megapixel. Apple, Samsung, and other curators throw out 10 megapixels, 12 megapixels, and even 20 megapixels. What do these numbers mean? It is presumed the higher the number, the better the camera. The megapixel count alone, rarely, if at all make a camera great. Lenses, image sensor, image processor, shutter speed, and aperture all play an intricate role in the image quality.

Megapixels

The simplest way to explain what megapixels are, is to describe it as the size of the image produced by the camera. To keep with the theme of simplicity, say there is a 5,000 x 3,000 pixel image. Multiply the width (5,000px) by the height (3,000px), and that equals 15,000 pixel picture. Move the decimal point to the left by three spaces, and that is the megapixel count. This theoretical image would be 15 megapixels. 

The frame size of the image can be incredibly significant. Cropping is a popular function in all-things design, and cropping an image is a paramount popular function. For professionals, a desirable image size may be vital to a physical design piece for print. If the image lacks the appropriate megapixel size, the graphic/design will appear pixelated and washed out. For a more in-depth guideline, here is a chart that offers recommendations for acceptable megapixel sizes.

Image Sensor and Processor 

Arguably, the most dire aspect of any camera is the image sensor. The image sensor captures light and allows the camera to produce the image. The higher quality the image sensor, the more light captured by the camera, and therefore, a clearer well produced image. In many cases, the megapixel for one device is significantly better than the other, but because of the lack of an appropriate image sensor, the image quality suffers. 

Depending on the degree of work and professionalism, a 332.27mm image sensor on the Canon EOS 7D is moderate for a modern day DSLR. Sony's A900 and Nikon's D800 pack a massive 861.6mm image sensor. As troubled and improper as it is, many people are comparing the iPhone 7 Plus to DSLRs. The iPhone 7 Plus has 28.7679mm image sensor for the main camera; while the telephoto lens packs a 56.8mm image sensor. Impressive for a smartphone, but impractical as a substitute for a DSLR.

Camera Sensor has a nifty search function that compares different camera models. Makes camera shopping much easier and quicker.

The image processor is more relevant to the features of speed burst shots, and easing the lag between the duration the user captures the image, and the shot being saved to the device's memory. This process is becoming more pronounced and welcomed addition to photographic technology.

It Is All Coming Together

Which is the best method to discern which device is the best option? Remember, megapixels are a marketing point. It is advised to have a higher resolution image, but the piece of technology needs a supportive image sensor to compliment the size of the image. Do the research and find out the image sensor specifics. For example, Samsung reduced their megapixel count; while improving the image sensor and introducing a dual image sensor function. Innovation and iteration will continue with mobile and DSLR camera technology development, and more possibilities will become endless. 

Research and good luck shopping!

Nuke 10 Impressions

The Foundry's Nuke Studio has a well clenched grasp in the post-production market, and more specifically, the compositing business. Nuke has the reputation of a flawless node-based workflow, efficient and effective composing tools, and a vast plug-in library. After digging deeper into Nuke and its processes, it is not hard to understand why there is so much success behind The Foundry's flagship program.

User Interface

As a relatively new user to Nuke Studio (6 months experience), I find the "learning curve" to be welcoming to users if they have had experience with prior node-based compositing programs such as Autodesk's Flame, or Blackmagic Fusion 8. Nuke has a sleek and simple approach to its interface.

Accessing color channels, layer channels, and gamma settings are arranged in a stress free manner, and provide essential information for all compositing tasks. The dope sheet is a separate tab under the viewer, that displays the keyframes for any node opened in the project window. 

If I had one immediate criticism, it would be the curve editor. I find it sloppy and difficult to edit compared to the curve editor in Adobe After Effects. I admit, I'm not a curve editor pro, but I should not have to be engaged in a guessing game with the curve editor.

Nodes

I am impressed by the nodes in Nuke. Blackmagic Fusion was and is a great compositing piece of software, but my biggest complaint were properly setting up alpha, depth, and other passes. To create these passes, I would have to combine different channel nodes with color nodes, and then link the passes back up with a channel node. In Nuke, it is as simple as using a channel node. I do suggest exporting a single EXR image file and separating the passes that way. If not, you have to combine the passes, and create layer passes for each pass. It is simply a lot of busy work.

