VFX and Motion Graphics

Exploding Windows Revisited

Scopique January 30, 2020

I don’t normally re-do my video projects, usually because I’m lazy and often times because my first pass is about as far as my resources can take me. Since I subscribed to ProductionCrate.com and now have access to not only more video…

Exploding Windows

Scopique January 28, 2020

Explosions are impractical effects for small movie makers and hobbyists like me who need to learn critical VFX skills. I can’t just go someplace a “blow something up” because just writing that on my blog is going to get me on a…

Element 3D for After Effects

Scopique December 31, 2019

Rounding out 2019 I spent some collected money on one of my long-term wishlist items, Element 3D from VideoCopilot.net. E3D isn’t a 3D modeling program. You can import 3D models in OBJ format, can lay down some primitives like cubes and cylinders,…

Streaming Alerts for the Holidays

Scopique November 21, 2019

I’m still plugging away at a use for Trapcode Particular, and seeing as how we’re sliding into winter weather like a front-wheel drive sedan with bald tires, I figured that making snow wasn’t just for ski resorts. This is the motif I’d…

Web Animations with Lottie, Bodymovin, and After Effects

Scopique November 14, 2019

If there is one boat I miss not having sailed upon, it’s the Adobe (né, Macromedia) Flash period of the web. During its peak adoption, I was working for a small web development company and was personally responsible for a lot of…

Swim Lane

Scopique August 8, 2019

When the weather is nice during the work week I will head outside for a quick walk around our business park. It’s a pretty standard neighborhood, although we also house the town’s police and fire departments so sometimes it can get loud…

Enter the Wombat – Drop-in Logo Intro

Scopique August 5, 2019

Here’s my first project featuring Trapcode Particular. I think it came out OK overall. We have a gaming group called Combat Wombat, and our “streaming group” — when some of us were live-streaming — was called “The Wombattery”. We had a logo…

Choosing Expensive Hobbies

Scopique August 1, 2019

Little did I know when I started down the road of motion graphics and VFX that it would be virtually impossible to do so as a hobbyist. First, though, we need to draw the line between “motion graphics” and “VFX”. Motion graphics…

Virtual Screen – Take 1

Scopique July 30, 2019

Here’s a quick test. I’ve traditionally used the chroma key when live streaming, putting the screen behind myself so I could punch out whatever messy basement might be in frame. I’ve never really used the green screen the way that Hollywood does,…

Embedded Timepiece

Scopique July 3, 2019

Continuing my love of tracking, I had watched a tutorial video that covered a lot of effects, including one where an actor, portraying an “android”, had an embedded battery meter at the base of his neck. I thought it would be a…