Blog by Eran Stern » After Effects

NEW TUTORIAL – Animating to Music

Eran Stern — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:47:13 +0000

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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Watch Tutorial

Download Project Files

NEW DOWNLOAD – Crash Course Project

Eran Stern — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:25:08 +0000

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.

Download CS5 Project

ShapeShifting is no longer a myth

Eran Stern — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:58:50 +0000

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.

Watch Tutorial

NEW TUTORIAL – Book Of The Week

Eran Stern — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:57:43 +0000

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

My Students work

Eran Stern — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:05:10 +0000

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

New Tutorial – Anything You Want

Eran Stern — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:30:39 +0000

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.

Watch Tutorial

Delictae Color Correction tools from Fixel

Eran Stern — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:46:23 +0000

Fixel has recently announced 6 plugins for After Effects and Photoshop: ColoritivityBW, Contrastica, LightIT, Coloritivity (I, II), ColoritivityFX and EdgeHancer. These are delicate color correction tools and presets which offers all sorts of image-processing to create and fix the overall look of the picture. There are scenarios which you can see the obvious different between using such effects over the existing ones that you get with the software, but I have to admit it’s not always the case, and sometimes you’ll need a trained eye to really tell the difference.
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For example, EdgeHancer uses special Algorithm both for detecting edges and enhancing them although the final result does look similar to the Unsharp Mask effect (included with After Effects) it can create an interesting look and gives the impression of an HDR-like effect. As for the ColoritivityBW – I think the Black and White effect can yield the same if not better result, however, this one make it little bit easier to use if you’re after quick preset and don’t want to mess with various options. Same is true for the other Coloritivity effects. They’ll make your work quicker by applying a certain preset. Contrastica on the other hand is one of my favorite tools here. It has a special function to add contrast, so you can also use it to add saturation to colors which result differently from the classic saturation effects we’re used too. I found it extremely useful especially when used in combination with the Vibrance effect – Together they work as a magic effect which makes every shot pop out of the screen (Take a look at the image below to see the before and after). LightIT can also create a more subtle result over the regular levels effects and make your footage look more natural with less halos.

Before and After using Contrastica and EdgeHancer • Clip WC-FH100-50 courtesy of Artbeats

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These effects comes with minimal controls which makes them very easy to use. They are working inside Photoshop (CS4+) as well – I guess this is the reason for the preview switch which doesn’t make a lot of sense for AE users, but crucial on the Photoshop side. They are also 32-bpc and GPU-accelerated.
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You can watch short demo clips of each effects at AEscripts
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New Tutorial – Alternative Parenting

Eran Stern — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:30:18 +0000

Recently while playing with after effects I found a cool usage for the pick whip parenting tool. This little trick will allow you to create (something similar to) power duplication inside After Effects. You may know this by its official name “Jump Parent”.
As always the best way to explain is to show it. So here’s a new tutorial which explains how you might be able to use this technique in a real world situation. To get you started I’ve also included a free AE project which take advantage of this alternative parenting system.
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Watch Tutorial

Get the free project

My Post|Production World sessions at NAB 2011 + Discount Coupon

Eran Stern — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:05:06 +0000

The National Association of Broadcasters convention is just less than 1 month away (Conferences, April 9 – 14. Exhibits, April 11 – 14). I’m excited to be among the speakers at the show, presenting two sessions as part of the Post|Production World Conference. The conference itself is a great place to learn about the business as well as improve skills in most areas. All the information is here.
I’ll be teaching two advanced After Effects sessions, one for Simulation Effects in After Effects and the second will be all about Solving Difficult Tracking Problems.
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UPDATE: Here’s the Post|Production World 2011 Promo:

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The great thing about the conference is that you can select a specific educational track that is only in Avid, Adobe, Final Cut Studio or Motion Graphics just to name a few. Those tracks are listed here. But, if you register for the conference, you’re also free to move between tracks if you want to get a little more diverse.
Not only that, If you’re one of my readers you’re also entitled to get a special discount.

Register today with code: TF09, to save $100 on SMART Pass and Post|Production World rates

My two sessions are:

Simulation Effects in After Effects

Wednesday, 4/13/2011 03:30 PM – 04:45 PM • Room Number N252

Your chance to master the advanced physical simulation effects in After Effects. In this session you’ll learn how to make the most of the following effects: Shatter, Mr. Mercury, Pixel Polly, Particle World, Caustics and more. You’ll see real world examples which harness the power of these effects in a way you never thought possible.
Target Audience: After Effects Artists and Animators

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Solving Difficult Tracking Problems

Wednesday, 4/13/2011 05:00 PM – 06:15 PM • Room Number N252

Learn up close and detailed about Mocha – a planner tracking software which comes bundled with After Effects. How to track elements that go out of the frame, pan through screen and don’t comply with standard planes. In addition you’ll expand your knowledge on three-dimensional tracking using CameraTracker plug-in and PFHoe software. After this lecture nothing can escape you!

Target Audience: Motion Graphics Designers, Animators and Digital Artists

Just to tease you a little, here’s one sample from the simulation session. I’ll explain how I’ve created this using only solid layers and effects from the simulation category in After Effects.

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Both of these sessions should be a lot of fun. If you have any questions please leave a comment below. I hope to see you in class.
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Students Work – Shenkar 2011

Eran Stern — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:26:03 +0000

One of the courses I teach at Shenkar is “Motion Design for Television”. As always, I wanted to share with you the final submissions for this term that were just great. The task at hand was to design a complete packaging for a TV channel or TV series, that include at least 3 Interludes; Pop-up Banners; Ending Loop and Program Schedules. Most of the work was done using Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. There are 3D touches here and there using Cinema4D.
I think I should let the projects speak for themselves. So, if you have half an hour to kill and want to get some inspiration, press play.

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Warning! The last clip in this sequence is suitable only for viewers above age 18. It includes content that some of you might find offensive and therefore adult supervision is advised. There’s a warning slide before. Those who do not want to watch the clip please stop at minute 23.
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