Lightwraps are simple within Nuke; it's just one node function, again. In Fusion, the alpha pass has to be blurred, and then processed through another channel pass, followed up with an erode node. Nuke supplies all of the work into one responsive node.

I have to give a shout-out to the exceptional tracking nodes, and the 3D scene integration nodes. The 3D scene nodes are supplied by Nuke, and the user simply needs to plug in the necessary nodes into the required pipeline.

Speed and Performance

Nuke can have all of the bells and whistles of a great interface, but all of that is useless if the program crashes more often than not. Good news, Nuke is a performance powerhouse. Over the time of six months, I can count on one hand the times I encountered a crash. Node effects are almost immediate, and edits are visible in real-time.

Performance begins to hinder when 3D objects are inserted into 3D scenes with lighting and textures. The same can be said with a highly-composited scene with rotobrushes, masks, composited objects, and tracked shots. This is standard for most compositing packages, except Flame; which is the software's selling point. To help speed up previews, double check node settings and apply low quality effects until the sequence is ready to be rendered.

Judgement

Nuke is a powerful well-received compositing piece of software. I find myself discussing Nuke and its features whenever possible. Only having six months experience, I know I barely scratched the surface; I look forward to exploring particle simulation and stereoscopic compositing. I am looking forward to the future with Nuke, and uncovering other software packages offered by The Foundry.

Behind The Project: "Baggage"

Baggage was a culmination of a number of variables that affected me both professionally and personally. Almost a year after graduating college, I was/am still living at home attempting to find full-time employment either as a motion graphics artist, or compositor. I had to create a visual entity that built upon and showcased the skills I have in both fields. I did not strictly want a technical showcase. I wanted to tell a story. Personally, I feel as if the past year and a half has been a difficult time. I adjusted to no longer being in college, looking for full-time work has created doubt of whether I am qualified to be in this industry, and I am still not completely over the romantic relationship that ended a little over a year ago. 

Baggage. That is what this past year and a half has spawned. Baggage was a method for me to release my own baggage, and I hope the same can be said for the audience.

Introduction Sequence

The inspiration behind the intro sequence are neon lights, and the earth's sun. I am captivated by the colors of the sun and sky in the early morning, and late evening. The camera movements of the animation are relatively simple. I know my personal weakness in motion graphics are my camera manipulations. My goal was to build upon the skills I currently have, and work on my weaknesses in a later project. I did play with the focus distance and aperture within the camera settings during the animation. There is a sense of chaoticness because of the inability for the camera to focus for a long duration. 

The background is a mixture of a prior animation I was creating, and a series of metal textures. I have a tendency to clutter my motion graphic pieces. The background had to balance the work by appearing simple: while also having a strong presence via a textured color-filled surface.

I included the environment video to help ease the audience into the video transition. Jumping to the main video sequence would be too jarring, and this was a way to add cushion to the impact. 

Video Breakdown

The live-action video sequence is broken up into two parts: the shots inside of the car, and shots outside of the vehicle. Inside the vehicle, the camera was positioned into the backseat and had a slight foreground blur. All these shots were composited in an almost identical way. The footage was color-corrected and stabalized. 2D tracking was done for the dust particles, time on the clock, and window reflections were added to these shots. The last cut before driving into the woods had a stoplight and additional signs in the background roto'd out of the scene. A subtle additional lens flare was implanted into the shots, and other additional lighting elements for enhanced mood were composited into the scenes as well.

While driving into the wooded area, the sky was replaced, and the windshield had dirt particles that affected the aesthetics of the shot. I roto'd those dirt particles, and continued the previously mentioned composited sequence. The compositing was meant to compliment the shots, not overtake and distract from the story. Subtly was the motto.

