MGLA Adobe meeting in LA

wow, what a great couple weeks!

tonight, in Hollywood, the Motion Graphics Los Angeles group is meeting to talk about Adobe Soundbooth, expressions, Zborn-Toy, and some cel-animation techniques. It's sponsored by Adobe, and they have tons of cool door prizes.

I'm leaving work a little early to go.

here's some details...

* LINEUP: Adobe Soundbooth / Zborn Toy / After Effects Expressions / guest artist: Studio ArtFX / door prizes *

At our first meeting of 2007, we welcome Adobe back as our meeting sponsor for this year. As part of their return, they will be demonstrating their new audio application Soundbooth. We also plan to have a presentation on After Effects expressions, a guest artist doing interesting cel-like animation on the computer, and an intriguing new After Effects plug-in: Zborn-Toy. Details are below.

Make sure you check out the address and directions for BGT at the bottom of this page. Also, remember: there is free wireless Internet access at the theatre! Look for the network BGT Booth.

* Q&A (7:00-7:30) *
Our normal pre-meeting question, answer, and gossip session while people get parked and seated. This month, there will be a lot to talk about, between Adobe announcing that their entire video production suite is coming to the Mac <http>, plus Apple's announcement of the iPhone <http>.

* Adobe Soundbooth (7:30-8:10) *
Soundbooth <http> is a a new innovative and intuitive audio software product for creating and editing audio and fixing common audio flaws using visually-oriented tools. It has been designed to be an easy-to-learn audio editing application for those who are not primarily audio engineers - in other words, for editors, webmasters, and motion graphics artists.

Soundbooth's capabilities include:

* Editing audio quickly
* Cleaning up noisy audio
* Visually identifying and removing unwanted sounds
* Recording and polishing voiceovers
* Adding effects and filters.
* Easily creating customized music - without musical expertise

It is currently in public beta (register and download it here: <https>). Louise Ping of Adobe will be down to demonstrate it, and answer your questions.

* Zborn-Toy (8:10-8:30) *
This new 2.5D rendering plug-in for After Effects allows you to animate, illuminate, and manipulate 2D paintings, 3D depth maps, live action footage, and more.

Zborn's creator Taron describes it this way: "The name Zborn refers to the filters use of a virtual Z-axis, a third dimension, which it finds in any ordinary two dimensional image. It then allows the artist to deal with any image as if it was three dimensional geometry. Lighting with shadows, environmental illumination, professional and comprehensive shading, transparency with refractions and finally caustic projections of light can be generated in near real-time. The suffix 'Toy' comes from both the joy of using and experimenting with it and from the fact that this is merely the beginning of a new set of tools, which all take advantage of the same revelation. There's more to every image than just x, y coordinates and some colors."

Taron will demonstrate Zborn-Toy in person. Make sure you check out both the web site for Zborn-Toy <http> for more images and a free demo, as well as the other Taronites <http> products, including Lenscare and Flair for After Effects. They will also be giving away a copy as a door prize!

* break (8:30-8:55) *
A chance to stretch, network, return calls, peruse the door prizes, ask questions of the presenters, and get something to eat or drink from the snack bar (please: no food or drink in the theatre, and remember to pick up after yourself and your neighbors when you leave.)

* Deeper into Expressions (8:55-9:15) *
Adobe After Effects contains a Javascript based expression language that helps create both simple and complex animations. Many power users swear by it, but all too many regular users are still unfamiliar with it. We hope to help change that.

Alexandre Czetwertynski of AE Enhancers <http> will explain an artistic expression that can help you create an advanced animation with some very simple parameter control. He'll also demystify some of the syntax of the expression language.

In 2004 a few top expression writers - including Paul Tuersley, Byron Nash and Alexandre Czetwertynski - started a website to host expressions, scripts and animation presets. As of 2007, the member list of AE Enhancers has grown to almost 1000 members strong.

* Guest Artist: Studio ArtFX (9:15-9:55) *
Terrence Walker, President of Studio ArtFX <http>, will demonstrate the flexibility of vector artwork and animation using Anime Studio. In addition to his commercial projects, Terrence has created several independent animations. Studio ArtFX client roster includes Electronic Arts and Tokyo Pop.

If you're curious about Anime Studio, you can download the demo version from e frontier at <http>. They have also generously donated a copy for us to give away as a door prize at the end of the meeting.

* door prizes (9:55) *
We don't know if we can match the tremendous bounty of prizes we had in 2006, but we have a feeling it will still be worth your while to stick around to the end of meetings in 2007... For example, we already have $4750-$5000 in prizes lined up for this meeting!

As always, we will hand out free tickets during the second half of the meeting (a host will start a strand at the end of an aisle; take one ticket off the strip and pass them along). Winners get to pick from the remaining prizes in the order tickets are pulled. We will pull fewer tickets than there are prizes, so that the last winner still has some choice among prizes.

