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Hello October!

The change of seasons is upon us once again; this time we welcome in Autumn. We get to watch as the leaves turn to beautiful shades of yellow, red and everything in between; the air begins to cool and the geese make their journey southward for warmer climates. At least, in my neck of the woods.

As if adapting to the changes around us, Fuel Your Motionography is changing as well. This month, we are turning two years old! Yes, we have been publishing articles for a full 2 years, and we are still going strong. Although we aren’t celebrating with the same hoopla as our first birthday, it doesn’t mean we are any less happy or grateful. We can’t express how much it means to all of us that for the last two years all of you come here to read the articles we put forth, you continue to come back and you continue to comment and stay in contact with all of us. For that, we are both happy and grateful. For that, we thank you.

Of course, there are other changes taking place this month. Today I am officially announcing that I am stepping down as Editor of Fuel Your Motionography. Life has been hectic lately and trying to balance FYM on top of all that is going on has proven to be more than I can handle, so instead of letting the quality and output of articles degrade, I decided to hand over editorial duties to more capable hands. I had a great time working with all of the writers here at FYM, sharing my knowledge and, of course, meeting all of you and reading your comments over the years. Who knows, when things settle down I may even be back.

The good news is the site will still be running strong. Matthew Carlin is moving up to the position of editor! He has done a great job on all his articles on Fuel Your Motionography as well as juggling all the duties of his other website, Motion Design Love. And he’s just a great guy all around. I have complete faith that he will continue to push FYM forward in the best direction possible. Congratulations Matt!

Now would be as good of a time as any to mention Chris Biewer is joining the team! Chris is a motion graphics designer originally from Fargo, North Dakota who’s now working around the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. Welcome Chris, I hope you feel at home here as I have for the last two years.

Of course, we should also remember the ones who have written here in the past, both new and old, as they had a hand in making FYM what it is today. Everybody from the first Editor, Michael John, to the contributing and guest writers Faye Brown, Cody Jones, Robert Mills, Drew Wiltsey, Christy Lai, Sebastian Diester, Surya Buchwald, Ko Maruyama, Jamie Peterson, Justin Younger, Jeffrey Saunders and anybody else I may have left out. Thank you all for everything you have done.

Of course, we’ll still have the great talents of Timmy Allen, Joren Kandel, Matthew Carlin and (now) Chris Biewer bringing us great new content each month, and all of you who dare join us and share your knowledge with the world. This website will continue to grow and evolve into something bigger and better than before.

Oh, and now would be as good of a time as any to tell all of you that Tinder is coming. What is Tinder? Well, it’s a sexy new way to discover, subscribe to, read and manage the webs best publications. Let’s be real here, I’m not going to tell you any more than that. Besides, it’s super secret anyway. I can tell you it is something you will want to keep on your radar. Besides that, you’ll just have to wait and see. I bet I had you for a minute though. so definitely keep an eye on that when it’s finally here.

All said, remember to keep learning, have fun doing it and come back to this website and all others like it for some great tips, tutorials and news along the way. I know I will.

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Here’s a weekly roundup of some of the videos we found exciting around the web!

If you have a piece of work that you’ve created or have seen, contact us or become our contact on Vimeo and send us the link.

Motion Graphics

Alligator Pop from Benjamin Ang on Vimeo.

The aim of the video is to interpret audio and translate it into visuals with geometric shapes.

By composing and designing this audio track, I was able to break down each note and effect to create graphics that interacts and syncs with the audio.

Visual Effects

The Killing Joke from sebastian lopez on Vimeo.

The Killing Joke is a 15 minute suspense/fiction short film about a mysterious woman that finds a red balloon tied up to a curious little box on an eery derelict street. Using classic elements of suspense and working within a seventies aesthetic, ‘The Killing Joke’ is an action packed film that pays homage to some of the horror movies from that era.

Animation

“Take Your Medicine” by Transfer | Official Music Video from Nader Husseini on Vimeo.

The team used After Effects as the main compositing software. They combined the 2D drawings and paintings and 3D animation and digital effects into a single space in order to create a highly textured look. In addition to lighting and compositing the CG characters and props in Maya, the team used Maya Toon, Maya Hair and Maya nCloth, manipulating and merging techniques not typically used in the studio’s CG pipeline. Pre-compositing 3D components in Nuke ensured an efficient workflow. These files were also color-corrected and incorporated into the 2D environments in After Effects. Using Maya Paint FX in conjunction with cloth simulations and digital effects added to the video’s unique style.

Film

Tempest Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

One of the challenges in making this video, was trying to get good storm and star shots. The opportunity doesn’t come along very often, the storm has to be moving the right speed and the lightning can overexpose the long exposures. I had several opportunities this summer to get storm and star shots. In one instance, within a minute of picking up the camera and dolly, 70mph winds hit. One storm was perfect, it came straight towards the setup, then died right before it reached it.

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I was born stubborn.

You can blame my parents for raising me with so much pride, blame the kids in elementary school who picked on me for being a nerd or blame the stars that I was born a Leo. Personally, I stopped trying to point fingers a long time ago and just accept it. In fact, I’ve learned to turn it into somewhat of a game.

If somebody told me I couldn’t do something or that there was a better (or easier way), I took it as a challenge to do it my way. I would boldly attempt to complete my mission in a John Locke sort of way, only not as insane. Even if that challenge was near improbable, I would still try, success or not. Eventually, I learned the errors of my ways.

