Foundry offers free licenses Nuke Studio, Mari, Modo and Katana to students at select universities, plus the ability to apply for a free license if your school isn’t listed. There’s also a wealth of other training materials on their website.
As well, this web page offers free tutorials, educator resources and other discounts.
Even if you aren’t a student or educator, this page is worth visiting for the tutorials alone.
This article first appeared in Shutterstock.com. This is a summary.
Shutterstock users from around the world search for images, videos, and music tracks every day—by the millions. The keywords they use allow us to uncover what trends are on the horizon and will define creativity in 2021. These trends include:
Eccentric Animation. As the software behind VFX and animation gets more advanced, artists are developing unique approaches, giving content creators new ways to express their ideas. We’ve seen a rise in searches for playful animation styles and motion graphics in a time when new live action footage is harder to come by.
Design Trends. Free-flowing inkspaces, one-of-a-kind tie dye patterns, and twisting, surreal line portraiture show the embrace of individuality—and the imperfection—in digital art. Hang loose with this misfit crowd of textures, backgrounds, and illustrations.
Surreal Faces. The avant-garde is again on the horizon, and Picasso-esque designs are leading the charge. Combining abstract attributes with reality, these linear elements transcend boundaries, making the normal look fantastic. Celebrate this trend of all things extraordinary, glorious, and inherently human.
Inkscapes. Currents of translucent hues, snaking metallic swirls, and foamy sprays of color shape the landscape of these free-flowing textures. The marbling techniques at play leave room for beautiful imperfections amidst the chaos.
Tie Dye. The DIY breakout hit of at-home fashion is now claiming new territory in digital design. Tie dye patterns are an instant pick-me-up of ’70s nostalgia with a distinctive flair. With hundreds of dyeing techniques available, this trend is the perfect foundation for your unique point of view.
Photography. Photographers, more and more, are ditching the studio and focusing their lenses on a new scenario: reality. Out with the staged and in with the real—we’re talking real people, real situations, real life.
There are ten trends in all – each illustrated with a variety of visuals. Even if you aren’t a designer, the images alone will rejuvenate your eye.
Real-time VFX has been making massive leaps in the past few years, including virtual production, face-swapping, digi-doubles and more. With the pandemic, that trend has accelerated exponentially. This week, the RealTime Conference (RTC) announced its return, with several sessions dedicated to exploring the growth and future of real-time tools in VFX.
The first of two events will be held on April 26-28. Some of the best and brightest minds in VFX will dive into all things real-time, from LED walls to MetaHumans and everything in between. Backed by names like Epic Games and Foundry, with additional talks from Digital Domain and other VFX powerhouses, RTC 2021 is bringing it all together – for free!
Completely rewritten app now available via free public beta.
Image courtesy of BorisFX.com.
Boris FX released a free public beta for Continuum for Final Cut Pro Editors.
They completely redesigned Continuum FCP 2021 to deliver an easy-to-use and lightning-fast workflow. Boris FX invites you to take it for a spin by joining our free public beta program!
https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-03-31 01:30:002021-03-31 01:30:00Tip #1530: Boris FX Continuum Public Beta for FCP
Super Resolution breathes new life into old images.
Bicubic resampling vs Super Resolution CREDIT: Adobe
This article, written by James DeRuvo, first appeared in NoFilmSchool.com. This is a summary.
Adobe got an idea on how to harness artificial intelligence to boost the resolution of old, smaller-resolution images and breathe new life into them. It’s called Super Resolution, and the results are pretty impressive.
Using machine learning to analyze millions of sample photographs, Adobe’s Super Resolution can enlarge photos without jagged edges or lost details. The result is that Super Resolution can take an image that has, say, 6 megapixels, and make it look like it came from a 100-megapixel image sensor. And it can do it with a simple touch of a button.
Another benefit is that Super Resolution can bring details to an image shot from too far away, cropping into the image and expanding the image, revealing details that would normally be lost when attempting to blow them up.
