NEW CONTENT:
Royalty Free Jazz and Funk Music
UPDATES:
LaForge Plugin for After Effects & Login Manager App
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: “Careful What You Wish For”
Prize: 1 Year ProductionCrate Pro Membership
NEW CONTENT:
4K Seagull VFX
4K Stop Motion Paper Animations
Retro-Style Camera Model
NEW VIDEOS:
Blender Camera Movement Tutorial
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: “Don’t Drop That”
Prize: NANLITE Pavoslim 60C
NEW CONTENT:
4K Looping UFO VFX
4K Blood Splatters
4K Shooting Stars
Royalty-Free Thriller Music
Riser SFX
Sci-Fi Machine Gun
3D Train Engine
3D Train Car
3D Semi Truck
3D Vintage Minibike
3D Male Coveralls
3D Female Coveralls
VIDEOS:
Using Image Planes in Blender
Superhero Landing CapCut Tutorial
Superhero Flying CapCut Tutorial
Realstic Clothing Texutres in Adobe Substance Painter
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: Hold Your Breath
Prize: Free ProductionCrate Pro Membership (1 Year)
NEW CONTENT:
4K Fluid Motion VFX
4K Christmas Graphics & Transitions
4K MoGraph Accents
Cyberpunk Characters
Construction Worker Characters
3D Chopper Model
Action Music
Action Movie Sound Effects
VIDEOS:
Cyberpunk Implant Tutorial
ByPlay App with Blender
iPhone Tornado VFX Tutorial
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: Time Travel
Prize: Free ProductionCrate Pro Membership (1 Year)
NEW CONTENT:
4K Twister VFX
4K Falling Debris
3D Gravestones
3D Spaceship Models
Epic Music
Cinematic Hits
Halloween Motion Graphics
SOFTWARE UPDATES:
ProductionCrate App
VIDEOS:
Download VFX Onto your Phone
How to use Byplay
Fire Hand VFX in CapCut
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: Learning Magic
Prize: iFootage SL1 60DN
NEW CONTENT:
4K Blood VFX
4K Gas Explosions
3D Character Skins & Outfits
Royalty Free Fantasy Music
Natural Sound Effects
3D Truck Models
Text Message Generator for After Effects
CONTENT UPDATES:
Sci-Fi Armor Model for Unreal Engine 4
VIDEOS:
Zombie Skin Textures in Substance Painter
Embroidery Patches with Substance Painter
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: The Darkness Within
Prize: 1-Year ProductionCrate Pro Membership
NEW CONTENT:
4K Dirty Ground Explosions
4K Ground Dust Shockwaves
4K Rolling Shockwave VFX
Royalty Free Drama Music
Mo-Graph Sound Effects
3D Military Character Packs
SOFTWARE UPDATES:
ProducitonCrate AR App
VIDEOS:
Ragdoll Tutorial in Unreal Engine
Blender Animation Beginner Tutorial
Depth Map Compositing in After Effects
Modular Military Character Packs
Modular Character Tutorial
VFX CONTEST:
Theme: Combo Fight
Prize: TASCAM Portacapture X6
After Effects scripts are a powerful way to automate and accomplish tasks that would have otherwise taken far longer.
For example, many popular scripts automate the way that you animate, automatically adjusting keyframes in an instant to save you valuable time and get better results.
If you haven’t tried any out yet, you can browse our library of exclusive scripts and plugins. Many of them are free to download, while Pro members of the ProductionCrate community can access the entire collection, as well as over 10,000 other creative assets.
Thankfully, installing these scripts is an incredibly easy process, and works the same on both Windows and Mac. We also ensure that our tools are compatible with the most recent versions of After Effects (CC 2018, CC 2019).
Our example today will be walking through the installation of our free Hologram generator script which has just launched!
If you don’t have any .zip file tools, you can use WinRaR.
Using this software to open the .zip file that you download will allow you to then drag the files to a new location. Make sure that you extract all of the content from the zip file.
Our destination is usually found in the Program Files folder. In most cases the full directory is:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files\Scripts
But if you are using any other Adobe CC version, feel free to place it there instead.
Most of our tools won’t work if there’s no footage for it to work on!