I still challenge myself, but in a slightly different way. I recognize that there are better and easier ways to reach my goal. I thoroughly look at all avenues before I begin a project. I know that it isn’t my way or the highway. Others have walked this path before me, and others will walk it after I’m gone. I’ve learned to learn from their lessons.

Now, If I see something that inspires me, I try to emulate it. Then I try to understand it. Then I go a step further and make it my own. It’s an almost obsessive tendency.

I guess we all have these obsessive tendencies in our field, regardless of what creative field we are in. We are constantly searching for new ways to do something. To build upon what others have done before. To forge new paths through the unknown.

The important things we all should take from all of this is to remember where we have been, that there are new paths to be taken and to never stop learning. Of course, with the recent release (and soon to be released) plugins for popular software, who has the time to stop learning.

The Newton Physics Engine for After Effects has been released, and by all accounts it is a critical success at propelling a piece of software forward in a direction it hasn’t been before. Be careful though, it can almost give you a God-like complex. MovieType for Cinema 4D has made it easier than ever to create great looking text elements for your projects that emulate film and television title sequences. Of course, Element 3D will be coming soon (right, guys?) and will bring unprecedented 3d control elements into After Effects. That’s not to mention all of the lesser known plugins and presets that are already on the market.

Through it all, we here at FYM will continue to try and do our part–bringing great articles to inspire, give insight and learn from. We have some great things lined up for you including the return of the Feature Friday column (remember those?). This time, however, there will be a few additions. What better way to learn than by seeing what everybody else is doing well?! Of course, there will be more tutorials including more of the Cinema 4D Tags Quick Tip series, plus a couple of columns that will help you learn and inspire in a few new ways.

Keep learning being inspired and one day you will be the one who inspires.

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When MovieType was first announced, I’ll admit I had mixed reactions. On one hand, a tool like this would allow me to easily and quickly create type animations saving me time to work on other (arguably) more important parts of a project, but presets have long been beat down for being the cause of everything looking the same. Does MovieType manage to break through this stereotype? And is the $79 price tag worth pulling out your credit card? Let’s take a look.

What is MovieType?

Created by the very talented John Dickinson and Brett Morris, MovieType allows the user to, at the very least, drop their MoGraph text or splines into a scene to quickly create a popular look for their text animation. In fact, this plugin allows you to add a whole slew of presets from the text animation to the camera movement to the background in order to create an entire scene. At it’s very best, however, MovieType allows the user a solid base to build their project upon with complete customization through slider menus to further adapt the scene to fit their project. In the end, it saves them a ton of time key framing text, cameras and lights, among many other options.

The number of presets available is surprisingly great. I was expecting a couple of text presets for cascading, exploding, shaking, etc. However, MovieType gives you over 100 text animation, 40 camera, 40 material, 20 lighting, 45 scene and 10 full scene presets to quickly create your project from. This was a lot more than I was expecting, and then I realized they put in an easy to use interface for each of the presets so that you can, for example, easily adjust the text speed, rotation, etc. through the use of sliders, and these are also available for the lights, cameras and other presets as well. To top it off, they included the tools to easily create your own presets as well, and this is where MovieType really shines.

John and Brett didn’t take the easy road when they created MovieType–creating a bunch of presets that allow the users to plug them into their projects and leave it at that. They have gone a step above and allowed the users to adjust these presets in order to make them fit their project, and then they gave them the tools to do it themselves. They encourage users to create their own presets and have even created a special forum on Motionworks where they can share their presets, comments, criticisms and get updates to the plugin. It’s this kind of customer satisfaction that makes MovieType a truly grade A product.

How easy is it to use?

Very easy.

Anybody with any experience in Cinema 4D will be able to pick this up without any problem. Even if you didn’t have any training, through a series of well made video tutorials created by John Dickinson, everything from installation to controls and everything in between and after is explained in easy to follow steps.

Is It Worth It?

Ah! That’s the question, isn’t it?

In any purchase of this nature, the question ultimately comes up. Do the benefits outweigh the $79 price tag?

I must admit, there are presets here that I wouldn’t use or would use infrequently, but these presets are secondary to the main feature, which is the text animations. To elaborate, most of the scene backgrounds I don’t find appealing to the type of work I do. Also, some of the materials don’t appeal to me either. I’d much rather create these myself, but that might be just me. Of course, you are able to quickly and easily edit these setups to suit your needs as well, so that adds an almost infinite amount of possibilities to the setup. Regardless, to somebody who needs a quick setup, it does the job.

Anyone in broadcast production or those in a position where working with text is an everyday or very common occurrence, MovieType is well worth the money. Even to those who only occasionally work with text, I would say purchase this. The text animations alone make it so easy and fast to reach your desired goal without wasting a lot of time and effort.

The main reason you should purchase any plugin is if it can save you any time in your projects and, in the case of MovieType, it definitely can. Even if you use just the core of the plugin–the over 100 text animation presets–you’ll save yourself a ton of time reserved for keyframing scale, rotation and movement. Even if you have to adjust any movement, they have made it easy with a set of sliders. Most of the tedious work has already been done.

The bottom line

MovieType is so much more than a basic preset package. It actually encourages you to play and to learn through the various settings and setups. John Dickinson and Brett Morris have created a great tool to add to your bag that will save you time, but is flexible enough to allow you the freedom to explore and make it your own. With the addition of the forum where users are encouraged to share their setups and where future updates will be released, they have created a product that will stand on its own two feet and grow even larger over time with the MovieType community.

Just as the title suggests, MovieType truly is a dynamic tool for Cinema 4D, and over time it will only continue to become stronger.