All that technical know-how translates into being able to convert a shot from an early generation digital camera, and upscale the resolution with fairly decent results, about double the linear resolution of the original image quality. If you do the math for both height and weight, that equates to four times the resolution. Super Resolution also saves the image in Raw DNG, so that all those details are preserved and can then be adjusted.
Super Resolution is currently limited to 65,000 pixels on the long side with 500 megapixels total, and it’s available right now with the latest version of Adobe Raw.
Maxon is presenting its 3D and Motion Design Show starting April 13; with a warm-up show that just finished and is now available online. Maxon’s 3D and Motion Design Show features the world’s top motion graphics and VFX artists showcasing 3D techniques and real-world production workflows using Cinema 4D, Redshift and the Red Giant suite of products.
Every event is free, streaming live and available online shortly after airing on 3DMotionShow.com as well as the Maxon YouTube channel. Viewers will be able to interact and send in questions via chat for the live Q&A segments with artists.
Past and upcoming shows can be found here. The first episode is already online, while the next episodes start April 13.
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Optics is designed to correct, enhance, and stylize images with an easy-to-use interface.
A before and after composite showing Boris FX Optics in action.
BorisFX is recognized as a leader in visual effects software. Last year, they released a new program called Boris FX Optics.
Available as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and as a standalone application for macOS and Windows, the Optics toolkit features over 150 filters and thousands of presets designed by VFX industry veterans to correct, enhance, and stylize images with an easy-to-use interface.
The plugin can be purchased for only $9/month or $99/year.
Features include:
160 total filters that simulate optical glass cameras, specialized lenses, film stocks, lens flares, optical lab processes, grain, exacting color correction, natural light, and photographic effects
75 Boris FX Sapphire filters included: Create stunning organic looks with superior image quality and creative control. Filters include lens flares, light leaks, glow, night sky, clouds, luna (moon), zap (lightning), free lens, rack defocus, digital damage, and more.
Thousands of customizable presets
294 color and black & white still photography film stocks, motion picture film stocks, and historical photography processes
89 color grading presets from Academy Award-nominated movies including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Frankenstein, Gone with the Wind, King Kong, Saving Private Ryan, and Titanic
Gobo library includes 751 gobo lighting effects categorized into abstract, doors, elements, foliage, snowflakes, textures, and windows groups
Paint using black & white, blur, clone, color, eraser, mosaic, red-eye, repair, and scatter brushes
Layering system to apply multiple filters and sophisticated masking tools to isolate effects
Non-destructive crop, rotate, and scale (standalone only)
Over 1,300 VFX shots – because the on-set practical effects didn’t work.
DNEG visited the HMS Belfast in London to get a sense of how the Fletcher-class destroyers were actually built and applied that knowledge to the CG versions. The sky was mapped out for the entire duration of the film’s journey across the Atlantic and determined the light source for each shot. (Images courtesy of DNEG. Final image courtesy of Apple)
“Greyhound,” written by and starring Tom Hanks, is a World War II seafaring adventure of a destroyer escorting a convoy of 37 ships across the North Atlantic.
While there were a lot of practical effects used during the shoot, most of them didn’t work well. This meant they needed to be replaced digitally during post over the course of six months.
“The interiors and a lot of the exterior immediate deck [of the Greyhound] were shot on an actual Fletcher-class destroyer [USS Kidd in Baton Rouge] but it was landlocked,” states VFX Producer Mike Chambers. “There was no motion or background to speak of. The bridge was built on a gimbal to try to help with the motion, but a lot of the practical stuff didn’t work as well as it needed to. That’s why we had to work over all of those shots.”
There were over 1,300 visual effects shots, with the water and exteriors being entirely CG. “One of the hardest parts is the motion of the ocean as well as the camera placement,” Visual Effect Supervisor Nathan McGuinness says.