Here is the list:

* Holiday-Maker HD Powertools HD 3 DVD pack of stock footage, courtesy of new MGLA sponsor Motionstream ($799 value)

* Ultra Water stock footage library, courtesy Artbeats ($599 value)
(Note that Artbeats has a special for the month of January where if you buy any collection worth $399 or higher, you can also get Big Island Aerials for $299 or Big Island Aerials HD Vol. 2 for $399, which is a $4-500 savings.)

* Automatic Duck's Pro Import AE plug-in set for importing NLE and Motion projects into After Effects, courtesy of Automatic Duck ($495 value)

* a bundle of FrameCycler Professional 3.5 film resolution playback and color channel viewing software plus SpeedGrade OnSet "look management" (color correction, etc.) software, courtesy IRIDAS ($448 value)

* GridIron Nucleo Pro render acceleration plug-in for After Effects, courtesy GridIron Software ($395 value)

* Lynda.com Online Training Library 1-year Premium Subscription, courtesy Lynda.com ($375 value)

* a 6 month Pixel Corp membership, courtesy of the Pixel Corps ($300-350 value)

* Volume 1 of the AE Pro Series stock footage and projects, courtesy broadcastGEMs ($229 value)

* a copy of Anime Studio Pro, courtesy E*Frontier ($200 value)
<http>

* Zborn-Toy 2.5D rendering plug-in for After Effects, courtesy Taronites ($179 value)

* Conduit nodal compositing plug-in for Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion, courtesy dvGarage ($149 value)

* the winner's choice of either the screenwriting software Final Draft or the script processor software Final Draft AV, courtesy of Final Draft ($129-229 value)

* LME Collections set of 100 animation presets & comps for Trapcode Starglow and After Effects, courtesy Little Men Entertainment ($99 value).

* VideoSyncrasies: The Motion Graphics Problem Solver DVD by MGLA co-hosts Trish & Chris Meyer, courtesy Desktop Images ($80 value)

* Cinema 4D 10 Workshop book by Arndt von Koenigsmarck, courtesy Focal Press ($55 value)

* Animation From Pencils to Pixels book by Tony White (with forward by Roy Disney), courtesy Focal Press ($50 value)

* Digital Character Animation 3 book by George Maestri, courtesy Peachpit Press ($50 value)

* After Effects @ Work book by multiple authors, including MGLA co-hosts Trish & Chris Meyer, courtesy Focal Press ($45 value)

* The Technique of Video and Film Editing book by Ken Dancyger, courtesy Focal Press ($40 value)

* High Definition Postproduction book by Steven E. Browne, courtesy Focal Press ($35 value)

* Understanding and Crafting the Mix book by William Moylan, courtesy Focal Press ($35 value)

And again, thanks to Adobe's sponsorship of MGLA this year, admission is free!

Chris, Trish, Tony, Warren, and Ko
Your MGLA co-hosts

i so wanna live in LA (or around) shame on you hype... get loads of pics, vids and info for us please

i certainly want to, hahahaha!

Rich, i didn't even think to bring a camera! dang!! maybe i can stop somewhere on the way and get one of those disposable videocameras.. i don't know. sheesh, that never even crosses my mind, to videotape it! i should start doing that!

if i get anything, i will share it with you guys as much as I am possibly able to!

the expression stuff will probably fly right over my head (you guys know better than most how I am with scripting... ), but i'm excited to see ZbornToy and Soundbooth in action. I'm always surprised by how much I speak up at the 3dsMax meetings... I doubt I'll say anything at this one. it's going to have to be alot of people, i think. they're holding it in a theater, and they have big expensive prizes! i'm just gonna be a face in the crowd, taking notes.

i still wish i could share that crowd script the guy at the Max meeting gave us. you guys would probably use it more than i'm going to!

Wow! Check out that list of prizes! As i said before - dman you L.A'ians! Hope you have a good time over there man, sounds pretty cool!!

So this meeting was AWESOME! There's were tons of amazing people there!

Here's my run down of the night...

First, it was hosted by Chris & Trish Meyer, who wrote that great series of After Effects books.
http://www.cybmotion.com/
Trish wasn't there, but Chris was.

The Adobe representative was late, so Taron went on first to demo his plug-in Zborn-Toy.
http://www.taronites.com/zborntoy/zborntoy.php
I've seen this guy's stuff over at CGTalk, and from there checked out his website, but after seeing it in person, I realized that the internet does NO justice to this plug-in! This was AMAZING to watch!! Everyone there was pretty blown away. It is, literally, a 3d render engine, material editor, lighting studio (complete with GI), and so so SO much more, right in AE! I can't even begin to tell you how in depth this plug-is! Online, I just looked at stuff and said "Oh, that's neat, it looks fun", but in person, I was thinking "this is astounding, and he should be charging $2000 a seat for it, and I can't live without it!". It's all real-time!! He said he used to do 3d work, and I'm thinking about sending him an email asking why he doesn't do this for 3d packages - we could all have realtime shading and lighting (even GI) right in our viewports! I can't say enough good things about this plug-in. And he only got to demonstrate about 1/50th of what it can do.

