Blog by Eran Stern

New Tutorial – Look Ma, No Wires

Eran Stern — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:55:54 +0000

In this new tutorial we’ll explore a clever technique for shooting flying fairies in front of a green screen without the use of a crane and wires. Of course it won’t apply to every situation but when it does, it can save you lots of $$$’s and it’s also a lot of fun as well. This shot was kindly given to me by the talented artist Eyal Be and it is part of a pilot for a new fantasy comedy show created by Eyal Be and Nimrod Ben-Moshe, Watch the full trailer.
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Watch Tutorial

Finally, its done…

Eran Stern — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:48:09 +0000

I thought to share with you my recent project. I’ve been working on this forever now and its finally done. A new training DVD for Premiere Pro. Hold your horses! its in Hebrew
This is by far the most comprehensive training I’ve ever recorded – 14(!) hours of EVERYTHING you need to know about Adobe’s main editor.
Since I’ve been working with Premiere Pro on a daily basis, I’ve grown to love and appreciate its approach to video and sound. I know that you may not agree with me, but for me it is still the #1 NLE of choice.

This promo below was made using my other favorite tool – After Effects plus couple of plugins such as Boris Continuum Complete, Trapcode Form and Zaxwerks Serpentine. I’m very proud of this product, having worked on it for such a long time, and the promo came out pretty nice as well, if I may say so myself. So although its not in English, I thought it’s still worth sharing. The background movie, BTW, is a free download courtesy of my dear buddy Carl Larsen – check it out here.
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So in case you’re planning to re-visit your Hebrew Sunday school and want to impress your teacher, here’s a quick look at the Promo for this product:
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An overview of students work

Eran Stern — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:00:54 +0000

Another semester has passed, and it’s time to show off my students achievements.

These are the projects results of my students at the Visual Communication department at Shenkar college. The assignment was to design a package for a broadcast channel or a Television show of their liking. They were asked to come up with a logo and bumpers, credits look and a program loop/schedule. They used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for the Logo design and After Effects for motion and composting.

Now its time for you to judge the results for yourselves

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New Tutorial – Slow Motion Stills

Eran Stern — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:14:12 +0000

In this video tutorial I’ll demonstrates a clever method to create extreme slow motion video using few still frames. This fine result can be achived using a 3rd party plug named Twixtor Pro from RE:Vision Effects.
The credit for this method belongs to the fine artists at JCS Post Production. This is one of the biggest post houses in Israel which creates cutting edge motion graphics and special effects. Most of JCS work is focuses on 4 major niches: Commercials, TV channel branding, TV programs, Video attractions training films. I want to thank the kind people at JCS for providing me this commercial. I’m sure everyone can learn something from this cool technique.
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Watch Tutorial
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New Tutorial – Bionic Lab

Eran Stern — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:47:57 +0000

A new tutorial on Artbeats.com which involve screen replacing using Mocha for AE, motion graphic design, text animation and some color correction treatment. All done using great clips from the enormous collection of Artbeats taking advantage of the newly addition libraries from Footage Hub
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Watch Tutorial

Busy working…

Eran Stern — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:22:15 +0000

Hi guys, a short post just to let you know that my plate is pretty full these days. So updates are a little slow for the English site. I’m working on a few projects, trying to juggle, or should I say wiggle, work and family at the same time. I am working on a new Hebrew training DVD, nurturing the new Hebrew Post Production Forum at the site, and also organizing a user group meeting for my Israeli talented crowd which will take place, for the first time, in Tel Aviv next week.

There’s more happening, but at this stage this is what I can reveal. Anyway, just to let you know, I’m planning to publish a new cool tutorial for Creative COW which hopefully will be ready for the holiday season and maybe another one just after that, who knows?! I guess only god.
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Sci-fi holograms with Red Giant Holomatrix

Eran Stern — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:29:51 +0000

A new set of tools designed by Aharon Rabinowitz and Dan Ebberts is now available through Red Giant Software. Holomatrix lets you control your reality and offers a new dimension in effect generation. Now you can get the look of your favorite hologram effect in After Effects in just two clicks. The package includes over 30 presets that turn ordinary footage into animated sci-fi holograms, mimics bad TV reception and creates realistic looking digital signage.
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It costs $99 and works with After Effects CS3 and above.
Be sure to watch the 3 tutorials which which shows you how to use this clever plug-in/utility.
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Pen Tool tips

Eran Stern — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:15:57 +0000

Recently I find myself doing a lot of Rotoscoping work using the Pen Tool, and I thought of sharing with you a few tips and shortcuts to help you with your own projects. In fact, I’ve recorded a brand new tutorial to get you started. To summarize, here’s a few important shortcuts you might want to remember:

Hold down CMD/CTRL as you draw your path, then select the anchor point, this will let you move the last point after you set it in place.
If the selection tool (v) is highlighted, you can hold down ALT/Option and press on one of the anchor points and all the points in your mask will be selected.
Clicking on an anchor point while holding down ALT/Option as long as the pen tool is highlighted, will convert it from Corner to Curve point. Another Click using the same modifier will change it back. If you want to do the same while the Selection tool is highlighted, just add the CMD/CTRL modifier as well.
If you want to break the connection between the handles, hold down ALT/Option and then pull one of the handles out, make sure the pen tool is selected.
Context-clicking on the mask shape with the Pen tool, enables the context menu of options for that mask, including all of its settings on the Timeline. One of the important things here is the Motion Blur settings for the mask, changing this value can unlocked the Motion Blur mask from the layer itself.
Double-click on one of the anchor points to get the free transform for the entire mask – then it’s necessary to switch to the Selection tool to perform the transformation itself.

For more tips and tricks check the full tutorial here

My Interview on Motionworks Unplugged

Eran Stern — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:56:38 +0000

Last week I had the honor and pleasure to be interviewed by my dear friend John Dickinson from Motionworks. I talked about the balance between a worldwide audience and my growing Hebrew-speaking base. You can also hear my thoughts on the ever-growing quantity of online training, the usage of Plug-ins in tutorials and few words about my experience in writing the ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) exam for After Effects.
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This is a great opportunity to thank John for all the useful tips and advices he offered me over the years – they all helped me to grow and focus my business dramatically.
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You should listen to him as well
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Watch the video
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Coming soon – Push tutorial

Eran Stern — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:16:25 +0000

Playing with my favorite simulation and displacement tools in After Effects, I found a technique to simulate the liquid effect inspired by the recent movie Push and the ancient movie The Abyss. As always I recruited my talented brother, Yuval, to help me with this mission.
Man, I must stop giving him all those powers.

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and Yes, I’m working on a tutorial which will be published on your favorite Creative COW AE podcast soon.