MovieType can be downloaded directly from the MotionWorks store.
Requires Maxon Cinema 4.D Release 11.5 or 12
$79 for single license, $279 for the multi-user license

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Adaptation is the key to survival.

Throughout human history, we have constantly been forced to adapt to change that has been going on around us, much of it out of our control. But through that adaptation, we have become a stronger, smarter species both as individuals and a whole.

If you take a look at any piece of software on your computer and you’ll see adaptation in full effect. A piece of software is released but it doesn’t do everything the user wants it to do until a very smart individual or company makes a plug-in that will allow it. Adaptation. Then, when that company realizes it’s missing a core piece of software that’s very popular with their user base they will adopt their own version forcing the original plug-in manufacturer to make changes to their original idea or be left in the dust like dinosaurs.

One of these plug-ins that will definitely bring about change was mentioned by our very own Joren Kandel last month. Element 3D by Andrew Kramer and all the awesome people over at VideoCopilot.net will allow you to actually tweak a 3d scene to your hearts content–cameras, lights and all–all within After Effects! I was mildly interested in this plug-in at first, but after watching the video, I knew I had to have this in my toolbox. It should be released sometime this month, if you can wait that long.

The other plug-in that is bound to propel things (sorry for the pun) is Motion Boutique’s Newton Physics Engine for After Effects. Forget everything you’ve learned about trying to attempt to simulate physics in After Effects, Newton does it all for you easy as pie with a few clicks of the mouse. Why anyone hasn’t thought of this before is beyond me, but I’m glad these guys made it. It’s available now from the Motion Boutique website.

We are always adapting to change here at FYM–seeing writers come and (sadly) go, testing the waters with new columns and contests, testing out new formats, etc., etc. Through this adaptation, we hope to become stronger, giving you the articles you deserve and have come to expect from us. Though the frequency of the articles has slowed a bit, we hope they have become better in quality, and we will constantly improve on that front. I know there are at least a few coming this month that will please your eyes and your noggin, so stay tuned for those. As always, I’m sure there will be a few surprises hidden as well.

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Back in June, in the Letter From the Editor column, I wrote “Final Cut X: Commercial Success or Critical Failure?” As it turns out, I couldn’t have picked my words any more correctly for two reasons: not only does the software not act like the “Pro” software that it has been built up to, but by all accounts this version of Final Cut seems like a commercial failure.

FCP X: Change is here

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, you have heard about the release of Apple’s highly touted Final Cut Pro X (which isn’t actually the tenth version of the software, but a complete rewrite that they felt needed to be stamped with the now familiar “X” brand). You, undoubtedly, also heard it doesn’t quite live up to the “Pro” in its name. Gone are the OMF and XML export options, multicam, no reconnect to offline media option, no organization of project files, no more Final Cut Studio. Now, everything’s been rolled into Final Cut except Motion (for animation) and Compressor (for encoding files). Oh, and you can’t even open FCP 7 files.

All of these drastic changes have caused a ton of fallout from amateur and professional editors alike. Everybody from David Pogue (Pogue’s Posts @ The New York Times), Richard Harrington, Larry Jordan, Alex Lindsay, and Carey Dissmore are up-in-arms over the new release because of these major shortcomings. Walter Biscardi was so taken back that Apple would release such premature software that he very publicly denounced it and moved to Adobe Premiere Pro. Hell, even Conan got in on the fun.

Other software companies also took notice of Apple’s mistake. Adobe jumped all over the big letdown by offering huge savings for anyone who wanted to switch to their either the entire Production Premium or just the Premiere Pro editing software from Apple FCP X. Avid CEO Gary Greenfield was also quick to respond with a discount for Avid Media Composer and a letter proclaiming their commitment to professionals.

Apple has been reported to be issuing refunds to some customers who need the pieces that are missing from this version of their software, and they released a public announcement assuring all Final Cut users that fixes will be coming (some free, some paid) in the “near future”, but this hasn’t silenced the criticism any. In fact, many are demanding Apple to make immediate changes and pay for all those changes as well.

All of this has amounted to one of the worst product launches in Apple’s history. In fact, as of writing this, the average rating in the App Store is at 3 stars (which, to Apple’s credit, has gone up from the previous 2 1/2 stars I saw a couple of weeks back). It looks like the damage has been done.

The highest rating FCP X has gotten since released

Where I’m coming from

I am not a professional editor, but I was trained on Final Cut Pro in college, I own a copy at home (FCP 7), I have used it on many projects from simple family projects to more advanced client projects, and I loved it. However, about a year ago I stopped using it and moved over to Premiere Pro. Because of the lack of updates from Apple and their constant move to make everything more accessible to everyone, I feared they may have given up on professional software. I feel I couldn’t have made a better decision.

Even at a reduced price of $299, the software isn’t worth the money–it’s incomplete. I understand that Final Cut was in need of an overhaul, but to release a newer version of said software that is completely lacking features that an earlier version had and pull all copies of Final Cut 7 from the shelves is just absurd. Add to that the fact that they plan on releasing updates to fix these problems and have the users pay for some of them is just ridiculous. To make matters worse, nobody knows how long these updates will take to be released. Many can’t, and won’t, wait that long, and I don’t blame them.

The new FCP X

But is everybody out in the cold with this product release? What about the independent editor? What about the guy who doesn’t use the multicam tool and doesn’t care about organizing his project? Well, if you don’t plan on sharing your project with anybody and you can deal with the shortcomings of the software, then I suppose you can. If you are just a family man/woman who wants to edit family videos, then it’s great for you.

