Blog by Eran Stern » Tips

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

Disco Tunnel Effect Using Trapcode Form

Eran Stern — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:22:25 +0000

A month ago, in cooperation with Creative COW, I published the Color Link tutorial. This tutorial has 2 purposes. The first is, of course, to show you the use of the color link effect to match colors between shots, but what seems to catch most viewers eyes is the Disco Tunnel effect I’ve set up, using the new Wiggle Transform operator, available in CS4.
Since then, I’ve received many requests from people still using CS3 or even AE7, asking how to recreate the same effect without the Wiggle Transform operator.
I thought about it and couldn’t come up with a simple way to achieve the same look using only the built in features of the After Effects. However, if you own Trapcode Form, it’s a matter of minutes to recreate it. Well, this was my answer to most of you guys, but it seems that people can’t figure what to do even if they have all the ingredients on the table, so for all of the frustrated dancers out there – here’s my recipe for the Disco Tunnel effect using trapcode form.
I’ve also uploaded both projects (CS3 and CS4) for you to explore.
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Download project file
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Advanced Lightning effect – Short Tip on motionworks

Eran Stern — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:21:04 +0000

Have you ever looked in the Adobe After Effects Effects menu and wondered what some effects are used for? John Dickinson’s A to Z series will try to unfold the basics and the gotchas of every default effect that ships with Adobe After Effects.

I was honored to guest host this episode and demonstrates the basics of using the Advanced Lightning effect.

Watch Tip

Template Project Tip

Eran Stern — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:16:01 +0000

Let’s say, you want to convert your ordinary After Effect project to a Template one, so each time you double click it, it will open as an Untitled Project, and then when you hit the Save command you’ll be asked to name it. Very useful if you’re like me, using a Master Project that have the same folder structure (Video, Audio, Pre-Comps, Graphics etc.).
Well it’s very easy, just select your Master project then change the suffix to .aet instead of .aep.
That’s it! You’re all set. Don’t believe me, check it for yourself. But you must do it now