So then the Adobe rep showed up. She was demoing Soundbooth.
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/
It's in BETA v2.0 now, so grab it - it's free, and definitely worth that price!
It's going to be replacing Audition in the Production Bundle, which bums me completely, especially after last night. It's a pretty cool tool, and adjusting the volume selectively of an audio clip and reducing noise has never been easier, but it only has one track, so you will not be mixing sound in it. The beta version has a pull down menu showing all the effects it will have, but none of them are working yet. The noise reduction was awesome, though, and it also can create musical scroed the same way Sony's Cinescore does. But the fact that you could only work on one track at a time was very off-putting for me. But if all you're doing is putting music on things, or want to adjust some volumes or clean-up individual audio tracks, then this is a perfectly fine program, especially for free.

After her, Alex ("Disciple") from AEnhancers did his presentation. He was one of the founders of the site.
http://www.aenhancers.com
He demonstrated expressions, kind of an entry-level intro to them, and it was friggin' cool! I'm gonna make a little tutorial (not video) showing what he showed us. Made me really want to check into them. If you've never checked out the site in detail, and you're an AE user, you definitely should! Actually, between expressions and Zborn-toy, you could do an amazing amount of 3d work in AE! Like, real, hardcore 3d work.

And then the guy who was supposed to demo the Anime Studio thing never showed up, so they drew numbers for the prizes. i was REALLY, REALLY hoping to get Nucleus Pro, but I got the Digital Character Animation 3 book by George Maestri. Still a really cool prize, and flipping through it last night made me want to try modelling a human.

Anyway, it was great! EVERYONE using AE should download Zborn-Toy! seriously, you cannot understand the power of this thing until you open it up and start playing with it. And I'll have some expression demos up soon!

So, anyone and everyone in LA (i think that's Jay and Karnage), there's another MGLA meeting tomorrow, and I think I may swing by. Anyone else up for going?

I'm going tomorrow! I've heard these events are great! Chris Do from Blind teaches at Otis, so a couple of my friends want to go to see him also. It should be fun!

Hmm, I might go. Getting to hollywood anytime between 4pm and 7pm is a disaster. It will depend on how tired I am after work I think =)

ok, for anyone wondering what they missed, here's my usualy update from the meeting last night...

I got there around 7:30, roughly half an hour late. They were in the middle of demonstrating Mocha, Imagineer Systems tracker.
http://www.imagineersystems.com/products/mocha/
I'm a little biased against this program - well, most of imagineer's programs. they look magical when you watch the demo, but put it in a production atmosphere with REAL shots to work with, and it falls apart (speaking from experience). Not to mention the OUTRAGEOUS price they are asking for this stuff. Anyway, the guy tracked a whole bunch of footage he brought, all specifically designed to not really tax ANY tracker that hard. Nothing went off screen (not much, anyway), nothing was obscured, nothing was motion blurred or pitch black or anything. It was ideal footage for tracking. So, naturally, their product looked magical to most people there, who, I believe, are mainly motion graphics people who may not be too familiar with 3D trackers. He tracked absolutely nothing that After Effects couldn't have tracked easily.

Next up was Digital Anarchy, showing a couple of their new things, Toon It and Plasma FX.
http://www.digitalanarchy.com/index.html
I guess it was neat, I just don't know what people do with all those polarizing and color shifting plugins. I've never used them. Toon It didn't appear to me to be the magical "A Scanner Darkly" tool that everyone is hoping it will be. Its more or less the Posterize effect, Posterize Time, and Find Edges all bundled together. Perhaps if you didn't know about those tools, this would look amazingly easy and cool to you. The guys demoing pretty much actually said it was just like those tools while they were demoing it, but they claimed their posterizing effect caused less color flicker.

Then we had a break, and m Bryan and I met up, and I sat with him for the rest of the show. Karnage, were you there? We thought we saw someone that looked like you but weren't too sure, so we didn't ask.

After the break was Peder, the Trapcode guy. He basically IS Trapcode, makers of Particular. His presentation was cool.
http://www.trapcode.com/
He was showing a new thing called Form (previously Flux). It was super cool! It's basically a fully 3D plane (or multiple planes) covered in particles, and then you do stuff in 3D to the particles, maybe use an audio file to make pretty waves, or use a deflector to push the particles in certain directions, or use them to make text or any other layer dissolve in smoke. Really neat seeing all this happening right inside After Effects. Peder was funny too!

Lastly was Magic Bullet 3, the Looks Suite or whatever.
http://prolost.blogspot.com/2007/04/mag ... looks.html
Really cool, if you want a super super easy way to get all kinds of film looks and color corrections. Really cool interface, super easy to use and understand, and has tons and tons of options. If you own After Effects, though, you have Color Finesse, plus all the default AE color tools, which are all perfectly adequate, so this is a bit redundant in my opinion. But, there ya go.

Bryan and I didn't win any of the giveaways. They gave away one package of all of Imagineer's software, and the most expensive one is $15,000. Impressive that they were giving it away, not impressive cause you can do anything it can in any comping software anyway.