If, however, you plan on sharing you project with another editor you’ll have to either let him/her use your computer, hand over a huge project/event file with ALL the media files or send him/her just the project files and have the second editor reconnect all the media files. Do you plan on sending your audio/video files to other applications to edit, mix, color correct, do whatever you want with? Think again. You’ll have to download a $500 dollar third-party application in order to do so. It doesn’t support AAF, EDL, or exporting of XML either. Oh, and did I mention you can’t even open files created in Final Cut Pro 7? Yeah, there won’t be a fix for that either.

Wait! There has to be some positives about this software, right? Well, with a completely rewritten 64-bit architecture you’re going to get some cool features, but they’re not all they’re cracked up to be from what I see. The magnetic timeline will always allow your video and audio stay in sync, but it doesn’t take into account L cuts (when you want the video from one track to overlap the audio from the other, or vice versa). The compound clip idea for the timeline makes it difficult to quickly see quick changes to video you add because you can only see the main storyline. You can use audition, but from what I read, that isn’t any quicker than the old drag and drop method. In fact, a lot of what I read about FCP X is that it actually takes more clicks of the mouse to do a simple task. About the only positive that I see is the automatic rendering of a project, which is cool, but Premiere Pro has been doing that for a while so I’m not impressed. That really doesn’t leave you with much, but I guess it is cheaper.

The bottom line is if a tool doesn’t allow me to do my job properly or easier, then I’m not going to buy it. The same goes for my software, because they are just tools to get a job done. I already own Adobe Production Premium because I need After Effects, Photoshop and the other software they have, so it just makes sense that I’m going to learn Premiere to do my video editing. It has everything I need to get the job done and then some.

Where did apple go wrong?

If you look at Apple’s past, you will see a disturbing trend.

Apple has been making both their software and hardware more easily accessible to everyone. Sadly, that means dumbing it down to a basic level as with Final Cut Pro X. In doing so they will alienate a good portion of their market share, but they will also gain a bunch of new “lower end users” in the process. Does that all equal out? Who knows, but it’s the direction Apple has taken, either consciously or subconsciously.

After years of upgrades and several third party plug-ins Final Cut Pro X will be at the level it once was, and some of the professional editors and companies may come back. That is, if they even care about Final Cut when that happens.

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Change.

It’s become almost a catchphrase of the past few years since President Obama started using it for as one of his campaign slogans, but it has been the unofficial motto of life since the beginning of time. Change is constant, and change is inevitable.

For the most part, change is good. In the last century alone, computing technology has pushed us all into a society practically run by computers making things both easier and more difficult. Tasks have been becoming exponentially more easy, but those who haven’t caught on or, at least, tried to keep up, have been left in the dust, and things are only moving faster from here. We have smartphones that are, essentially, pocket computers, desktop computers that would run circles around any computer put in front of it from the last decade, laptops that are thin as magazines and as light as air, and tablet computers like something from Star Trek. We are steadily climbing towards a wired future, but we are still only in the infancy. There are technological marvels both on the horizon and that people haven’t even thought of yet that are waiting to blow our minds and make our lives better. If we are ready for it.

But change shouldn’t be a big scary unknown. We owe a lot to change. Our jobs have been derived from changes in our, and other, fields. Where would we be today without advances in computers, computer software or camera and camcorder equipment? If anything, Jeff Saunders article last month, Know Your Roots, showed how much our industry has changed from less than fifty years ago. Technology has definitely made our lives easier, and these are the changes we should be excited for.

Sadly, there are times when change isn’t good. The recent release of Final Cut Pro X (which isn’t really the tenth installment of the series–rather, it’s Apple’s attempt at rebranding one of their last professional software packages into the new “X” brand) changed things from the ground up, and they have gotten a lot of flak for it. For the most part, it has been warranted. Apple is doing it’s best to quell the disgruntled users, but it’s a bad taste that will stay in the mouth of many for a long time to come. The lesson to learn from this: if change sets us back, it’s not good.

We here at Fuel Your Motionography have been known to change up a thing or two. One of the biggest changes to happen recently has been the arrival of Joren Kandel, a very talented and motivated motion graphics artist who, besides working a day job at Row 27 Studios here in Minneapolis, runs The Pixel Lab, his personal website featuring a ton of great Cinema 4D and After Effects tutorials and tips. Oh, and he somehow finds the time to write tutorials for other websites such as Motionworks. A busy and talented man.

Anyway, I think the important thing to remember in all of this rambling is nobody sets off to make a bad change. It just happens. All we can do is take it as it comes, hope it gets better and, if all else fails, move on to something better that has proven itself in the past.

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How do you fall in love?

Yolanda Santosa and her crew at Ferroconcrete know the answer to this question, because each time they take on a project they fall in love with it. They spend countless hours memorizing each detail, even the smallest, most trivial piece. They go past what’s on the outside and find what’s underneath–the true, unbiased story–and then, without thinking, they make it their own. They find the personality in whatever they are working with, then, and only then, they create something truly beautiful–something that will stand the test of time.

It’s this attention to detail and love of creation that has solidified Ferroconcrete, a branding studio located in Los Angeles, California, as a go to company for creating excellent brands, and it shows in their past work with companies such as Pinkberry, Hustler, éple and, most recently, TBS.

A Solid Foundation

This foundation was set in place early in Yolanda’s life. She was always inspired by great branding and knew it was something that she wanted to be a part of. After graduating with a degree in Graphic Design, she got a job in a large branding firm where she worked on strictly on logos day after day. She soon tired of the monotony and yearned for more ways to express her passion which lead her into the world of motion graphics and a home at yu+co.