From here you can then navigate to the place you extracted the files to. Clicking on the “.jsx” file will then launch your chosen script.
There’ll always be the chance that something goes wrong. We’ve compiled a list of steps you can take to troubleshoot these issues
Take a moment to quickly look back in the zip folder, and check if all of the contents are also in the After Effects script folder. If it isn’t, simply drag it all over again!
Go through Edit -> Preferences -> General. A window will open with a bunch of checkboxes, where you can enable “Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network”.
If all else fails, you can ask on the forums, the comments below or contact us at Support@ProductionCrate.com, we’ll happily try our best to help out!
What do people mean when they say ‘cinematic’?
You’ve seen the videos suggesting harsh color-grading, or the tutorials that tell you to just throw on some aspect-ratio bars. The truth is, there is no simple one-step solution. Quality footage shot with dynamic range will allow you to create the exact look you want. There are the shooting-steps and then the post processing-steps, you have to work on both if you are going to improve your videos.
Today you’ll get to learn a bit about shooting with log. Alex and Alexsa from Crate’s Camera Corner will break down the basics for utilizing this powerful feature available on many consumer cameras.
The true definition of log can be a bit confusing, so let me try and summarize it. Log images look washed out and flat. Suffice it to say you will not like the look of footage shot with log. At least, not until you color it. Log footage is made to be extremely dynamic, storing color and luminosity with loads of depth, allowing you to truly hone in on whatever look you would like to achieve. Yes, that does mean log footage requires more work than you might be used to. If you’re shooting a vlog you probably won’t want to shoot with log, but if you’re shooting a film or client video then log may be right for you.
Alex and Alexsa shoot with Sony, so they use the S-Log2 setting. Different cameras will have different log formats. Shooting log does take practice, we don’t suggest you try it when the stakes are high. Instead shoot some test footage, or if you are a Pro User you can download this aerial clip shot with log and practice your coloring in post.
An important thing to note is that you need to nail your exposure if you’re shooting with log. It is less forgiving than out of the box picture profiles or standard color outputs. We only suggest you shoot log if you know how to get properly exposed shots and are willing to take the time in post production to hone in on your color.
Check out the first episode of Crate’s Camera Corner
Want to know more? Alex will show you his workflow and approach to coloring in Premiere Pro including how to build your own LUT to load onto your external monitor.
The aerial stock elements Alex mentions can be found here
Want to know the top 5 Mistakes Videographers make on their websites? Check this article out
Adrian Jensen recently created this Pro VFX Course teaching you his techniques for rotoscoping in Adobe After Effects and Mocha AE. Here are some highlights from his course, Pro Users can view the entire roto-series here. If you’re rotoscoping to place video effects behind your subject or to integrate Motion Graphics into your project then this course is for you.
This is the most common technique for rotoscoping in After Effects. Some think it is antiquated, however we utilize it all the time.
When you’re using masks to roto in After Effects don’t try to use one mask. This may seem like the correct approach at first, but you’ll quick realize how complex and messy it will become. Instead, break up your subject(s) with multiple masks, this will speed up your workflow tremendously.
A lot of tutorials suggest a fixed number of frames to move before keyframing. Adrian suggests keyframing your masks at the point of most-motion as a better approach.
There are two different kinds of masks you can use, Adrian prefers the Auto-Bezier mask option.
Remember, you can double click your masks and rotate them, this will save time, especially for rigid body objects. You don’t have to move each mask point by point every time.
Color code your masks. This will help distinguish them from one another, and will help if your mask looks too similar to the subject you are trying to roto out.
Adrian’s preferred method for rotoscoping is Mocha AE.
Mocha AE comes with After Effects and is a terrific tool for motion tracking and rotoscoping work.
You can track multiple masks (or ‘layers’) at one time with Mocha AE. Adrian still recommends multiple masks for your subject, instead of attempting one mask.
When using Mocha AE set your spline up and let it track all the way through before making any adjustments.
Lock your mask when you are done with it, you can turn off the Gear icon to disable processing.
Want to learn more? Visit Adrian’s Pro Rotoscoping Course and get your roto-game leveled up. Adrian covers masking, Mocha, the Roto Brush Tool and even techniques to avoid rotoscoping entirely.