Photoshop CS4 Video & Animation covers a lot of material that can all be done INSIDE Photoshop CS4 Extended. Techniques covered range from basic video editing and animation techniques, to rotoscoping, frame animation, video clean-up/retouching, masking, smart filters & FX, green screen compositing, 3D modeling and animation, and my favorite: 3D stereoscopic FX! (3D Glasses included in disk) – also includes all sample projects and source footage/image files on the DVD.

Sample movies will soon be up on the PhotoshopCAFE channel on Adobe TV.

Don’t forget the best companion DVD to this title is also at PhotoshopCAFE.com!

Learning After Effects CS4 is available by clicking the image above or in the “Published” panel to your right.

Some of the 3D stereoscopic materials I’ve been sharing with you in the recent weeks are included on these DVDs. Look for more info and samples to follow here in my Blog after NAB!

Cheers!
Jeff

“Learning After Effects CS4″ and “Photoshop CS4 Video & Animation”

Here’s my current session schedule:

4/20 Mon 3:30-4:45pm [N254] – Character Animation from Photoshop Layers with After Effects

4/20 Mon 5:00-6:15pm [N254] – 3D Stereoscopic Motion Graphics in After Effects CS4

4/21 Tues 2:00-3:15pm [N254] – Motion Tracking & Stabilization with After Effects CS4 & Mocha for AE

4/21 Tues 3:30-4:45pm [N264] – Green Screen Keying and Mattes in After Effects CS4

4/22 Wed 10am-1:00pm [N260] – Boot Camp: Photoshop for Video & Animation

4/22 Wed 3:30-4:45pm [N264] – Creative Titles with CS4 Production Premium

If you can’t make it to my sessions at NAB this year, then please check back here and I will be posting more info about articles and reviews that are upcoming, as well as more about my DVDs and other training seminars, workshops and conferences that I’ll be appearing.

Here’s a sneak peek at a couple of the projects I’ll be teaching this year… the first is from the Motion Tracking with Mocha & After Effects CS4 session (before & after)…

Motion Tracking – After Effects CS4 with Mocha from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

This next sample is from the 3D Stereoscopic in After Effects CS4 session, which was really just a simple conversion of an existing single camera 3D animation, so it wasn’t originally designed to be a Stereo 3D animation (3D glasses will be provided at the session, but you can get yours for Free – info below)…

3D Stereo Convertion – After Effects CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

Don’t have Red/Cyan 3D Glasses? Get ‘em here FREE!
Send me a self addressed stamped envelope (letter sized) and I will send you a pair!
(one pair per request)

Jeff Foster
PO Box 187
Ojai, CA 93024

Enjoy!

3D Stereo Anaglyph Coke Can Animation – Photoshop CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

3D Stereo Anaglyph Model Animation – Photoshop CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

3D Stereographic Donut Animation – Photoshop CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

Don’t have Red/Cyan 3D Glasses? Get ‘em here FREE!
Send me a self addressed stamped envelope (letter sized) and I will send you a pair!
(one pair per request)

Jeff Foster
PO Box 187
Ojai, CA 93024

Here’s the final scene image in stereo 3D:

Final rendered 3D scene created in Photoshop CS4

I started with a 3D Model I brought into Photoshop CS4 (.3ds file type – see Blog post: http://pixelpainter.com/wordpress/?p=53), placed it into position and added a second 2D layer of a stretch of road. I then converted the “road” layer to a 3D Postcard from the 3D menu.

Using the 3D Object Rotate tool, I changed the perspective of the Road layer to closely match the angle of my 3D car model.

After adding a Drop Shadow Layer Style to the 3D car layer to simulate a real shadow (as 3D models don’t cast shadows onto other layers in Photoshop CS4), I then add a black background layer and another scenic image layer and convert it to 3D Postcard as well and position it in place. I add a layer mask to the Road layer and paint out the edges of the road with a large soft brush to create a fade to black…

Selecting the 3D car model layer I open up the 3D palette and select Render Settings and choose the Stereo Type (Red/Cyan). I change the Parallax to 30 and leave the Focal Plane at 0.