Working with motion was something that rejuvenated Yolanda and proved to be a integral part of her career. Through the six and a half years she spent in motion graphics she learned the importance of story and the impact motion can have on design. This all culminated in such memorable projects as the end credits for the feature film 300 and the title sequences for Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives, to name a few.

Some of Yolanda's work at Yu+co

The Start of Something Beautiful

However, Yolanda felt something was missing. Seeing great brands taking off such as Apple and yearning to get back into her first love, Yolanda set off to create her own company, something she wanted to do since she began working in the industry. When she heard that Pinkberry was looking for a branding company, she jumped at the chance. She took vacation time off from work and got in touch with the company and, in that week, she created and presented her idea to Pinkberry, who loved it. With that, Yolanda left her job at yu+co and Ferroconcrete was born.

At Ferroconcrete, she was finally able to express her passion without restraint, bringing out the personality in the products that she chose to work with. However, she knew she couldn’t do it alone. Needing to hire employees and understanding a company is only as good as the sum of its parts, Yolanda gathered together a group extremely talented designers from different fields who shared her love of creativity and story. Not wanting to create more cogs in the system like she had been when she first started out, she gave them all creative say in the initial design of the brand making an energetic, friendly and competitive work environment. Finally, Ferroconcrete had a truly solid foundation to support it. And, with that, they transformed Pinkberry from a one store shop into an over 70 store national chain (for more on this, check out the great AIGA video on how she created the brand).

Ferroconcrete

Since its grand opening in 2006, Ferroconcrete has gone on to create brands for companies all over the spectrum including Coola suncare products, Skywatch watches, TFO Architecture, City Center on 6th and even Hustler Toys. In each project, they managed to bring a full sense of design and personality to it, capturing just the right elements and bringing them to the forefront. This can be seen in everything they have created from menus and brochures to packaging and labeling; from websites and photos to motion graphics and video. Even shirts and bags. All along the way, they have fallen in love over and over again.

By the time Ferroconcrete was hired to rebrand TBS, Yolanda and her crew were moving in strides. Being somewhat of a return to form for her, Yolanda knew exactly what was needed. Working with the previous static half circle (smiling) logo, Ferroconcrete did what they do best–they brought it to life. Instead of creating just a logo, they created a character all on its own. With that single character, they managed to give the entire TBS company a unique personality evoked every time you watch a their channel or visit their website.

They did this by recreating the TBS smiley face logo in Maxon Cinema 4D, animating it into a mischievous and fun loving character that danced and interacted with various actors from the many different shows on TBS including George Lopez, the cast of The Big Band Theory and Peter from Family Guy. They made a star who loved to have fun, and that made TBS fun. Much like all of Ferroconcrete’s designs, it was simple, but it managed to say so much.

What Dreams May Come

Even though Ferroconcrete already has many awards and accolades under their belt for the work they have already accomplished, they are in it because they truly love everything that they do, and they don’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Along with continuing their branding and motion graphics projects, they are already working on integrating interior design elements into their branding studio as well as iphone application programming and design, among other things.

One could say, they are adding additions on to their already strong home.

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Tags in Maxon Cinema 4D are a very useful and much needed aspect to creating awesome 3d renders, but can be confusing, especially to the new C4D user. In this series of Quick Tips, we’ll go through each of the tags from top to bottom and explain what they do and what they can be used for.

Align To Spline

Align to Spline will, simply enough, align your object to any spline you have created so it can move from point A to point B. There are many splines to choose from including circle, square, bezier and even freehand (which, technically, make it an infinite amount of splines). This tag comes in handy for objects that are required to follow a path, but also gives you the versatility of keyframing.

Let’s take a look at a short video explaining this tag.

[Update]

I forgot to mention, you can make the Align to Spline tag act like the Align to Path tag by selecting the Tangential box in the Attributes manager. When you do this, your object will follow you spline just as it did with the Align to Path tag.

View the Entire Series:

• Quick Tip: Cinema 4D Tags – Align to Path
• Quick Tip: Cinema 4D Tags – Align to Spline

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Tags in Maxon Cinema 4D are a very useful and much needed aspect to creating awesome 3d renders, but can be confusing, especially to the new C4D user. In this series of Quick Tips, we’ll go through each of the tags from top to bottom and explain what they do and what they can be used for.

Align To Path

Align to Path will, simply enough, align your object so that the Z axis faces the path of travel on the animation path you have created for that object. This comes in handy for objects that require to have their front pointing in the direction they are traveling such as cars and insects. When used correctly, it will give your animation a smoother, more realistic motion with no (or very little) keyframing from you.

In order to add the Align to Path tag (or any other tag for that matter) to your object, right click on the object you want it to be applied to and select it from the popup menu under Cinema 4D Tags. You can also select it from the Tags menu in the Object window. Once it’s attached, you should immediately notice your object snap into position.

From there all you have to do is animate some position keyframes for your object. Let’s take a look at an example of this tag in action below.

In this example, we see the object is not alignment with the animation path because nothing changes except the objects position as it follows the path. It’s not very realistic motion for most objects; the square just moves from point A (the beginning) to point B (the top) to point C (the end).

Here we see the object is in alignment with the animation path because its “front” (the Z axis) is following the path. It’s a much more realistic and interesting motion, and this was created by only keyframing a beginning, middle and end position animation point; everything else was handled by the Align to Path tag.

