Quba HQ

MotionGraphs

I would like to invite you to visit http://motiongraphs.qubahq.com/ – an online version of an exhibition by Quba Michalski, celebrating over a decade of his work in the field of motion design. Throughout this period Quba created several hundred of videos ranging from small independent pieces to massive visual extravaganzas for some of the world’s most well-known brands. MotionGraphs gives you a rare chance to gaze into the inner workings of his projects and examine in detail the way these selected works were constructed.

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Computer Arts: October 2011 (#193)

I just got the word that my reel is featured in the latest issue of Computer Arts magazine (#193, October 2011). It is a great opportunity for all those of you who are too busy (or lazy) to click a link, to be finally able to view this fine piece of edit.

Simply head out of your home, go to the nearest kiosk, newsstand or bookstore, purchase the new issue, go back home and view the reel from the DVD that comes with the mag. If you happen to be living outside of Europe, you may need to do a special order or travel a few thousand miles, too :) Alternatively, you can always get the digital edition, available for Adobe AIR, iOS, Android and Windows 7 phone – though I am not sure if these include the DVD contents.

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Quba Michalski: Creative Free Agent

It is my pleasure to publicly announce that as of today I have changed my official status into Creative Free Agent and I am available for work with all interested parties. For all business inquiries you may contact me directly – the details can be found on the About page of this site.

It took me a while to figure out how to properly title myself and my services. Freelance Director? Motion Design Artist for Hire? Unassociated Writer/Art/Creative/Director? Truth be told, looking back at the past decade, it is much easier to list the things I did not do than all the roles I assumed on all the projects.

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New tutorials coming, no more project files

Hello everyone! Just another update on the state of things regarding new QubaHQ tutorials. As you can guess I have good news and bad news for you (and double good news for myself). Let’s start with the good ones.

New tutorials are on the way. This weekend I am planning to release a new text animator based preset, once again using After Effects’ built-in tools in an unexpected way. Originally I planned to release this preset as a part of larger, paid content, but after careful deliberation decided to throw you all another cool freebie. Follow my twitter for the updates on recording and release. Hopefully this time Camtasia will behave better than on the last recording session.

Now for the bad good other news: I have decided to stop including project files with my tutorials. There are multiple reasons for this decision, so let me just list a few.

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QubaHQ Tube

If you are a frequent QubaHQ visitor, you are probably already familiar with the Vimeo channel containing all the tutorials from this site. I have been using Vimeo as my primary video host for two reasons: first being their great video encoding quality, and the second – the fact that I was not allowed to upload content longer than 15 minutes to YouTube.

Today I realized that my account has actually been approved for longer uploads for quite some time, and I am currently in the process of uploading all of the tutorials to my channel. Vimeo will still remain my primary host, but with the content available on both of these major video sites, you now have an option of where and how you want to watch my tutorials… and I have a chance of reaching a wider audience.

You can access the QubaHQ tutorials playlist at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL38A6A9E1711979BB or subscribe to my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/q3c

As for the new tutorials – I have some stuff planned, but still no time to actually record anything. Follow, subscribe, check often and you will know when the new content arrives.

Where’s the Webcomic?

For all those of you wondering what happened to the Adventures of the Bici Bee webcomic, I got some news. The series has now resumed, although you should not expect any regular schedule for new episodes. I also decided to filter the webcomic from appearing on the main page of my blog, as most of my visitors arrive to QubaHQ in search for animation and motion graphics content.

You can always check for new installments in the Bici saga by going to: bi.qubahq.com or by clicking the link on the top menu. If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ you will also receive updates whenever a new episode is released.

Now go, Bici Bee #150 is out!

Reel 2011

Here is my personal reel for June 2011, featuring commercial and independent pieces I have directed, edited, animated and designed in the recent years.

Music composed by Joel Nielsen.

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Are After Effects cameras difficult to use?

Every now and then there is an outburst of tutorials, plugins, presets and rigs for After Effects camera controls. We have sure targets, orbit cameras, simple rigs, complex rigs and tons upon tons of tutorials on this subject. In fact, Rich from After Effects portal recently released a lengthy post over at aetuts+ compiling a list of resources, tools and videos talking about AE cameras.

Personally, I find cameras in After Effects extremely intuitive, easy to use and simple, so I have problems understanding why does this topic tend to reemerge so often. What is your opinion on the subject? What’s your experience with AE cams? Do you think it is a topic worth covering in one of the future tutorials?

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Vote in the poll above, and if you have something specific you’d like to see covered/explained – drop a comment underneath this post. You may also want to mention, whether you have experience using real, live cameras or 3D cameras in other programs and what is your experience with them, as compared to AE. How about your orientation in virtual 3D space? It’s a wide topic, so feel free to talk about it :)

Good news, everyone!

I have been using Dreamhost for many years now and could not be happier with the quality of service they provide. I have used many hosts in the past (doesn’t it sound like a creepy sci-fi quote?) and always suffered from messed up controls, poor plans, incompetent support – all that until I switched to Dreamhost. No matter how hard I mess up, what files I accidentally delete and whichever databases I corrupt – they always manage to get my sites back up and running quickly and professionally.

I do however realize that media streaming from QubaHQ can be a bit slow at times. Apparently it varies from day to day and from user to user, but I have received enough complaints to actually take action and do something about it.

It is my pleasure to announce that from now on all the new tutorial content from QubaHQ will be hosted in at Vimeo. All the future tutorials will be published in HD (720p at 30fps) resulting in both much better viewing experience and increased file sizes. Vimeo seems like the best match to host such content. Additionally, the videos will now be viewable both on computers and on all the major mobile platforms, including iPhone and iPad. You will also be able to download and save the entire tutorials both from Vimeo and from QubaHQ.

While I want you to keep coming back to the site, you may now also subscribe to the new Vimeo channel with my tutorials at: http://vimeo.com/channels/qubahq

10_11: Happy Holidays from imago!

Here’s a little video we cooked up at imago for this holiday season. May the new year bring you tons of inspiration, creative work, satisfied clients and just enough off time in between.

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