The shots outside the vehicle had similar elements composited within each shot. The first shot outside the car had 3D objects composited, and a slight alter to the sky in the background. Throughout the following shots are green firefly like particles that give a fairy tale atmosphere to the seemingly realistic environment. Shots that involve a kinetic camera were 3D tracked and produced a great result for the particles. I was able to achieve a sense of depth of the particles. The finishing touches to the shots were composited yellow/orange lights, and when appropriate, lens flares. At first, these alterations may go unnoticed, but these edits inflate the ambience of the environment.

The shot with the most compositing, and a clear representation of a balance between pure natural elements with a conservative, yet effective compositing is the shot of the actor walking toward the vehicle. The framing of the shot follows the "rule of thirds" and incorporates beautiful wild flowers. I began by color-correcting and stabilizing the footage. I made a slight adjustment to the trees around the car by roto-brushing the spacial gaps of the branches. I tracked and composited a wind turbine in the background to fill in the empty space, and the vehicle although well lit, and in a superb position, lacked a visual punch. I included a reflection to the windshield and a slight color-correction to the car body. 

I wanted this shot to be the visual climax of the video. I doubled and even tripled the amount of particles I used for some of the prior shots. I increased the velocity and movement of the particles to correlate with the idea that the character is in a "spiritual wind tunnel". He just threw away his baggage and is ready to move on with his life, and is therefore being cleansed.

"Baggage" VFX Breakdown

The camera transitions to another shot into the inside of the vehicle, where the audience was not too long ago to conceptualize that even if we make a drastic life decision, we still find ourselves where we were not long before. I did the same procedure for the shots inside the vehicle, but I roto'd a few objects out of the shots. The first two quick cuts I roto'd an old house out on the left side of the road, and the last shot I removed the telephone pole and power lines along with some trees in the background near the telephone pole.

A Reflect Back

As I watched and reviewed this past video project, I would have made a few adjustments. Some shots lasted too long, and at points because of this, the flow of the video became slow. Working on the VFX breakdown video, I should have made more prominent compositing alterations to the footage. I did not want to force compositing just to composite, but there were opportunities to showcase what I can do as a compositor.

How To Find Jobs In Computer Graphics

In spring and early summer, college students are graduating across the United States. Coincidentally, studios are busy posting new job opportunities. Graduating nearly a year ago and still exploring full-time employment, I have grown accustomed to discovering new leads for landing that critical job. I want to share a number of familiar and unfamiliar websites that provide computer graphics artist the ability to find a robust volume of career opportunities.

As a side note, for those who are graduating these upcoming months, please make an honest judgement of your work. If the projects provided in your portfolio do not measure up to professional standards, be patient and build upon the skills and knowledge necessary to land that coveted first-job. As an example, view my progression from just over the past year.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great resource when compiling a resumè. It brings the old paper style resumè to the 21st century with the ability to share more information, experience, and abilities to a potential employer. On top of that, establishing connections with colleagues and personal friends boosts the effectiveness of LinkedIn. Personal endorsements and recommendations are great additions to an already stellar application.

LinkedIn  has a great "Jobs" tab; where job titles can be entered along with a preferred location. The results are not 100% accurate, but for the most part, most positions are spot-on. Many companies also have the feature that imports the LinkedIn profile of an applicant that replaces uploading a separate resumè. This saves time and stress, especially when hours are spent applying for positions. 

Headhunters are now more popular then ever on LinkedIn. Take the time to dress-up your profile. First impressions are very important!

Johnson Jobs

A simple yet effective job alert application, Johnson Jobs is an easy way to receive job alerts. To set up job alerts, supply the information for job titles, include industry skills, and location. 

The results can be hit or miss, but the daily alerts dramatically improve the probability of landing a job. These alerts are common with these platforms, but the accessibility makes Johnson Jobs great.

VFX World Map

The VFX World Map is a great resource for any artist in the computer graphics industry. This is a world map of most of the studios in gaming, commercial, film, animation, and everything in-between. Most smaller studios are not included in the VFX World Map.

Creative Cow Career Center

Creative Cow is a familiar stomping ground for those in computer graphics. Creative Cow provides high-end information on their message boards and tutorials. It only makes sense that Creative Cow also has a great job posting mechanic. The job forum includes positions that include captioning, interactive, screenwriters, and training. The depth of the system is offered by few outlets, and the function goes deeper by including career levels to the equation.

