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Autodesk 3ds Max | 3ds max 2014: Data Operator & Data Presets for Particle Flow
In this Autodesk 3ds max 2014 tutorial, Creative COW leader Michael Hurwicz looks at two features that are now a standard part of the product: The Data Operator allows you to use math, via a graphical user interface, to manipulate particles. Presets allow you to save and load Data Operator setups previously created by you or others.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Michael Hurwicz |
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Adobe After Effects | Creative Fireworks in Adobe After Effects
Rob Mize shares his techniques for using After Effects to create a variety of fireworks displays. All you need is CC Particle World, a few expressions and a reason to celebrate and you can light up your world with dazzling pyrotechnic effects.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Rob Mize |
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Apple Final Cut Pro | Tapeless Workflow with Final Cut Pro 7
This tutorial gives an overview of the tapeless ingest workflow using Log and Transfer in Final Cut Pro 7. It encompasses a handful of the supported formats that FCP works with... including XDCAM EX, P2 AVCIntra, P2 DVCPRO HD, AVCHD, and Canon DSLR (5D, 7D).
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Shane Ross |
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Apple Motion | Learn Apple's Motion: Lesson 9 - The Canvas Part 4: Lights
In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe continues his look at the Canvas by talking about creating lights, and the ins and outs of figuring out and adjusting their parameters. He also starts out the lesson by creating basic geometrics inside of Motion 5 to work with, to create realistic lighting effects in no time flat.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P McAuliffe |
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Cinematography | The Truth About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels
John Galt, Panavision Senior Vice President of Advanced Digital Imaging, led the team that created the Genesis camera, was responsible for the F900 "Star Wars" camera, and continues to play a leading role in guiding future digital cinema technologies. In this wide-ranging, no-holds barred conversation, John cuts through what he calls the intentional obfuscation of "marketing pixels," and explores the range of high resolution and high frame rate options that are becoming available to filmmakers.
Feature
John Galt |
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MAYA | Iron Man 3: The Trixters Behind Tony Stark's Shiny New Armor
Seventy artists from Trixter worked an entire year to create a formidable 208 VFX shots for Marvel's Iron Man 3. Each new episode in the Iron Man saga details a slick new technology created by the ingenious Tony Stark, and the new installment does not disappoint! Combining the hard surface geometry of the Iron Man suit auto-assembly with the flexibility of the human body was one of the challenges that Trixter brought from previs to believable screen reality.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Alessandro Cioffi |
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Film History & Appreciation | VFX Crossroads: Causes & Effects Of An Industry Crisis
The VFX industry is in a crisis. As Life of Pi won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, the venerable facility that created those effects - Rhythm & Hues - declared bankruptcy, and they're hardly the first to close their doors due to financial problems. Debra Kaufman pulls from her 25 years of experience covering the industry to take a close look at how the creators of some of cinema's indelible images are falling prey to dysfunctional business models. Their deep historical roots have also led to visual effects becoming one of the least-profitable areas of film and TV production. How did we get here?
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Adobe Premiere Pro basics | Learning the Tools 2: The Rolling Edit Tool
The rolling edit tool allows you to change to place of a transition without changing the length of the overall production, as long as there is sufficient head or tail footage with your clips. In this Premiere Pro tutorial, Andrew Devis shows how to use the rolling edit tool with standard clips and how it really comes into its own when editing multi-cam sequences.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe Premiere Pro basics | Learning the Tools 1: Trim & Ripple Edit
In this first tutorial on the Premiere Pro tools, Andrew Devis will demonstrate how to use the trim and ripple edit tools, and how to use keyboard short-cuts/modifiers to save time when selecting and using the tools.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe Premiere Pro | Understanding the 'Source Panel' tools
Understanding the Source Panel is essential for a smooth and professional editing work-flow. In this video tutorial you will learn about the key features of the source panel, how to edit your clips to select just the parts you want to use, and which keyboard short-cuts to use for maximum speed when editing.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Blackmagic Design | Bob Zelin Looks at the Blackmagic Design SmartScope Duo
Stop using the high price of HD waveform/vectorscopes as an excuse for not checking your video. Join Bob Zelin for a closer look at a real-world installation of Blackmagic's new SmartScope Duo, a practical, flexible, and yes, affordable approach to broadcast-quality monitoring.
