Quba HQ

August 13, 2010
In Motion Graphics, Video Bits
6 comments

Good Times with Xbreaker

The project I am working on at the moment kept me out of the studio for most of the time recently. While I was away though, I did not want the computers to stay idle, so I set up some calculation-intensive experiments to render during my absence. Here’s one of them.

I have come across a fantastic Cinema 4D plugin called Xbreaker created by pariah Studios. It allows you to shatter pretty much any geometry into tiny pieces with just a few clicks. Add some physics, shaders, a bit of post in After Effects – and you got yourself a nice little visual experiment.

Tutorial+Preset: Light Wall

Hello everyone! Yes, it is here – a long-delayed new tutorial from the June series. It’s been around 6 weeks since the previous tutorial, but I have been incredibly busy building a new kick-ass hi-tech intro for the tutorials… No. Not really. The truth is I have been working on multiple commercial projects and could not find any time off for neither leisure nor tutorials. As for the intro – I knocked it together in a few minutes at 4:00AM last night.

This tutorial is a hybrid between the Automated Light Rig and Scrolling LED Text. We will be building an animated image map driven light array that can be used for for either cool light effects or easily controlled particle emission.

While the entire project can be completed within After Effects, I will also jump into Cinema 4D every now and then and show you a very easy way for creating quite complex light arrays and importing them back into AE.

Music used in the trailer comes from Beck’s Cellphone’s Dead from the album The Information.
Music in the intro comes from… here.

Running time: 73min
Difficulty: Easy-Advanced (depending how much you want to learn :)
Required tools: After Effects
Optional software and plug-ins: Cinema 4D, Trapcode Particular, VC Optical Flares (or similar)

Yo dawg, I heard you like compositing charts…

I usually like to build my compositions vertically, placing most of the data in a single timeline. It works most of the time, although sometimes results in skyscraper monstrosities like the nearly 1000 layer project I talked about a while back.

The ad I am working on right now required a different approach. I had to create pre-comps of pre-comps of pre-comps of some more pre-comps, constantly burying and digging up various elements. A timeline screenshot would not do it much justice, so I decided to share with you the flowchart view of the project.

July 17, 2010
In Motion Graphics, imago
One comment

gnctrkcll / Cornetto: 1+1

Here is a sequel to the gnctrkcll / Cornetto: text+talk ad released 7 days ago. Since it is a tag-on companion piece to the original ad, not much has changed in the department of decorative elements. You might notice, however, that the main character now got a girlfriend.

This one was produced in 4 days, right after completing the gnctrkcll: Kurucesme series. I would have posted it earlier, but I first had to catch up on sleep :)

July 14, 2010
In Motion Graphics, imago
3 comments

gnctrkcll: Kurucesme

This project is a not-so-distant cousin of gnctrkcll / cornetto project, and was produced over the weekend break between the two parts of its bigger relative. The main concept remained the same – a stop-motion actor, t-shirt with a character, busy background.

The character was, again, designed by Meni, but this time we were delivered ready frames from the agency and did not have much input on what it does. Instead I focused on creating a small library of cell-shaded 3D elements, later used to liven up the scene.

July 10, 2010
In Motion Graphics, imago
7 comments

gnctrkcll / Cornetto: text+talk

If we were to say just one thing about the making of this ad, we’d describe it as an extreme exercise in hardcore project management.

We were approached by Leo Burnett with two frames of a character design art, a concept for an ad with an animated t-shirt and 6 days to air time. We took the bait. Now, less than a week later, we are happy to present to you the latest ad for a joint promotion of Turkcell’s gnctrkcll and Algida’s Cornetto.

Grass Field with Trapcode Particular

I am currently working on the new reel for imago and while digging in the project archives I came across this this test render for One Man Show – a piece I made back in 2008. Using Trapcode Particular and three Photoshop layers I created a large scale meadow that, honestly speaking, didn’t get enough exposure in the finished piece.

Tutorial+Preset: Automated Light Rig

Most of the time it is the best practice to manually control the lights in your After Effects scenes. There are situations however, when you may want to automate the dynamic changes in light color and intensity while maintaining high level of control over the look of your composition. That’s what the Automated Light Rig is all about.

In this tutorial I will show you how to link your lights with automated samplers on an image map, creating an ever-changing, yet unified, light rig. While the tutorial explains the expressions in depth, I am also providing you with presets simplifying the entire process into just few clicks.

As a little extra, I will also show you how to create a 3D light-aware smoke using Trapcode Particular (my method is a bit more involved than the standard Particular setup, but produces results that are much more true to life).

Music used in the trailer comes from Mr. Oizo’s Fiat 55 from the album Analog Worms Attack.

Running time: 45min
Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Required tools: After Effects
Optional plug-ins: Trapcode Particular

June 8, 2010
In Motion Graphics, imago
8 comments

Turkish Airlines: Globally Yours Teaser

This is a teaser TVC created for the launch of Turkish Airlines’ new international campaign Globally Yours.

The ad was initially planned as a photorealistic 3D animation, but due to the budget and time restrains, was transferred into a 2.5D platform. Still, it was by far one of the most complex projects we have worked on – not due to the animation and effects – but to the sheer amount of layers used in the compositions. The final animation is build out of nearly a thousand 2D layers animated in a 3D space.

June 7, 2010
In Featured, Motion Graphics, Tutorials&Presets
17 comments

Tutorial: 100% Accurate Reflections

In this After Effects tutorial I will demonstrate to you how to build a two-camera rig in order to create perfect 3D reflections. using this technique, you will be able to reflect not only 3D layers, but also lights, particles, as well as any plug-in that obeys the movement of AE’s 3D camera.

The setup is trivially easy when using hand-animated cameras, but in the second half of the video I also show you how to create a more complex rig for use with Video Copilot’s Sure Target 2 camera controls.

The music used in the preview is a fragment of an Instrumental Mix of Perfect Exceeder by MASON vs Princess Superstar.

Running time: 51 min
Difficulty: Easy (you will be surprised how easy)
Required tools: After Effects (CS3 and above)
Optional plug-ins: VC Optical Flares, Knoll Light Factory, Trapcode Lux, Trapcode 3D Stroke, Trapcode Particular