imago reel 2012
Here’s a long-delayed new imago studios reel for 2012. It includes commercial and independent pieces completed both in-house and as a collaboration with various production companies.
Archived entries: video
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.
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.
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
imago Reel 2010
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s address change, I am happy to present you with the latest reel of imago studios, closing down year 2010. Not much to talk about here – press play, sit back and enjoy.
Hello imago (dot com)
Although it’s been over half a decade since we last designed a commercial website at imago, the original domain name imagonewmedia hasn’t changed. That is, until today.
Out with the old, in with the new. It is my pleasure to introduce all of you to a new home for our studio: helloimago.com. Pay it a visit if you haven’t yet and enjoy your stay.
New reel coming really soon. It is all cut, ready and even uploaded, but we’re still waiting for one of our new commercials to clear for air before we can put it out. Should be any day now…
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.
The State of Things
I guess it is not too hard to notice that June is gone and I have managed to cover only half of the tutorial content from the trailer. Unfortunately, you will have to be patient for a little while longer.
It’s been raining projects here, and I literally don’t have any free time left to work on the site. This is likely to continue for a few more weeks, so naturally the Automated Light Array and Procedural Disintegration tutorials have been delayed until sometime later this Summer.
Be sure that the moment I catch a moment to breathe I will record the next video, but for now you just have to check the site regularly to see if that moment has come. Until then – enjoy the Summer, or go around the site and try out all these new shiny Facebook Like buttons. If you feel particularly generous, there is also a nice rounded yellow button on the right side you may want to try.
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
Symphony of Science
While posts on QubaHQ usually revolve around motion graphics, design and gaming, I could not pass an opportunity to promote this fantastic music project I have been listening to pretty much exclusively for the past few days.
Symphony of Science is a project oriented towards bringing the scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public through the medium of music. Lead by musician and producer, John Boswell, SoS remixes quotes from famous scientists and science enthusiasts into electronic music, probably best classified as
