Blog by Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog Motion Graphics, Special Effects and Personal Thoughts Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:22:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 NEW TUTORIAL – HDR Toning http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/12-2011/new-tutorial-hdr-toning/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/12-2011/new-tutorial-hdr-toning/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:22:17 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1570 Learn to mimic the high dynamic range toning effect in Premiere Pro. Using a few special techniques and blending mode, you can harness the power of Mercury Playback Engine to get real time results on both nature landscape footage and portrait or people stock footage shots.

 

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]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/12-2011/new-tutorial-hdr-toning/feed/ 1 NEW TUTORIAL – Animating to Music http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/11-2011/atm/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/11-2011/atm/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:47:13 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1546 In this After Effects tutorial recorded exclusively for SternFX, Mathias Möhl from Mamoworld demonstrates how to automatically animate things to music using iExpressions, a new product allowing all After Effects users to more easily harness the power of expressions.


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Download Project Files

 

]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/11-2011/atm/feed/ 1 NEW DOWNLOAD – Crash Course Project http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/10-2011/crash-course-project/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/10-2011/crash-course-project/#comments Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:25:08 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1525 This is a project I’ve created for my last year NAB session in order to demonstrate what can be achieved with the simulation effects that comes bundled with After Effects. If you’ll dig inside you can learn how to squeeze Shatter and CC Particle World plug-ins to create 3D text, reflections, bounce animation and other goodies. Use it as a starter point for your own work or just to sharpen your skills.

 

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Download CS5 Project

 

]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/10-2011/crash-course-project/feed/ 5 ShapeShifting is no longer a myth http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/09-2011/shapeshifting-is-no-longer-a-myth/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/09-2011/shapeshifting-is-no-longer-a-myth/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:58:50 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1441 You’ve probably heard about the new plug-in from Mettle named ShapeShifter AE. Up till now the product was available for Windows only. However, I’m happy to share that it will soon be available in a Macintosh version as well.
Recently, I got a chance to tryout the plug-in and I must say I was blown away by it. In my humble opinion this tool is a must (!) for every motion graphics artist.

 

 

What is it?
ShapeShifer is an After Effects plug-in that produces three-dimensional extrusions from text, shape layers or any pre-comp with an alpha channel. Sounds familiar? A reminiscent of another product from the same company? Well it is, and it isn’t.

 

ShapeShifer is a completely new product which is based on new technology and includes many surprising add-on tools. This plug-in will allow you to create brilliant graphics in a matter of minutes. If you can’t wait (or don’t want to read further) just skip to the tutorial and see what it’s all about.

Great! you’re still here :-)
So I can extend my thoughts a bit more about it, before we’ll press ‘play’.

The idea here is to use native After Effects elements such as text, masks and shape layers and then extrude and combine them with a powerful displacement engine to create a unique design.

In addition to those, ShapeShifer has the ability to replicate the elements in the scene and to manipulate them in 3D space, taking into consideration the location, size and rotation which will create impressive scenes in a matter of minutes.

 

To run this plug-in in a reasonable speed, you’ll need a display card with 1GB of VRAM (or higher).
I was impressed by the quality and stability of this product. It only crashed once and this was due to the fact I had too many lights present in my comp (the limitation is 12).

To show all these nice features, I’ve recorded a tutorial which tries to simulate a possible usage of it in a real world scenario. As you may know, After Effects SDK currently doesn’t support a uniform 3D space. This means that plug-in that supports 3D are actually working in their own 3D space sending the bake results to the composition. Therefore, sometimes it can cause issues when you want to cast shadows, reflections, motion blur, DOF and other 3D properties, especially when you need to combine them with several instances of the plug in.

Towards the middle of this tutorial I’ll offer you some workarounds and nice tricks to overcome this issues.

 

If you are not afraid to change shape, join me on this short journey.

 

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]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/09-2011/shapeshifting-is-no-longer-a-myth/feed/ 2 All about Transitions in Premiere Pro http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/08-2011/all-about-transitions-in-premiere-pro/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/08-2011/all-about-transitions-in-premiere-pro/#comments Sun, 28 Aug 2011 07:30:45 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1413 “I wish there were more effects in Premiere Pro …” is the complaint I hear almost every time I teach the software.

 

I have to admit that I agree with this complaint, and I think Adobe should add to and improve the built-in library and offer users more options to switch between clips in the timeline.

 

However, the situation is not lost and already there are quite a few extensions that allow the editor to be creative and use interesting and colorful tools to spice his work and impress clients. Still important to remember that effects (and mainly transitions) work well only if they serve the story.

 

In this tutorial I will show the options available for creating accurate cuts, dissolves and wipes. I’ll discuss the limitations of Premiere Pro and mark few of the gotchas. And in the last part of the tutorial I will show you how you can improve your inventory of effects and transitions by using third-party plug-in’s from the Sapphire family. These plug-ins do not behave as usual, so I’ll demonstrate how to use them maintaining the sync in your timeline.