Next time you are thinking about creating an object in Cinema 4D that follows a motion path, you might want to consider giving Align to Path a shot.

Update

I’ve uploaded a short tutorial for you to watch explaining the Align to Path tag. I apologize about the quick setup and lower audio quality. I put it together quickly today. Any future videos will be at a higher quality. Enjoy.

View the Entire Series:

• Quick Tip: Cinema 4D Tags – Align to Path
• Quick Tip: Cinema 4D Tags – Align to Spline

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Movies are so quaint. They always have a first act that introduces the characters, their normal state of life, their opposition–everything. Sadly, that’s not real life. We aren’t always able to be introduced to everyone, know what our objectives are all the time or how to easily obtain them. No, real life often starts out smack dab in the middle of act two where we are at our lowest point trying to overcome the objectives set in our way. Life is funny like that, but that’s what makes it so interesting.

In the almost year and a half that I’ve been writing here at Fuel Your Motionography (yes, it really has been that long), I’ve worked my way up from blogger and occasional FYM staff writer to full blown contributing writer all the way up to editor-in-chief. During this time I’ve gone from being a solitary writer to working along side four very talented and motivated motion graphics artists and videographers, plus an ever growing network of extraordinarily visionary creatives that have helped me along the way. It also goes without saying, there was, and still is, a great community of readers who continually come back to read what’s new in the world of motionography. Through all of this, I’ve come to realize, I’ve never introduced myself or even said hi.

Well, this is my hello, of sorts.

My name is John Kostrzewski and I’m a motionographer. I probably haven’t worked on anything you’ve ever seen or even heard of. I didn’t run off to Hollywood to work on a small part of a large production movie that didn’t mean much to many people. I did, however, work on some small productions that meant a lot to a few people. That’s real life. Not all of us are going to work in “the movie biz”. Not all of us are going to get the recognition we deserve. Not all of us are going to be in the lime light. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that we love what we do and do what we love; that we make every project we work on a Hollywood size production, no matter how big it actually is.

Our job is to make people happy. Even deeper than that, to make ourselves happy.

It took me a while to realize that. I was working on a few smaller projects wondering when that one project would come along that would set my career sailing off into infamy. It suddenly hit me that my career had already taken off. I have been doing what I love for years now and I’ve been making people happy for that same amount of time. Sure, things can always improve such as getting more work or pay, but that comes with any career, and that comes with time.

Oddly enough, I felt the same way when I started with Fuel Your Motionography. The day I started writing here was the day I started clawing my way to the top, even though I was only “fighting” myself. I became a contributing writer and continued to push as if my big break was just around the corner. The day I became editor I continued to push thinking there was something else up there. When I realized there was no other place for me to move, I began talking with Timmy Allen about expanding in other directions. Then, one day, I realized the answer wasn’t out there in another project or a different website. The answer was, as it always has been, right in front of me.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is this: throughout life, we are constantly struggling to get further: a better job, better pay, bigger house, so on and so forth, and that’s always a good thing. You have to pay your dues in life in order to reap the rewards, and those rewards should always be worth the effort you put in. However, while you are hard at work, never lose sight of what’s in front of you. What you have been struggling to reach may have been there the whole time.

“It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.”

- John

This month in fym

• Changes On the Way: We have some changes planned, some big and some small. Some are merely additions. Some are too big to be mentioned at the moment…
• Final Cut X: It’s finally here, but will it be a leap forward or just a stepping stone to a future big release?
• Super 8: The J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg epic adventure is about to hit theaters. Will it live up to the hype?
• Cinema 4D Quick Tips: All those tags. What do they all do?
• What’s in Your Toolbox: Effects. Plug-ins. Presets. We have all collected a series of “tools” over the years. What’s in your toolbox?
• Much more…

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Voices for Freedom from wearecaptive on Vimeo.

From WeAreCaptive.com

Leo Burnett’s campaign for Amnesty International addresses the silencing of civil activists worldwide. One such activist, Dhondup Wangchen was imprisoned in 2008 for the making of his documentary ‘leaving fear behind’ which describes the feelings of modern day Tibetans regarding Chinese rule and the then impending Beijing Olympic Games.

Following his imprisonment in 2008 a massive wave of unrest tore through Tibet in the form of the rioting of Buddhist monks resulting in the disappearance of over 1000 monks unaccounted for until this day. Dhondup’s story became for us a resounding analogy of a much greater worldwide struggle against authoritarian rule and the use of power to silence the minority.

Synopsis

Leo’s poignant slogan for the Amnesty campaign ‘Voices for Freedom’ was the starting point for our animation leading us to narrate the story of Dhondup’s own discovery and loss of his freedom of speech. It was important for us to convey the identity of Tibet which seems to have been trampled by Chinese rule, as was it seems the identity of Dhondup himself.

Our script was influenced strongly by Bhuddist and Tibetan proverbs which significantly inform the beliefs of the Tibetan people. The narrative involves many symbolic animals which are central to religion and lifestyle in Tibet, the Yak, Tiger and antelope are all Bhuddist prayer animals while the crane is a national symbol in China.

Key to our story was the idea that a single voice can influence thousands of others, represented in our animation as dandelion seeds free with the potential to create a thousand others but on a journey that may also end in an instant. Our final message is that one voice will always prevail through the masses who are silenced to inform a thousand others and in this case the voice is that of Dhondup Wangchen.

For more information, please check out WeAreCaptive.com.