Review, Feature
Bob Zelin |
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Adobe Premiere Pro basics | Premiere Pro Techniques: 110 Preset & Custom Lumetri Looks
In this tutorial, Andrew Devis goes through a new option that will be coming with the next release of Adobe Premiere Pro called Lumetri Looks - which gives you the option to apply .Look files created in Adobe SpeedGrade directly to your footage in Premiere Pro.
While this option at first glance seems to only offer the ability to apply presets already created, there is also a way in which you can create your own grades in SpeedGrade, save them as .Look files and then apply those custom grades to your footage or to an adjustment layer in Premiere Pro CS_Next.
In this tutorial, Andrew shows the new option and how it may be used with SpeedGrade CS_Next to create, save and apply your own custom looks.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Apple FCPX Techniques | FCPX For Broadcast News
Michael Garber has spent hundreds of hours learning the ins and outs of editing broadcast news features with Final Cut Pro X. He describes a workflow that takes advantage of the best that FCPX's new approaches have to offer, while being honest about its limitations. Every editor already working with FCPX, or still just considering it, will benefit from Michael's experience.
Editorial, Tutorial, Feature
Michael Garber |
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Film History & Appreciation | VFX Titans Remember Ray Harryhausen
"When we grieve Ray Harryhausen's passing, we are at least in part grieving perhaps the last living link to the earliest days of movie visual effects," says Creative COW's Debra Kaufman. She spoke to many of today's VFX giants who were inspired by Ray, including Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund, Jeffrey A. Okun and ILM Animation Director Hal Hickel, who says, "Ray Harryhausen's impact on an entire generation (several actually) of filmmakers cannot be overstated, each of them trying again and again to reproduce the wonder they first felt as a child watching Jason fight those skeletons."
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Adobe After Effects | Shape Layer Tip #3: Trim Paths
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to use shape layers to easily create that Old-School look where a red dashed line animates over a map to indicate travel destinations.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Aharon Rabinowitz |
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Cinematography | Behind the Lens: The Kings of Summer with Ross Riege
Ross Riege just finished shooting his first feature film, The Kings of Summer. Currently working on a feature-length documentary with director Greg Kohs, Ross took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with Creative COW about his career path as a young cinematographer and his experiences shooting Kings of Summer.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Ross Riege |
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Broadcasting | South Park: TV's Longest Week
An animated show that completes an entire episode, from writing to air, in only six days? Delivered to the network with only minutes to spare? Meet the producers and editors of South Park, winner of 3 Emmys, a Peabody Award for Excellence and many more, as they take you inside the tools and technologies enabling one of the most pressure-packed workflows imaginable.
People / Interview
Tim Wilson |
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Adobe After Effects basics | Morphing In After Effects
Morphing is a distinctive effect that is best known from the movie Terminator 2 as well as the Michael Jackson music video Black and White. In this tutorial, Chris Zwar demonstrates simple morphs with the Reshape filter in Adobe After Effects 5.5 -- which is a Production Bundle only effect found under the Distort menu.
Tutorial
Chris Zwar |
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Motion Graphics | Neat Video: Removing Noise and Grain from your Footage
In this video tutorial you will learn how to use the Neat Video plug-in for multiple applications. Although demonstrated in After Effects, the work-flow is essentially the same for all these applications: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Nuke, Fusion, Vegas Pro, etc. This powerful but simple to use plug-in can clean up noisy footage by applying a sophisticated and advanced algorithm to work out what's noise and what's details in your footage and then remove just the noise. This is done by profiling the noise properties in an area of a video frame without visible features. Once the noise has been profiled, Neat Video is guided by this profile to reduce and eliminate noise while not touching the video details. Although mostly automatic, Neat Video still leaves you with total control over the amount of filtering you apply and even offers optional sharpening (without sharpening the noise) should you wish it.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Apple Final Cut Pro | Fixing Assets in FCP using XML
In this FCP tutorial, Matt Lyon will provide a step by step guide for fixing a major issue with the way Final Cut Pro imports audio and still image files using a FCP XML file and TextEdit. Incorrectly imported assets can lead to serious problems down the road, especially with Media Manager. Matt also provides a guideline for re-importing audio and still image media correctly, as an alternative to the XML fix.
Tutorial
Matt Lyon |
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Adobe After Effects | Create a Waving Flag with After Effects
In this video tutorial, Rob Mize teaches how to use After Effects to create and customize your own flag designs, then animate them using displacement maps... all without the use of third party plug-ins.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Rob Mize |
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