Joseph W. bourke
Forum Replies Created
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Absolutely right, Andre. I was on the road with a band for five years. In just about every place we played, people would come up to us…doctors, lawyers, other professionals, and say that they’d give an arm and a leg to do what we were doing. They didn’t realize that we’d spent years learning our craft, had to drive from gig to gig, setup equipment, rehearse, and manage the business side of things.
All the audience sees is that you’re “playing”, and they imagine how much fun that is. It is, but it takes a huge amount of work to make it look easy. It’s the same with media production. The first question out of many of the new posters on these forums is whether there’s a plugin to do that effect. It’s always the simple approach that many look for. And it’s obvious from many of the questions that they’ve never spent any time with the manuals or the wealth of tutorials out there. If you’re going to be good at any craft, dedicate yourself to it…
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
You might want to give Piriform’s Recuva a try:
https://www.piriform.com/recuva
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
As I said above, it’s all about talent. Anyone can buy the tools of the trade, and now more cheaply than ever before, but the years of experience it takes to know which tool is right for the job, takes…well…years.
Here’s an example from the music side of what I do. Quite a few years ago, I was showing some colleagues of mine the setup I was using to create MIDI tracks for the various video projects I was working on. The first thing out of the mouth of one of them was, “We can buy one of the keyboards and do it ourselves!”. No thought whatsoever to the years it takes to get good at that craft – I started taking lessons when I was six years old, practiced daily, went to a highly respected music school to study arranging and composition…yada…yada…
But the first response was to think that all they had to do was buy the technology, and the chops would come with it. I’m not throwing stones at the young up and comers…they (at least those with talent and perseverence) will be the next vanguard in the world of media production. But many of those who just see what’s cool about it, and how easy you can buy in to the tools, will fall by the wayside.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Hi Wallace –
I use a Wacom USB tablet, but I only use it for design work in which tight accuracy is necessary – the RotoBrush in After Effects, or painting, for example. I haven’t really given it a fair chance as a full time tool, to replace the mouse, because I find that certain functions, such as the scroll wheel, as well as the right and left mouse buttons, are easier to use than the buttons on the tablet pen.
It may be that I’ve been using the mouse for so long, that my muscle memory just works as if the mouse is part of my hand. As I say, I haven’t tried using the pen for everything. But for Illustrator, Photoshop, and certain After Effects functions, I’ve got to have the Wacom tablet.
If you want to give the tablet a try, but don’t want to put out the fairly expensive price for a Wacom, you might want to give one of Monoprice’s tablets a try:
https://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=108&cp_id=10841
I purchased one a few years ago, learned my way around it, but found that it’s not as good as the Wacom (you get what you pay for). It was, however, reliable.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
It’s great technical work, and it wows the eye, but there’s no story at all, so it might as well be a two minute build of raw stock waiting to be cut into a package. They need to learn how to edit – that two minutes could have been thirty seconds, and it would have blown me away, then left me wanting more. As I viewed it, I was looking for the end in under a minute, wondering how long I’d have to keep watching.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Looks like Element 3D to me with two bevels and back bevels turned on.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Let’s end this discussion on a positive note: every piece of equipment which can be used in a creative endevour of any sort, from cameras, to keyboards, to tubes of paint, should have a warning label on the packaging:
TALENT NOT INCLUDED!
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Here’s another tutorial with much more depth to it:
https://www.idearefinery.net/after-effects/shape-morph-animation-effects-20141013/
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Here’s a good place to start:
https://www.schoolofmotion.com/magic-morphing-letters/
Depending upon your shapes, you’re going to need quite a bit of experimentation to get what you want.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
I think this was done for the most part with real videography and tilt-shift effects in post. In most of what I’ve read, the shots are credited as “photography” by Fernando Livschitz.
Here’s a link to quite a number of large stills from the production, as well as the “director’s cut” of the open:
https://skyrisecities.com/news/2015/12/late-show-intro-offers-tilt-shift-tour-new-york-city
There are lots of special effects (tilt-shift the primary style, making the shots look like table-top miniatures), color correction, and a good amount of compositing. While you might be able to do it in After Effects, you would certainly have to start with footage that cost a lot of money to stage and shoot.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com