 

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]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/08-2011/all-about-transitions-in-premiere-pro/feed/ 4 NEW TUTORIAL – Book Of The Week http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/08-2011/new-tutorial-book-of-the-week/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/08-2011/new-tutorial-book-of-the-week/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:57:43 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1392

 

In this i-Era where everything is digital and personalize, I thought to take a step back to the good old days of analog paper books by creating a dynamic show promo for “The Book of the week” event. I used animated 2D elements from Motion Designer’s Silhouettes and Motion Designer’s Toolkit libraries.

 

Along the way I’ll gives you some invaluable tips on using the new features in Adobe After Effects CS5.5, as well as showing how to put Red Giant’s Trapcode Particular to work to create a rain storm of letters in the scene. Finally, I’ll share some creative ideas on how to extend the promo clip and give it more interest by editing together cuts from three different camera renders of the same scene.

 

In Part 2 of this tutorial I’ll delve into dressing the promo up with color using the Digital Juice plug-in Color Rules.

 

Watch Part 1

Watch Part 2

 

]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/08-2011/new-tutorial-book-of-the-week/feed/ 4 My Students work http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/07-2011/my-students-work/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/07-2011/my-students-work/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:05:10 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1379 As always, I’d like to share with you the final submissions from my Motion Design Students in Shenkar. I have to say that this year was extremely fruitful but instead of writing about it, I think it’s better to let these videos speak for themselves.
BTW – Some of the movies are in Hebrew without subtitles.

 

Itay Tevel – POV

 

 

Roy Sturdy – Urban Sustainability

 

 

Roni Azgad – ABC

 

 

Matan Arbel – D.H.D.A

 

 

Soslan Bitrov – Galani

 

 

Gil Itzcovich – A dad to be ?!

 

 

Shir David – Anywhere

 

 

Ori Lagziel - Perception conception

 

 

Ramit Pincu

 

 

Yonatan Solomon

 

 

 

 

]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/07-2011/my-students-work/feed/ 5 New Tutorial – Compositing in Premiere Pro http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/compositing-in-premiere-pro/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/compositing-in-premiere-pro/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:29:27 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1350 While working recently on a project with my brother, Yuval, I was asked to edit and composite video using Premiere Pro. Truth should be told, it did not really matter to Yuval what software I chose to work with, as long as it would be fast and ready as soon as possible. When I hear the word ‘fast’, I immediately think of the sign “No entry to render”. I invented this imaginary-road-sign a few years ago. Its principle is that no matter what happens, I should find a way to get the job done in real time without performing any calculations. Of course in reality things are different, and from time to time it’s necessary to switch software to After Effects or Cinema 4D and then one must perform a Render. However, the use of this ‘imaginary sign’ often leads me to think outside the box and find creative solutions which otherwise would lead me and my client, to gaze onto the render bar as it fills on the screen.

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What I’m trying to say is, that every time I approach a new project, I try to analyze the requirements and how effects can be implemented in the editing program, without compromising on the overall look and quality. In this tutorial I want to share with you an insight I discovered out about the Track Matte Key effect in Premiere Pro. This effect allows to use an alpha (or luma) channel from one video, to create transparency for another video. The effect works in real time but it has rules and limitations you should know about.
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To demonstrate this, I chose the first episode of “Shtutipedia”, a series of skits starring Yuval Stern-Cedolin. You can watch it to get a sense of what I’ll be doing. Then view the video tutorial, to see how I edited and created effects in Premiere pro. (The movie here is in Hebrew, the tutorial is in English).

 

 

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]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/compositing-in-premiere-pro/feed/ 2 New Tutorial – Anything You Want http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/anything-you-want-1/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/anything-you-want-1/#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:30:39 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1359 From concept to creation: I’ll shows you the steps of envisioning a witty and entertaining idea, drawing a storyboard, searching out the perfect footage, and designing a final piece. This first installment of a two-part series is packed with tips such as masking, creating shadows, and using After Effects CS5.5′s new warp stabilizer effect to remove motion from a clip for easy rotoscope extraction – this part starts at 11:42.

 

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]]> http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/anything-you-want-1/feed/ 1 Try Artbeats’ 3D footage FREE! http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/artbeats-3d-footage-free/ http://www.sternfx.com/blog/index.php/06-2011/artbeats-3d-footage-free/#comments Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:18:21 +0000 Eran Stern http://www.sternfx.com/blog/?p=1323
I’m glad to provide my readers a FREE 3D footage from Artbeats library (regularly priced: $449). Artbeats, your source for royalty free stock footage, is offering this free HD clip from their new Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) library. If you’ve been wanting to try your hand at working in 3D motion, this free download is the perfect opportunity to test it out.
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For those of you who are not ready for 3D, you can download the same clip in 2D for use in your everyday high def projects.

You can download the free clip now thru July 5th, 2011
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Get the clip here
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