After Effects 7 New Features

I just started production on my second title for Lynda.com entitled After Effects 7 New Features. It will cover all of the cool new features that will be a part of the next release. As you can tell I had to obscure my monitor due to the NDA contract I signed. But I just wanted to let you know that this release is incredible! Sorry to be such a tease 

I’ll let you know when it comes out,

Flash Inspiration Video Soundtrack

Over the past several months I have gotten perhaps 100 or so emails from people asking me what music I used in the “Inspiration I” video at gotoAndLearn(). So I thought it would be a good idea to blog it once and for all so that people who like it know where to find it. The track is from a band called VAST. The title of the song is called “Lady of Dreams” and is from their album entitled Music for People.

Did I get permission to use this music? No, but they way I look at it, I’m giving VAST alot more fans from having it on my site. Plus I’m not making any money from it.

Flash Wallpaper for Your Razr 3

Are you obsessed with Flash? Well I’ve created a wallpaper for the Motorolla Razr 3 phone so you can see the Flash logo whenever you open it up. Is this ridiculous? Of course it is, but so is life in general. You can get the wallpaper here.

Flash 8 setTimeout Example

Originally blogged by Guy Watson, the setTimeout() function is an undocumented feature in Flash 8. This function can come in really handy for things like tooltips. See the sample app below where you can enter in any number for the delay. The actionscript is also posted below.

[as]tip._visible = false;
var isOn:Boolean = false;

butt.onRollOver = function() {
setTimeout(showTip,milli.text);
isOn = true;
}

butt.onRollOut = function() {
tip._visible = false;
isOn = false;
}

function showTip() {
if(isOn) {
tip._visible = true;
}
}[/as]

My New Tutorials on Adobe.com

There are many changes to both the Macromedia and Adobe websites as of today. One of the new features on Adobe’s website is the Motion Design Center. There are three video tutorials that I created in collaboration with Lynda.com that are now up there. For some reason the links to actually launch the tutorials don’t work. But I’ve been given word that they will be fixed sometime today. Check it out athttp://www.adobe.com/motiondesign/main.html.

Totally Random Flash Movie

Just playing around doodling in Flash. It’s totally random and doesn’t have any meaning or goal. These are my favorite things to do in Flash 

Video Transitions with Cue Points

Below is an example of using cue points for video transitions. Two external FLV files dissolve into one another. See the code below. It’s perhaps not the best coding scheme but it works for now. There is a cue point 5 seconds from the end of each of the files which trigger the dissolve.

[as]var v1List:Object = new Object();

var who = v2;

v1List.cuePoint = function(cues) {

v1.onEnterFrame = fader;

who = v2;

v2._alpha = 100;

v2.v1.play();

}

v1.v1.addEventListener(“cuePoint”,v1List);

var v2List:Object = new Object();

v2List.cuePoint = function(cues) {

v2.onEnterFrame = fader;

v1._alpha = 100;

who = v1;

v1.v1.play();

}

v2.v1.addEventListener(“cuePoint”,v2List);

function fader() {

this._alpha -= 2;

if(this._alpha < 1) {

this.swapDepths(who);

this.v1.rewind();

delete this.onEnterFrame;

}

}[/as]

My New Portable Green Screen!

I just recieved my new portable green screen from B&H Photo. It is actually reversible and is blue on the other side which is really nice. It collapses down to a nice size so it is good for travel and location stuff. Before using it I’ll have to just get the wrinkles out of it as having a smooth surface is extrememly important if you want to get a good key in After Effects. It is very reasonably priced at only $79.95. See a photo of it below. You can tell I’m pretty happy with it 

Free FLV Background Loop #1

I’m going to start posting some free seamless video loops that I’ve been doing in After Effects. The first is a red curtain effect. To download the FLV clip just click on the preview below. The FLV is 700×200 and is encoded with the new VP6 codec. It is around 160k. It can be scaled up or down and will still look very nice.

Free FLV Background Loop #2

Here’s the latest loop. This is a water effect that kind of looks like the bottom of a pool. Click on the thumbnail to download the FLV.

Flash 8 with 7000 symbols not saving

So I’ve been experimenting with exporting text effects from After Effects into Flash. When importing the SWF generated from AE there were more than 7000 symbols. Once I finally exported the final movie it compressed to around 176K. But Flash wouldn’t let me save the FLA file. It would hang and then say that there was an error saving the file. I even tried rebooting and still it wouldn’t save. I had to grab this SWF from the temp folder. Anyone else had this happen? And yes I know that this would be possible with Actionscript. This is just for experimentation.

FLV Cue Point Driven Sound Effects

My god I love the new video features of Flash 8. The embedded cue points are so freaking accurate! Check out this example below. Punch sound effects are triggered when the video hits a cue point.

FLV Tile Floor Reflection

Here is a modification of the last reflection example. This time I used a blend mode of “screen” on the reflection and put it over a tile floor. Looks very realistic. If I made a TV graphic for around the video it would look even better.