Need a vignette and need it fast? Well, first make a new adjustment layer (solid layers work too if you dont need blur or tone effects) in your composition and name it "vignette". Creating a new layer will place it on top of the layer stack. If you add your footage after the vignette layer just make sure the vignette is above the footage. On your toolbar select the "Elipse Tool". Make sure the vignette layer is selected then double-cl ...
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If you have a complex project with tons of layers and multiple or advanced effects, you will notice extreme slowdown when scrubbing through your timeline. An easy way to help speed things up is to lower the resolution on the display window. All you need to do is click the dropdown menu and select "half", "third", or "quarter" located under the preview. It may not be as pretty but this lowers the resolution giving After Effects less i ...
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Okay, you have a web logo project that you just completed. You show your client and they are happy with it, of course, but they need it in HD and you built it at a much lower resolution for the web.

Your logo has multiple layers and when you select them in order to resize and move they all react to your modifications separately throwing off the entire composition. read more

Often the most prominently displayed specification displayed on your camera is the Zoom multiplier. If you look at the body of most inexpensive cameras you'll find that the "digital zoom" multiplier is stamped, quite large, across the side of your camera. Its funny to me that this feature is so blatantly displayed when it is actually quite useless. That's right, useless! As a matter of fact, one of the first things most pro ...
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The market is flooded with hundreds if not thousands thousands of choices when purchasing digital video devices.  Which one do you choose? Do you get the 3 CCD sensor or the CMOS? Does it have an i1394 out port to capture to your editing software? Can it record a progressive image at 24 fps? If you're not sure what I'm talking about, good, this is the blog for you. Within the first few weeks I will explain, as simply as possible, the basics of the most important components so you can determine which camera best suits your needs. Please don't make the classic, "I'm just recording Sally's birthday party and I don't need to know all that technical stuff" mistake. Knowing what to lo ...
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When camera shopping you might notice the acronym CCD or CMOS featured somewhat prominently on advertisements or on the camera itself. In every digital camera there is a sensor that collects the light projected by the lens and converts it to an analog signal for recording. There are two different imagers that perform this task. CCD (charge-coupled device) and CMOS (complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor) both do the same thing but they do it in different ways with varying strengths and weaknesses. They both contain a grid of 300,000 to 500,000 light sensitive diodes that convert the light into electrical charges (electrons) that are then c ...
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