If you have a reel or another piece of work you would like featured on Fuel Your Motionography, send us an email with a link to said work and any contact information you would like included in the article. Check out the rest of the Feature Friday articles here.

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If one thing can be said about Adobe Kuler it’s that it has made colors cool again, if they ever were out of style. Forget the old days of using your paper color wheel to find your complimentary, triadic, split complimentary and tetradic colors; with Kuler, you can do it all online, without taking your eyes off your computer and to a greater degree than ever before. While Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign users had the ability to use Kuler within their programs from the start, After Effects users were left in the dark as to how to implement this great asset within their program of choice. Well, thanks to the hard work of a few people, it’s now possible.

Adobe Kuler, for those who don’t know, gives anyone and everyone a place to easily create color schemes and share them amongst the Kuler community. Your color schemes can easily follow analogous, monochromatic, triadic, complementary, compound or shade relationships, or you can go out on your own and create your own custom color relationships. If you are working with an image, Kuler also lets you upload and match the colors using a few settings: colorful, bright, muted, deep, dark and custom. Yes, it is that easy and brilliant to use.

To make things easier, Adobe has even created a desktop application that you can download for free that allows you to see what the Kuler community is offering by searching for the highest rated, most popular or random color schemes, or by choosing from a list of your favorites. It also allows you to save the color scheme for use easy use in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. It doesn’t allow you to create your own colors (for that, you have to visit the website), but it does allow you to do one important thing–download a color swatch file–and this is one of the most important factors for using Kuler in After Effects.

That said, let’s see the ways we can actually use Kuler within Adobe After Effects.

Cut & Paste Method

This is the simplest idea and forgoes all of the (slightly) confusing steps of copying of swatch files, creating presets, downloading special files and so on (which we’ll see in a minute). It is simply achieved by taking a screen capture of the Adobe Kuler file, importing the image into After Effects and using it on its own layer so you can easily select the color you want with they eyedropper tool. For more information on this, watch Maltaannon’s tutorial which comes up later in this article.

Swatch You Want

After you install this free preset created by Jeff Almasol, Swatch You Want allows you to select a downloaded .ase file and opens it in a small window for you to easily select colors you want. Really basic and really easy to use.

Chameleon

An upgrade from the previous preset, Chameleon is a “pay what you want” script created by Mathias Möhl that allows you to not only use .ase files within After Effects but swatch values as well. In addition, it gives you a few handy options to make linking colors to different layers a bit easier.

Kuler Preset

Jorrit Schulte over at Aetuts+ has another option for you if you want to forgo using these other plugins and just create one yourself. It’s a little bit of setup initially, but the outcome is definitely worth the work for a simple Kuler preset.

The Maltaannon Method

Jerzy Drozda Jr has a great option for all of us After Effects users who don’t want to do any of the above methods. In fact, his method only has you download a simple project file that you can use as the base of your project–just paste in your favorite Adobe Kuler swatch value and it does the rest giving you a layer containing your colors. It really is that simple and easy to use!

Any of these methods will have you easily enjoying Kuler color schemes in your projects; most of them in no time flat. All of them you can use for free, but keep in mind that people put a lot of hard work and effort into these files. Pay them back accordingly if they ask for it, because they are the ones that are allowing you to finally make your After Effects colors a little bit Kuler.

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When the first generation iPad was announced on January 27th, 2010, I, along with many others around the globe, had visions of the creative field changing for the better. No longer would I be tied to my desk or laptop in order to use my programs; soon, I would have the iPad to bring my programs with me or, at the very least, be a clever assistant to all of the programs I use on a daily basis. The future we have seen in the movies would finally be at our fingertips.

Sadly, months after its release, I was still waiting for a company to make my dreams a reality. The iPad was a solid device with great functionality and the backing of a lot of large and small software companies (and individuals). It was a device that stood on its own perfectly well, but it was still the awkward rookie on a team of professionals. It didn’t know how to play well with its team mates. Even when Apple released Pages and their other line of iWorks software, one of the biggest complaints was that the consumer had to connect the iPad to iTunes and awkwardly transfer files through a tacked on interface. There was always the wi-fi connection, but that just meant you were stuck to a computer again. There was, of course, the 3G network but its not strong or secure enough (or is it?). Nothing really felt right.

As time went on, companies started creating “lighter” versions of their software for the iPad such as Adobe Photoshop Express and iMovie. They were both great products, but they lacked great features that their bigger counterparts had. Photoshop, for example, is really just a basic photo editor. Sure, there were a ton of really cool creative drawing/painting apps such as SketchBook. Coupled with a stylus (if you are no good with your hands) and you have yourself a winner for best drawing/painting app for sure. Then there was the Air Display app that allowed you to use your iPad like a second monitor which was getting closer to what I had envisioned, but not quite there. There were, of course, all the truly helpful productivity apps such as Evernote, Penultimate and Celtx, but these only helped the writing/note-taking side of things. Where were the apps that were going to actually help me use the programs that I use on my computer?

I envisioned turning my iPad in a faux Wacom Cintiq tablet, and why not? You had a beautiful screen that could be used for drawing. They make iPad styluses (styli) if you don’t want to use your fingers. All that would have to be made is an app that would connect to some sort of plugin on the computer that would communicate between the two. I know there’s no pressure sensitivity settings on the iPad and Apple is holding close to some secrets that would allow a work around on this, but isn’t there a hardware solution to pressure sensitivity? I’m no programming or hardware genius, but the creative blood in me yearns for something like this to be true.

