Quba HQ

January 12, 2012
In Featured, Games, imago, Motion, Video Bits
2 comments

AE64

Similarly to my 2005 piece entitled Demographix, AE64 is a tribute to the demoscene and to the legacy of world’s most popular microcomputer: Commodore 64.

While this video was created using the typical contemporary arsenal of tools (mainly After Effects and Cinema 4D), it conforms to most of the basic graphical limitations of the C64 such as a limited 16-color palette, low resolution, use of the overscan area etc. To maintain the spirit of the demo, I also created most of the effects using various scripts and code snippets, procedurally automating many of the tasks typically animated using keyframes.

December 14, 2011
In Announcements, Motion
4 comments

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.

Tutorial: UFO Trolling

About three months ago, some post production guys from The Mill decided to troll the Internet with videos of fake UFO sightings over London. I decided to join in on the fun and released a short YouTube video under a fake persona, “documenting” another sighting in Istanbul. Within several weeks, the video climbed up to 10,000 views – by far surpassing any view count I had on any other clips and tutorials uploaded to YouTube. It has also been “verified” by several “UFO authorities” and featured in magazines and UFO sighting websites around the world.

In this tutorial I will teach you how to create your own UFO troll video using After Effects and Mocha – a process that should take you no longer than 30 minutes from the moment you grab a camera, to the time you are ready for upload.

Running time: 31min
Difficulty: Extremely Easy
Required tools: After Effects, Mocha

Preset+Tutorial: Floaties

In this tutorial I will demonstrate the use of a new free preset from QubaHQ.com – Floaties. Floaties is a text animator based fake particle simulator allowing you to create floating specs of dust, glitters, bokeh-style out of focus abstract backgrounds and other visual elements. It attempts to emulate some of the basic behavior found in Trapcode Particular, providing limited, but free alternative to that popular plugin (as long as you are going for a certain visual style).

Running time: 51min
Difficulty: Easy
Required tools: After Effects

Music used in the preview video is a fragment of Borrel by Jukka Koops a.k.a. Sumo Lounge. Check his other works at: jukkakoops.com

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.

Preset+Tutorial: Stop Motion Kit

This preset and tutorial have been inspired by true events …or to be precise – they are based on a project I did a short while ago.

In this tutorial I will show you how to quickly simulate stop motion aesthetic using my After Effects Stop Motion Kit. This collection of presets will allow you to easily add subtle imperfections to the movement of objects in your scene, emulating animator errors that are a staple of stop motion animation. Using 6 different expression sets, you will be able to apply and control glitches in movement, rotation and timing of your objects as well as simulate changes in camera position and exposure.

Running time: 37min
Difficulty: Easy
Required tools: After Effects

Macula Lutea

Recently, I have been accused of over-using lens flares in many of my latest projects. To all you flare nay-sayers: This one is for you :)

Macula Lutea started as a happy accident – I’ve been working on one of the projects and wrote a small script to control the movement of the lens flare. Due to the calculation error (my bad) the light source ended up in completely wrong spot, resulting in highly exaggerated flare on the screen. Rather than discard the mistake, I decided to pursue intentionally misusing flares and discovered an entire world of cool abstract imagery that can be created in this style.

At the same time I stumbled upon an audio track U Smile (800% Slower) in which composer Nick Pittsinger stretched and slowed down Justin Bieber‘s song U Smile, resulting in amazing half-hour ambient piece. It was also a perfect match for my visuals.

Due to the busy schedule, the project waited for completion for a few months – I have completely forgotten about it and discovered it today while cleaning up my hard drive :)

For best experience, make sure to watch this video full-screen and in HD.

June 5, 2011
In Motion, Video Bits
4 comments

Liquid Lifeforms

Liquid Lifeforms is a short experiment in Cinema 4D softbody dynamics. Visuals were inspired and edited to the audio track Beazt, created by disconnectuser (Alan Pring).

After countless commercial productions, where the result needs to feel pretty and appealing to the viewer, I felt an urge to create something a bit more disturbing. I wanted to approach the animation in the same way I would approach a live animatronic shoot. To achieve that, I constructed two rigid body robots, controlled by a bunch of randomized motors and set them lose in C4D’s dynamics engine. I then wrapped the resulting animation in a softbody, latex-like skin and run a second level simulation.

The process resulted in a creepy, realistic motion – part mechanical and part organic. I cut everything together in After Effects with some extra color correction and distortions. Enjoy!

May 28, 2011
In Motion, Telesine
No comments yet

Fiat 500

I told you I was busy :)

This project started its life as a simple storyboard for a 2D piece based on photographs, delivered to us by the agency. The main brief was to show off different customization options for Fiat 500 using series of cuts. Right from the beginning I knew that the key to making the car look attractive in the commercial was in adding that one extra dimension, so we decided to upgrade the ad to a full 3D.

While the team was working on the car models, I rigged up yet another of my patented After Effects expression rigs (basically my own version of Trapcode Echospace) in order to easily create and animate the flower designs originally designed by the agency. The rest was a pretty standard editing, compositing and beautifying process, resulting in the ad you can see below.

May 25, 2011
In Featured, Motion, Telesine
7 comments

Sun Ich: Purely Fruit

This project was my first venture into the world of slow motion demo shots, and a pretty successful one, if I may judge it myself. It’s been shot over the course of 24hrs on Phantom HD and edited in my standard After Effects environment.

I am particularly happy with this commercial, since I had full creative control over all of its aspects. From concept and creative direction through directing the shoot, to post, vfx and music – I was able to execute the project precisely as I imagined it. In fact the final result is nearly 100% identical to the first storyboard-based animatic, originally pitched to the client.