Additional Resources

Here are a few more resources that will be found helpful!

CGMeetup

Entertainment Careers

VFX Jobs

Twitter

 

Much Love From Adobe

Reports have come out outlining the new and exciting features for Adobe's platforms. Updates for Adobe's CC collection are more or less bug fixes and minor interface edits. The latest update is expected to add major performance improvements and implementation for virtual reality. Adobe is certainly attempting to stay relevant and up-to-date with their software, and steering away from criticisms of their past mistakes of not keeping pace with other software and trends.

Adobe's Products Are A Cohesive Experience

Adobe Premiere Pro

No doubt, the most impressive update is VR capability. Premiere Pro now has a "field of view" mode that allows video editors to choose between mono, stereo, and anaglyph frame options.

Editing has also been drastically modified to increase the speed of the workflow for editors. Premiere Pro now allows footage to be edited; while still being imported and read by the software. 8K footage is now supported, and can be edited more easily by switching between "proxy" and full-res footage. This saves processing time by using scaled down footage instead of uncompressed footage during editing.

The much appreciated Lumetri Color tools are also improved. HSL (hue, saturation, and lightness) color tool now adds more color references for color correcting. Personally, the color-kit already within Premiere gets the job done, but more support is always welcome.

The last update is encoder support for outputting video to Twitter. With the popularity of video on Twitter, this makes for a nice addition to Premiere.

Adobe After Effects

For many motion graphics and visual effects artist, After Effects has always been a love-hate relationship. The ability to create almost anything within After Effects receives much praise, but the slow RAM preview render and performance hiccups cause headaches. Adobe has announced GPU support via Mercury Engine. In classic After Effects fashion, this update only effects audio, gaussian blur, and the new Lumetri Color tool. The Lumetri Color tool is now in After Effects, and will most likely replace workflow tools such as the curves, hue & saturation, and exposure for most mainstream projects.With the power of the GPU accelerated addition, less time will be spent waiting for After Effects to render out a frame.

Adobe has incorporated 3D export options, and Cinema 4D Lite support has also increased in After Effects. For those who do not already know, Cinema 4D Lite comes with After Effects CC. For more information regarding Cinema 4D Lite and After Effects, check out Adobe's Cinema 4D Lite overview.

Adobe Audition

Audition now includes the "Essential Sound" panel. This new feature makes editing and adjusting levels easier for audio novices. For most individuals, this addition will provide much needed support. Editing high fidelity audio is complicated, and requires experience and education that most users, including myself, just do not have.

Adobe Character Animator

Character Animator also receives love with better animation integration. The puppet tag allows for better facial tracking. The relationships between parent and child elements are improved. 

The Facial Tracking Makes Animator Unique

Personally, my experience with Character Animator is very limited. I have heard great responses about the puppet facial tracking ability. Learn more about Character Animator on Adobe's website.

Adobe Stock

Adobe is pushing hard for their new service. Adobe Stock has incredible stock photographs and video, and they're expanding the quality by offering 4K photos and footage. Integration within After Effects and Premiere are now part of the update as well. My opinion of Adobe Stock is it is a nice idea, but too pricey. I get the impression Stock is built for commercial use and less for individual artists. Maybe tweak the pricing Adobe?

Adobe Stock Is Attractive But Too Expensive

Final Thoughts

These updates are expected to come out Summer 2016. Artists who regularly use Adobe's platform will welcome these changes. Performance has always been an issue with Adobe products. It is a breath of fresh air hearing Adobe making performance issues a priority. 

I am most excited that Premiere is getting a drastic improvement for editing footage, and receiving 4K treatment. Because of Adobe's love and support for Premiere, more production studios are embracing Premiere as their go-to application for video editing, and even color correcting.

Adobe is certainly on the path of improving the performance of all their applications, and this is a step in the right direction. Keep making it possible for artists to create with the freedom and tools necessary to move the creative world forward.