What about making a app that would hold all of my tools or effects so that for programs like After Effects or Cinema 4D so that I can easily access them with little trouble when I’m working with that program on my computer. Or give me extra controls that usually are only accessible when you buy another controller. Well, it seems the future is finally inching closer, over one year later, and it cooler than you think.

WACOM BAMBOO STYLUS

Back around the middle of April, Wacom announced they were working on the Bamboo Stylus for the iPad and immediately my ears perked. I associate Wacom with their extremely popular line of tablets, and if they are announcing a stylus, apps can’t be that far off that will allow me to use the iPad like an actual Wacom tablet!

Well, my dreams are sort of in limbo right now. Though I haven’t used it, I know the stylus looks very professional. The tip seems small as that of the PenGo, but it looks like the real strength of this stylus is in the size, weight and balance of the pen. I don’t know if it has any kind of hardware based pressure sensitivity, but I can always hope.

Another thing Wacom began working on around this time were Bamboo Apps. Sadly, these apps weren’t meant for the iPad, rather for use with your Wacom Tablet on your computer (PC or Mac). Although there are a few creatively charged apps mixed in with the games and other apps, they failed to deliver that experience to your iPad.

Hopefully, in the coming months, they will release information that they were really just getting their feet wet in the iPad department and soon they are releasing Cintiq for iPad. One can dream.

ADOBE NAV

Adobe announced three apps for the iPad around the middle of April, and each one offers an interesting experience. One of the most exciting and exceptional Adobe iPad apps is Adobe Nav. John Nack wrote this about the apps in his article Brief Thoughts on the Photoshop CS5 Touchscreen Apps which really gets me excited for the future of Adobe’s apps (my thoughts are highlighted).

• Please remember that these efforts are just part of a bigger picture that has yet to be revealed. I’ve seen comments along the lines of “Nice, but I want Lightroom for tablets”; “Why are you doing these apps instead of making improvement X to Photoshop?”; “I’d like to see more support for Android”; etc. The feedback is welcome, and none of these things are mutually exclusive.
• “Nav is one of the most exciting of our three new applications IF you think beyond Nav itself,” writes Photoshop PM Bryan O’Neil Hughes. “We’re showcasing one of the most powerful pieces of the new Photoshop SDK – the ability to drive Photoshop from a device.” See the rest of his comment for more perspective.

Indeed, Adobe Nav is one of the most exciting apps they are releasing because this little app allows you to connect to Photoshop CS5 on your computer and use all your favorite tools, rearrange them, view and open documents on your computer and more. Now this, is what I’m talking about! If we can get a few more apps like this for After Effects, Premiere and the rest of the Creative Suite, we’ll be on our way to greatness.

Watch Adobe Nav in Action

Read more about this app on the Adobe Nav website.

vWave-Lite

vWave-Lite is an interesting app that’s been out for some time now, but has gotten mixed reviews. The app allows you to control the Primary In, Secondaries and Primary Out in Apple Color from the luxury of your iPad. Some people love it as they feel it’s a step in the right direction; others dislike it because it loses the tactile feedback of a control surface. However, this was also said about the iPhone when it first came out with its virtual keyboard, and look where it is now. Besides, the app is free so it’s worth checking out if you already own an iPad!

Gradiest Cineform First Light

Coming soon is this prototype for Cineform First Light called Gradiest. It works in a similar fashion to the previous app except it adds some functionality with individual controls for exposure, tint, contrast, etc. plus some cool multi-touch control as well.

NukeControl

Another prototype, NukeControl is an iPad app coming soon for, what else, Nuke. This app contains individual color and saturation controls as well as a master saturation control, timeline slider and multi-touch controls.

On One DSLR Camera Remote

Now this is a cool idea. The On One DSLR Camera Remote allows you to control your DSLR camera (view supported cameras here) from you iPad in both camera and video mode (when applicable). You can adjust the focus, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, and more all while away from your camera with your iPad. You can, of course, also shoot, review and save/send a low-res copy of your photo as well.

REDmote iPad Controller

Red cameras are becoming more and more popular these days (James Cameron just ordered 50 for his next movie), it comes as no surprise that Red is working on an iPad camcorder controller. The big surprise here is the amazing amount of functionality that they have included in their app. You can control tint, shadow, color grading, curves, compression ratio, exposure and so much more. Watch the video and be amazed.

Air Pad + Ingenuity

If all of these apps are too much for you or your camera/camcorder are not supported, you always have the option of using the AirDisplay app and the software from your computer to operate your equipment. Though this is technically just a workaround, it still gives you most of the functionality of your camera or camcorder.

There You Have It

The future is now. These apps are hopefully just a stepping stone to bigger and brighter things (and I think they are), but only time will tell what developers come up with for your iPad and you.

Did I miss a really cool app? Did you try one of these apps and have an opinion on it? Let me know in the comments below!

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Something so simple, yet so beautiful and full of life. Turn to Dust is just a test project of Jordan Scott to practice his motion tracking skills, but what he comes away with is a piece of art that you can watch over and over again.

I often find myself making notes on what techniques or projects I want to attempt next, changing and adding to them. This was a culmination of a few of those notes during my free time in the past few months.

I wanted to try my hand at heavily tracking footage, with the intention of using those tracks to design a piece that was calm and beautiful and natural. I located some beautiful shots of butterflies already shot and felt those would be a perfect start. This is my best attempt at that using my favorite song, ever.

If you have a reel or another piece of work you would like featured on Fuel Your Motionography, send us an email with a link to said work and any contact information you would like included in the article. Check out the rest of the Feature Friday articles here.