Next, I select the Road layer and set the Stereo Type as well, changing the Parallax to 10 and the Focal Plane to -100. This pushes the farthest point of the Road layer back behind the 3D car layer. *TIP: This is best to do while wearing your Red/Cyan glasses so you can make adjustments to the layers in true 3D!

I then make adjustments to the layers to match up the best visual position in 3D space using the 3D Object rotate and move tools. Lastly, I added the PixelPainter logo as a regular 2D layer with transparency, as it remains “floating” above the background layer in the 0 Focal Plane. (try moving your cursor over the rendered 3D image and you’ll see it is on the 0 Focal Plane as well! It will look like you’re cutting right into the 3D model)

Don’t have Red/Cyan 3D Glasses? Get ‘em here FREE!
Send me a self addressed stamped envelope (letter sized) and I will send you a pair!
(one pair per request)

Jeff Foster
PO Box 187
Ojai, CA 93024

What’s Happening:
Importing a simple model in various file formats (I’ve been using primarily 3ds) seems to ignore whatever surface texture you’ve applied to it, though it keeps the texture/material names. If you alter or apply a new texture (to say, a cube for example) then it will update on the screen okay, but try to animate it at all in the Timeline and it will indeed crash PSCS4. Worse than just that, even if you save your file and reopen it after it crashes, it will retain some kind of 3D layer data but the model will disappear on you. If you have a simpler model with fewer objects and materials, it isn’t crashing as bad as the last beta, but it still hangs and takes several minutes to “refresh” at times.

More Silliness:
If you have a model of something, like I had of a wooden modeling dummy, with a wood texture on it, and you try to “paint” a smiley-face on it in PS CS4, it will apply it to every single surface of the model. There’s not an intuitive way to just paint on layers like you’d imagine you could. Maybe I’m not doing something right here, but you’d think it would be more like Body Paint or something… but, it’s not.

*PS CS4 Updates here:
Well, I’ve experimented with other models to see what issues I could still have with it. Although I’ve been afraid to actually try to animate anything in the timeline, I’ve put my focus on simply opening up a more complex model and changing colors/moving it around on the workspace to see what might happen and I’ve discovered a few things along the way…

A more complex model with several objects grouped together (like interior and exterior surfaces of a car door) then Photoshop CS4 gets confused and just selects the first material in line with that object. As you can see in this first screen shot, the model comes in with mixed materials applied to the outer surfaces, like wood trim and gray leather that’s supposed to be on the dash and door panels. Even then, it’s only a solid color – not that actual material.

3ds Model as it’s imported into Photoshop CS4 as a 3D layer – mismatched materials applied.

This same model as I tried to zoom in on it, crashed the program so hard I could even get out of it to Force Quit – it KILLED my machine! (I had to take this pic with my digital camera!) – and you can see how it scattered all the polygons all over… what a mess!

So I thought, What if I REALLY simplified the model and removed the sub-grouped objects like interior trim, door handles, window trim and chrome emblems and regrouped into simpler objects. I gave that a shot and sacrificed the details in my original 3D model, but it seemed to work better at least! Notice that the car color is maintained but many details are now missing and the interior panels are the same as the exterior.

sacrifices in details and interior trim allowed this model to be opened and manipulated in Photoshop CS4 better.

Note also that the edges and seams of the model are pretty crude and the rendering of the 3D object is a simple rough, phong-shaded model. When I simplified the model, I didn’t change the number of polygons at all, just the groupings and material options. This is in all practicality, the same size model as the initial one.

But all-in-all, you CAN actually import and manipulate a 3D model in Photoshop CS4 to some extent. I still have to test the animation once I get the final shipping version next week – stay tuned for those results!

So what DID I do with this model once I got it into Photoshop CS4? I saved it and then imported it into After Effects CS4 and experimented with animation with other 3D layers and text to make this little spinning loop movie – which I’ll cover more in my upcoming posts, once I get a chance to review the shipping product. Until then, the jury is still out on Photoshop CS4… at least in my court.

Click on the image to view the QuickTime movie of this animation