In this tutorial / tip I show you how to save use animation presets in After Effects.

In this After Effects tutorial I show you how to use Trapcode 3D Stroke to create the arrows and lines I have in the Animate Objects music video “El Dorado.”

In this tutorial I show you how easy it is to bring your footage into PFTrack and then quickly take that data into Cinema 4D to begin to add your elements. PFTrack has many of the same features as Boujou and SynthEyes. PFTrack is a very robust program and what I cover in this tutorial only begins to scratch the surface.

If you have any questions let me know.

In this tutorial I look at how we created the character walk cycles in the Groupon videos over at Daily Planet ltd. The character is animated using a combination of parenting layers and the puppet tool. This character was built entirely in After Effects but the same concept can be used if you were bringing in Photoshop layers.

This tutorial is recommended for beginners. Some basic commands and effects are covered.

Download The After Effects File.

Getting a job in the business is mainly based on two things, your show reel and who you know. Your show reel is what makes the first impression on people and you only have a few priceless seconds to impress. Before we jump into some key points let me just mention something that may sound stupid but needs to be said straight up. Never put work in your show reel that you didn’t do. If you just did the opening or ending titles for a spot, don’t put a portion of the spot in the reel that you can’t point out and say, I did that. Passing off work that isn’t yours will not help you in the long run. You could end up getting hired on a job and will be expected to perform at the level of the work on your reel. Also make sure you have the go ahead to use the work in your reel. I got a call once asking for me to remove something from my reel, they were not too happy that I included the work. The work that I had to remove was for a new business pitch and wasn’t meant to be seen by everyone. With that out of the way, here are some things to think about when creating your reel.

Length
The first thing to think about is the length. This is something I personally always have a hard time with. Attention spans are short so if your reel doesn’t have different styles or jaw dropping effects in it people are going to get bored and move on to the next person. The length is especially important if you’re starting out and this is your first show reel. Go short. 30 seconds is a perfect amount of time to make a great impression. You don’t want to try and make your reel longer with substandard work just because you think you should. Or on the flip side even if you have 10 minutes of great work – cut it down. You need to pick your best work, this is your first impression to people. Shorter is always better, leave them wanting more. Save the longer pieces for clips on your web site or DVD that someone can watch if they want to see more. Make sure you do a good editing job and if you don’t think its working then ask for help.

Opening / Title Card
Number one point is to make sure your name is visible and also a way to contact you like your phone number or website. It’s much better to do something simple and done well, then going for something complex that just looks amateur.

Song
Try and find a unique track.There were so many reels in the early 2000’s with Prefuse 73 as the song and it got old fast. Don’t use a song that a company is already using. Their latest reel has already been associated with that track and you’re trying to stand out. Don’t use a song that fights the work. Make sure you like the music too, you don’t want to look at a reel a month later and hate it because the song sucks. Also if you’re using a popular song that’s getting a lot of play by someone like MGMT or Gorillaz, make sure people are looking at the work and not thinking only about the song. There have been quite a few reels that I loved the song so much I searched out the artist to hear more of their stuff.

What To Include
Your best! Everyone who is looking at the reel is looking for the best and your reel should be a representation of the best you got. It should be a showcase of your skills. Put your best foot forward. You might have some amazing pieces of work at the end of your reel and no one saw it because they turned it off after 15 seconds. On the flip side don’t let it fizzle out at the end either, if you can’t keep up the quality of work for the span of the reel, you should make it shorter. Show off the work you want to do and can do. Don’t put all text animations and logo builds if you want to be a character animator.

What Not To Include
These are all personal preferences and can vary depending on who is looking at the reel. Keep political, erotic, or extreme violence out of the reel. Putting yourself in the reel… this is something that should be avoided if you can. Finally if it looks amateurish, dump it.

Packaging
If you’re sending your reel on a DVD packaging this is something to think about. I hear from most people lately that they would rather just have a website or quicktime they could pass around the office if they find a person they like. It is so much easier to just jump onto instant messenger and pass around a link then it is to load up a DVD. But a lot of times the DVD is necessary . On the packaging and DVD, make sure you have a name and phone number or website. Your case will get lost and all someone might have is a DVD and if there isn’t any information on it, then it will just get tossed into the trash. As for the design of the case and DVD, make sure it reflects your style.

Send It Around
Now that you’re finished, get that reel in front of people. Post it online and send out your DVD. Most companies are not going to tell you that they received your reel so don’t feel bad if you don’t hear back. There is a good chance someone looked at it and they are now saving it for when they have a project come up. But it’s always a good idea to send a follow up email just saying that you hope they received the demo reel alright and to check out your website if they wanted to see more examples of your work.

What matters in the end is the work, make sure it’s your best. Nobody cares how old you are, what school you did or didn’t go to, or how cool of a computer you have. If you are a good animator / designer, they will want to watch.

In this first of hopefully many RealFlow tutorials I go over the basic user interface and layout. I show you how to navigate around and manipulate objects in a scene. This tutorial is just to get your feet a little wet and introduce you to RealFlow and understand where all the basic buttons are.

This is my first After Effects video tutorial so please take that into consideration. In this tutorial I go through the basics of how you add an expression in After Effects. I focus on setting up a simple counter expression using an expression and the slider control effect. Here is the expression used;

val = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
numDec = 0; // digits to right of decimal
numDigit = 2; // digits to left of decimal
if (val < 0) sign = "-" else sign = ""; s = Math.abs(val).toFixed(numDec); while (s.length < numDigit + numDec + 1) s = "0" + s; sign + s

For more information on expressions in After Effects check out AE Enhancers and the tutorials by Harry Frank over at graymachine.com.