
May
23
2013
May 23rd Meeting
Event posted on May 14 by
Trent Armstrong
Date and Time: May 23, 2013 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
March Meeting Notes
Entry posted on Apr 02
by Trent Armstrong
, tagged Event,Development
We talked about several exciting things at the March meeting of the Dallas After Effects User Group:
• SEXY OFFSETS: An interesting transition option based on this from Mattrunks.com
http://mattrunks.com/en/tutorials/after-effects/sexy-offsets-graphic-lags
• EXPRESSIONS to help with random offset delay from MotionScript.com DELAY: http://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/follow-the-leader.html RANDOM: http://motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/random-1.html • PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS: Creating or Downloading your own actions you can apply to image sequences rendered out of After Effects. RESOURCE: SKETCH: The action we used in the meeting https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-HgKdOcpI1MazIxSG9WbUdobGc/edit?usp=sharing • SAVING YOUR OWN PRESETS IN AFTER EFFECTS TEXT ANIMATION PRESETS from AETrent: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-HgKdOcpI1MaGpHVDJlUVkzOWc/edit?usp=sharing COUNTDOWN TIMER: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-HgKdOcpI1MMUtMU1Rzb0JVSk0/edit?usp=sharing COUNTDOWN TIMER for NON-MONOSPACED FONTS: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-HgKdOcpI1MSU1UeC1Uc0dYQWc/edit?usp=sharing Instructions: Apply the preset to an empty comp and you will see the first number (minutes). Then duplicate the layer to get the other numbers. Adjust controls ONLY on the first layer.
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Solids and PreComps
Entry posted on Jan 02
by Trent Armstrong
, tagged Video,Design
Create Only the Solids You Need
Something that can be confusing and frustrating is having too many assets in your project. Every time you create a new solid or null or adjustment layer, it’s added to your Solids folder. Not all solids will be the same size or color, so you can frequently spend time looking for a layer that is just the right size. It’s also overwhelming to me watching that list grow and grow as I keep adding solids to my project.
Create solids with purpose: when creating a solid, name it with it’s size like 1920×1080 or 500×500 or 4000×4000. You can see what color it is, so you don’t have to include that in the name.
Tip: I usually drop a Fill effect on the layer to alter its color when I’m using it in a composition. Why would I do that? So I can use the color’s expression option if I want to change the color of several solids at once! It’s much easier to attach each color to one main Fill effect that to go back and change the color of each of the solids one at a time.
Pre-Render
Effects like Particular, Form, Shatter, etc. can start to bog down your renders when you start to add other things into the mix. When you realize your render times are compounding with every effect or layer you add, go through your project and pick out layers that you can render and bring back into your project. Usually, pre-rendering an element will not take very long but will DRAMATICALLY improve your final render times. Of course, if you make changes to those layers, you will have to pre-render again. But, even then, pre-rendering will still probably save time in your final render.
As always, make sure to add any of your tips to the comments section!
Happy After Effect-ing!
@AETrent
(Reprinted from EchoHub.com : http://echohub.com/posts/video/work-smarter-not-harder-in-after-effects. Used with permission.)
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| Thread | Motion Graphic/Editor position | 2 | 2462 | Frustrated Editor | 12/06/12 |
| Thread | Cinema 4D | 2 | 10318 | mentor972 | 12/06/12 |
| Thread | Storyboard/ Animator | 0 | 7303 | BluLiquid | 06/04/11 |
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| Thread | Loss of quality | 1 | 8242 | Eddie Burns | 07/22/09 |
Adam Oas
Contact posted on Jan 29
by Adam Oas
Trent Armstrong
Contact posted on May 14
by Trent Armstrong
Lens Flare Obscuring
Video posted on May 15
by Trent Armstrong
Dallas Stereographic 3D
Video posted on May 15
by Trent Armstrong

Dallas/Ft. Worth Adobe User Group - http://dfwaug.net/
This group has been established to help fellow Adobe devotees within the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area have a greater understanding of current and forthcoming happenings within the graphic design and web development worlds today. We will be concentrating on products such as: Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Etc.
Lynda.com
Sponsor posted on Jul 05
by Trent Armstrong

Digieffects
Sponsor posted on Jan 29
by Adam Oas
Creative Cow
Sponsor posted on May 14
by Trent Armstrong

video2brain
Sponsor posted on Jan 26
by Trent Armstrong