Balancing readability and believability of what the lighting conditions would be like in the North Atlantic was hard. [Visual Effects house] DNEG had 10 Canon 5D cameras each placed upon an individual tripod which took time-lapse HDRs every 30 seconds to produce a 60K sky. “We put that on the top of the office in London and a team was sent to Brighton Beach to do the same thing because we needed a clean horizon,” explains Visual Effects Supervisor Pete Bebb. “It gave us the exact time, clouds, and light which were then offered to Nathan. He picked specific ones and that gave us an HDR map per scene and time of day.”
VFXVoice has a lengthy article about the entire post process. Here’s the link.
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Picking the right colors from 16 million just got easier.
A sample set of palettes from Adobe Color CC.
This article first appeared in MotionArray.com. This is a summary.
When you open the color picker on your favorite piece of software, you are hit with what seems like an unlimited number of options. To be exact, there are 16,777,216 hex code color options to choose from. Which you gonna pick?
Fortunately, there are lots of great online resources for finding and creating your own color palettes. When it comes time for your next color palette, check out these sites first.
Adobe Color CC. A great place to start is with Adobe’s color tool. Some of you may have used it when it was called Kuler. Adobe has since updated the name to match the rest of the CC branding. The Adobe Color CC “Create” tool uses fundamental color theory principles to help you build palettes with up to 5 colors. You simply pick a base color from the color wheel, and you’ll be given a harmonious “analogous” palette.
Coolors. Coolors is another palette generator similar to Adobe Color but with a different look and feel. When you visit the site, you simply hit “Start The Generator” to load a random color palette. Palette colors are presented in large strips across the screen that can be dragged into different orders, and each has its own set of controls for shifting the individual color. You can even see the values for HSB, RGB, CMYK, PMS, and COPIC.
Paletton. One more generator to take a look at is Paletton. Their layout is a little more similar to Adobe Color CC than Coolor’s. The Paletton color wheel gives you the choice of working with 1, 2, 3, or 4 colors evenly spaced on the color wheel. You can then rotate around the wheel adjusting all of the colors at once. You can adjust the angle between the color choices within the wheel, or adjust the hue variances along the wheel axis.
Colourlovers. Colourlovers is an entire community built around appreciating colors and recognizing trends in color usage. There are loads and loads of pre-made palettes to choose from, created by Colourlovers users. And palettes can be browsed in a number of ways including shapes, patterns, and individual color swatches.
Color Hunt. Color Hunt is the simplest of the resources on the list, but a great way to get inspired or just stumble across the perfect palette for your next project. You can browse through the newest selected palettes or sort by the most popular, and upon clicking a palette, you’ll see it used in a variety of ways like in a ring and on a map. There is no export function, so you’ll just want to copy the hex codes for a palette you like or take a screenshot.
EXTRA CREDIT
The MotionArray article contains video demos of each service, along with links and more details.
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53 tutorials, organized by experience level, and all free.
Image courtesy of Sergiy Maidukov and Creative Bloq.
Creative Bloq has collected 53 free After Effects video tutorials covering motion graphics – from beginner to expert – and organized them on their website.
Author Tom May writes: “Adobe After Effects is the industry-standard software, used by most VFX, 3D and motion graphics artists, as well as animators. Its vast feature-set includes capability for creating everything from simple titles to full 3D stereo compositing. Since there are so many tutorials out there, we’ve put the best ones in one place (here), which will save you time and effort searching out the ones you need. Plus, we’ve grouped them together in sections so you have no trouble finding what you’re looking for.
“You might want to get started by familiarising yourself with the interface or basic features, or perhaps you’re yearning to understand techniques like text write-on, custom transitions and warp stabilisation. Or if you’re more advanced user, you might need projects like rotoscoping nature footage or mocking up AR effects. We’ve found tutorials for all these goals, and more.”
Tutorials are organized by experience level:
Beginner: Get started with AE
Beginner: Build your skills
Intermediate: Use AE tools
Intermediate: Connect other apps
Intermediate: Create effects
Advanced: After Effects projects
Here’s the link. This includes descriptions, links and demos.
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